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Product Life Cycle of Nokia Essay INTRODUCTION In the present context, managing has become one of the most important areas of human activity because of increasing role of large and complex organisations in the society. Because of their increasing role, the organisations have attracted the attention of both practitioners and academicians to find out the solutions for business problems. Concept Defining the term management precisely is not so simple because the term management is used in a variety of ways. Being a new discipline, it has drawn concepts and principles from a number of disciplines such as economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, statistics and so on. Each group of contributors has treated management differently. For example, economists have treated management as a factor of production; sociologists have treated it as a class or group of persons; practitioners have treated it as a process comprising different activities. DEFINITION â€Å"Management is the art of getting things done through and with people in formally organized groups† Koontz â€Å"Management is the art of knowing what you want to do and then seeing that it is done in the best and cheapest way† – F.W. Taylor â€Å"Management is the art of securing maximum results with minimum effort so as to secure maximum prosperity and happiness for both employer and employee and give the public the best possible service† John Mee. â€Å"Management is the accomplishment of results through the efforts of other people† Lawrence â€Å"Management is simply the process of decision making and control over the action of human beings for the expressed purpose of attaining predetermined goals† – Stanley V. â€Å"Management is a process involving planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling human efforts to achieve stated objectives in an organization.† From the above definitions, the following features are identified:1) Organised Activities: Management is a process of organized activities. Without organized activities, two groups of people cannot be involved in the performance of activities. Where a group of people are involved in working towards a common objective, management comes into existence. 2) Existence of objectives: The existence of objectives is a basic criterion of e very human organization because all organizations are deliberate and purposive creation and, therefore, they should have Introduction to Management some objectives. Without objectives, it becomes difficult to define the direction where organized group of activities would lead to. 3) Relationship among resources: Organised activities meant to achieve common goals are brought about to establish certain relationships about the available resources. Resources include money, machine, material, men and methods. All these resources are made available to those who manage the organization. Managers apply knowledge, experience, principles for getting the desired results. Thus, the essence of management is integration of various organisational resources. 4) Working with and through people: Management involves working with people and getting organisational objectives achieved through them. The idea of working through people is interpreted in terms of assigning and reassigning of activities to subordinates. 5) Decision Making: Management process involves decision making at various levels for getting things done through people. Decision making basically involves selecting the most appropriate alternative out of the several. If there is only one alternative, there is no question of decision making. Nature of Management: The study and application of management techniques in managing the affairs of the organization have changed its nature over a period of time. The following points will describe the nature of management 1) Multidisciplinary: Management has been developed as a separate discipline, but it draws knowledge and concepts from various disciplines like psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, statistics, operations research etc.,. Management integrates the idea and concepts taken from these disciplines and presents newer concepts which can be put into practice for managing the organisations 2) Dynamic nature of Principles: Principle is a fundamental truth which establishes cause and effect relationships of a function. Based on integration and supported by practical evidences, management has framed certain principles. However, these principles are flexible in nature and change with the changes in the environment in which an organization exists. 3) Relative, Not absolute Principles: Management principles are relative, not absolute, and they should be applied according to the need of the organization. Each organization may be different from others. The difference may exist because of time, place, socio-cultural factors, etc.,. 4) Management: Science or Art: There is a controversy whether management is science or art. An art is personal skill of business affairs. Art is characterized by practical knowledge, personal creativity and skill. The more one practices an art, the more professional one becomes. Management can be considered as an art because it satisfies all these criterion of an art. A science is a systematized body of knowledge of facts. It can establish cause-and-effect relationships among various factors. It involves basic principles, which are capable of universal application. Management can be considered as science because it satisfies all these criterion of a science. Introduction to Management 5) Management as profession: Management has been regarded as a profession by many while many have suggested that it has not achieved the status of a profession. Profession refers to a vocation or a branch of advanced learning such as engineering or medicine. 6) Universality of management: Management is a universal phenomenon. However, management principles are not universally applicable but are to be modified according to the needs of the situation. Importance of Management Management has been important to the daily lives of people and to the organisations. The importance of management may be traces with the following. 