Q.Define management and explain any four of its characteristics.

Management is best understood first through a working definition and then through the features that distinguish it from any other kind of activity.

Management may be defined as the process of getting things done, efficiently and effectively, through and with people, by performing the functions of planning, organising, staffing, directing, and controlling towards achieving the goals of an organisation.

Four of its characteristics:

1. Goal-oriented process — management has no purpose of its own except achieving the specific goals of the organisation it serves.
2. Pervasive — management is required in every type of organisation and at every level within it, not only in business.
3. Multidimensional — it manages work, people, and operations together, not any one of these alone.
4. Continuous process — the functions of management are carried out repeatedly, in a cycle, for as long as the organisation exists.

Defining management only as "getting work done by others" without mentioning efficiency and effectiveness together — a plan that wastes resources to hit a target is not good management, only effective, not efficient.