12 important characteristics of management:

1. Management as a continuous process:

Management can be considered as a process because it consists of planning, organizing, activating and
controlling the resources (personnel and capital) of an organization. So they are used to the best advantage in
achieving the objectives of the organization.
None of the managerial functions would produce the ultimate results in the absence of all other basic functions.
Hence we can say that management is a continuous process.
2. Management as a discipline:
Since the boundaries of management are not exact as that of any other physical sciences, it may not fit in very
well for being addressed as discipline. However its status as a discipline increases because it continuously
discovers many aspects of business enterprises and also passes on the verified knowledge to the practitioners of
the managerial process.
3. Management as a career:
As a career or occupation, management is a broad concept- Management itself can be regarded as a career, but
it also presents a variety of interesting and challenging careers focused on specialized occupations in the fields
such as marketing, finance and personnel.
4. Management as an Applied Science:
Even though management is a science so far as it possesses a systematized body of knowledge and uses
scientific methods of research, it is not an exact science, like natural sciences which deal with living phenomena
such as botany and medicine.
Hence, management is definitely a social science like economics or psychology and has the same institutions
which these and other social sciences have.
5. Universal Application:
Management is a universal activity, applied to any form of activity, economic or otherwise.
6. Goal Oriented:
Management has the task of attaining certain objectives. The success or failure of the management depends on
how far it is able to attain the desired goals. It is judged by the extent to which it achieves its targets.
7. Guidance:
The main task of the management is guidance in the utilization of material and human resources in the best
possible way. Through optimum utilization of resources it has to ensure that the objectives are attained. The
essential element of management is that it gets the work done by coordinating the performance of those who
actually perform diverse and specific jobs.
8. Divorced from proprietorship:
Management does not signify proprietorship. In earlier days, management and enterprise were lumped into the
same factor. It now refers to a specialized group of people who have acquired the ability to carry out a project.
9. An activating factor:
Management is the factor which activates other factors of production. A manager's skill lies in motivating his
workers through guidance, training, incentives, rewards, status, security, control, etc. So a mangers' ability lies
in the fact that he is able to motivate others to apply their skill to the best advantage of the enterprise in the
accomplishment of its objectives.
10. Management is a human activity:
Management functions are discharged only by individuals. No corporate body or an artificial being can perform
the work of a management. Although it is an activity which may be performed by an individual it cannot be
seen. It can only be felt.
11. Management signifies authority:
Since the essence of management is to direct, guide and control, it has to have authority. Authority is the power
to compel others to work and behave in a particular manner. Management cannot discharge its function without
authority. It is the foundation of management. Since management has authority it stands at a higher pedestal.
12. Leadership:
The management has to lead a team of workers. It must be capable of inspiring, motivating and winning their
confidence.
Characteristics of Management:
It is almost impossible to understand the concept of management in few words. The best way is to understand the
concept, nature and scope of management is through describing its characteristics.
1. Management is a process Continuous, Social, and Unique:
Management is a continuous process because an organization goes on perpetually and it needs solutions to problems
on a continuing basis. A process has a beginning and an end, and management begins with planning and ends with
control and restarts with planning. It is a social process because it is managing by people (employees and managers)
for the people (customers) and of the people (investors and society at large).
It is a unique process because it deals with group activities; it is integrative in nature as it meshes different resources
in a coordinated manner; and intangible in appearance (since presence of management is felt through performance
only).
3. Management influences and is influenced by environment:
Management does not work in vacuum. It has to face the internal (controllable) and external (non-controllable)
environment. Internal environment consists of employees, processes and systems. External environment comprises
STEEPLE (Social, technological, economic, ecological, political, legal and ethical environments).
Internal environment indicates strengths and weaknesses and external environment indicates opportunities and
threats. Management tries to convert threats into opportunities and weaknesses into strengths; but at times changes
itself according to environment.
4. Managements core is to take decisions:
When Peter F. Drucker said that whatever a manager does he does through decision making, he was very clear of
managements core that it was decision making.
Since management is interdisciplinary (management has heavily borrowed concepts from economics, psychology,
sociology, anthropology, law, mathematics, statistics, et al), it makes use of multiple and inter-disciplinary
knowledge to take decisions and makes use of authority to get those decisions enforceable.
