Usually, management refers to the activities involved in enhancing leaders', managers' and supervisor's abilities to plan, organise, lead and control the organisation and its members. There are a variety of views about this term. Traditionally, the term "management" refers to the set of activities, and often the group of people, involved in four general functions, including planning, organising, leading and co-ordinating activities.
McNamara states that Some writers, teachers and practitioners assert that the above view is rather outmoded and that management needs to focus more on leadership skills, e.g., establishing vision and goals, communicating the vision and goals, and guiding others to accomplish them. They also assert that leadership must be more facilitative, participate and empowering in how visions and goals are established and carried out. Some people assert that this really isn't a change in the management functions, rather it's re-emphasising certain aspects of management.
Ernest and Young states that a successful manager decides objectives, identifies problems, allocates resources to solve them, organises implementation and measures results. Despite similarities in the general activities of management, the jobs of individual managers will differ widely. The work of the manager is varied and fragmented. In practice it will be influenced by such factors as:
- The nature of the organisation, its philosophy, objective and size;
- The type of structure;
- Activities and tasks involved;
- Technology and methods of performing work;
- The nature of people employed; and
- The level in the organisation at which the manager is working.
Strategic Management may be classified as the managerial science of how to lead and enable business organisations to achieve its goals in a rapidly changing competitive and collaborative environment. With new strategic management requirements, new business management models arise, based on knowledge, networking and innovation.
- Is management Generic?
Current research has identified the notion of certain skills being both transferable and necessary to promote effective learning. The `generic skills' can broadly be described as Research, Communication, Solving Problems, Using Technology, Critical Thinking, Expression, Task Management, Co-operation and Citizenship. These skills are evident within each key learning area but they are not subject specific. Students use particular skills when working with the content of each key learning area. (Anon 1) (Appendix C)
Generic means common, general, these skills can be transferable. Management is a combination of area quality, operating environmental, protection; safety and risk provision is one general. Every manager has a series of skills that he needs to know. When being a head manager, its necessary to be able to deal with people. When stating this, I have looked at a couple of examples such as the manager of a restaurant has to be able to do the right planning, organisation, solving problems, task management and also have the right communication skills. The manager has to be able to deal with people more than anything else is, since he is the person who organises future training projects and take the right decisions for the development of the business. The real world affects the necessity of teaching smaller groups a variety of skills. When training small groups in a company it is important to be able to use generic and technical skills to give them a wider chance of improving their knowledge management skills. These skills will allow them to move forwards in life.
Managing means leading, making things happen, its relevant to all levels of management, no only for the top management. Yet when transferring the job to being a financial manager, you might be able to do communication, organise, plan, co-ordinate, control, but all of these skills are not necessarily needed to be able to do the finances of the restaurant.
Mullins (1999) states that management is a generic term and subject to many interpretations. A number of different ideas are attributed to the meaning of management and to the work of a manager. In certain respect everyone could be regarded as a manager to some extent. Everyone has some choice whether or not to do something, and some control, however slight, over the planning and organisation of their work. However, we are concerned with management as involving people looking beyond themselves and exercising formal authority over the activities and performance of other people.
There are two main categories of skills, technical skills and generic skills. Technical skills are specific to perform a particular task, as for example computer skills, language skills, and laboratory skills. Yet generic skills are often referred to as transferable, since they can be easily transferred from situation to another, as for example: Communication skills, organisational skills, time management…Its important not to underestimate the value of generic skills, because they are equally or more important than technical skills. (Appendix D)
- Conclusion
When looking at management it is important to have the right understanding of this technical word. Management is a group of individuals taking decisions about how the business is run. Yet the four main tasks of a manager are planing, organising, co-ordinating and controlling. The manager must take the best decision for his business but also has to set an example for others. The manager must provide the right level of motivation, has to be able to build teamwork for the best of his employees. Without these main tasks a manager can not manage his organisation. The meaning of management is important to be able to establish whether the term management is generic. In my opinion, management is generic, since after having acquired the right skills to become a manager, the skills can be transferable to another position in the managerial level. No matter what post you are working in, in an organisation, you constantly use the same skills that you first learnt.
