Business Studies II: Management
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The Management Process
Management is the process of achieving organizational goals efficiently and effectively through people and other resources (Robbins & Coulter, 2018). The classic functions are:
| Function | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Planning | Setting objectives and deciding how to achieve them (strategic, tactical, operational plans) |
| Organizing | Arranging resources, tasks, authority, and relationships; departmentation; span of control; delegation |
| Leading (directing) | Motivating, communicating, and guiding people |
| Controlling | Setting standards, measuring performance, comparing, and taking corrective action |
Drucker (1954) popularized management by objectives (MBO).
Managerial Roles, Levels, and Skills
- Levels: top (strategic), middle (tactical), and first-line (operational) managers.
- Roles: Mintzberg's interpersonal, informational, and decisional roles.
- Skills: Katz (1955) identified technical, human, and conceptual skills; the relative importance of each differs by level (conceptual skills matter most at the top).
Evolution of Management Thought
| School | Key thinkers | Main idea |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific management | Taylor (1911) | Find the "one best way"; time and motion studies; incentives |
| Administrative theory | Fayol (1916/1949) | Five functions and fourteen principles (for example unity of command, division of work, scalar chain) |
| Bureaucracy | Weber | Rules, hierarchy, and impersonality |
| Human relations | Mayo (1933) and the Hawthorne studies | Social factors and attention affect productivity |
| Behavioural theories | Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor | Motivation and management style |
| Systems and contingency approaches | Many | An organization is a system; the best approach depends on the situation |
Motivation and Leadership
- Maslow's hierarchy of needs (1943): physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization.
- Herzberg's two-factor theory (1959): hygiene factors (pay, conditions) prevent dissatisfaction; motivators (achievement, recognition, responsibility) create satisfaction.
- McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y (1960): assumptions that workers dislike work and need control (X) or that they seek responsibility (Y).
- Expectancy theory (Vroom), equity theory (Adams), and goal-setting theory (Locke).
- Leadership styles: autocratic, democratic (participative), laissez-faire; transformational and transactional leadership; situational leadership.
Decision Making and Strategy
- Decision-making process: define the problem, gather information, generate alternatives, evaluate, choose, implement, and review. Use tools such as decision trees and cost-benefit analysis.
- Strategic management: vision, mission, objectives; environmental analysis; SWOT analysis; Porter's five forces (threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat of substitutes, and rivalry among competitors) and generic strategies (cost leadership, differentiation, focus) (Porter, 1980, 1985); growth strategies (market penetration, market and product development, diversification); implementation and evaluation.
- Organizational structure: functional, divisional, matrix, and network; centralization versus decentralization; the informal organization.
- Organizational culture and change: managing resistance to change (Lewin's unfreeze, change, refreeze).
Common Mistakes
- Listing theories without linking them to practice.
- Confusing hygiene factors and motivators.
- Describing SWOT without using it to recommend actions.
CHAPTER 11