MANAGEMENT THROUGH ORGANIZATION

Management Through Organization

Management Through Organization

Introduction

Management theory refers to the range of theories that help to explain the concept, purpose, and process of management in organizations. There are, of course, many definitions of management, with management as a concept and process arguably being traceable back to antiquity (White, 2002). However, the systematic development of management thinking is generally accepted to date from the late 19th century, when the emergence of the large industrial corporations created the need for more effective management structures and processes (Watson, 2004).

Of course, the growing demand for management skills at that time and since has not been confined only to large private-sector businesses but has also been manifest within government, public, and voluntarysector organizations, including schools, hospitals, and the like. As with management in general, the history of public relations as we conceive of it today was spawned in unison with management theory. As public relations has matured as a profession, it has become more firmly rooted in assumptions and processes relevant to management theory (Stewart, 1982).

Discussion

Perhaps the best-known definition of management is that advanced by the early management scholar Henri Fayol, who maintained that management involves “to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control” (1949, p. 40). This so-called classical view of management implies that managers generally operate as essentially rational, analytical planners and decision makers directing the work of subordinates in such a way as to achieve pre-stated organizational goals (Stewart, 1976). More simplistically, management can be seen as focusing on identifying and guiding those activities that transform business inputs into outputs. At one extreme, these activities are manageable on a day-to-day basis, with managers responding to problems and minor changes in operating conditions; this is called operations management (Pettigrew, 1973). At the other extreme are strategic management decisions that will launch the firm on a trajectory that is expected to continue for a number of years; the long-term character of these decisions is what makes them strategic (Mintzberg, 1973).

This classical view of management has come under sustained criticism during the latter half of the 20th century as empirical studies have revealed a quite different picture of what management involves and what managers do. Scholars such as Henry Mintzberg (1973), John P. Kotter (1982), Andrew Pettigrew (1973), and Rosemary Stewart (1976, 1982) have pointed out that, in reality, management is often a very frenetic, unstructured, and largely reactive activity in which managers are forced to engage in a constant process of negotiation, bargaining, and compromise to get things done. Indeed, Tony J. Watson (1994) suggested, “Managing is essentially a process of strategic exchange because it shapes the overall activities of the organization and how it functions in its environment through the continual and continuous exchanging of information, favours, material and symbolic resources” (p. 37).

Management scholars have tended to focus on identifying the generic elements or activities associated with the performance of management roles in organizations. However, as Colin ...