Meaning, Characteristics and Objectives of Management

Every organisation — a small shop, a school, a multinational company, even a household — exists to achieve certain goals with the resources (people, money, materials, machinery, and time) it has. Management is the process of getting things done, through and with people, in an organised way, so that the available resources are used efficiently and effectively to reach those goals. It is best understood as a set of interrelated functions — planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling — carried out continuously to convert inputs into desired results.

Management has certain distinct characteristics:

• Goal-oriented process — management exists only because an organisation has objectives to achieve; without a goal, there is nothing to manage.
• Pervasive — management is needed in every kind of organisation (business, government, hospital, club) and at every level within an organisation, not only at the top.
• Multidimensional — it involves the management of work (what is to be done), people (getting work done through others, tactfully and with motivation), and operations (the actual production/service process).
• Continuous process — the five functions are performed repeatedly and simultaneously, not once and for all; planning today feeds into controlling tomorrow, which in turn feeds the next round of planning.
• Group activity — management is relevant only where a group of people works together towards a common purpose; a single person working alone does not need to "manage" in this sense.
• Dynamic function — management must continually adapt its practices to changes in the external environment — technology, government policy, competition, customer preference.
• Intangible force — management itself cannot be seen, but its results (order, coordination, achievement of targets, employee morale) can be felt and measured.

Objectives of management are usually grouped under three heads: organisational objectives (survival, profit, and growth of the enterprise), social objectives (creating value for society — quality goods at fair prices, ethical practices, employment, environmental responsibility), and personal/individual objectives (satisfying the varied needs of employees — pay, job satisfaction, growth, social status — so that they willingly contribute their best). A well-managed organisation constantly tries to balance these three, since satisfying only one at the expense of the others eventually damages all three.

This chapter's treatment of management follows the same widely accepted framework of management thought — Taylor's and Fayol's contributions in particular — that CBSE's own Business Studies syllabus and most Indian commerce/management courses build their Principles of Management units on; the underlying principles are common ground across boards even though the treatment here is TN's own.