THE JOB OF MANAGEMENT

What is management? Are there certain functions that all managers perform regardless of whether they are company presidents, mangers of departments, or supervisors of department sections?

If we watch managers at work, we might conclude that their jobs differ so widely in content and scope that no generalizations about management are possible.

One reason for this is that many managers, even top managers, do work that is not management at all. A simple example is the sales manager who actually sells and perhaps has a set of customers of his own, in addition to managing the sales force. Again, a supervisor of a research group may actually perform some of research himself. Then there is a “working foreman” or leadman who works right along with the group he is supervising. In these cases the managers are actually spending part of their time on management itself.

A second reason why it may be difficult to identify the functions common to all managers is that the scope of their activities differs widely. In some cases the way a manager carries out his functions affects an entire company; in other cases only a small part of it.

Yet if we look closely at managers at work we can see that fundamentally they are all performing – or should be performing – the same functions during the time they actually managing rather than doing work similar to that done by those under them.

These functions are planning, organizing, directing, controlling, staffing, leading, representing and decision-making. None of the management functions can be performed with out communication.

There were good managers, of course, long before anyone ever studied management. But not everyone can be a genius and the demand for good managers far exceeds the supply of geniuses. Moreover, many of genius managers of the past – in business, government, the military, and other fields – were deficient in one or more of the management skills and were probably less successful than they might have been if they had not proceeded by trial and error.

The field of management has drawn on sociology, psychology, economics, and other disciplines, and it is in these areas that the manager can learn from study as well as from experience and trial and error. He still needs plenty of intelligence, common sense, and business judgment – and even the inspired hunch may still have a place. But the knowledge of what others have learned about the various aspects of management will help him use his native abilities more effectively.

Future managers will need more education than those of the past. A knowledge of the humanities will be needed for a balanced viewpoint. Scientific knowledge will be required to distinguish between good and bad expert advice, for the area of management is replete with disagreements between experts.

From Modern Management Methods

Exercise 1. Give the Russian equivalents for the following from the text:

to perform functions; managers of departments; supervisors of sections; a top manager; a sales manager; a set of customers; sales force; to perform research; a scope of activities; a working foreman; staffing; innovating; by trial and error; to learn from study and experience; native abilities; humanities.

Exercise 3. Transcribe and pronounce the following words:

genius, psychology, supply, discipline, demand, finally, exceed, sociology, error, generalization, staffing, actually, deficient, knowledge, entire, organization, research, trial, economics, intelligence, judgment, inspired, scientific, distinguish.

Exercise 4. Answer the questions:

1. Why is it so difficult to define the functions managers perform?
2. What functions do managers carry out apart from management?
3. What are purely management functions?
4. What sciences is management connected with?
5. How can scientific knowledge help managers in their work?

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 2072