5. Management is goal-oriented:
The process of management is a purposive activity and starts and ends with the goals. All organizations, both for-
profit and not-for-profit, are directed towards goals. It is the responsibility of management to attain those goals.
Without goals an organisation would be like a ship without rudders. Management always begins with goals, and
remains conscious of their attainment. If there are any gaps in performance and goals, management tries to bring the
two in tune with each other. Management is concerned with both efficiency and effectiveness.
6. Managers bring life to organisation:
Good managers can propel an organisation into unprecedented realms of success, whereas poor managers can
devastate even the strongest enterprises. It is the management which can bring life through their dynamism to
management process in this turbulent business environment. When the things go right the credit goes to management
and when it is the other way round the first casualty is the management.
7. Management is multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted activity:
It is multi- disciplinary because it is a young discipline and has borrowed most of the concepts from other disciplines
like economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, mathematics, law, politics, et al.
However, it has started empirical research to develop at its own. It is multi-faceted because managers have to play
different kinds of roles, many of them at the same time.
Management and Administration:
In organisations, one often comes to know of use of the two terms. Which one refers to policy making and which
one refers to implementation is the bone of contention. In this regard, we have three opinions which are context
bound:
(i) Management is policy making or decision making, and administration refers to implementation. In the Indian
context, it is true. A Managing Committee of a college/school decides policy matters and the implementation job are
left to the Principal and his team. Similarly, the ministers take decisions and the persons belonging to IAS have to
implement the ministers decisions.
(ii) In the USA, the view is that administration means decision taking and management is to implement it. The
presidential form of government is known as administration, like Obama administration. The recent decision to kill
Osama Bin Laden was taken by Obama administration and executed by SEAL, the management.
(iii) It has been observed that many writers make difference for the sake of academic exercise, but later on use them
as interchangeable. Since the word management is more popular, a middle ground is to divide the total job of
deciding and execution into Administrative Management (deciding policies) and Operative Management
(executing the decisions) (see Figure 6.1). It is right to say that all the three management levels have to do both the
jobs.

Functions of Management:
Management functions represent the activities that managers should perform to achieve organisational goals. In
simple words, management functions are prescriptive in nature.
The various functions of management constitute a unified body and are commonly referred to as a process of
management. Process of management is circular in nature, as functions are interrelated and performed one after the
other.
Basically, management comprises five functions, viz., Planning, Organising, Staffing, Directing, and Controlling.
But, one must note that all the functions do not take place in a sequence, or preset timetable.
At a time one or more functions may be undertaken. But, each function leads to others. Each function may not be
equally important to all the firms as their nature of business may be different. Many scholars feel that coordination
should be the first function of management.
But we are of the opinion that if each function is performed in balance and in right time, coordination will
automatically be achieved. Thus, to us, coordination is not a separate function but essence of management.
1. Planning:
It refers to deciding goals and activities today to achieve them tomorrow. It is the first function of management,
because all other functions depend on planning. Planning involves determining Vision (what the organisation wants
to be in future), Mission (a statement of values, principles, activities and Stakeholders), Objectives (qualitative and
long-term), Goals (quantitative and short-term), Strategies (Growth/ Stability/ Retrenchment at the corporate level
and cost leadership/differentiation or focus at the strategic business units level), Tactics (a smaller-scale plan
developed to implement a strategy), Operational plans like policies, programmes, procedures, budgets, etc.
For planning to be effective, it also requires analysing environment, forecasting, decision making and formulation of
plans.
2. Organizing:
It involves identifying (what tasks are to be done) and grouping of activities (how the tasks are to be grouped),
dividing grouped activities into small jobs and tasks (who is to do them), determining authority-responsibility
relationship (who reports to whom, determining degree of centralisation (where decisions are to be made) and
creating organisational structure to accomplish organisational attainments efficiently (doing this rightly with
minimum of cost) and effectively (doing the right thing). Organising also involves deciding about delegation of
authority, span of management, centralisation and decentralisation of authority
3. Staffing:
To man the organisation and to bring it into action, the staffing function undertakes manpower planning,
recruitment, selection, training, promotion, demotion, transfer, wage and salary administration and industrial
relations. However, now a day as there is a separate division of human resources, many scholars do not include
staffing in the list of functions of management.
