Part A: Foundations
Introduction to management
Key takeaways
- Management is the process of planning, organising, staffing, leading and controlling an organisation's resources to achieve its objectives efficiently and effectively; it is both a science and an art.
- Top-level management sets the mission and long-term strategy, middle-level management turns that strategy into departmental plans, and first-line management runs day-to-day tasks with operational staff.
- Mintzberg grouped what managers actually do into ten roles under three categories: interpersonal, informational and decisional.
- In Katz's three-skill model, technical skill matters most at the first-line level, conceptual skill at the top level, and human skill at every level.
- Administration sets policy, management implements it from a formal position, and leadership influences people through personal credibility and trust, so it can arise at any level.
Every organisation, a company, a SACCO, a government ministry, exists to achieve objectives it cannot reach through one person's effort alone. Management is the discipline of making that collective effort work.
Nature of management
Management is the process of planning, organising, staffing, leading and controlling an organisation's resources, people, money, materials, information, to achieve its objectives efficiently and effectively. It is both a science, it rests on principles that can be studied, tested and taught, and an art, applying those principles well in a specific situation is a practised skill, not a formula. It is also a continuous, universal process: every organisation of any size, in every sector, needs it, and it never stops while the organisation operates.
Importance of management
- Achieves organisational goals by directing individual effort toward a shared objective
- Ensures the efficient use of scarce resources, people, capital, time, materials
- Coordinates the activities of different individuals and departments so they work together rather than at cross purposes
- Helps the organisation adapt to a changing environment, new competitors, technology, regulation
- Supports growth and long-term survival by building capacity ahead of need
- Motivates and develops people, since sustained performance depends on the workforce, not just the plan
Levels of management
Multi-disciplinary nature of management
Management draws on several other disciplines rather than standing alone:
- Economics: resource allocation, market behaviour.
- Psychology: individual motivation, perception.
- Sociology: group behaviour, organisational culture.
- Mathematics and statistics: quantitative decision tools, as in the quantitative school of management thought.
- Law: the regulatory and contractual environment a manager must operate within.
A competent manager reads across all of them.
Mintzberg's managerial roles
Mintzberg's observational research found that a manager's actual working day is fragmented and reactive rather than the tidy planning-through-controlling cycle textbooks describe, and grouped what managers actually do into ten roles under three categories.
| Category | Roles |
|---|---|
| Interpersonal | Figurehead (ceremonial duties), Leader (motivating and directing staff), Liaison (building a network of outside contacts) |
| Informational | Monitor (scanning for information), Disseminator (sharing it internally), Spokesperson (sharing it externally) |
| Decisional | Entrepreneur (initiating change), Disturbance handler (resolving conflict/crisis), Resource allocator (deciding who gets what), Negotiator (representing the organisation in negotiations) |
The changing roles of management and managers
The manager's role has shifted from a purely command-and-control figure toward a coach and facilitator who enables self-directed teams. Three forces are driving this:
- Technology: automation and information systems remove much routine supervisory work.
- Flexible and remote working arrangements: which demand management by outcome rather than by direct observation.
- Rising expectations around sustainability and social responsibility: which pull strategic decisions beyond pure profit.
Qualities of an effective manager
- Technical skill: the specialised knowledge needed to do the work being supervised, most important at the first-line level
- Human (interpersonal) skill: the ability to work with and through people, important at every level
- Conceptual skill: the ability to see the organisation as a whole and how its parts relate, most important at the top level (Katz's three-skill model)
- Clear communication, both listening and instructing
- Decisiveness under incomplete information
- Integrity and ethical judgement
- Emotional intelligence: self-awareness and the ability to read and manage the emotions of others
- Adaptability to changing circumstances
Management, administration and leadership
| Management | Administration | Leadership | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | Implementing policy through planning, organising, staffing, leading and controlling | Setting policy and overall objectives that management then implements | Influencing and inspiring people toward a shared vision |
| Level typically associated | Middle and lower levels | Top level (boards, senior public officials) | Can arise at any level, and does not require formal authority |
| Source of power | Formal position in the organisation | Formal position, often constitutional or statutory in the public sector | Personal influence, credibility and trust, in addition to or instead of position |
Exam tip
Mintzberg's ten roles under three categories (interpersonal, informational, decisional) and the management, administration and leadership distinction are both frequently tested by name, know which role or term sits under which heading rather than only the general idea.
Self-check
(a) A branch manager spends the morning representing the branch at a chamber of commerce breakfast, the afternoon reviewing customer complaint data, and the evening resolving a dispute between two staff members over shift allocation. Identify the Mintzberg role each activity represents. (6 marks)
(b) Distinguish management from leadership in terms of source of power. (2 marks)
(c) State which of Katz's three managerial skills matters most at the top level of an organisation, and explain why. (2 marks)
Show worked answer
(a) The chamber of commerce breakfast is the Liaison role (building a network of outside contacts); reviewing complaint data is the Monitor role (scanning for information); resolving the staff dispute is the Disturbance handler role (resolving conflict/crisis) (6 marks).
(b) Management's power comes from formal position in the organisation; leadership's power comes from personal influence, credibility and trust, and can exist without formal position at all (2 marks).
(c) Conceptual skill, the ability to see the organisation as a whole and how its parts relate; a top-level manager sets overall direction and must understand how decisions in one part of the organisation ripple through the rest, a perspective technical skill alone does not provide (2 marks).