Complete Summary of All The Necessary Substance For The Introduction To Management Course
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Course
Introduction To Management
Institution
Hogeschool Van Amsterdam (HvA)
This summary contains all the necessary theory for the exam of the Introduction to Management course from the same book. Study this summary and you pass 100% with a grandiose grade!
ITM Notes – Book
Chapter 1 – Introduction to management
Definition of management
Management is defined as the attainment of organizational goals in an effective and efficient
manner through planning, organizing, leading and controlling organizational resources.
In essence, managers:
1. Set objectives
2. Organize
3. Motivate and communicate
4. Measure
5. Develop people
The four management functions
The four management functions consist of:
1. Planning: The management function concerned with defining goals for future
performance and how to attain them
2. Organizing: Involves assigning tasks, grouping tasks into departments and allocating
resources
3. Leading: Means using influence to motivate employees to achieve the organization’s
goals
4. Controlling: is concerned with monitoring employees’ activities, keeping the
organization on track towards meeting its goals and making corrections as necessary
Organizational performance
Efficiency pertains to the amount of resources – raw materials, money and people – used to
produce a desired volume of output.
Effectiveness refers to the degree to which the organization achieves a stated goal.
Management skills
The necessary skills for managing a department or organization can be placed in three
categories: Conceptual, Human, and Technical skills.
Conceptual skill is the cognitive ability to see the organization as a whole and the
relationship among its parts.
Human skill refers to a manager’s ability to work with and through other people and to work
effectively as part of a group.
Technical skill is the understanding of and proficiency in the performance of specific tasks.
,Chapter 2 – The evolution of management thinking
Management and organization
There are three forces that have influenced organizations and the practice of management
overtime:
Social forces
Political forces
Economic forces
Social forces:
Are aspects of a society that guide and influence relationships among people, such as their
values, needs and standards of behaviour.
The social contract refers to the unwritten, common rules and perceptions about
relationships among people and between employees and management.
Political forces:
Relate to the influence of political and legal institutions on people and organizations.
Economic forces:
Affect the availability , production and distribution of a society’s resources.
Classical perspective +- 1880 to 1920
The study of modern management began in the late nineteenth century with the classical
perspective, which took a rational, scientific approach to management and sought to turn
organizations into efficient operating machines.
Scientific management
Scientific management:
A subfield of the classical perspective that emphasizes scientifically determined changes in
management practices as the solution to improving labour productivity.
F. Taylor is known as ‘the father of scientific management’. He proposed that workers ‘could
be retooled like machines, their physical and mental gears recalibrated for better
productivity’. Taylor insisted that management itself would have to change and ,further, that
the manner of change could be determined only by scientific study; hence, the label
scientific management emerged.
The social context and workers’ needs are not being taken into account with scientific
management.
,Bureaucratic organizations
Another subfield of the classical perspective is the bureaucratic organizations approach,
which emphasizes management on an impersonal, rational basis through elements such as
clearly defined authority and responsibility, formal recordkeeping, and separation of
management and ownership.
M. Weber introduced most of the concepts about bureaucratic organizations.
Six characteristics of Weberian bureaucracy:
1. Division of labor, with clear definitions of authority and responsibility;
2. Positions organized in a hierarchy of authority;
3. Managers subject to rules and procedures that will ensure reliable, predictable
behaviour;
4. Management separate from the ownership of the organization;
5. Administrative acts and decisions recorded in writing;
6. Personnel selected and promoted based on technical qualifications.
Humanistic perspective
The humanistic perspective emphasized understanding human behaviour, needs and
attitudes in the workplace.
There are three primary subfields based on the humanistic perspective:
1. The human relations movement
2. The human resources perspective
3. The behavioural sciences approach
Human relations management
The human relations movement stresses the satisfaction of employees’ basic needs as the
key to increased productivity.
The Hawthorne studies were important in shaping ideas concerning how managers should
treat workers.
Recent historical trends
The post-World War 2 period saw the rise of new concepts, along with a continued strong
interest in the human aspect of managing, such as team and group dynamics and other ideas
that relate to humanistic perspective. Three new concepts that appeared were:
1. System thinking
2. The contingency view
3. Total quality management
, System thinking
A System is a set of interrelated parts that function as a whole to achieve a common
purpose. An organization is a system.
Systems thinking means looking not just at discrete parts of an organizational situation, but
also at the continually changing interactions among the parts.
Subsystems are parts of a system that depend on one another for their functioning.
The concept of synergy says that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The
organization must be managed as a whole.
When managers think systematically and understand subsystem interdependence and
synergy, they can get a better handle on managing in a complex environment.
Total quality management
Total quality management (TQM) focuses on managing the total organization to deliver
quality to customers.
W. Edwards Deming is known as the ‘father of the quality movement’.
Four significant elements of TQM are:
1. Employee involvement
2. Focus on the customer
3. Benchmarking
4. Continuous improvement
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