Management- A Four Course Meal

What do you do when you plan out a two week vacation in Europe? You manage!

What do you do when you organise a seminar for Amwaya? You manage!

What does a mother do when she cooks as well as help you with your project? She manages!

Who’s a teacher? A manager! Who’s a lawyer? A manager! Who’s a doctor? A manager! Who’s an architect? A manager!

Management is the widest of the widest aspect. It is the second most important process in our daily lives, after breathing. In layman terms, management means performing an activity. Setting up of a goal, and performing the tasks required to achieve that goal.

Consider the following situation. When a rational person goes out for shopping, he has certain pre- decided aspects set in his mind. His primary aim is to buy what he requires at a reasonable price. A number of factors that affect his activity are- What should he buy? Where should he buy from? Is the place approachable? Will he return on time? What is his budget? Only after considering the before mentioned questions, can he find an appropriate answer to his query.

The traditional concept, as given by Mary Parker Follett describes Management as “an art of getting things done through others”. This is considered a debateable concept which does not fit into present- day environment, where employees are well- educated and have higher levels of aspirations.

On the brighter side, F.W. Taylor gives a modern concept of Management, as “management is the co-ordination of all resources through the process of planning, organising, directing and controlling in order to attain stated objectives”.

The process of management is pervasive, dynamic, multi- dimensional and continuous. It begins from a stage as early as that of PLANNING. Management begins the moment a manager starts devising a new strategy to perform a task. Planning is the thinking process, the organised foresight, the vision based on facts and experience that is required for intelligent action. It is a path that will take you from your present position to a desirable futuristic position.

What follows next is the broadest sense of ORGANISING, which refers to a relationship between various factors present in giving endeavour or enterprise. Organising, as the name suggests, requires a manager to gather all the physical, financial and human resources in order to go by the plans and achieve the set targets.

The truest form of test that the manager has to face is that of wisely DIRECTING its employees. Concerned with instructing, guiding, inspiring and motivating the employees, directing initiates actions that has to be carried out to attain the organisational objectives. It is a manager’s duty to act as a linking pin and connect all its employees in one direction. Inspite of containing all the authorities, the manager should bestow upon his employees a sense of responsibility. The role of integrating the organisational goal and personal goals of an employee is a major challenge for the manager.

Digression is a natural tendency, which is highly possible in case of management too. CONTROLLING, known to be a comparison between actual performance and standard performance, needs to be done by a manager to ensure an effective and efficient success of target. Any deviation or deficiencies should be looked after and given a suitable solution to. This stage acts as a bridge between the actual output with standard output given by employees.

In order to attain the desired and planned position, the contents of management need to be served hot right on the plate!

The competence and coherence of a manager lies in the following lines:

‘A Boss says “go”, but a Manager says “let’s go”.’

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