MANAGEMENT HERALD: Important terms in Principles of Management / Fundamentals of Management / Management Concepts

Important terms in Principles of Management / Fundamentals of Management / Management Concepts

Management: The art of getting things done through others. It is the process of planning, organising, leading and controlling the efforts of organisation for achieving the stated organisational goals.
Planning: is looking ahead. It involves preparation for the future. Here, outlining of future course of action takes place.
Organising: It is defining and grouping the activities of the enterprise and establishing authority, responsibility and relationships among them.
Staffing: includes human resource planning, recruitment and selection of the right people, training and developing them, deciding financial compensation, and appraising their performance periodically.
Communication: It is the process of passing information from one person to another person.
Leadership: Process by which a manager guides and influences the subordinates to work.
Motivation: The act of stimulating the employees working in the organisation.
Controlling: It is setting standards, measuring actual performance, and taking corrective action.
Front-Line Managers: are the lowest level managers in the organisational hierarchy. They are called by the name foreman, supervisor, etc.
Middle Level Managers: work in between the lower and top level managers. The may in the form of area managers, departmental heads, zonal/regional managers.
Top Level Managers: are the executives working at policy making level of an organisation. They would be in the form of Functional Managers, General Managers, Vice-Presidents, Managing Directors, Board members, CEOs, and Chairmans.
Technical Skills: Ability to use the tools, equipment, procedures, techniques and knowledge of a specialized field.
Human Skills: These are the people skills required for playing the liaison role for middle level managers most of the time.
Conceptual Skills: Decision making skills required for top level executives in order to formulate policies and strategies.
Strategic Planning: Process of determining long-term objectives of an organisation.
Mission: A statement which refers to the role an organisation plays in the society.
Policies: Statements of understanding that guides the thinking and action in decision-making.
Procedures: Tasks to be performed in a sequential manner.
Rules: A prescribed course of action that states what is to be done and what not to be done.
Programmes: A comprehensive plan that includes future use of different resources in an integrated pattern and establishes a sequence of required actions and time schedules for each in order to achieve stated objectives.
Budgets: A plan-statement for a given period of time in future expressed in financial or physical units.
Programmed decisions: These are decisions which are repetitive in nature.
Non-programmed decisions: These are decisions which are non-routine in nature.
Brainstorming: It refers to continuous interaction through free discussions for spontaneous and creative thinking. It is mostly used for developing new ideas in organisations.
Management By Objectives (MBO): It is a process whereby the superior and subordinate managers of an organisation jointly identify the common goals, define each individual’s major areas of responisibility in terms of the results expected of them, and use these resources as guides for operating the unit and assessing the contribution of each of their members.
Objectives: These are the targets to be achieved by an organisation.
Organisation Chart: It is a diagram of all the positions in an organisation and their formal relationships to one another.
Span of Control: It refers to the number of subordinates who can report directly to a superior (manager).
Departmentation: It is the process of dividing the organisation into manageable subunits.
Delegation: It is the process by which authority is granted to a subordinate by his superior.
Authority: It is the right to command.
Decentralisation of Authority: It involves the transfer of authority in the organisation context from top to the lower rungs of management in the hierarchy.
Motivation: It refers to the way in which urges, drives, desires, aspirations, and needs that direct and control the behaviour of human beings.
Leadership: It is the process by which an executive imaginatively directs, guides and influences the work of others in choosing and attaining specified goals by mediating between the individuals and organisation in such a manner that both will obtain maximum satisfaction.
Autocratic or Authoritative Leader: An autocratic leader is a person who determines policies without consulting others but simply tells others for further action.
Democratic Leader: A democratic leader is one who gives instructions only after consulting others.
Free Rein Leader: a free rein leader leaves the group entirely to itself.
Paternalistic Leadership: Here, the leader assumes his function as one which is paternal (fatherly) in nature.
Grapevine: The informal communication which supplements the formal organisational relationship is referred to as ‘Grapevine’ communication.
Horizontal Communication: When the flow of communication takes place at employees of same level it is referred to as horizontal communication.
Downward Communication: Flow of communication from top to the bottom is referred to as downward communication.
Upward Communication: When the flow of communication takes place from bottom to top, it is referred to as upward communication.
Budget: It is a statement of anticipated results during a designated time period expressed in financial and non-financial terms.
Break-even Point: It is that point at which the cost and revenue of the enterprise are exactly equal. Here, an organisation neither earns a profit nor incurs any loss.
HR Accounting: It is the method of reflecting the rupee value of the human assets in the company’s balance sheet.
Entrepreneurs: They are the people who identify new opportunities and exploit them.