Lecture 01 | Management Defined

First of all, we must keep in mind that there is no agreed upon definition of management. Various scholars have defined management in their own terms. Many people may take this variety of definition in negative ways but for me it is good. Indeed very good. Such a variety of definitions and explanations provides our brain food for thought and gives option to think about a topic in different ways. 

Management is not and should not be a new word for any human being living on this planet. In our everyday lives we keep managing. We manage our relations, relationships, friends, time. We learn to manage our priorities in order to accomplish the most necessary tasks. We manage our financial as well as non-financial resources, like time, in order to take maximum benefits from our resources.

Van Fleet and Peterson define management as "Management is a set of activities directed at the efficient and effective utilisation of resources in the pursuit of one or more goals". Megginson, Mosley and Pietri define management as "working with human, financial and physical resources to achieve organisational objectives by performing the planning, organising, leading and controlling function". 

Now, when we look closely at those definitions, we will come to know that ‘set of activities’, effective and efficient utlisation’, ‘resources’ and ‘organizational goals’ are common component used in both definitions. We will discus each of these components separately in detail below.

Firstly, we must keep in mind that management is a ‘set of activities’. It is not an activity but a set of activities where all the available and necessary resources work together and act according to the goals of organisation. They put maximum efforts to achieve goals of their organization.

Secondly, in order to achieve organisational goals, it is imperative to utilise the available and necessary resources. But only availability of resource will not work here. The word ‘utilisation’ is of utmost importance. The management has a crucial responsibility to utilise all those resources effectively and efficiently. Only than a good manager will be able to achieve organizational goals.

Resources are mandatory for every organization. There are three types of resources. Human, physical and financial resources. Human resources refer to the work force employed by an organization. Physical resources refer to the machinery and infrastructure purchased by an organization to facilitate their work force.

Any/every organization has got its goals and objectives to achieve. The goals/objectives can be divided into three categories: short-term; medium-term and; long term. Short-term goals refer to the goals which are to be achieved in a short period of time lets say four or six months. Medium term goals are set to be accomplished in or within a couple of years. And long-term goals may take more than 4 years. Management utilises all its human, physical and financial resources to achieve these goals.

Our next lecture will focus on four function of management which are planning, organising, leading and controlling.