1) Effective utilisation of Resources: Management tries to make effective utilisation of various resources. The resources are scarce in nature and to meet the demand of the society, their contribution should be more for the general interests of the society. Management not only decides in which particular alternative a particular resource should be used, but also takes actions to utilize it in that particular alternative in the best way. 2) Development of Resources: Management develops various resources. This is true with human as well as non-human factors. Most of the researchers for resource development are carried on in an organized way and management is involved in these organized activities. 3) It ensures continuity in the organization: Continuity is very important in the organisations. Where there are no proper guidelines for decision making continuity can not be guaranteed. It is quite natural that new people join while some others retire or leave the organization. It is only management that keeps the organization continuing. 4) Integrating various interest groups: In the organized efforts, there are various interest groups and they put pressure over other groups for maximum share in the combined output. For example, in case of a business organization, there are various pressure groups such as shareholders, employees, govt. etc. these interest groups have pressure on an organization. Management has to balance these pressures from various interest groups. 5) Stability in the society: Management provides stability in the society by changing and modifying the resources in accordance with the changing environment of the society. In the modern age, more emphasis is on new inventions for the betterment of human beings. These inventions make old systems and factors mostly obsolete and inefficient. Management provides integration between traditions and new inventions, and safeguards society from the unfavorable impact of these inventions so that continuity in social process is maintained. Functions of Management:To achieve the organisational objectives managers at all levels of organization should perform different functions. A function is a group of similar activities. Introduction to Management The list of management functions varies from author to author with the number of functions varying from three to eight. Writers Henry Fayol Luther Gullick R. Davis Management Functions Planning, Organizing, Commanding, Coordinating, Controlling POSDCORD- Planning, Organising, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, Directing Planning , Organising, Controlling Planning, Organising, Motivating, Coordinating, Controlling Planning, Organising, Staffing, Leading, Controlling Koontz Different authors presented different variations. By combining some of functions, these are broadly grouped into Planning, Organising, Staffing, Directing, and Controlling. 1) Planning: Planning is the conscious determination of future course of action. This involves why an action, what action, how to take action, and when to take action. Thus, planning includes determination of specific objectives, determining projects and programs, setting policies and strategies, setting rules and procedures and prepar ing budgets. 2) Organising: Organising is the process of dividing work into convenient tasks or duties, grouping of such duties in the form of positions, grouping of various positions into departments and sections, assigning duties to individual positions, and delegating authority to each positions so that the work is carried out as planned. It is viewed as a bridge connecting the conceptual idea developed in creating and planning to the specific means for accomplishment these ideas. 3) Staffing: Staffing involves manning the various positions created by the organizing process. It includes preparing inventory of personal available and identifying the sources of people, selecting people, training and developing them, fixing financial compensation, appraising them periodically etc. 4) Directing: when people are available in the organization, they must know what they are expected to do in the organization. Superior managers fulfill this requirement by communicating to subordinates about their expected behavior. Once subordinates are oriented, the superiors have continuous responsibility of guiding and leading them for better work performance and motivating them to work with zeal and enthusiasm. Thus, directing includes communicating, motivating and leading. 5) Controlling: Controlling involves identification of actual results, comparison of actual results with expected results as set by planning process, identification of deviations between the two, if any, and taking of corrective action so that actual results match with expected results. Introduction to Management TAYLOR SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT The concept of scientific management was introduced by Frederick Winslow Taylor in USA in the beginning of 20th century. â€Å"Scientific management is concerned with knowing exactly what you want to do and then see in that they do it in the best and cheapest way† Since Taylor has put the emphasis on solving managerial problems in a scientific way, often, he is called as father of scientific management and his contributions as the principles of scientific management. Taylor carried experiments about how to increase the efficiency of people. On the basis of experiments, he published many papers and books and all his contributions were compiled in his book â€Å"scientific management†. His contributions are divided into two parts. Elements and tools of scientific management Principles of scientific management FEATURES / ELEMENTS AND TOOLS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 1) Separation of planning doing: Taylor emphasized the separation of planning aspect from actual doing of the work. In other words planning should be left to the supervisor and the worker should concentrate only operational work. 2) Functional foremanship: Taylor introduced the concept of functional foremanship based on specialization of functions. In this system, eight persons are involved to direct the activities of workers. Out of these four persons are concerned with planning viz., route clerk, instruction card clerk, time and cost clerk and disciplinarian. The remaining four persons are concerned with doing aspect of the job, viz., speed boss, inspector, gang boss and maintenance foreman. It is against to the principle of unity of command.