Meaning and Definition of Management

1. Meaning and Definition of Management

In the simplest possible terms, management is the process of getting things done, through and with people, by efficiently using the organisation's resources to achieve its goals. Notice the two ideas packed into that one sentence: management is never a one-person act of DOING the work yourself — it is the act of organising and directing OTHER people's effort; and it is judged not just by whether the goal is reached, but by how well resources (money, materials, machinery, time, and people) were used along the way.

Several well-known definitions bring out different sides of this idea:

• Harold Koontz described management as "the art of getting things done through and with people in formally organised groups." This emphasises management as a skill exercised THROUGH other people, inside a structured organisation.
• Peter Drucker called management "a multi-purpose organ that manages business, manages managers, and manages workers and work." This emphasises the wide SCOPE of what a manager actually has to handle — not just the work itself, but the people doing it and the other managers coordinating it.
• Henri Fayol, one of the earliest systematic writers on the subject, described managing as being made up of six activities: forecasting, planning, organising, commanding, co-ordinating, and controlling — an early version of what Std XII calls the "Functions of Management."

Pulling these together, management can be understood as having two closely linked dimensions:

• Efficiency — doing things in the RIGHT way: using the least possible input (cost, time, effort) to get a given output. A manager who wastes resources, even while reaching the target, is not managing efficiently.
• Effectiveness — doing the RIGHT things: actually achieving the goal that was set. A manager who uses resources very carefully but never reaches the target is not managing effectively.