MEANING OF MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION

Management is an important integrating process that cuts across all aspects of life. This is so because management is needed in all type of organized activities and in all types of purposive organizations (factories, stores, offices, homes, and one’s personal affairs).

In other words, management is needed wherever people work together to try to reach a common goal. It is important to note that the need for management arises out of diversity and complexity of human activities.

Despite the fact that there has been a substantial advancement in management practice and a vast extension in the ranges, cope, and depth of management studies,       there appears to be no universally accepted standard definition. People have defined the term in different ways. However, that the word management has multiple uses does not remove the need for precision.

Dalton E. McFarland (1982) has defined management as “the process by which managers create, direct, maintain, and operate purposive organizations through coordinated, cooperative human effort.” From the above definition, it  implied that (a) management is dynamic (b) management activities are continuous (c) change is a way of life in organizations: the process is ongoing and unceasing (d) management action directs and controls the nature, extent and pace of activities in the organization.

In the words of Henri Fayol (1916), a leading French industrialist and a great contributor in modern management, management is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, and to coordinate and control”.

Management in Nigeria may be viewed as “working with and through people of different religions and tribes and making appropriate choices in order to achieve common goals” (N.R. Ghatterjee: 1986).

From the above definitions, it is true to say that management as a process involves many functions. It is the aim of this paper to highlight these functions.

HISTORY OF MANAGEMENT

Management has a long history, some management scholars are of the view that management started around the period when Prophet Moses existed. Indeed up to the end of the eighteenth century, the development of management was very slow.

In the years after 1900, conventional management practices were found to be inadequate to meet demands from the changing economic, social and technological environments. A few pioneers examined causes of inefficiency and experimented to try and/more efficient methods and procedures for control. From these experiments certain principles and functions of management emerged some of the prominent pioneers on scientific management (scientific management) include F.W. Taylor, H.L.Gantt, F.  Gilbreth and Henri Fayol.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF TWO OF THESE ARE EXAMINED BELOW:

Fredrick Winslow Taylor (1856 – 1917)

F.W. Taylor was one of the prominent figures in the field of scientific management. He is said to be the first person to have made use of science to solve managerial problems. Taylor was born in 1856 in Pa, Western German. He was from a middle class background and worked his way from an apprentice to the position of Chief Mechanical Engineer in an American steel company. Most of the Taylor’s work was involved in experiments to find the “best method” of doing jobs.

In 1911, he published a book titled “principles of scientific management”. In the book he suggested the principles that should guide management and new duties for the manager. The principles include the following:

(a)     Each worker should have a large, clearly defined daily task.

(b)    Standard conditions are needed, to ensure the task is more easily   accomplished.

(c)     High payment to be made for successful completion of tasks, workers should suffer loss when they failed to meet the standards laid down.

The new duties are:

(a)     The development of a true science.

(b)    The scientific selection, education and development of workmen.

(c)     A more equal division of work between management and workers, with management planning and organizing the work to be performed.

(d)    Friendly, close cooperation, between management and workers.

A brief summary of the factors he emphasized would cover the need for time and motion study, effective control over performance by the use of “exception principle” (whereby only exceptions to the standard are notified, should be adopted), and functional foreman, the definition of responsibility and effective selection and training of personnel.

There are divergent views about the work of Taylor. Some people have commended his work and designated him as the “father of scientific management”. While others are of the view that Taylor’s work was not original, and went further to say that he was a recipient of undue credit. It should be pointed out here that even though some of the work of Taylor may not be original, but it is a fact that he took the lead in developing managerial methods by applying scientific approach to solve managerial problems. Hence Taylor deserves the exalted title of the father of scientific management.

Henri Fayol (1841-1925)

Fayol was a qualified mining engineer and managing director of large French Company. In 1916, he published his book “General and Industrial Management. Fayol, unlike Taylor, started in management and attempted to develop a science of administration for management. He believed that there was a universal science of management, applicable to “commerce, industry, politics, religion, war or philanthropy”

The observations of Fayol in his book may be divided into three main sections.  These are:

(1)    Managerial qualities and training.  Fayol considered the following to be  the           qualities of a manager.

(     a)   Physical quality – health, vigor and address.

(b)  Mental quality - i.e. ability to understand and learn.

(c)   Moral quality firmness, loyalty, tact, dignity and willingness to accept responsibility.

(d)   Educational quality – general acquaintance with matters not belonging  exclusively to the functions performed.

(e)    Technical quality.  That is, familiarization with matters peculiar to the functions       performed.

(f)   Experience which arises from the work proper.

(2)  General principles of management.    Fayol recommended fourteen principles of management.   These include the follows:

(a)    Division of work       (b)   Authority and  responsibility

(c)   Discipline                 (d)   unity of command

(e)   Unity  of  direction    (f)    subordination of individual to general interest.

(g)   remuneration            (h)     centralization   (i)  scalar chain

(j)    order                        (k)      stability of  tenure

(l)    Equity                       (m)   initiative   (n)  Espirit Decorps.

Fayol thought principles would be useful to all types of managers, but he did not consider that a manager needs anything more than knowledge of management principles in order to manage successfully. At higher levels he said managers depended less upon technical knowledge of administration.

(3)   Managerial functions:      According to Fayol, management consists of basically five elements these are planning, organizing commanding, coordinating and controlling.  These elements will be discussed in the next post under the caption 'Function of Management'.