4. Directing:
Like a film director, a manager too has to direct the efforts of his subordinates. Directing includes the functions of
leadership to influence the subordinates to work towards a common goal; motivation to voluntarily bring out the
best out of subordinates in the best interests of an organisation; communication by way of issuing orders and
instructions, guiding, counselling and telling subordinates the right way to work and opening up of interactions and
feedbacks; and supervising the work on a regular basis.
5. Controlling:
It continuously involves setting the standards with which to measure the actual performance, measurement of
ongoing performance, matching it with the standards, finding variations (causes of variations), and taking corrective
action, if any. Control function is circular in nature, because these must be repeated until goals are achieved.
Skills required for Successful Manager:
To be a successful manager, different skills are required:
(i) Technical Skills:
(Specialised Knowledge, more important with first-line managers, as to how the work is done and how to solve
operational problems)
(ii) Socio-political Skills:
Interpersonal and communication (The ability to effectively communicate with, understand and motivate people
both individually and group-wise; skills to delegate. Political skills to build a power base and network right
connections)
(iii) Conceptual Skills:
(Mental capacity and capability to understand overall situation, to grasp the inter-connectivity of different aspects
and see a holistic picture)
(iv) Decision-Making Skills:
(The ability to properly diagnose the problem, define the problem and opportunities and selection of most
appropriate solution to problems/situation and capitalise on opportunities)
(v) Time-management Skills:
(Most important resource ability to prioritise the work, to work with efficiency and to delegate to increase hands).
Levels of Management:
Every organisation worth the name has three levels of management. We can call an organisation as three-storeyed
(see Figure 6.5).
These storeys or levels are as under:
(i) Top Management:
Top management comprises those managers who guide and control the destiny of the organisation. It is these
managers who determine ision, mission, and strategies; decide of mergers and acquisitions. Their jobs are complex
and varied. They have to work for long and odd hours.
They also represent the organisation to outside world through meetings, briefings, and telephonic connectivity.
Normally, the Directors on the Board, the President, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Vice President, Chief
Operating Officer, Chief Finance Officer, and Chief Strategic Officer constitute top management. The-number of
top managers is smaller compared with other managers.
(ii) Middle Management:
Managers at this level are responsible for implementing the strategies and major policies developed by top
management; developing tactical and operational plans; and supervising over lower-level managers. Normally, this
management level undertakes inventory handling, quality control, and minor union issues.
The heads of divisions/departments/ agency/project, plant manager and operations manager constitute middle
management. These people are the bridges between the top and first-line managements.

(iii) Lower Level or First-line Management:
Assistant Manager, Office manager, Supervisor, and foreman constitute lower level of management. Most of the top
and middle managers start their career at first-line management only. Managers at this level spend most of their time
working with and motivating subordinate employees, answering questions, and solving day-to-day problems.
Management Specialisation:
As organisation grows, it adds new areas to its existing management. With the pace of time many specialized areas
have been added to management.
1. Financial Management:
Financial management and financial managers are basically concerned with the financial resources. Important
decisions are taken with regard to financial planning, investments, and dividends. Since finance is the life-blood of
organizations, many CEOs and top managers come from finance departments.
2. Marketing Management:
Marketing management is concerned with customers and hence involves market and marketing research,
product/service management, market communications, sales, and logistics and distribution. Since marketing plays an
important role as a profit centre, many people reach top positions.
3. Operations Management:
Operations management is basically responsible for converting resources into goods/services. In different companies
the nature of operations may be different. A typical manufacturing company involves production planning and
control, plant layout, site selection, et al.
4. Human Resource Management:
Human Resource Management is responsible to get right people, at right time, in right number, to orient them
towards their duty through training, retain them and evaluate performance.
5. Administrative Management:
A general manager is part of administrative management. He belongs to none of the functional areas. He knows a
little about every function-jack of all and master of none. He basically coordinates the activities of specialists.
