Articles on Management Subjects for Knowledge Revision and Updating by Management Executives ---by Dr. Narayana Rao, Professor (Retd.), NITIE---3.80 MILLION Page Views---
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The Next Public Administration: Debates and Dilemmas
B Guy Peters, Jon Pierre
SAGE, 23-Oct-2017 - Political Science - 192 pages
Written by two of the leading scholars in the field, this book explores public administration in the past, present and future, critically reviewing the modernization of public management reform. It reasserts public administration as an integral component of democratic governance and fostering a state-citizen relationship.
Wide-ranging in scope, The Next Public Administration:
Extends basic public administration to consider issues associated with management, governance and democracy
Covers core public administration concepts and their evolution through time
Draws on an international spread of examples, bringing theoretical discussions to life https://books.google.co.in/books?id=B7E1DwAAQBAJ
Public Administration: Political science, Public administration
Facts101 is your complete guide to Public Administration. In this book, you will learn topics such as as those in your book plus much more. With key features such as key terms, people and places, Facts101 gives you all the information you need to prepare for your next exam. Our practice tests are specific to the textbook and we have designed tools to make the most of your limited study time.
Jay M. Shafritz, E. W. Russell, Christopher P. Borick, Albert C. Hyde
Taylor & Francis, 13-Sep-2016 - 632 pages
Now in an extensively revised 9th edition, Introducing Public Administration provides students with the conceptual foundation they need, while introducing them to important trends in the discipline. Known for its lively and witty writing style, this beloved textbook examines the most important issues in the field of public administration through the use of examples from various disciplines and modern culture. This unique approach captivates students and encourages them to think critically about the nature of public administration today. Refreshed and revised throughout, the 9th edition contains a number of imporant updates:
An examination of the effect of the administration changes on the discipline, especially economic and financial management and budgetary policy, allowing students to apply the theories and concepts in the text to recent US government practice.
An exploration of the 2008 economic meltdown and its consequences for the regulation of financial markets, cut-back management, and social equity, providing students with a critical look at the recent changes in the global economy.
All-new images, international examples, keynotes, and case studies have been incorporated to reflect the diversity of public servants throughout history.
New sections on careers in public service, whistleblowing and public employee dissent, networks and collaboration across organizations, social innovation, managerialism and productivity improvement, Big Data and cloud computing, collaboration and civic engagement, and evidence-based policy and management. https://books.google.co.in/books?id=H0QlDwAAQBAJ
Koontz and O'Donnell state that they used objectives and goals as synonymous terms in the book.
Different authors provide different explanations for these concepts. I like the explanations that I studied. The explanation I narrate in this article is based on the treatment of the concepts in the book “Strategy and Policy: Concepts and Cases” by Thompson and Strickland, Business Publications, Texas, 1978.
Objectives
Objectives specify the results sought through the ongoing, long-run operations of the organization. These outcomes may consist not only of the desired results insofar as the organization's customer is concerned but also of what the organization perceives as the long range results it intends to achieve internally.
To have meaningful impact, objectives must be capable of being converted into specific targets and specific actions. They must give direction to the activity of the organization. They must set forth long-run organizational priorities. They must become the basis for work and for achievement. They must serve as standards against which performance is to be measured.
Since the role of objectives is to guide the concentration of resources and effort towards the desired ends, objectives should be selective. Objectives are needed in all areas on which the long-term survival and success of the organization depend. The important areas are:
The objectives of an organization may undergo revision over a period of time to meet changing circumstances.
Mission or Purpose
A business is defined by the want the customer satisfies when he buys a product or a service from a business organization.
To satisfy the customer (means to satisfy a specific want of the customer) is the mission and purpose of every business.
The question "What is our business?" can be answered only by looking at the business from the outside, from the view point of customer and market.
The purpose of a company has to be one of the wants of customers in the market.
The customer is not attached to any product, service or company. He wants to know what the product or service will do for him tomorrow. He is interested in his own wants, his values and his desires and world as he sees it. Therefore any serious attempt to define "what our business is" must start with the customer, his wants, his situation, his behavior, his expectations, and his values.
