Management Process and Organization Behaviour

Q1 Explain the various functions of Management.

Characteristics of Management
The following are salient characteristics of Management-
1- Management aims at reaping rich results in economic terms.
Manager’s primary task is to secure the productive performance through planning, direction and control. It is expected of the management to bring into being the desired results. Rational utilization of available resources to maximize the profict is the economic function of a manager.

2- Management also implies skill and experience in getting things done through People.
Management involves doing the job through people. The economic function of earning profitable return cannot be performed without enlisting co-operation and securing positive response from “people”. Getting the suitable type of people to execute the operations is the significant aspect of management.

3- Management is a process.
Management is a process, function or activity. This process continues till the objectives set by administration are actually achieved.

4- Management is a universal activity.
Management is not applicable to business undertakings only. It is applicable to political, social, religious and educational institutions also. Management is necessary when group effort is required.

5- Management is a Science as well as an Art.
Management is an art because there are definite principles of management. It is also a science because by the application of these principles pre-determined objectives can be achieved.

6- Management is a Profession.
Management is gradually becoming a profession because there are established principles of management which are being applied in practice, and it involves specialized training and is governed by ethical code arising out of its social obligations.

7- Management is an endeavour to achieve pre-determined objectives.
Management is concerned with directing and controlling of the various activities of the organization to attain the pre-determined objectives. Every managerial activity has certain objectives. In fact, management deals particularly with the actual directing of human efforts.

8- Management is a group activity.
Management comes into existence only when there is a group activity towards a common objective. Management is always concerned with group efforts and not individual efforts. To achieve the goals of an organization management plans, organizes, co-ordinates, directs and controls the group effort.

9- Management is a system of authority.
Authority means power to make others act in a predetermined manner. Management formalizes a standard set of rules and procedure to be followed by the subordinates and ensures their compliance with the rules and regulations.

10- Management involves decision-making.
Management implies making decisions regarding the organization and operation of business in its different dimensions. The success or failure of an organization can be judged by the quality of decisions taken by the managers. Therefore, decisions are the key to the performance of a manager.

11- Management implies good leadership.
A manager must have the ability to lead and get the desired course of action from the subordinates.

12- Management is dynamic and not static.
The principles of management are dynamic and not static. It has to adopt itself according to social changes.

13- Management draws ideas and concepts from various disciplines.
Management is an interdisciplinary study. It draws ideas and concepts from various disciplines like economics, statistics, mathematics, psychology, sociology, anthropology etc.

14- Management is Goal Oriented
Management is a purposeful activity. It is concerned with the achievement of pre-determined objectives of an organization.

15- Different Levels of Management
Management is needed at different levels of an organization namely top level, middle level and lower level.

16- Need of organization
There is a need of an organization for the success of management. Management uses the organization for achieving pre-determined objectives.

17- Management need not be owners
It is not necessary that managers are owners of the enterprise. In joint stock companies, management and owners (capital) are different entities.

18- Management is intangible.
It cannot be seen with the eyes. It is evidenced only by the quality of the organization and the results i.e. profits, increased productivity etc.

Various Functions of Management
 Functions of Top Management
- Determination of goals and objectives.
- Policy framing.
- Formulation of plans to carry out objectives and policies.
- Mobilisation of resources to implement the plans.
- Motivating personnel for effective performance through appropriate leadership.
- Co-ordination and communication.
- Controlling operations to ensure realization of set goals or objectives.

 Functions of Middle Management
- To run the details of the organization, leaving the top officers as free as possible of their other responsibilities.
- To co-operate in making a smoothly functioning organization.
- To understand the interlocking of departments in major policies.
- To achieve the co-ordination between the different parts of the organization.
- To build up a contented and efficient staff where reward is given according to capacity and merit and not according to change or length of service.
- To develop leaders for the future by broad training and experience.
- To build up a company spirit where all are working to provide a product or service wanted by others.

 Functions of Lower Level Management
- Planning the day-to-day work of their sections and assigning the jobs to the workers.
- To issue instructions to worker and supervise their functioning.
- Making available the required materials, tools, etc. at the work place.
- To provide on-the – job training to the workers.
- Looking after the proper maintenance of tools, machinery etc.
- To solve problems of the workers.
- Communicating those problems of workers which are not solved at their level to the higher officials.
- Acting as liason officers between the middle management and the workers.
- To maintain good human relations and maintain close personal contact with workers.
- To maintain discipline among the workers and develop in them the right approach for work.
- To advice middle management about working environment.
- Sending reports and statements to middle management.

