Scope of Management
1. Production Management
• Management helps in designing the product.
• Management designs the location and layout of plant and building of the proposed organization.
• Management facilitates planning and controlling of factory operations.
• Management provides a way-out for the operation of purchase and storage of materials.
• Management provides guidelines for the repairs and maintenance department.
• Management regulates inventory cost and quality control.
• Management encourages the practices of research and development, etc.
2. Marketing Management
• Management helps m operating marketing research to determine the needs and expectations of consumers.
• Management helps in planning and developing suitable products.
• Management sets and decides appropriate prices for all the products being made by the organization.
• Management selects the right channel of distribution.
• Management plans proper promotional activities like advertising and salesmanship to communicate with the consumers.
3. Financial Management
• Management selects the appropriate source of funds.
• Management helps in raising the required funds at the right time.
• Management plans and formulate the strategies of earnings.
• Management estimates the volume of funds.
4. Personnel Management
• Management helps in manpower planning, recruitment, selection, training, development, performance appraisal, etc.
• Management helps in taking proper decisions related to compensation, employee welfare services and other sort of employee related problems.
• Management guides in maintaining personal records and research, etc.
Levels of Management
Broadly management can be divided into three levels namely:
1. Top level management,
2. Middle level management and
3. Low level management.
1. Top Level Management
Top level management is generally occupied by the ownership group. It is highest level in the managerial hierarchy.
The functions of top level management can be stated in following points.
• Top level is concerned to determining primary objectives, formulating basic policies, making vital decisions, controlling and co-ordinating activities of personnel.
• To decide corporate goals.
• To decide structure of organization, creating various positions in organization.
• Top level management perform the function of making plans, deciding corporate goals, creating various positions, co-ordinating various sub-systems and liaisoning with outside parties.
2. Middle Level Management
Middle level management consists of departmental managers, deputy managers foreman and administrative officers, etc.
Middle level managers are the link between top level and lower level managers.
• Their main function is to prepare departmental plan, establish departmental goals, perform other managerial functions, explain and interpret policy decisions to their subordinates.
3. Low Level Management
Low level management is also known as supervisory management. Low level management constitutes factory supervisors, superintendents, foreman, sales supervisors, etc.
The main functions of Low Level Management:
• Planning of day-to-day work.
• Assignment of jobs and, issuing orders and instructions.
• Evaluating operating performance.
• Sending reports and statement to high authorities.
• Their main function is to guide and control the performance of rank and file workers and instruct them for day-to-day activities.
• They also handle the grievances of the workers and evaluate their work performance.
Management Roles and Skills
Skills of Management
Several skills are required to successfully manage a large organization in the changing environment. Some of the required skills are given below.
1. Technical Skills
• They refers to the ability and knowledge in using the equipments, techniques and procedures involved in performing various managerial tasks.
• They require specialized knowledge and proficiency in handling a particular job.
• The manager must know about the kind of skills required to execute a particular job and about the kind of potential needed to acquire it.
2. Human Skill
• It refer, to the ability to work effectively with other people both as individual and a group.
• It reflected in the way the managers perceive their superiors, subordinates and peers.
• If technical skills involve mastery of ‘things’, then human skills are concerned with understanding of people.
3. Conceptual Skills
• They refer, to the ability to see the whole organization and the interrelationship between its parts.
• They consider, the ability to viz the entire picture or to consider a situation in is totality.
• They also include the competence to understand a problem and trigger the mind to find out its solution;, which helps in decision making.
• To conclude technical skills deal with jobs, human skills with persons and conceptual skills with idea. It is necessary to have an attractive and comprehensive package of all three for an efficient leader.
• Thus, technical skills deal with jobs, human skills with persons and conceptual skills with ideas.
Although they are interrelated and there is no strict demarcation between them but the proportion or relative significance of there skills vary with the level of management which can be understood from the following figure.
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Evolution of Management Thought
After World War-I the concept started growing and gained impetus after World War-I I because of growing competition, complexity of managing large business, technological innovation, increase in capital investment, freedom at national and international markets, high degree of division of labour and specialisation.
Early Contributions
• Concept of organization and administration existed ” in Egypt in 1300 BC.
• Confucius’s parables came long before Christ.
• Kautilya offered some principles of state administration in 320 BC.
• Roman Catholic Church gave the concept of staff personnel.
• The Cameralists, a group of German and Austrian public administration-16th to 18th centuries.
• Scientific Management – 1900-1930
• Administrative/Operational management – 1916-1940
• Human relations approach – 1930- 1950
• Social systems approach – 1940-1950
• Social systems approach -1940-1950
• Decision theory approach – 1945- 1965
• Management science approach – 1950-1960
• Human behavior approach – 1950- 1970
• Systems approach – 1960s onwards
• Contingency approach – 1970s onwards
Based on the writings of these and other scholars, management thought can be classified in six “Schools of Management Theory” or “ Approaches of Management Thought”.
Schools of Management Thoughts
Contributions of Prominent Scholars towards Management