Introduction
Management is one of the most important human activities. From the time human beings began forming social organizations to accomplish aims and objectives they could not accomplish as individuals, management has been essential to ensure the coordination of individual efforts (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2011).
As society continues to rely on group effort, and as many organized groups become large, the task of managers keeps on gaining importance and complexity (Gibson, Ragins & Kram, 2009). Consequently, this has made managerial theory to become very critical in the management of organizations.
The central thesis of this paper is that although some managers in different parts of the world could have achieved managerial success without having basic theoretical knowledge in management, it is important to emphasize the fact that managers who have mixed management theory in their day to day management practice, have had better chances of managing their organizations more efficiently and effectively to achieve both individual as well as organizational objectives.
Managers of contemporary organizations therefore, ought to appreciate the important role played by theoretical knowledge in their respective organizations if they are to achieve the desired goals (Mills & Margulies, 1980). In addition, there is need to promote excellence among all persons in an organization, especially among managers themselves.
To address these concerns, the paper will start by first explaining what management is for purposes of conceptual clarity. It will then proceed to look at management objectives, functions, goals, and essentiality. Towards the end, different management theories and the role of theory in management practice will be examined.
Definition of Management
Management may be defined as the art, or science, of achieving goals through effective management of people. Considering that part of what managers do is to supervise staff, management may also be interpreted to refer to the act of making sure that people do what they are supposed to do.
Managers are, therefore, expected to ensure greater productivity or continuous improvement in the way an organization performs. More broadly, management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplish set objectives aims (Koontz & Weihrich, 1990).
In its expanded form, this basic definition means several things. First, as managers, people carry out the managerial functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Second, management applies to any kind of organization. Third, management is an activity that has to be undertaken by managers at all levels of the organization. Fourth, the aim of all managers is to create surplus for the organization. Finally, managing is concerned with productivity and this implies effectiveness as well as efficiency.
Management therefore refers to the development of official procedures that derives their importance from the need for strategic planning, coordination, directing and controlling of large and complex decision making processes. However, procedures or rules should not be seen as ends in themselves.
They are simply avenues to arrive at the intended aims. Essentially, therefore, management entails the acquisition of managerial competence, and effectiveness in the areas of problem solving, administration, human resource management, and organizational leadership.
Problems keep emerging all the time in the course of an organization struggling to achieve its goals and objectives and they must be solved. In the process of solving a problem it is critical for manager to clearly identify the problem, analysis it and implement the suggested remedies (Connolly, Conlon & Deutsch, 1980).
Administration involves following laid down procedures for the execution, control, communication, delegation and crisis management while human resource management should be based on strategic integration of human resource, assessment of workers, and exchange of ideas between shareholders and workers.
Finally, organizational leadership should be developed along the lines of interpersonal relationship, teamwork, self motivation to perform, emotional strength and maturity to handle situations, personal integrity, and general management skills.
Management Objectives, Functions, Goals, and Essentiality
Management Objectives
There are basically three management objectives. One objective is ensuring that organizational goals and targets are met with least cost and minimum waste. The second objective is to look after the health, safety and welfare of all staff. The third objective is to protect the machinery and resources of the organization, which also includes the human resources.
Management Functions
To understand management, it is imperative to break it down into five managerial functions. These are; planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling.
Planning involves selecting missions and objectives as well as the necessary actions required to achieve them. It requires decision making to choose future courses of action from among the available alternatives. Typically, plans will range from overall purposes and objectives to of the organization the most detailed actions to be taken.
Practically, no real plan exists until a decision has been made. By arriving at a decision, an organization is, in essence, agreeing to make a commitment of human as well as material resources. In other words, before a decision is made, all that exists is a proposal and a not a real plan.
People working together in groups to achieve set goals must have roles to play. Generally, these roles have to be defined and structured by someone who wants to make sure that people contribute in a specific way to group effort. Organizing, therefore, is that part of management that involves establishing an intentional structure of roles for people to fill in an organization. Intentional in that all tasks necessary to accomplish goals are assigned to people who can do them best.
Indeed, the purpose of an organizational structure is to help in creating an environment for human performance (Ng & Sears, 2012). However, designing an organizational structure is not an easy managerial task considering that many problems are encountered in making structures fit situations, including both defining the kind of jobs that must be done and finding the people to do them.
Staffing involves filling, and keeping filled, the positions as depicted in the organization structure. This may be done by identifying work force requirements, having an inventory of the people available, and recruiting, selecting, placing, promoting, appraising, planning the careers of, compensating, and training or otherwise developing both candidates and current jobholders to accomplish their tasks effectively and efficiently.