6. Others:
Organisations do have other management positions, not part of the above functional area. Such areas include public
relations, innovation management (R&D), etc.





MBO
An effective management goes a long way in extracting the best out of employees and make them work as a single
unit towards a common goal.
The term Management by Objectives was coined by Peter Drucker in 1954.
What is Management by Objective ?
The process of setting objectives in the organization to give a sense of direction to the employees is called as
Management by Objectives.
It refers to the process of setting goals for the employees so that they know what they are supposed to do at the
workplace.
Management by Objectives defines roles and responsibilities for the employees and help them chalk out their future
course of action in the organization.
Management by objectives guides the employees to deliver their level best and achieve the targets within the
stipulated time frame.
Need for Management by Objectives (MBO)
The Management by Objectives process helps the employees to understand their duties at the workplace.
KRAs are designed for each employee as per their interest, specialization and educational qualification.
The employees are clear as to what is expected out of them.
Management by Objectives process leads to satisfied employees. It avoids job mismatch and unnecessary
confusions later on.
Employees in their own way contribute to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization.
Every employee has his own role at the workplace. Each one feels indispensable for the organization and
eventually develops a feeling of loyalty towards the organization. They tend to stick to the organization for
a longer span of time and contribute effectively. They enjoy at the workplace and do not treat work as a
burden.
Management by Objectives ensures effective communication amongst the employees. It leads to a positive
ambience at the workplace.
Management by Objectives leads to well defined hierarchies at the workplace. It ensures transparency at all
levels. A supervisor of any organization would never directly interact with the Managing Director in case
of queries. He would first meet his reporting boss who would then pass on the message to his senior and so
on. Every one is clear about his position in the organization.
The MBO Process leads to highly motivated and committed employees.
The MBO Process sets a benchmark for every employee. The superiors set targets for each of the team
members. Each employee is given a list of specific tasks.
Important features of MBO
Behind the principle of Management by Objectives (MBO) is for employees to have a clear understanding of the
roles and responsibilities expected of them. Then they can understand how their activities relate to the achievement
of the organization's goal. Also places importance on fulfilling the personal goals of each employee.
Some of the important features and of MBO are:
1. Motivation Involving employees in the whole process of goal setting and increasing employee
empowerment. This increases employee job satisfaction and commitment.
2. Better communication and coordination Frequent reviews and interactions between superiors and
subordinates helps to maintain harmonious relationships within the organization and also to solve many
problems.
3. Clarity of goals
4. Subordinates tend to have a higher commitment to objectives they set for themselves than those imposed on
them by another person.
5. Managers can ensure that objectives of the subordinates are linked to the organization's objectives.
6. Common goal for whole organization means it is a directive principle of management.
Limitations of Management by objectives Process
It sometimes ignores the prevailing culture and working conditions of the organization.
More emphasis is being laid on targets and objectives. It just expects the employees to achieve their targets
and meet the objectives of the organization without bothering much about the existing circumstances at the
workplace. Employees are just expected to perform and meet the deadlines. The MBO Process sometimes
do treat individuals as mere machines.
The MBO process increases comparisons between individuals at the workplace. Employees tend to depend
on nasty politics and other unproductive tasks to outshine their fellow workers. Employees do only what
their superiors ask them to do. Their work lacks innovation, creativity and sometimes also becomes
monotonous.
MBE
Management by Exception is a way of separating tasks between staff and management. Read on to learn how tasks
are separated, and the advantages and disadvantages of managing a business this way and test your knowledge with
a quiz.
What Is Management By Exception?
Management by Exception (MBE) is a practice where only significant deviations from a budget or plan are
brought to the attention of management. The idea behind it is that management's attention will be focused only on
those areas in need of action. When they are notified of a variance, they can hone in on that specific issue and let
staff handle everything else. If nothing is brought up, then management can assume everything is going according
to plan.
This model is similar to the vital signs monitoring systems in hospital critical care units. When one of the patient's
vital signs goes outside the range programmed into the machine, an alarm sounds and staff runs to the rescue. If the
machine is quiet, it's assumed that the patient is stable, and they will receive only regular staff attention.
How Is MBE Implemented?
