{"id":1888,"date":"2012-11-18T21:03:30","date_gmt":"2012-11-18T21:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2012-11-18T21:03:30","modified_gmt":"2012-11-18T21:03:30","slug":"management-101-concepts-and-definitons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/2012\/11\/18\/management-101-concepts-and-definitons\/","title":{"rendered":"Management 101 – concepts and definitons"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week I have begun looking at the discipline of management by reading David Boddy\u2019s Management: An Introduction<\/em>. This book is recommended as a sound introduction to the discipline by many universities, including Southampton and the LSE. In it Boddy (p. 3) outlines the existence of \u2018management<\/strong>\u2019 as both a general human activity and as a \u2018specialist occupation\u2019. Our focus is on the specialist occupation, which aims to \u2018create wealth by adding value<\/strong> to resources, which managers to by influencing<\/strong> others\u2019 (p. 3). Management occurs in organisations<\/strong>, which are defined as \u2018social arrangement[s] for achieving controlled performance towards goals to create value\u2019, recognising that the idea of adding value is both subjective as well as relative (pp. 7-8). With the development of such organisation, in historical as well as social terms, the element of \u2018management\u2019 is separated from the \u2018work\u2019. That is the moment management emerges as a distinct role (p. 10).<\/p>\n

Managers influence others in three main ways:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Through the process of management<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Through the tasks of management<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Through shaping the context<\/p>\n

The process: <\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many different aspects of the management role in an organisation. Mintzberg\u2019s research from 1973 shows ten, Boddy highlights more, broadly classified in three categories: informational, interpersonal and decisional, as described in more detail in figure 1. These roles operate simultaneously and are more or less important depending on the level of management and the type of organisation (pp. 15-19).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fig. 1: Management roles<\/p><\/div>\n

The tasks:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Figure 2 below is a representation that summarises the\u00a0four main management tasks of: (pp. 19-22)<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Planning<\/em> \u2013 setting out the overall direction of the work<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Organising<\/em> \u2013\u00a0actions the\u00a0plans by allocating time and resources<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Leading<\/em> \u2013 generate effort and commitment<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Controlling<\/em> \u2013 monitoring progress and reactive accordingly<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fig. 2: Management tasks<\/p><\/div>\n

The context:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Managers can also influence their contexts<\/strong> (internal and external) to achieve their objectives. Figure 3 provides a good illustration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fig. 3: Management – internal and external contexts<\/p><\/div>\n

Here we come to a bit of an epistemological discussion within the discipline of management because there are broadly speaking three schools of thought regarding the relationship between context and actions:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Determinism \u2013 performance depends on external context<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Choice \u2013 people are able to influence even shape their context<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Interaction \u2013 people are influenced by and in turn influence their context<\/p>\n

Boddy concludes this introductory chapter by emphasising the importance of \u2018critical thinking\u2019 as a basic skill for managers. He defines as a way of thinking which \u2018identifies the assumptions behind ideas, relates them to their context, imagines alternatives and recognises limitations\u2019 (p. 26).<\/p>\n

So the discipline is concerned with a specific type of human activity, management. But not the universal activity of managing one\u2019s life, family, etc. but rather a specific role within a specific kind of socio-economic arrangement: the organisation. This has strong implication for the management epistemology and ontology, which I will explore further next week after presenting a number of theoretical models of management.<\/p>\n

References<\/span><\/p>\n

Boddy D. (2010) Management: An Introduction<\/em>, 5th<\/sup> edition, Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I have begun looking at the discipline of management by reading David Boddy\u2019s Management: An Introduction. This book is recommended as a sound introduction to the discipline by many universities, including Southampton and the LSE. In it Boddy (p. 3) outlines the existence of \u2018management\u2019 as both a general human activity and as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92993,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92993"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1899,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions\/1899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/comp6044\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}