Nature and Significance of Management Class 12 Notes

Management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims, and the chapter takes the definition apart because every word in it is chosen and not accidental.

• It is a process, and not a single act, so it is continuous and it does not end when a particular task is finished.
• It is the process of designing and maintaining an environment, so the manager creates the conditions in which the others work, and not merely the instructions for the work itself.
• The environment is one in which individuals, and this stresses the individual, work together in groups, so the group is the unit and the individual is the performer inside it.
• The work is accomplished efficiently, and the word efficiently means with the least waste of the resources, so the efficiency is the test of the performance.
• The work accomplishes selected aims, and the word selected is important, because the aims are the ones that have been chosen by the organisation and not every aim that happens to present itself.
• The management process is described as a cycle of the functions of planning, organising, directing and controlling, and the functions overlap and are performed by the same person, and this is why management is described as a process and not as a set of separate tasks.

The features are the set of characteristics that distinguish the management from the other activities of the enterprise, and the list of ten is examined often enough that the order is worth fixing.

• Management is universal, because the need of management arises wherever there is a group of people working together for a common aim, whether it is a family, a school, a hospital, a government or a business, and so the principles of management apply to all of them.
• Management is a rational process, because it is based on the logic and it is a deliberate and informed process rather than a guess or a whim.
• Management is not a science exactly, because the principles are not exact, and the management is a science only in the sense of the study of the management.
• Management is a continuous process, because the performance of the functions never comes to an end, and the need of the management repeats itself.
• Management is a dynamic activity, because it deals with the changing environment, and the manager has to adjust the plan to the change in the surroundings.
• Management is a demanding and a challenging activity, because it involves the complexity, the individual differences, and the ever changing environment.
• Management is an integrative or a composite process, because each function of the management is a part of the whole, and the output of one becomes the input of the other.
• Management is intangible, because the output of the management is not a physical thing but a result that is seen in the performance of the organisation, in the working of the people and in the achievement of the objective.
• Management is a pervasive activity, because it is needed in every kind of organisation, whether it is a business or a non-business one, and in every level of it.

The chapter divides the management into three levels and then asks what skill each level needs most, and this pairing is the part of the chapter that is asked most often.

• Top level, the top management, the board of directors, the president and the chief executive officer, and the Vice President of marketing or finance, and the work is the framing of the policies, the objectives and the strategies.
• The top management is responsible for the whole organisation, its decisions are the long term ones, it handles the external environment, and the skill required of it is the conceptual skill.
• Middle level, the middle management, the heads of the departments, the plant manager and the sales manager, and the work is the interpretation of the policies of the top into the departmental plans, so the skill required is the human skill.
• Lower level, the lower or the operative or the first line management, the supervisors, the foremen and the office managers, and the work is the supervision of the day to day work and the direct supervision of the workers, so the skill required is the technical skill.
• The three skills are the conceptual, the human and the technical, and the conceptual skill is the ability to see the organisation as a whole, the human skill is the ability to work with the people, and the technical skill is the knowledge of the particular work of the business.
• The relationship runs in one direction, so the higher the level of the management, the greater the proportion of the conceptual skill required, and the lower the level, the greater the proportion of the technical skill, and the human skill is required at all the three levels in some degree.

The nature of management question is the most frequently asked question of the chapter, and the syllabus puts it as the science, the art and the profession, so the answer has to be given in three parts, because a candidate who writes only the art and the science leaves the profession out and loses the third part of the marks.

• Management is an art, because the practice of it is a skilled personal performance that depends on the innate abilities of the manager, and it is a creative activity since the skill and the knowledge are applied to different situations.
• Management is an art, because it is a demanding and a challenging activity, and the results depend on the practice, the knowledge and the personal abilities of the manager rather than on a fixed rule.
• Management is a science, because it deals with a body of knowledge that has been formulated and tested through a systematic method, and its field of study is a definite one.
• Management is a science, because it has universal principles, and the principles of management have been derived and tested in the real situations over the years.
• It is a science, but not an exact science, because the principles are general rather than exact, and they have to be applied to the particular situations with which the manager is faced.
• The conclusion on the science is that the management is an inexact science, and the practice of it is an art, and the two are not in conflict because the science provides the body of the knowledge and the art provides the skill of applying it.
• Management is a profession as well, and a profession is a body of the knowledge, a set of the methods and a code of the conduct, and the management now answers to all three, and the three things that make it so are the standardised body of the knowledge that can be taught and learnt, the methods and the techniques that can be applied and repeated, and the code of the ethics and the responsibilities that the profession accepts upon itself.
• The arguments that management is a profession are therefore three, that the knowledge of management is formal and is taught in the institutions, that it is studied and its principles are added to by the research so that the body of the knowledge grows, and that the managers are expected to observe a code of the conduct towards the shareholders, the employees, the consumers and the state.
• The conclusion is that the management is a science, an art and a profession at the same time, that the science gives it the body of the knowledge, the art gives it the skill of the practice, and the profession gives it the standard of the conduct, and the three are not in conflict, because a manager who is a scientist is not the worse artist and a manager who is an artist is not the worse professional.

The chapter closes by asking what the management actually contributes, and by tracing how the understanding of the role of the manager has changed over the last century.

• Management puts the organisation on the path of the achievement of the goals, it improves the performance of the people, and it establishes the structure through which the work of the others is directed.
• Management establishes the structure of the organisation, allocates the people and the resources, and creates the conditions in which the organisation can respond to the change in the environment.
• Management reduces the cost and improves the quality, and it takes the decisions on the allocation of the scarce resources in a way that the objective of the firm is reached with the least waste.
• It provides the leadership and the motivation, and the morale of the workforce is the difference between the achievement and the failure of a plan.
• The changing concept: the view of the management as the centre of control, that is the management decides and the subordinates execute, gave way to the concept of the management as the centre of direction, where the management decides the objectives and the subordinates decide the means.
• The next change was the concept of the management as the centre of growth, in which the subordinate is given the responsibility for the growth of his own unit and the management only supports him, and the present concept is the management as the centre of development, where the subordinate is a partner in the work and is developed and helped rather than merely directed.
• The sequence of the four concepts is the centre of control, the centre of direction, the centre of growth and the centre of development, and the order is what a question on the changing concept tests.

The chapter closes with the two ideas that run through the whole of management, which is the coordination and the person who performs the work, the manager. Both are examined briefly, and both are asked frequently in the application questions.

• Coordination is the process whereby the activities of the various departments and the various levels of the organisation are harmonised so that the work of each contributes to the objective of the whole, and it is the essence of the management.
• Coordination is not a separate function, because it runs through the planning, the organising, the directing and the controlling, and it is present in each of them rather than beside them.
• The characteristics of the coordination are that it is compulsory, since it is needed in every organisation, it is the responsibility of every manager and not only of the senior ones, it is a continuous process, and it is a pervasive activity.
• Coordination is needed because the work of the departments is interdependent, one department produces the input of another, and if the output of one does not match the requirement of the other, the whole chain suffers.
• The manager is the person who is responsible for the performance of the work of a team or of an organisation, and he is a leader, a planner, an organiser, a director, a communicator and a controller.
• The qualities of a good manager: the technical, the conceptual and the human skills, the ability to communicate, the integrity, the emotional balance, the objectivity, the initiative and the ability to take the decisions in time, and the level of the management decides which of them matters most.