Directing has to do with influencing people so that they will contribute to organization and group goals. It has to do predominantly with the interpersonal aspect of management. The most important problems to managers arise from people’s desires and attitudes as well as their behavior as individuals and in groups. Effective managers therefore, need to be effective leaders as well.
Controlling is the act of measuring and correcting activities of subordinates to ensure that events conform to stipulated plans. It measures performance against goals and plans, shows where negative deviations exist and, by putting in motion actions to correct deviations, helps to ensure that plans are accomplished.
Although planning must precede controlling, plans are not self achieving (Toor & Ofori, 2009). Plans guide managers in the use of resources to accomplish specific goals and to ensure that activities are checked to determine whether they conform to the plans. Persons who are responsible for results that differ from planned actions have to be located and necessary steps taken to improve performance. Therefore, by controlling what people do, managers are able to control the organizational outcomes.
Finally, coordination is the essence of managing so as to achieve harmony among individual efforts toward the accomplishment of group goals. Each of the managerial functions discussed earlier is an exercise contributing to the aspect of coordination.
Considering that individuals often interpret similar interests in different ways, and their efforts toward mutual goals do not automatically agree with the efforts of others, it becomes important for the manager to reconcile the differences in approach, timing, effort, or interest, and to ensure that individual goals are harmonized to contribute to organizational goals.
Although these management functions concern the internal environment for performance within an organization, managers must operate in the external environment of an organization as well. Clearly, managers cannot perform their tasks well unless they have an understanding of, and are responsive to, the many elements of the external environment that affect their areas of operations. These external elements include economic, technological, ethical and social as well as political elements.
Management Goals
First and foremost, the logical and publicly desirable aim of all managers in all kinds of organizations, whether business or non-business, should be a surplus. Managers must therefore establish an environment in which people can accomplish group goals with the least amount of time, money, materials, and personal dissatisfaction or in which they can achieve as much as possible of a desired goal with available resources.
The second goal or aim of all managers is that they must be productive. As a matter of fact, government and the private sector generally recognize the urgent need for productivity improvement. Productivity improvement is about effectively performing the basic managerial and non-managerial activities.
Simply defined, productivity is about the output-input ratio within a time period with due consideration for equality (Barling, Christie & Turner, 2008). Lastly, productivity implies effectiveness and efficiency in individual and organizational performance. Effectiveness is the achievement of objectives while efficiency is the achievement of the ends with the least amount of resources.
Management as Practice
Managing, like all other practices is an art. It generally refers to the act of operating based on the reality and not assumptions. By making reference to existing knowledge, research has demonstrated that managers can perform in a more efficient manner. It is this knowledge that constitutes science.
However, the science of management is fairly crude and inexact (Fleet, 1994). This is true because the many variables with which managers deal are extremely complex. This not withstanding, the use of existing knowledge will certainly make the practice of management better. Without making reference to the available management theories, managers are bound to make mistakes that may easily be avoided.
It is therefore extremely essential for management practitioners to use the available pool of knowledge to improve performance at all levels of the organization (Ghoshal, 2007). The pool of knowledge is what is commonly referred to as theory.
For practical purposes, all managers must develop three sets of skills namely; conceptual, technical, and human (Peterson & Fleet, 2004). Conceptual skills allow the manager to develop relationships between factors that other people may not see. Managers who have well developed conceptual skills are able to apply different management theories to the same situation. For a manager to be technical, it implies that he or she is able to act professionally.
Professionalism demands that the manager performs his or her duties within established procedures, rules and regulations. Any behavior that compromises the manager’s professional etiquette is certainly bound to interfere adversely with the organization’s productivity.
Lastly, a manager should be able to see members of the organization as human beings who have needs and psychological feelings and emotions. These needs and feelings must be positively harnessed for the good of the organization. Motivation of the employees, therefore, becomes a critical factor in increasing productivity.
The Importance of Management in any Organization
Managers are charged with the responsibility of taking actions that will make it possible for individuals to make their best contributions to group objectives. Management therefore applies to small as well as large organizations, to profit and not for profit organizations, to manufacturing and service industries.
However, a given situation may differ considerably among various levels in an organization or various types of organizations (Umstot, 1980). The scope of authority held may vary and the types of problems dealt with may be considerably different. To obtain results, all managers must establish an environment for effective group endeavor.
Even though all managers carry out managerial functions, the time spent for each function may differ. It is typical for top level managers to spend more time on planning and organizing than lower level managers. On the other hand, directing takes a great deal of time for first line supervisors (Rousseau & McCarthy, 2007). The difference in the amount of time spent on controlling varies only slightly for managers at various levels.
