What Is Management? Definition, Concept, Features, Functions, Levels, & Significance 

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Management is an art – requiring skills, vision, and communication – essential in every organization. Despite its significance, this universal phenomenon is often overlooked and has become one of the leading causes of business failure.

What is management, and what does it really entail?

Management is the process of achieving company objectives through effective planning, organizing, staffing, influencing, and controlling human and other resources. Managers ensure projects are completed on time, high-quality performance, motivated employees, and that company policies are followed.

A sinking company can be avoided by implementing effective management practices. It creates an environment where people can perform and cooperate to attain pre-determined goals. We’ll be discussing management as a whole, including its features, functions, levels, and significance to help managers and leaders avoid business failure.

What Is Management?

Management is a universal concept used in all businesses and organizations. The term can refer to managers of a company or the function of managing.

Management is a series of vital skill sets rather than one specific role. It includes working with and through others by leading, staffing, planning, organizing, and coordinating a company and its employees.

You’ll find skilled managers making important decisions daily at the heart of all successful and robust businesses. They ensure that projects are completed, that work is of the best possible quality, that team members are motivated and engaged, and that company policies and procedures are followed.

Managers must effectively communicate with co-workers, efficiently allocate resources, and establish strategies to reach objectives. In other words, management is responsible for harmonizing the 5Ms – manpower, money, materials, machines, and methods – towards achieving desired goals.

Management Definition

Management is the process of achieving goals and objectives through effective planning, organizing, staffing, influencing, and controlling human and other resources. It is the art of creating a healthy work environment for individuals to perform and cooperate towards attaining pre-determined organizational goals.

Some popular definitions of management by business leaders include:

• F.W. Taylor – “Management is an art of knowing what to do, when to do it, and see that it is done in the best and cheapest way.”
• Koontz O Donnel – “Management is the art of getting things done through and with people in formally organized groups.”
• John D. Rockefeller – “Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.”
• George R. Terry & Stephen G. Franklin – “Management is a distinct process consisting of activities of planning, organizing, actuating, and controlling performed to determine and accomplish stated objectives with the use of human beings and other resources.”
• Harold Koontz & Heinz Weihrich – “Management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together, in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims.”

Concept Of Management

The concept of management has evolved drastically since its initial roots. While the imagery of our mid-1800s industrial revolution past still casts a shadow over the way we view management today, you’ll notice that successful organizations are thriving because they’ve embraced the latest management revolution.

Managers previously assumed that people inherently resisted work and needed to be prodded and even forced to do a good job. Modern management has gradually shifted away from hierarchies, bureaucracy, and punishment to creating productivity through motivation and engagement.

• Managers are now tapping into the wisdom and expertise of team members at all organizational levels, yielding better decisions and increasing engagement.
• They are switching to agile and nimble roles for quick changes. This gives employees more autonomy and independence.
• Managers are also stepping away from reward and punishment motivation models and relying on how employees are intrinsically motivated, yielding increased productivity and engagement.

While there’s a range of key management skills and practices, they fall into mainly three categories: managing performance, people, and the business.

Features Of Management

“Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them” – Paul Hawken.

Management is a fundamental part of any organization. Here are the primary features or characteristics of management:

1. Management Is Purposeful

Every organization is built for a distinct purpose. Management relies on functions like planning, organizing, staffing, influencing, and controlling to define and accomplish specific company objectives and goals.

2. Management Is Goal-Orientated

Management focuses its attention and efforts on maximizing human and other resources to achieve the organization’s pre-determined goals and objectives.

3. Management Is A Universal Phenomenon

Management is a universal phenomenon. It is an essential function for all organizations, whether it’s profit-driven, non-profit, social, political, cultural, business-orientated, non-business, big, or small.

The management process may differ between organizations, but the basic principles remain the same. It helps direct efforts toward fulfilling a definite purpose.

4. Management Is A Continuous Process

Management is an ongoing, never-ending process. Managers need to continuously participate in all management functions like planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling.