- Reference
Anon 1 2002 Generic outcome, Opened 23/11/02, Available:
k6.nsw.edu.au/linkages/Generic/generic_intro.html#outcomes
Anon 2 April 2000 Staff and skills required overview, opened 23/11/02,
available on:
3.html
Ambrosch 2002 Generic management course, masters of
advanced studies, opened on 23/11/02 available
on:
Ernest & 1998 The manager’s handbook, the practical guide to
Young successful management, Fully Revised, London,
Sphere books limited
Erven 2000 The five functions of management, opened 23/11/02 available on:
http://
Mullins, L, 1999 Management and Organisational Behaviour, 5th
Edition, Financial Times Pitman Publishing,
London
McNamara, 2002 Skills and Practices in Organisational
C, MBA, PhD Management, opened 23/11/2002, available on:
Knowles, T 2001 Hospitality management an introduction, 2nd
Edition, University of Bournemouth figures, Hospitality into the 21st Century: a vision of the future (1996) Joint Hospitality Congress, The Henley Centre, Longman, London (p3)
Appendix A: Hospitality industry
Source: Adapted from University of Bournemouth figures included in Hospitality into the 21st Century: a vision of the future (1996) Joint Hospitality Congress, The Henley Centre
The industry because of its diverse structure is difficult to accurately quantify, but the major dimensions upon which assessments should be made are set out below. The hospitality industry is by its very nature entrepreneurial and has a significant multiplier effect on all aspects of the economy through the requirement for supporting products and services. Those supporting industries range from the direct suppliers, such as food and drink, to services such as laundry, cleaning and financial services. The direct and indirect backward linkages include the food producers and manufacturers, transport company wholesalers and related manufacturing industries.
Appendix B: definition of planning, organising, directing, co-ordinating and controlling.
Planning is simply put, planning is selecting priorities and results (goals, objectives, etc.) and how those results will achieved. Planning typically includes identifying goals, objectives, methods, resources needed to carry out methods, responsibilities and dates for completion of tasks. Examples of planning are strategic planning, business planning, project planning, staffing planning, advertising and promotions planning, etc (McNamara) Yet according to Mullins (1999) planning is to examining the future, deciding what needs to be achieved and developing a plan of action.
Organising is establishing the internal organisational structure of the organisations. The focus is on division, co-ordination, and control of tasks and the flow of information within the organisations. It is in the function that managers distribute authority to jobholders (Erven: 2000). Mullins states that organising is providing the material and human resources and building the structure to carry out the activities of the organisation.
Directing is influencing people’s behaviour through motivation, communication, group dynamics, leadership and discipline. The purpose of directing is to channel the personnel to accomplish organisation’s mission and objectives while simultaneously helping them accomplish their own career objectives (Erven: 2000). Mullins states that directing is maintaining the activity among personnel, getting the optimum return from all employees in the interests of the whole organisation,
Co-ordinating is unifying and harmonising all activities and effort of the organisations established principles and expressed command.
Control is a four-step process of establishing performance standards based on the firm’s objectives, measuring and reporting actual performance, comparing the two and taking corrective or preventive action as necessary (Erven: 2000). Mullins states that controlling is verifying that everything occurs in accordance with plans, instructions, established principles and expressed command.
Appendix C: Skills of all managers
Ideally we would all like to be able to draw on the specialist skills of all those people outlined above. The real world dictates that more often than not, we will be required to draw the skills from a smaller group of multi-skilled people. This means a very broad skill set is required from a small number of staff. It can also mean the development of an excellent, tight-nit, well-focused team.
When skills are lacking within the core team, it can often be very effective to bring in experts from outside. These experts could be drawn from within the same organisation (e.g. other sections of the same university) or they could be commercial consultants. People involved in the technical implementation, user interface design and publicity and promotion are often brought in under such circumstances. (Anon 2)
Appendix C: Skills of all managers (continuing….)
(Anon 2)
Appendix D: Technical skills and Generic skills
Examples of learned skills, that have been categorised in the following section, technical skills and generic skills.
Internet research skills → Technical skills
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Team play → Generic skills
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Organisational skills → Generic skills
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Written and oral communication skills → Generic skills
Word processing → Technical skills
Handling cash register → Technical skills
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Time management → Generic skills
Generic skills are skills that can be transferable from one place to another.
A manager