Q2 Define departmentation. Bring out the several bases of department.

Departmentation process is an essential part of organizing process. The formal structure of organization is created through the process of departmentation. It is a process of grouping of various activities into well defined divisions or departments. Such departments or divisions operate under the control of a manager known as departmental head. He has adequate authority over the activities and employees working there and he is ultimately responsible for the smooth functioning of the department.

In other words, departmentation is a process of dividing and sub-dividing each activity in small jobs and tasks and further combining and grouping them into administrative departments. By conducting the process of departmentation, the activity structure of organization is prepared. The activities so grouped up are placed horizontally and around these groups, authority structure in also created.
The process of departmentation is used at the various levels of the organization. The departmentation may be of three types.

(a) Primary departmentation.
(b) Intermediate departmentation.
(c) Ultimate departmentation.

(a) Primary departmentation takes place at the top level of organization. Through such departmentation process, basic or primary acitivities of the organization are grouped into various functional groups such as production, marketing, finance, purchase, personnel etc.
(b) Intermediate departmentation is used at the middle level of organization for grouping departmental acitivities in various sub-groups. For example the activities of personnel department are further grouped in sub-groups such as, recruitment and selection, promotion and transfer, wage and salary, administration and training etc.
(c) Ultimate departmentation implies grouping of activities, which are to be performed at the lowest level of organization such as core activities.

Bases of Departmentation
There are many alternative bases or patterns for departmentalizing organizational acitivies. The most common patterns are grouping by functions, products, processes, territories and customers.

Geographical Departmentation
In case of organizations having widely scattered business operations with nation-wide or global markets, geographical departmentation becomes more pressing need of organization. In geographical departmentation, all acitivities in a given area are grouped in one group and placed under the control of one manager.
This pattern of departmentation is considered to be secondary in nature as it can be used in respect of some activities or functions to be performed areawise. Thus first of all those functions and activities are grouped and it is followed by geographical departmentation.




Functional Departmentation
Due to growing complexities and added dimensions to management the functional departmentation has become quite popular. Since all organizations are engaged in the creation of utility, they undertake and perform various activities and functions for achieving objectives. If the jobs and tasks of organization are grouped into different groups or departments strictly on the basis of various functions which are to be performed in respect of those jobs and tasks, such pattern of departmentalizing is known as functional. This pattern is to be used by profit as well as non-profit organizations. In a typical profit organization, activities are grouped on the basis of functions into various departments such as production, purchase, finance, personnel, public relation and accounting, etc. These departments are known as functional departments.



Functional Departmentatlisation

Product of Service Departmentation
Compared to functional departmentalization, product grouping is considered to be more integrating and unifying pattern of departmentation. This pattern is most common with large multi-product lines or several products. In this, pattern organizational activities are grouped around the product lines or several products. In this, pattern organizational activities are grouped around the product lines or products. The organization identifies important functions which are necessary to be performed with regards to products such as engineering , marketing and financing other functions. These functions are attached to various product departments.
In product departmentation, each department of product operates as multifunctional unit. Because all necessary functions such as production, marketing, personnel and finance, etc. are being performed in every product department. In a pure product departmentation, the head of every product is usually delegated enough authority for performing various functions and top executive is mainly concerned with the overall planning, control and coordination of various product departments.


Process/Equipment Pattern of Departmentation
In addition to preceding pattern of departmentation, activities of organization can also be grouped according to process or equipment used. This pattern of grouping activities is often used by manufacturing organization having an assembly line production or production system which may consists of various processes to be conducted in a logical sequence. The output of particular process becomes input for next succeeding process and same is repeated till the production of finished product.





Process Departmentation
Customer/Market Pattern of Departmentation
This pattern of departmentation is often used by the organization engaged in producing and distributing goods and services for various groups of customers. In this pattern activities of organization are grouped according to the types of customer to be served. The rationale behind this pattern of departmentation is to serve different needs of various sets of customers in efficient manner.



Composite Departmentation
There is no hard and fast rule that organization should adopt a particular pattern of departmentation for grouping its activities. Each of the preceeding pattern of departmentation has been presented in its pure form. But in actual practice, hybrid of two or more patterns is developed according to the needs of organization and then used profitably. It is found that some organizations combine product form with functional form while others develop combination of functional and geographical departmentation according to needs.




Composite Departmentation – Product and Geographical Form