Managers have to manage all the activities in the organization to ensure optimal performance.

5. Management Is Multidisciplinary

Management is a multidisciplinary function that includes three primary activities:

• Managing work
• Managing people
• Managing business or operations

Each management function is interconnected to achieve a pre-determined goal. Management also needs to implement various principles from disciplines like economics, statistics, mathematics, psychology, sociology, etc., into its functions.

6. Management Is A Group Activity

Various team members carry out organizational roles and functions. Management is less concerned with individual efforts and more focused on team or group efforts to accomplish pre-determined goals.

7. Management Is A Social Activity

Management is a social activity concerned with people. It fulfills its objectives by managing people, working with them, and working for people. Management practices should also consider the needs and well-being of employees while achieving organizational goals.

8. Management Is Dynamic

Management is dynamic and continuously changing due to societal and economic changes. Practices that work today may not be effective tomorrow on in the future. Therefore, managers need to be dynamic and flexible to adapt to the ever-changing environment and customers’ needs.

9. Management Is Indispensable

Management cannot be replaced or substituted. Even technological advances can only aid, not replace, management.

Technology helps decision-making by widening a manager’s vision and sharpening their insight. However, it cannot operate by itself, interpret, or pass judgment.

10. Management Is Intangible

Management is like an unseen force – its presence is evidently seen through its results like adequate surplus, orderliness, coordination, motivated and disciplined employees, high productivity, etc. Conversely, its force can also be experienced by direct opposite mismanagement or the absence of management.

11. Management Is Science & Art

Management is a hybrid of science and art. Science is a systematic body of knowledge, principles, rules, and truths relevant to a collection of coordinated activities. Similarly, art is the skill and ability required to apply scientific principles.

12. Management As A Profession

Management is a profession tailored to various specialized areas in the workplace, like business management, financial management, marketing management, personnel management, and more.

Functions Of Management

A manager’s primary function is solving problems creatively. Management principles are categorized into four integrated functions known as the P-O-L-C framework: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

Managers must apply the framework as a whole when performing day-to-day organizational tasks.

Planning

Planning is the first function of management. It involves setting goals and objectives and outlining a course of action regarding when and how to achieve these objectives.

The planning process requires managers to be good decision-makers. They need to be aware of current environmental and economic conditions, competitors, and customers. Managers should also forecast possible future conditions that can impact their organization. Planners need to identify alternative routes to achieve business objectives.

Types of planning include:

• Strategic planning
• Tactical planning
• Operational planning
• Contingency-level planning

Organizing

Organizing involves developing a business structure and allocating the necessary human and other resources to accomplish the objectives in time.

Organizing involves a framework structuring a chain of command. The framework consists in structuring or departmentalizing jobs into departments for improved coordination. This includes the nature, duties, and responsibilities of individual positions.

Leading

Leading in management involves the influences (social and informal sources) that managers use to motivate and inspire action within the team. Successfully influencing employees creates an enthusiastic atmosphere, boosts morale, and improves productivity.

Managers can use behavioral, personality, and motivational theories to find tactics to effectively lead their subordinates. Understanding employees’ personalities, values, beliefs, attitudes, and emotions provide helpful information on how managers can inspire, energize, and motivate others using communication, persuasion, and influence skills.

Controlling

Controlling involves conducting assessments and measuring performance to ensure that it meets the company’s standards. Performance standards can include profits, costs, revenue, quality of customer service, units produced, number of defective products, etc.

Controlling includes three steps:

1. Establishing performance standards
2. Comparing the actual performance against set standards
3. Taking corrective action if necessary

An organization’s performance can be measured in several ways, including financial statements, production results, sales reports, client satisfaction, and formal performance appraisals.

Levels Of Management

Management levels, also known as management hierarchies, are the lines of division between degrees of authority and responsibility in managerial positions.

The various management levels determine the chain of command, duties, authority, decision-making, and influence of all managerial positions within the organization. Each class focuses on different aspects of an organization’s success, growth, and employee satisfaction.