The manager is, therefore, the dynamic, life giving element in every single business. Without the leadership of the manager, resources meant for production remain mere resources and never become production (Pfeffer & Fong). In a competitive economy, the quality and performance of the managers determine the success of a business and by extension, its survival.
Management Theories
Contemporary theories of management tend to account for and help interpret the rapidly changing nature of today’s organizational environments. Some of these theories are discussed as follows.
Scientific Management School
This theory was started by Frederick Taylor who considered the inefficient movement of men and women as a national loss. Taylor was convinced that science offered the best solution to human injustice. According to Taylor, the management approach described above offered no opportunity for improving performance. He was therefore, convinced that system had to change. Taylor’s strongest positive legacy was the concept of breaking a complex task down into a number of subtasks, and optimizing the performance of the subtasks. His suggestions were, however, met with so many criticisms.
Classical Organizational Theory School
In this category of management theory are the works of Max Weber’s bureaucratic theory and Henri Fayol’s administrative theory. According to Weber many people had to change tact and embrace new approaches to management. He was convinced that the humanistic style of management was eventually going to be done away with in favor of the new technically oriented styles of management.
Behavioral School
This was invented by Elton Mayo and his associates after they performed experiments that appeared to disprove Taylor’s beliefs. The origin of the behavioral school of thought is the human relations movement that was a result of the Hawthorne Works. Other categories include the systems approach, situational or contingency theory, chaos theory, as well as the team building theory.
The Role of Theory in Management Practice
Typically, every single managerial act rests on assumptions, generalizations, and hypotheses. This is to say that managerial actions are generally based on theory. Theories generally are closely linked to the way people perceive the experiences gathered over time (Stoner, Freeman & Gilbert, 2003).
It is a systematic grouping of interdependent concepts and principles that give a framework to, or tie together, a significant area of knowledge. Scattered data, for example, are not information unless the observer has knowledge of the theory that will explain relationships (Homans, 1958).
There are a variety of approaches to management analysis, the mass of research, and the number of differing views have resulted in much confusion as to what management really is, what management theory and science is, and how managerial events should be analyzed (Koontz, 1980). There is a body of opinion that says that management theory evolved during and after Second World War and has only been studied in depth since then.
For better organizational performance, it is important for managers who apply theory to management to blend principles with realities. Generally, as soon as managers know about theory, they will have the capacity to anticipate future problems that may occur in the enterprise.
In the field of management, then, the role of theory is to provide a means of classifying significant and relevant management knowledge. For example, in the area of designing an effective organization structure, there are several principles that are interrelated and that have a predictive value for managers (Hood, 2003). The theory of management is grouped into the five functions of management.
There are basically three main reasons for studying management theory. First, theories provide a stable focus for understanding what is experienced. By and large, a theory provides criteria for what is relevant (Pitts, 1980). Second, theories enable us to communicate efficiently and thus move into more and more complex relationships with other people. Third, theories present a challenge for people to keep learning about the world and hence devise innovative ways to tackle problems encountered (Kalev, Shenhav & Vries, 2008).
There are also other important considerations for studying management theory. Among many others, it will help a manager to view the interrelationships between the development of management theory, behavior in organizations and management practice.
A good understanding of the development of management thinking will also help a manager to understand the key principles that underlie the entire management process and hence be able to perform effectively. With a good knowledge of the available history, a manager will be able to understand the nature of management as well as organizational behavior. Finally, management theories are interpretive and evolve in line with changes in the organizational environment.
Generally, theory provides a sound basis for carrying out any action. However, if action is to be effective, the theory must be adequate and appropriate to the task and to improved organizational performance. In other words, it must be a good theory.
Conclusion
A central part of the study of organization and management is the development of management thinking and what might be termed management theory. The application of theory brings about change in actual behavior. Managers reading the work of leading writers on the subject might see in their ideas and conclusions a message about how they should behave. This will influence their attitudes towards management practice.
While organization as practice is art, organized knowledge about management is science. The development of management theory involves the development of concepts, principles, and techniques. Many theories about management exist and it is important for managers to combine their practice with theory for greater performance. Each approach or theory has its own characteristics and advantages as well as limitations. In some cases, it may be necessary to integrate different management theories.
Finally, it is also important to recognize the fact that an organization is an open system that operates within and interacts with the environment. When the systems approach to management is used, inputs from the external environment and claimants is captured, processed and an output generated. It therefore follows that a manager who makes serious attempts to translate theory into reality is bound to increase productivity more than a manager who chooses to use the trial and error approach.
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