Introduction To Management

INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT

Yousef Hani

DEFINITION OF MANAGEMENT

The organization and coordination of the activities of a business in order to accomplish & achieve defined objectives.

Some professors emphasis on performance, quality, and service. On the other hand other professors emphasize on mentorship, a love for managing and working with people; managers are excellent communicators and value shapers.

If you learn only two things as you journey through the subject of management and managing, learn that effective managers intend to make their employees productive, and they also have the ability to inspire people.

IMPORTANCE OF MANAGEMENT

Learning about management is important for two reasons.

First, our society depends on specialized institutions and organizations to provide the goods and services we desire. These organizations are guided and directed by the decisions of one or more individuals designed as “managers.”

In capitalistic societies, it is managers who allocate society’s resources to various and often competing ends. Managers have the authority and responsibility to build safe or unsafe products. Seek war or peace build or destroy cities, or clean up or pollute the environment.

Managers establish the conditions under which we are provided jobs, incomes, lifestyles, products, services, protection, health care, and knowledge.

It would be very difficult to find anyone who is neither a manager nor affected by the decisions of a manager.

IMPORTANCE OF MANAGEMENT

Second, individuals not trained as managers often find

themselves in managerial positions. Many individuals presently being trained to be teachers, accountants, musicians, salespersons, artists, physicians, or lawyers will one day earn their livings as managers. They will manage schools, accounting firms, orchestras, sales organizations, museums, hospitals, and government agencies.

The future success of any industrialized nation in the global village lies in managing productivity, being able to cope with environmental changes, and properly managing the workforce.

These challenges will require well-educated, knowledgeable and hard-working individuals deciding that management career is of value to them personally.

TYPES OF MANAGEMENT Management is like the ocean it’s so big

and so deep, there are too many types of management and here are some of them:

Financial Management

Material Management

Human Resources Management

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT It’s considered to be the art and science of

managing money, it is concerned with the duties of the financial manager in the business firm and how can he be able to look beyond financial statements to obtain insight into existing or developing problems and to make the right decision when needed.

Financial managers actively manage the financial affairs of any type of business (financial or not financial, private or public, large and small, profit-seeking and not profit-seeking).

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

They perform such varied financial tasks as planning, extending credit to customers, evaluating proposed large expenditures, and raising money to fund the firm’s operations. In recent years, the changing economic and regulatory environments have increased the importance and complexity of the financial manager’s duties. As a result, many top executives have come from the finance area.

MATERIAL MANAGEMENTo It’s considered to be the art and science

of buying raw materials for organizations, in other words; planning, organizing and controlling all activities concerned with the flow of materials in to the organization.

Material management involves four steps:

Learning of needs.Locating and selecting suppliers.Negotiation on price.Follow up to ensure delivery.

MATERIAL MANAGEMENT

The most challenging aspects of material management (purchasing function) to its practitioners are the variety of decisions involved like:

Should we make or buy?Who should we buy from?Should we inventory materials or not?How much to inventory?How do we protect our self from the

future?

MATERIAL MANAGEMENT

The objectives of the purchasing and supply (Material) management are that it should obtain:

The right materials (right quality). The right quantity. Delivery at the right time. Delivery at the right place. From the right source (a supplier who is reliable and will

meet his commitments as required from him). With the right service (and right service mentioned here

means, before and after the sale). At the right price.

And these seven objectives of the purchasing and supply (Material) management are widely known as the seven rights (7 rights).

MATERIAL MANAGEMENT And when we talk about purchasing and supply (Material)

management, then we must mention the steps in the purchasing system of any organization (Profit or nonprofit).

Recognition of need: This means that purchasing department must recognize the requirements of its internal customers, and also to predict the needs of various departments.

Description of the need: This means an accurate statement of the characteristics and amount of the commodity or service desired.

Determination and analysis of possible source of supply: This means locating a supplier who can meet the organization’s requirements with respect to (quality, quantity, and all the rest of the seven rights.

  Determine price and other terms: this step requires negotiations

with the predetermined supply sources.

MATERIAL MANAGEMENT Preparation and placement of the purchase order: A

purchase order is a buying contract that contains all the details such as the price, quality, who pays the cost of packaging, transportation and insurance.

Follow up and expedite the order: Follow up means tracking the order to guarantee delivery of the right material in the right time and quantity, and expediting means practicing pressure on the supplier to meet the original delivery promise or to speed up delivery.

Receipts and inspection of goods: It’s a process of comparing the items arrived with their copy of purchase

order and list of specifications.