Levels of management are classified into three broad principal categories:

1. Top-level Management (Administrative)
2. Mid-level Management (Executory)
3. First-line Management (Supervisory or Operative)

Top-Level Management

Administrative or top-level managers are the ultimate authoritative source of a company. They include the organization’s directors, chief executive, and managing director. These managers are responsible for the overall direction of the company.

Top-level managers are mainly responsible for strategic planning and coordination in a business. They oversee the objectives, policies, and procedures; and endure the company is achieving its long-term goals and consistently expanding.

Mid-Level Management

Executory or mid-level managers are directly accountable to top-level management for the functioning and performance of their departments. Mid-level managers devote significant amounts of time to organizational and directional functions. They are the link between top and first-line management.

Executory managers include branch managers, sales managers, operations managers, marketing managers, purchase managers, and more. They are responsible for coordinating activities and evaluating performance within department divisions.

First-Line Management

Supervisory or first-line managers need to report to mid-level managers and assist with a company’s small divisions, like branch sections or a group of employees. They are responsible for interpreting instructions from mid-level managers to help them direct their teams and contribute to the organization’s expansion.

Operative managers interact directly with employees to assign tasks and ensure they perform them successfully.

Significance Of Management

Effective and efficient management is one thing that every successful organization has in common – it is the foundation of success. Here’s why management is significant in any business:

• Achieves goals: Management helps achieve goals by defining objectives and directing group efforts toward achieving pre-determined goals.
• Optimal utilization of resources: Management aims to maximize the utilization of all physical and human resources.
• Reduced costs: Management ensure the best utilization of resources. This prevents resource, time, and effort wastage. Proper planning and management ensure maximum results with minimum input.
• Increases efficiency: Effective management ensures that there’s no overlapping of tasks and efforts.
• Establishes Equilibrium: Management enables an organization to survive and adapt in a dynamic environment. It keeps in touch with the changing economic, social, and political environment.
• Vital for the prosperity or welfare of society: Effective management improves economic production by reducing task difficulty and preventing resource wastage of rare and costly resources. It also helps provide high-quality products and services that increase the welfare and standard of living of people.

Basic Operations Of A Manager

The basic operation of a manager includes:

• Planning: Setting goals and objectives to accomplish and maintain success. Managers should convey the goals to employees in a compelling manner.
• Organizing: Managers evaluate the work-load required to accomplish company goals. Then, they divide and delegate the work into achievable tasks among staff and departments.
• Leading & Motivating: Effective managers form and lead successful teams. They must know how to motivate each employee despite different personalities.
• Control & Devising Measurement Systems: Managers should set and monitor targets for employees to measure if they’re on track. Measurement is critical to maintaining or improving business standards.
• Developing Team Members: Managers need to invest in staff development to help them advance in their careers.

Tips For Being A Good Manager

Good management is rooted in effective planning, communication, collaboration, and growth. Managers can apply these top tips to improve their skills.

1. Maintain clear and consistent communication
2. Establish clear and realistic goals – use the SMART method
3. Delegate responsibilities and tasks properly
4. Communicate expectations clearly
5. Prioritize a collaborative environment
6. Balance team goals and individual performance
7. Get to know employees’ strengths, weaknesses, and personal goals
8. Be empathetic and transparent
9. Seek feedback from employees and provide them with constructive criticism 
10. Encourage employee development and provide the necessary support
11. Motivate, encourage, and inspire employees by helping them feel valuable in the workplace
12. Have a growth-orientated mindset to foster creative problem-solving, innovation, and positive employee relationships
13. Be consistent yet flexible
14. Maintain a result-orientated approach
15. Use technology

“Management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could” – Steve Jobs.

FAQs 

What Is Management In The Business?

Business management is the coordination and administration of business-related tasks, activities, and resources to achieve a set goal or objective.

What Are The Main Management Styles?

The three primary types of management styles include autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire management styles.

Wrap Up

Effective management is applying skills and practices correctly and at the right time to help the organization reach its highest potential. The good news is that management skills can be learned and improved.

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