Definition of Management

Definition of Management

Management is the art of getting things done through people. In a broader sense, it is the process of planning, organizing, leading and controlling the efforts of organization members and of using all other organizational resources to achieve stated organizational goals. The definition of management can be broadly classified into four groups:

1. Process School: The process School defines management in terms of functions undertaken by the manager in an integrated way to achieve organizational purposes. According to Henri Foyol, to manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate and to control. All other definitions of management related to this school are either marginal additions, deletions, or elaborations of the functions listed out in the above definition.

2. Human Relations School: This school emphasizes the human aspect of the organization and conceives it as a social system. It is a social system because managerial actions are principally concerned with relations between people. In fact, management is concerned with the development of people and not the direction of things. The essence of this school is well reflected in the definition of Lawrence Appley to whom management is the accomplishment of results through the efforts of other people.

3. Decision School: The Decision School defines management as rule-making and rule-enforcing body. In fact, the life of a manager is a perpetual choice making activity and whatever a manager does, he does through his decisions. Moreover, decision making power provides a dynamic force for managers to transform the resource of business organization into a productive and cooperative concern.

4. System and Contingency School: According to this school, organizations like any living organism must adapt themselves to their environments for survival and growth. Thus, management involves designing organizations adaptable to changing markets, technology, and other critical environmental factors. The systems theory of organisations are organic and open systems consisting of interacting and interdependent parts and having a variety of goals. Managers are supposed to maintain balance among the conflicting objectives, goals and activities of members of the organisation. He must achieve results efficiently and effectively. According Contingency School there is no best way to design organisations and manage them. Managers should design organisations, define goals and formulate policies and strategies in accordance with the prevailing environmental conditions.

Different schools of thought defined management differently due to three reasons:
1. The difference in perspectives of management and organization theories,
2. Shifts in emphasis in the study of the organization from economic and technical aspects to conceptual and human aspects, and
3. Focus on internal and external environments of the organization.


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