Keys to management

1. The manager’s role.

              Our society is made up of all kinds of organizations, such ass companies, government departments, unions, hospitals, schools, libraries. They are essential to our existence, helping to create our standards of living and our quality of life. In  all this organizations there are people carrying  out the work of manager.

              A French industrialist Henry Fayol wrote in 1960 a classic definition of the manager role. He said that to manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, co coordinate and to control. This definition is still accepted by many people today, though some writers on management have modified Fayol’s description. Instead of talking about command, they say a manager must motivate ore direct and lead other workers.

              In most companies the activities of manager depend on the level at which he is working. Top manager, such as chairmen and directors, will be more involved in long range planning, policymaking, and the relations of the company with the outside world. They will be making decisions on the future of the company, the sort of product lines it should develop, how it should face up to the competition, whether it should diversify. On the other hand middle management is generally making the date -to –date decisions, which help an organization to run efficiently and smoothly.    Thy must respond to the pressures of the job, which may mean dealing with an unhappy customer chasing up suppliers or sorting up a technical problem. They spend a great deal of time communication, coordinating and making decisions affecting the daily operations of their organization.

              An interesting view on managers is supplied by an American writer Mr. Peter Drucker. In his opinion, the managers perform 5 basic operations. Firstly, managers set objectives. They decide what they should be and how the organization can achieve them. Secondly, managers organize. They must decide how the recourses of the company are to be used, how the work is to be classified and divide. The third task is to motivate and communicate effectively.   They must be able to get people work as a team and to be as productive as possible. The forth activity is measurement having set targets and standards, managers have to measure the performance of the organization, and of its stuff, in relation to those targets.  Peter Drucker says that managers develop people, including themselves.               Successful managers are the people, who command the respect of workers and who set high standards; he also must bring character to the job. 

2. Frederick W.Taylor, scientific management.

              No one has had more influence on managers in 20 century than Taylor an American engineer. He said a pattern for industrial work, which many others had followed.

              T. founded the school of scientific management just before the First World War. He argued that work should studied and analyzed systematically. The operations required to perfume a particular job could be identified then arranged in a logical sequence. After this was done, workers productivity would increase, and so would his wages.

              When T. started work the industrial revolution was in full swing. Factories were being set up all over the USA. There was a heavy investment in plant and machinery, and labour was plentiful. He worked for 20 years with the Midvale Steel Company; first as a labourer then as a shop superintendent after that he was a consultant with the Bethlehem steel company in Pennsylvania. 

              Through out this time, he studied how to improve the efficiency of workers on the shop floor. He conducted many experiments to find out how to improve their productivity.

T. criticized management and workers. He felt that managers were not using the right methods and that workers did not put much effort into their job. He wanted both groups to adopt a new approach to their work. Observing; analyzing; measuring; specifying the work methods; organizing and choosing the right person for the job. These were the tasks of management.

              T. made a lasting contribution to management thinking. His main insight, that work can be systematically studied to improve working methods and productivity was revolutionary.

              The weakness of his approach was that it focused on the system of work, rather than on the worker. With this system the worker becomes a tool in the hands of management. Another criticism is that it leads to de-skilling because the task is simplified, workers become frustrated. Finely some people think that it is wrong to separate doing from planning. A worker will be more productive if he is engaged in planning, decision making, controlling and organizing. For all these reasons, a reaction has set in against the ideas of T.

3.  The Quality of Working life.

              Over the last thirty years, a new approach to management has been developing. It was said that the way to increase worker’s efficiency is to improve their job satisfaction and motivation. Followers of QWL have been trying out various methods of making work more interesting. These include job enlargement and job enrichment and new forms of group work.

              With job enlargement, the worker is given additional tasks to perform. Job enrichment involves giving extra responsibilities to workers such as production planning, quality control, and so on. In some organizations, special types of work groups have been formed where workers share responsibility for certain tasks.

              The basic idea of QWL is that workers should have an interesting, even challenging job. QWL encourages managers to be sensitive to the need of employees.  

The roots of QWL movement can be tracked back too the 1920 and 1930. Most of the studies were directed by Elton Mayo, a Harvard University psychologist. Their aim was to evaluate the factors influencing productivity. The researchers soon directed their attention towards studying people, especially their social relationships at work.

