Management

DISCOVERING CONNECTIONS

1. Can you imagine a company performing successfully without management?

2. What is management? Is it an art or a science? An instinct or a set of skills and techniques that can be taught?

3. Do you agree that a manager is a continual problem-solver, decision-maker, and innovator? Do you share the opinion that “Poorly considered solution will be costly in dollars, happiness, or both?”

4. What qualities, from your point of view, is a person supposed to be born with or to acquire to become an effective manager? What do you think of the statement “Excellence costs, … but in the long run mediocrity costs far more?”

READING

Text 1

While reading the text focus on the following issues:

− a variety of resources used by most businesses;

− functions of management;

− levels of management.

Nature of Management

Management is a set of activities designed to achieve an organization’s objectives by using its resources effectively and efficiently in a changing environment. Effectively means having intended results; efficiently means accomplishing the objectives with a minimum of resources.

Managers work in an organization. An o rganization is a managed system designed and operated to achieve a specific set of objectives. A system is a set of interdependent parts that processes inputs (such as raw materials) into outputs (products). Business inputs are usually called resources. Most businesses use a variety of human, financial, physical, and informational resources. Managers function to transform these resources into the outputs of the business, i.e. goods and services.

Organizational members are divided into two categories: operatives and managers. Operatives are people who work directly on a job or task and have no responsibility for overseeing the work of the others. Managers are individuals who initiate and oversee new projects, make decisions about the use of the organization’s resources, and are concerned with planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the organization’s activities so as to reach its objectives. A manager’s job is to achieve high performance relative to the organization’s objectives.

Almost everything a manager does involves decision. In decision-making there is always some uncertainty and risk. Successful managers are given the opportunity to manage more resources and asked to make decisions that have even more impact on the organization.

Resources	Functions	Objectives
1. Human (employees)	1. Planning	1. Quantity
2. Physical (equipment)	2. Organizing	2. Quality
3. Financial (funds)	3. Leading	3. Attitudes of employees
4. Informational (data)	4. Controlling	4. Customer satisfaction

The above-cited objectives are characteristic of both profit-making and non-profit organizations. As to the former their ultimate goal is profit-making.

Changing environment. Another thing that makes management difficult is that the work situation constantly changes. The factors that define a specific work situation fall into two categories: external remote environment and external task environment. The former includes such factors as economic, technological, political/legal, social/cultural, and ecological. The latter comprises the following: customers, creditors, suppliers, competitors, employees, shareholders.

To make a good manager, some basic skills are essential. Alongside with decision-making, these involve technical, conceptual, analytical, people (interpersonal, communication), and computer skills.

Level of management. Managers may be classified according to their level or position within the organization. We commonly categorize managers as being in lower, middle, or upper levels of management. Upper managers spend most of their time planning and leading because they make decisions about the overall performance and direction of the organization. Therefore, they are usually involved in the development of goals and strategies to achieve those goals. Conceptual and interpersonal skills are especially important. Chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO), chairman, president, and executive vice president are common titles at this level. Middle managers are those managers who receive broad statements of strategy and policy from upper-level managers and develop specific objectives and plans. They spend a large portion of their time in planning and organizing activities. Conceptual and technical skills underlie these activities. Examples of the titles of middle managers are product manager, department head, plant manager, and quality control manager. Lower or first-line managers are those concerned with the direct production of items or delivery of services. These actions require leading and controlling. Because first-line managers train and monitor the performance of their subordinates, technical skills are especially important. Common titles are supervisor, sales manager, loan officer, and store manager. Middle- and upper-level managers coordinate the activities of specialized, lower-level managers.

Vocabulary Focus

Ex. 1.

A. Study the meaning of the following words:

1. aim (n) – purpose, object;

2. end (n) – purpose, aim (to this end);

3. goal (n) – object of efforts or ambition;

4. objective (n) – object aimed at, purpose;

5. purpose (n) – that which one means to do;

6. target (n) – total which it is desired to reach.

B. Choose the right word in italics:

1. All our objectives/purposes were won.

2. The end/aim justifies the means.

3. For what goal/purpose do you want to go to Canada?

4. He has only one aim/target in life – to make a fortune.

Ex. 2. Express in one word:

– person who controls a business;

– ability to do sth expertly and well;

– set of interdependent parts that processes inputs into outputs;

– settlement of a question;

– managed system designed and operated to achieve a specific set of objectives;

– people who work directly on a job or task and have no responsibility for overseeing the work of the others;

– individuals who initiate and oversee new projects, make decisions about the use of the organization’s resources, and are concerned with planning, organizing, leading and controlling the organization’s activities so as to reach the organization’s objectives.

Ex. 3. Match the words in column A with their synonyms in column B.