Q.Principles of management are never as exact as the principles of a pure science such as physics or chemistry, because they deal with human behaviour. Which characteristic of the principles of management does this statement describe? (A) Universal applicability
(B) Flexibility
(C) Mainly behavioural
(D) General guidelines

Because management principles are ultimately about influencing how people behave at work, and human behaviour is never perfectly predictable, these principles can never carry the same certainty as a law of pure science.

This is precisely why a manager applies a principle with judgement rather than treating it as an exact formula.

The statement points to the fact that management principles deal with unpredictable human behaviour and are therefore inherently less exact than the laws of a pure science — this is the "mainly behavioural" characteristic.

Option-by-option analysis:

(A) Universal applicability is incorrect — that characteristic concerns whether a principle can be used across different types of organisations, not whether it is exact like a scientific law.

(B) Flexibility is incorrect — flexibility describes a principle's ability to be modified and adapted over time as circumstances change; it does not, by itself, explain why the principle lacks scientific exactness.

(C) Mainly behavioural is correct. Since management always operates through and with people, and no two people (or even the same person on two different days) behave identically under identical conditions, principles that guide human behaviour at work can only ever describe general tendencies, never guaranteed, exact outcomes the way a physical law like the law of gravity can.

(D) General guidelines is incorrect — that describes the non-rigid, advisory character of a principle, which is related but is not specifically about the behavioural, human-centred source of that inexactness.

Students sometimes pick "flexibility" here because it also relates to "not being exact" — but flexibility is about a principle changing over time, while this question is specifically about why the principle can never be as precise as physics in the first place, which is the behavioural characteristic.