              They found out the groups of workers who were studied increased their output whether the lighting was improved or not. It was also found out that there was an increase in productivity whether conditions such as launch times, rest periods, wall colors, pay and temperature were made better or worse.

              The researchers later came to conclusion that social relations among workers and between workers and their bosses affect output, the quality of work and motivation. Workers need more than money and good working conditions to be productive. The feeling of belonging to a group and his status within that group, strongly affect his behavior.

4 Decision-making

              In carrying out management functions, such as planning organizing, motivating and controlling a manager will be continually making decisions.

Some decisions are of the routine kind. They are decisions which are made fairly quickly, and are based on judgement. Because a manager is experienced, he knows what to do in certain situation and doesn’t have to think too much before taking action.

              Other decisions are often intuitive ones. They are not really rational. The manager may have a hunch or a gut feeling that a certain course of action is the right one. He will follow that hunch and act accordingly.

Many decisions are more difficult to make since they involve, problem-solving. Very often they are strategic decisions involving major courses of action which will affect the future direction of enterprise. To make good decisions, the manager should be able to select, rationally, a course of action. It is probably rare that a manager can make an entirely rational decision.

              A useful approach to decision-making is as follows: the process consists of for phases 1) defining the problem 2) analyzing and collecting information 3) working out options 4) deciding on the best solution.

1) It is important that manager does not mistake the symptoms of a problem for the real problem he must solve. At the early stage, he must also take into account the rules and principles of the company which may affect the final decision. These factors will limit the solution of the problem.

2) To analyze the problem and decide what additional information is necessary before a decision can be taken. Getting the facts is essential in decision-making.

3) After that the manager should consider options available for solving the problem. There are usually several ways of solving it.

It is worth nothing that in some situations, one of the options may be to take no action at all.

4) Before making decision, the manager will carefully assess the options, considering the advantages and disadvantages each one. Having done this, he will have to take a decision.

5 Top management – planning and strategy

              The top management of a company have certain unique responsibilities. One of their key tasks is to make major decisions affecting the future of the organization. These strategic decisions determine where the company is going and how it will get there.

Before doing any kind of strategic planning, the management must decide what is the mission and purpose of their business; it is foundation of any planning exercise.

              Having decided on its mission and purpose, an organization will have worked out certain more specific objectives. It could be increasing market share, producing new model of car in the medium-price range and so on.

Before deciding strategies, the planners have to look at the company’s present performance, and at any external factors which might affect its future. To do this, it carries out an analysis, sometimes called SWOT analysis. First organization examines its current performance, assessing its strength and weaknesses. It looks at performance indicators like market share, sales revenue, output and productivity. And also examines its resources – financial, human, products and facilities.

              Having completed the SWOT analysis the company can now evaluate its objectives and perhaps work out new ones.

              Company planning and strategic decision-making are key activities of top management.

6  Goal-settings

              Management by objectives is a system which was first described by Peter Drucker. In this book he emphasized that an organization and its staff must have clear goals. Each individual must understand the goals of the enterprise he works for, and make contribution to them. It is also vital that the individual knows what his manager expects of him. He must know what sorts of he is expected to achieve.

              If the organization uses the MBO approach, it must pay careful attention to planning. Because each individual has clearly defined objectives. And this will contribute to the overall objectives of the enterprise. A special feature of MBO is that the subordinate participates with his manager in developing objectives. After these have been worked out, his performance, in relation to the goals, can be assessed. MBO focuses on results.

              There are various kinds of MBO systems used in organizations.

The programme consists of several stages:

              At the first stage subordinate and his manager define the gob separately. Both parties then meet and discuss the statements they have made in writing. They also discuss their differences of opinion. In the end, they both have a clear idea of what the job involves.

At stage two they examine each task. They try to decide how well or badly it is being performed. They do evaluation separately, and then meet and discuss their assessment.

              Next comes developing objectives. The subordinate and manager try to develop goals which are challenging but realistic. There will be dates by which the subordinate must achieve his goals.