If a company is going to implement MBE, they need to first set up a basic framework which will identify items
that vary from plan to plan. These are the critical things that must be in place to make MBE work:
1. An appropriate budget to measure performance against. This budget must be well designed, so that the business
will meet its strategic objectives if the plan is conformed with.
2. A matrix of exception amounts and who will be notified. The degree of variance allowed in different categories
needs to be defined in advance, along with the appropriate level(s) of management who will respond to the
variance in question. In some cases, different levels of variance will be brought to the attention of different
levels of management. For example, a $5,000 variance might be reported to a department manager, while a
$50,000 variance is brought to the attention of the functional V.P.
3. A timely and accurate reporting system. Information needs to be accurately captured and compared to the
overall budget on a regular basis. Exceptions need to be noted so that information can be sent to the correct
team members.
Once these items are present, the process can be rolled out to all staff. Anything that falls outside the budget by an
amount as defined in the matrix of exceptions will be sent to the appropriate level(s) of management for review
and action. Otherwise, staff is in charge of decision making.
What Are The Advantages Of MBE?
Some advantages of MBE would include:
The process focuses management time and attention on the most critical variances, which should be a more
efficient use of time.
The process allows staff to handle daily operations per the business plan independent of management;
managers only step in when variances reach the threshold. This should give management more time for other
functions, such as strategic planning.
What Are The Disadvantages Of MBE?
Some disadvantages of MBE would include:
The process assumes the budget is well designed, and that there are no issues that need to be addressed if
results match the budget.
The process assumes staff cannot handle variances; instead management must be brought in.
The process assumes that management's attention should be focused on 'mistakes'. When staff manages to the
defined plan, nothing happens. When things vary, management swoops down to fix them. This can be very un-
motivating to staff.

Scientific management-
Scientific management is a theory of management that analyses and synthesizes workflow. Its main objective is to
improve economic efficiency, especially in labour productivity. It was actually one of the earliest attempts of
applying science to the engineering of process and management. It was developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor
between 1880s and 1890s within the manufacturing industries.
Or
Scientific management, also called Taylorism, was a theory
of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. Its main objective was improving economic efficiency,
especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to theengineering of processes and
to management.
Four Principles of Scientific Management
Taylor's four principles are as follows:
1. Replace working by "rule of thumb," or simple habit and common sense, and instead use the scientific method
to study work and determine the most efficient way to perform specific tasks.
2. Rather than simply assign workers to just any job, match workers to their jobs based on capability and
motivation, and train them to work at maximum efficiency.
3. Monitor worker performance, and provide instructions and supervision to ensure that they're using the most
efficient ways of working.
4. Allocate the work between managers and workers so that the managers spend their time planning and training,
allowing the workers to perform their tasks efficiently.
Critiques of Taylorism
Taylorism promotes the idea that there is "one right way" to do something. As such, it is at odds with current
approaches such as MBO (Management By Objectives),Continuous Improvement initiatives, BPR (Business
Process Reengineering), and other tools like them. These promote individual responsibility, and seek to push
decision making through all levels of the organization.
The idea here is that workers are given as much autonomy as practically possible, so that they can use the most
appropriate approaches for the situation at hand. (Reflect here on your own experience are you happier and more
motivated when you're following tightly controlled procedures, or when you're working using your own judgment?)
What's more, front line workers need to show this sort of flexibility in a rapidly-changing environment. Rigid, rules-
driven organizations really struggle to adapt in these situations.
Teamwork is another area where pure Taylorism is in opposition to current practice. Essentially, Taylorism breaks
tasks down into tiny steps, and focuses on how each person can do his or her specific series of steps best. Modern
methodologies prefer to examine work systems more holistically in order to evaluate efficiency and maximize
productivity. The extreme specialization that Taylorism promotes is contrary to modern ideals of how to provide a
motivating and satisfying workplace.
Where Taylorism separates manual from mental work, modern productivity enhancement practices seek to
incorporate worker's ideas, experience and knowledge into best practice. Scientific management in its pure form
focuses too much on the mechanics, and fails to value the people side of work, whereby motivation and workplace
satisfaction are key elements in an efficient and productive organization.