The term management as often used in English is derived from the Italian word managgiare, which literally means to handle, the Latin word manus which means hand and lastly from the French word mesnagement which founded the modern day management. This brief explanation on the development of the term management is very crucial in coming up with an absolute definition of management in the scope of this study.
The term management can be defined as the articulate process in which any system systematically combines all its resources ranging from the financial to the human capital in the organization by effectively and efficiently coordinating them in a manner that guarantees that the cardinal objectives and goals of that particular system are achieved (Murugan, 2007).
Mintzberg, a renowned researcher and scholar in the field of management defined management roles as the specific managerial behaviors that are exhibited by managers in any system. It is evident from his work that this specific behaviors are articulated on a number of factors are include interpersonal relationship, transfer of information and lastly the decision making process of the organization. These three factors interlink around ten interrelated roles of the management (Dubrin, 2011).
The interpersonal role includes the leadership roles, the figurehead and the liaison roles. These roles involve the people in the organization and the ceremonial duties of the organization. The information managerial roles include the monitoring, disseminator and spokespersons roles and they are involved with the collection, receivership and the dissemination of information in the organization.
Lastly, the decisional roles that entail the choosing of an alternative over the others that is, making of a decision that is expected to benefit the organization. This facet of the managerial roles has the following sub-roles under its umbrella: entrepreneurial, negotiator, resource allocator and disturbance handler roles (Murugan, 2007).
In any kind of a system, management is paramount and this creates a similarity in the functions that are undertaken by management teams in the quest of ensuring that their organizations run smoothly. It is the goal of the management to ensure that organizations are working as a unit in pursuit of their goals and responsibilities in an organization.
The organization’s objectives are achieved via the planning, organizing, leading and controlling functions of the management. These functions are vital and none has precedence in its application over the other.
The planning function encompasses the generation and development of strategies or plans of action that are expected to affect the organization in the medium term or long-term.
This function of the management demands that the managers be aware of the environmental conditions that the organization is facing and from the observations made, it should be able to forecast the conditions that are in all probabilities are going to face it in the future and thus it is paramount that the managers be good decision makers (Shim & Siegel, 2009).
The organizing function of the management entails the development of organizational structures that run the organization and the allocation of duties to the organization’s human capital with the objective of attaining the objectives. The organizational structure that governs the organization is the framework that coordinates the efforts in the system. The leading function encompasses influencing the organization human resource towards the attainment of the organizational objectives.
It should be noted that an effective management should motivate its workers through effective and efficient communication processes by using the power and authority bestowed on it effectively. The controlling process of the management is involved with ascertaining that organizational performance in the production of goods and services is up to standard and it does not deviate from the set out processes or procedures (Dubrin, 2011).
An important tenet in analyzing management issues in the organization is the behavioral perspective that is exhibited by a faction of the organization employees. Behaviorism entails all things people do an organization do in response to the decisions that the organization management undertakes. It should be noted that at times, the employees could embrace or resist the decisions of the management (Murugan, 2007).
There exist a number of moral challenges that affect multinational companies or persons who are involved in doing business in different countries. This is because the expectations are projected on these businesses are staggeringly high.
For instance, in the developed countries, the moral expectations that are projected towards the business person or company are stringent, while in the third world countries, the expectations are quite lax thus creating room for the production realms of multinational companies to produce substandard goods in these countries.
The most major moral challenges that are faced by business people or multinational companies in doing business in different countries include: demand for bribes by authorities especially in the third world countries, influence from foreign countries to the host country and lastly exploitation of the host countries by the uncouth business people (Fieser, 2011).
Operations management is a tenet of management that is mandated with overseeing the designing and subsequent revision of the designs that were adopted by management in the production of the goods and services in the organisation. This facet of the management is responsible for ascertaining that production processes of the organisation are effective and efficient. This is achievable by use of as little raw materials that are needed as possible, establishment and subsequent attainment of the customer requirements.
It is in this facet of organisation management that is held liable with approving the production processes that are employed by the organisation in converting inputs that are in form of raw materials such as lime used in the production of cement, the labour employed and lastly the energy required into outputs such as goods or services that are consumed by consumers (Shim & Siegel, 2009).
The term “team” has become a buzzword in many organizations in the recent past and this has arisen from the benefits that are being derived from the formation of teams. Teams have benefited individuals making them more effective in comparison to performance as isolated individuals.
The benefits that have been derived from teams include: teams have given all the team members the opportunity to attain new skills that enhance their capabilities to solve more complex issues in the future. Also, teams encompasses persons from different factions of the organization and therefore, enhance creativity thus ensuring that more ideas are generated leading to formulation of better solutions to problems that could be facing the organization.
It is evident that teams offer the team members a platform on which they can seek help if they need it (Midura & Glover, 2005). It should be noted that the benefits highlighted in this study are not conclusive, but depict a tip of all the benefits that are derived by the organization and the individuals from the team.
References
Dubrin, A. J. (2011). Essentials of Management. Upper Saddle River: Cengage Learning.
Fieser, J. (2011). Business Ethics. Web.
Midura, D. W., & Glover, D. R. (2005). Essentials of team building: principles and practices. New York: Human Kinetics.
Murugan, M. S. (2007). Management Principles And Practices. New York: New Age International.
Shim, J. K., & Siegel, J. G. (2009). Operations Management. London: Barron’s Educational Series.