              There are many benefits of MBO. The system helps the subordinates to see clearly his\her role in the organization and the tasks he\she must carry out. As the result subordinates feel more responsible more motivated and more committed to the objectives of the organization. MBO is good technique for assessing an individual’s performance. It leads to better coordination and communication within the group. MBO makes the individual think of results, of the contribution he\she is making to the enterprise.

7 The management of time

              In any business it is important that managers should be effective. They must be able to achieve their objectives and to get things done. But there are many pressures on managers, reducing their efficiency. Most days they are doing number of tasks, some fairly trivial, other highly important and than find that do not have enough time to devote to the really important jobs. Sometimes they forget which jobs are important

Manager also find that other people take up a lot of his time, so he has little time on his own. He must constantly respond to the demands that other make on his time.

              The higher he goes, the more demands will be made upon his time.

It is not easy for manager to be effective. He will have difficulty distinguishing between important and less important tasks. There will always be someone or something to divert him from what he should really be doing.

Effective manager cut out unproductive activities. They never forget that time cannot be replaced.

Before being able to control his time, the manager must find out how he is actually using it. The best way to do this is to record how he uses time. He should not rely on memory when logging time. Manager should note down all the activities and indicate how long they took.

              The logging of time should be done once or twice a year. It shows how the executive actually spends his time at work not how he thinks he sped it.

              Once the manager has an accurate picture of how he uses time, he can analyze the time log. This will help him to re-think and re-plan his work schedule.

              As a result of his analysis the effective manager will start getting rid of unproductive, time wasting activities. He will also get rid of some activities which can be done just a well by someone else. Knowing how to delegate is an essential skill of manager.

              Peter Drucker believes that effective manager work systematically to manage time.

8 Motivation

The work of managers is to ensure that staff work efficiently in an organization. To achieve this, it is clear that managers must know what motivates people. By understanding the factors influencing motivation, they can create the conditions in which employees will perform to their maximum potential.

One of the best known theories of motivation was put forward by an American psychologist, Abraham Maslow.

In his theory, he presents a hierarchy of needs. He identified certain basic human needs and classified them in an ascending order of importance. Basic needs were at the bottom of the hierarchy, higher needs at the top. His classification is shown below:

Physiological needs: These were things required to sustain life like food, water, air, sleep etc. Until these needs are satisfied, Maslow believed, other needs will not motivate people.

Security needs: They are the needs to be free from danger, physical pain and loss of a job. They include the need for clothing and shelter,

Social needs: A human being needs to belong to a group, to be liked and loved, to feel accepted by others and to develop affiliations.

Esteem needs: After people have satisfied their social needs, they want to have self–respect and to be esteemed by others. They have a need for power, status, respect and self–confidence.

Self–actualization needs: These are the highest needs, according to Maslow. They are the desire to develop, to maximize potential and to achieve one's goals.

Maslow said that people satisfied their needs in a systematic way. When a need had been met, it stopped being a motivating factor.

Research into Maslow's theory has not been very conclusive. Studies have tended to show that needs vary greatly among individuals. At the higher levels in a company, self–actualizing needs may be very strong whereas at lower levels, social and security needs may be dominant.

Another theory of motivation, which has been very popular with managers, is Frederick Herzberg's 'two–factor' theory. Herzberg conducted a number of studies in the region of Pittsburg, USA, in the late 1950s. He concluded that at work there are certain factors which cause job satisfaction while others lead to dissatisfaction.

The group of factors bringing about satisfaction were called 'motivators'. They include things like a challenging job, responsibility, advancement, recognition etc. These factors give rise to positive satisfaction. Herzberg called the other group of factors 'hygiene' or 'maintenance' factors. These include company policy and administration, salary and fringe benefits, job security, status and personal life. These factors are considered to be only 'dissatisfiers', not motivators. If they do not exist, they cause dissatisfaction. If they do exist in quality and quantity, they do not, however, give increased satisfaction

It is worth noting that the hygiene factors refer to the context of the job – the conditions of work – while the motivators refer to job content.

Herzberg's motivation–hygiene theory

Motivators: achievement, challenging work, the work itself, career prospects, responsibility, recognition.

