KCA
UNIVERSITY
SUMMARY
BY
STEPHEN ODHIAMBO
REG;18/01494
Contact;
Chapter 1
Introduction to Management and Organizations
The 21st century has brought with it a new workplace, one in which everyone must adapt
to a rapidly hanging society with constantly shifting demands and opportunities. The
economy has become global and is driven by innovations and technology and
organizations have to transform themselves to serve new customer expectations.
Today’s economy presents challenging opportunities as well as dramatic uncertainty.
The new economy has become knowledge based and is performance driven. The
themes in the present context area ‘respect’, participation, empowerment, teamwork and
self management. In the light of the above challenges a new kind of leader is needed to
guide business through turbulence. Managers in organizations do this task.
,A manager is someone who coordinates and oversees the work of other people so that
organizational goals can be accomplished. It is not about personal achievement but
helping others do their job. Managers may also have additional work duties not related
to coordinating the work of others.
Managers can be classified by their level in the organization, particularly in traditionally
structured organizations—those shaped like a pyramid
1) First-line managers (often called supervisors) are located on the lowest level of
management.
2) Middle managers include all levels of management between the first-line level
and the top level of the organization.
3) Top managers include managers at or near the top of the organization who are
responsible for making organization-wide decisions and establishing plans and
goals that affect the entire organization.
The changing nature of organizations and work often requires employees in formerly
nonmanagerial jobs to perform managerial activities. Non managerial jobs are those
where one works directly on a job and had no one reporting to him.
Mary Parker Follet defines management as, “The art of getting things done through
people”
Management involves coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so that
their activities are completed efficiently and effectively.
1) Coordinating and overseeing the work of others is what distinguishes a
managerial position from a nonmanagerial one.
2) Efficiency is getting the most output from the least amount of inputs in order to
minimize resource costs. Efficiency is often referred to as “doing things right”
, Effectiveness is completing activities so that organizational goals are attained
and is often described as “doing the right things”
No two managers’ jobs are exactly alike. All managers perform certain function, enact
certain roles and display a set of skills in their jobs.
Management Functions
According to the functions approach managers perform certain activities to efficiently
and effectively coordinate the work of others. They can be classified as
1) Planning involves defining goals, establishing strategies for achieving those
goals, and developing plans to integrate and coordinate activities.
2) Organizing involves arranging and structuring work to accomplish the
organization’s goals.
3) Leading involves working with and through people to accomplish
organizational goals.
4) Controlling involves monitoring, comparing, and correcting work performance.
Since these four management functions are integrated into the activities of managers
throughout the workday, they should be viewed as an ongoing process and they need
not the done in the above sequence.
Management Roles
In the late 1960s, Henry Mintzberg conducted a precise study of managers at work. He
concluded that managers perform 10 different roles, which are highly interrelated.
, Management roles refer to specific categories of managerial behavior. Overall there are
ten specific roles performed by managers which are included in the following three
categories.
1) Interpersonal roles include figurehead, leadership, and liaison activities.
2) Informational roles include monitoring, disseminating, and spokesperson
activities.
3) Decisional roles include entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator,
and negotiator.
Although the functions approach represents the most useful way to describe the
manager’s job, Mintzberg’s roles give additional insight into managers’ work. Some of
the ten roles do not fall clearly into one of the four functions, since all managers do
some work that is not purely managerial.
Management Skills
Managers need certain skills to perform the challenging duties and activities associated
with being a manager. Robert L. Katz found through his research in the early 1970s that
managers need three essential skills
1) Technical skills are job-specific knowledge and techniques needed to
proficiently perform specific tasks.
2) Human skills are the ability to work well with other people individually and in
a group.
3) Conceptual skills are the ability to think and to conceptualize about abstract and
complex situations.
These skills reflect a broad cross-section of the important managerial activities that are
elements of the four management functions
UNIVERSITY
SUMMARY
BY
STEPHEN ODHIAMBO
REG;18/01494
Contact;
Chapter 1
Introduction to Management and Organizations
The 21st century has brought with it a new workplace, one in which everyone must adapt
to a rapidly hanging society with constantly shifting demands and opportunities. The
economy has become global and is driven by innovations and technology and
organizations have to transform themselves to serve new customer expectations.
Today’s economy presents challenging opportunities as well as dramatic uncertainty.
The new economy has become knowledge based and is performance driven. The
themes in the present context area ‘respect’, participation, empowerment, teamwork and
self management. In the light of the above challenges a new kind of leader is needed to
guide business through turbulence. Managers in organizations do this task.
,A manager is someone who coordinates and oversees the work of other people so that
organizational goals can be accomplished. It is not about personal achievement but
helping others do their job. Managers may also have additional work duties not related
to coordinating the work of others.
Managers can be classified by their level in the organization, particularly in traditionally
structured organizations—those shaped like a pyramid
1) First-line managers (often called supervisors) are located on the lowest level of
management.
2) Middle managers include all levels of management between the first-line level
and the top level of the organization.
3) Top managers include managers at or near the top of the organization who are
responsible for making organization-wide decisions and establishing plans and
goals that affect the entire organization.
The changing nature of organizations and work often requires employees in formerly
nonmanagerial jobs to perform managerial activities. Non managerial jobs are those
where one works directly on a job and had no one reporting to him.
Mary Parker Follet defines management as, “The art of getting things done through
people”
Management involves coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so that
their activities are completed efficiently and effectively.
1) Coordinating and overseeing the work of others is what distinguishes a
managerial position from a nonmanagerial one.
2) Efficiency is getting the most output from the least amount of inputs in order to
minimize resource costs. Efficiency is often referred to as “doing things right”
, Effectiveness is completing activities so that organizational goals are attained
and is often described as “doing the right things”
No two managers’ jobs are exactly alike. All managers perform certain function, enact
certain roles and display a set of skills in their jobs.
Management Functions
According to the functions approach managers perform certain activities to efficiently
and effectively coordinate the work of others. They can be classified as
1) Planning involves defining goals, establishing strategies for achieving those
goals, and developing plans to integrate and coordinate activities.
2) Organizing involves arranging and structuring work to accomplish the
organization’s goals.
3) Leading involves working with and through people to accomplish
organizational goals.
4) Controlling involves monitoring, comparing, and correcting work performance.
Since these four management functions are integrated into the activities of managers
throughout the workday, they should be viewed as an ongoing process and they need
not the done in the above sequence.
Management Roles
In the late 1960s, Henry Mintzberg conducted a precise study of managers at work. He
concluded that managers perform 10 different roles, which are highly interrelated.
, Management roles refer to specific categories of managerial behavior. Overall there are
ten specific roles performed by managers which are included in the following three
categories.
1) Interpersonal roles include figurehead, leadership, and liaison activities.
2) Informational roles include monitoring, disseminating, and spokesperson
activities.
3) Decisional roles include entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator,
and negotiator.
Although the functions approach represents the most useful way to describe the
manager’s job, Mintzberg’s roles give additional insight into managers’ work. Some of
the ten roles do not fall clearly into one of the four functions, since all managers do
some work that is not purely managerial.
Management Skills
Managers need certain skills to perform the challenging duties and activities associated
with being a manager. Robert L. Katz found through his research in the early 1970s that
managers need three essential skills
1) Technical skills are job-specific knowledge and techniques needed to
proficiently perform specific tasks.
2) Human skills are the ability to work well with other people individually and in
a group.
3) Conceptual skills are the ability to think and to conceptualize about abstract and
complex situations.
These skills reflect a broad cross-section of the important managerial activities that are
elements of the four management functions