MATERIAL MANAGEMENT

Clear the invoice and pay to the supplier: In this process the accounting department / finance office compares details of the invoice with details of the purchase order receipt, if they match, the money is paid, if not the money is withheld until the problem is resolved.

  Record keeping: In this process purchasing keep records

of all forms and information that might be needed in the future.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (HRM)

It may be defined as programs, policies and practices for managing an organization’s workforce or human resources.

And one of the most important aspects of human resource management (HRM) is, it’s activities which can be divided into the following categories:

HRM CATEGORIES

Planning: if there’s one aspect in today’s business world that you can count on, it is constant change and I’ll quote another professor by saying “The only certainty is uncertainty” which means that the human resource management (HRM) planning with regard to the types of employees needed and their job requirements is therefore critical, but HRM planning is not just something that organizations need to do, all employees need to plan for their future to ensure that they have the necessary abilities and experiences to succeed as their job and career changes. In today’s world, no employee can sit by passively; he must do his own HRM planning.

HRM CATEGORIES Staffing: it refers to recruiting, hiring, promotions, and

the termination process. All organizations (big or small) must pay close attention to staffing decisions because one poorly qualified employee will have a negative impact on the organization specially the small ones. There are a variety of recruiting sources to generate job applicants and selection methods to choose the most qualified candidate, and it’s very delicate process due to its legal ramifications.

Evaluating and compensating: organizations evaluate their employees for several different reasons, including determining pay raises, giving feedback, and assessing training programs. Organizations compensate employees through wages and salaries, bonuses, and benefits such as health insurance, vacation time, and pension programs, and these activities are obviously important for achieving HRM goals.

HRM CATEGORIES Improving the organization: in today’s world,

organizations are constantly on the look out for new ways

to improve the organization, including employee training,

implementing work redesign programs, and enhancing

safety and health in the work place. Organizations must

constantly improve themselves for several reasons.

o First, technology is always changing, which in turn requires

that employees receive training for these new procedures and

equipment.

o Second, new ideas regarding organizational productivity are

constantly emerging.

o Third, competition from other organizations forces companies

to improve continually. Finally, failure to maintain a safe and

healthy workplace may lead to legal sanctions, negative

publicity, increased accidents, and employee time off from

work.

HRM CATEGORIES Maintaining effective employer- employee

relationships: it’s considered to be very important to

companies for two reasons.

o First, employees who are dissatisfied are more likely to

quite. If they are not unionized, dissatisfied employees

may seek out a union to represent them, a move that

most organizations will oppose. If they are already

unionized, the employees may file many grievances and

in some cases even go on strike. In short, poor employer-

employee relationships can create many problems for

the organization.

o Second, there are dozens of laws pertaining to the

employer-employee relationship.

THE ROLE OF A MANAGER A manager is the one who can direct people and

make them more productive, he’s also the one who’s able to make the right decisions at the right time, and also can make plans for the future.

The good manager must understand the reality of the human behavior, and the success of the manager is by the way he treats his people, and by the way he motivates them to give their best.

Managers must accomplish much of their work through other people. And because of this, human skill is essential.

CORE SKILLS OF A MANAGER

There are certain core skills are needed for effective managerial performance, regardless of the level of the manager in the hierarchy of the organization;

Conceptual skills: The ability to see the overall organization and to

integrate all parts of the system, and this kind is used mainly in the

top level managers (e.g. president).

Human skills: The ability to work with, communicate with, and

understand other people, and this kind is used mainly in the middle

level managers (e.g. district manager).

Technical skills: The ability to use specific knowledge, techniques,

and resources in performing work, and this kind is used mainly in

the lower level managers (e.g. first-line supervisors).

CHARACTERISTICS OF A SUCCESSFUL MANAGER

Saying that the manager must have leadership abilities means that every manager must be a leader, but it doesn’t mean that every leader is a manager. And here are the characteristics of the successful manager:

He acts as problems solver. He acts as a disturbance handler. He has a strong personality. He prefers to lead than to follow. He must be wise. He is always active. He is always responsible. He is capable of making decisions. He prefers to control than to be controlled. He must have the ability to direct people.

CONCLUSION At the end I’ll say that Management is an art

and a science, and science is about truth, and that’s what’s management is all about, the truth, finding the truth by collecting information and use it wisely to manage any organization of any kind.

And I’ll end by the quote that says:

“Management is like an ocean you can’t go through it unless you know how to swim”.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO

MANAGEMENT.

Yousef Hani