Hygiene factors: company policy and administration, salary and fringe benefits, quality of supervision, relationship with colleagues, job security, status, personal life, work conditions.

Hygiene factors are essential if workers are to be motivated

If Herzberg's theory is true, it means that managers must pay great attention to job content. They must find ways of making jobs more challenging and interesting. As a result, managers in the USA and elsewhere have recently been showing great interest in job enrichment programmes. The idea of such programmes is to make jobs more challenging and to give the worker a sense of achievement.

Sweden has been leading the way in this respect. At one car plant, for example, Volvo workers assemble the whole of a car rather than do a few simple operations. In a glass factory, production workers have complete control over the work process in the grinding and polishing department. Other workers have helped to build and design paper mills. Job enrichment is undoubtedly catching on fast in Sweden.

9 Appraisal

Most organizations have some form of performance appraisal of their employees. The appraisals are usually carried out once a year. The manager makes an evaluation of the performance of the subordinate. This involves filling out a form or writing a report on the person concerned. After this, there  I is a meeting at which the two parties discuss the appraisal. A performance appraisal is, then, a judgment on how well a person is doing his/her work.

Appraisals help organizations to reward staff properly. They are useful when decisions have to be made about salary increases and bonuses. They are needed when managers are considering transferring or promoting staff. In these situations, they provide up-to-date information about an individual's performance, skills and career objectives.

An important purpose of appraisals is to give the subordinate feedback on how he/she is performing. The manager can talk to the subordinate about the strengths and weaknesses of his/her performance. Не/She can also discuss how the subordinate can learn to work more effectively.

At appraisal interviews, subordinates can not only talk about their future, but also seek guidance from the manager. The interview may help them to think more realistically about their goals. There are many methods of evaluating a person's performance at work. Some of the better-known methods are described below

A traditional method has been to give a 'rating', The subordinate's evaluation is based on traits — qualities - that he/she shows in his/her work. Subordinates are judged on such things as knowledge of the job, reliability, initiative and sense of responsibility. The manager rates the subordinate by marking a letter or figure on a scale.

However, the most popular form of appraisal, in Britain and the United States, is Management by Objectives. This appraisal is based on a person's performance, and how well he/she is achieving his/her goals. The manager and the subordinate agree on a certain number of objectives, which should be achieved in a given period of time. The focus is on results, not personality traits.

Another appraisal method is worth mentioning too. This is the Critical Incident Method. With this system, the manager keeps a record of good and unsatisfactory examples (incidents) of a person's work. These are kept in a file and reviewed with the manager when the interview takes place. An advantage of the system is that the manager has to think about the subordinate's performance throughout the year.

In spite of the need for performance appraisals, people do not like them. Many managers see appraisals as their most unpleasant duty and those who are appraised rarely have a good word to say for the system used by their organization. One problem is that the manager is expected to criticise the subordinate and to give guidance at the same time. Many people are naturally suspicious of appraisals. They think managers are trying to find out their weaknesses, so they are on the defensive. Moreover, managers are often unwilling to say that a subordinate's performance has been 'outstanding' or 'bad'. So, the individual is described as being 'just above average'. This means that high fliers in the organization do not get a good enough evaluation while the work of poor performers may be over-valued. Finally, many managers do not like to criticize, in writing, a subordinate with whom they are working closely, day-by-day.

Appraisal can be a valuable process. At the interview, the manager should act as a guide to the subordinate, not as a judge. The purpose of the interview should be to discuss how. the individual can 'grow' in the organization, and make an effective contribution. The situation allows both parties to review the work of the individual, fix realistic targets, and plan that person's career development.

10 Centralization

Alfred Sloan (1874-1966) was an outstanding figure in the business world of America. He worked for forty-five years in the General Motors Corporation (GM). Sloan published an account of his career with the organization. In it he described some of the management problems he had had, and how he had dealt with them.

According to Sloan, every large enterprise has to face one major problem. It must decide how much it wishes to centralize or decentralize its business. The terms refer to the degree of authority that is given to various levels of management and to the divisions of an organization. When we talk about centralized and decentralized businesses, we mean the extent to which authority has been passed down – delegated – to lower levels or divisions of an organization.