Management has existed ever since man has been organized into communities. It is sometimes thought to be an innovation of the twentieth-century. But this is not so. Whenever and wherever people worked together in groups-to grow crops and cattle’s, to buy and sell, to fight wars, to build temples, etc,-there was management.
Although management is so old and universal, there is no agreed single definition of it. There are many to choose from. Perhaps, management theorist Mary Parker Follett (1919) gave the first definition of management Follett defined management as:
Mary Parker Follett
“the art of getting things done with and through people.”
The principle on which this definition is based “is commitment to purposeful work by people”. However, this definition is often misunderstood as “only some (a manager) commands and others (employees) execute”.
The management theorists, who followed, made some improvement in this definition. Chester I. Barnard (1938) defined management as:
Chester I. Barnard
“getting things done through people by making the efficient use of resources.”
This definition highlighted that the different types of the resources used for achieving objectives must be carefully balanced. The key concept in this definition is “efficiency”. Efficiency is concerned with the balanced use of resources.
Combining the concepts used in the earlier two definitions, the management theorists, particularly Kast and Rosenzweig (1974) derived the third definition of management. They defined management as:
Kast and Rosenzweig Chart
“to make efficient use of resources and to get people and other resources to work harmoniously together in order to achieve objectives”
Here, the emphasis is on work activities, organization of work relations, and goal attainment. These three elements from the major areas of management function. Today, managerial work is much more complex than conceived by these early management theorists.
The contemporary writing on management has defined it in a variety of ways. In fact, there are as many definitions of management as there are writers. But the essence of most of these definitions is more or less the same. For the purpose of this textbook, we will adopt the definition proposed by Ricky W. Griffin (2009).
Ricky W. Griffin
“Management is a set of activities (including planning, organizing, leading, and controlling) directed at an organization’s resources (human, financial, physical, and informational), with the aim of achieving organizational goals effectively and efficiently in a changing environment.”
The definition highlights five core components of management work. These are: (i) Planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the activities of human and other resources, (ii) making the most efficient and effective use of resources, (iii) coordinating various activities, (iv)achieving organizational objectives, and (v) coping with a changing environment. The theme of this definition of management is that a central person (a manager) most – by using such skills as decision making, communication, and objectives setting-coordinate the work activities of others to achieve organizational objectives.
Viewed from this perspective, the concept of management applies to all types of organizations – public or private, social or commercial, profit – making or non – profit – making – seeking to attain certain objectives. The managerial principles are applicable to all these organizations, which have a managerial structure.
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