Definition of Management

Topic 1:1 Defining Management

Management has existed since long time ago. From time of creation, every human being was set to achieve something.

The concept of management was there e.g. think of the construction of pyramids in Egypt, Great walls of China, Adam Smith, “Wealth of Nation 1776”, Industrial Revolution , think of the Zulu King; Shaka Zulu whose warriors was formidable, all these point out that management has been existing for a long time. In the Bible, we read of how Noah was instructed by God construct an Ark. Noah built the Ark with his family through management.

Definition of Management

a. I can define it as “Manage Man”

b. Other gurus define it “Art of getting things done through others”.

c. Henri Fayol – “forecast, control, plan and to evaluate” (so as to get things done in the org.)

d. Others – “directing, staffing, planning, controlling and organizing

e. Achieving Organizational Objectives: objectives are the desired end-results the organization is striving to achieve. These objectives give purpose and direction to the management process and also serve later as measuring sticks for performance.

f. Balancing Effectiveness and Efficiency: effectiveness (doing the right thing) is the degree to which the goals of an organization have been met. In essence, effective managers are those who select the correct approaches and achieve their goals. But given the reality of limited resources, effectiveness alone is not enough. Efficiency (doing the thing right) is an element in the process of management that balances the amount of resources used to achieve an objective against the outputs. It is based on the physical and engineering sciences and concerns the relationship between inputs and outputs.