Therefore a searching enquiry needs to carried out to answer questions such as:
Who is our customer and what are his needs?
Where is the customer?
What does the customer buy?
Is it status? Comfort? Satisfaction of a physical need? An ego need? Security?
What is value to the customer?
Is it price? Function? Quality? Service? Economy of use? Durability? Styling? Convenience?
These questions plainly need to be posed and answered at the inception of a business and whenever it gets into trouble.
But even when the business is successful, the organizations have to examine their business purpose as the definition may become obsolete in the context of changes in the products and markets. The periodical examination of purpose in the light of customer studies and research will help the organization to look ahead and anticipate the impact of changes in the environment.
At any point of time, the purpose stated by the company has to be the answer to the question "What should our business be?" This question is periodically answered by the top management as a part of its setting the strategy for the future period.
A Hierarchy of Objectives
Objectives of an organization form a hierarchy. The zenith of the hierarchy is the socioeconomic purpose of society, that requires the organization to contribute to the welfare of the people by providing goods and services at a price that is affordable or people are willing to buy.
Objectives of an Organization - Explanation
_______________
_______________
Goals
The goals of an organization are the intermediate quantitative and qualitative "performance targets" which management seeks to attain in moving toward organizational objectives.
Thus whereas objectives are long range in nature, goals are short range. They serve to indicate the speed and momentum which management seeks to maintain in accomplishing the organization's objectives.
They direct the attention of both management and employees toward the desired standards of performance and behavior in the near term.
Illustrations of goals:
1. Our target is to have market share of 15 percent this year and 17.5 percent next year.
2. We seek to gain enough accounts this year to reach our goal of $50 million in assets under management.
Goals become the rallying point for coordinating the activities of subunits as they act as a basis for establishing common goalposts.
Acceptance of the objectives of the organization and goals derived there from promotes teamwork and a united approach to the working of the organization.
Weihrich and Koontz defined Management and explained it as follows in the tenth edition of their book Management: A Global Perspective (p.4).
"Management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, effectively and efficiently, accomplish selected aims." This definition needs to be expanded:
1. As managers, people carry out the managerial functions of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling.
2. Management applies to any kind of organization.
3. It applies to managers at all organizational levels.
4. The aim of all managers is the same: to create a surplus.
5. Managing is concerned with productivity; this implies effectiveness and effciency.
Definition suggested by Narayana Rao
Management of an organization is the process of establishing objectives and goals of the organization periodically, designing the work system and the organization structure, and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, accomplish their aims and objectives and goals of the organization effectively and efficiently (Narayana Rao). (3rd December 2008, Version 1 of this article)
The above definition was a modification of the definition given by Koontz and O'Donnell.
The definition implies the following.
(i) Management is a process.
(ii) Management applies to every kind of organization, government, profit making, or nonprofit making.
(iii) It applies to managers at all levels in the organization.
(iv) Management is concerned with effectiveness and efficiency. Effectiveness is producing the product or service the customer wants in business context with the required functional benefits and product attributes at the price he is willing to pay. Efficiency is minimization of resources to produce the saleable output.
Functions of Management or Process of Management
Koontz and O'Donnell classified the functions of management or process of management into PLANNING, ORGANIZING, STAFFING, LEADING AND CONTROLLING.
Management is an art and it is doing things in the light of realities of a situation. The organized knowledge underlying this practice is referred to as science and this body of knowledge can be expressed through principles of management. This is the thought of Koontz and O'Donnell. Principles are identified for each function of management.
Also, the functions of managers provide a useful structure for organizing management knowledge that is expanding with the more and more research being carried out in the management field under various approaches to study of management. All new ideas, research findings, and techniques can be placed in the classification of PLANNING, ORGANIZING, STAFFING, LEADING AND CONTROLLING.
Planning
Every manager has to select objectives for his enterprise, department, section, unit or group. Based on the objectives he has to set goals for a specific period and make plans that contain ways of reaching the set goals. Planning in general is explained as generating alternatives and selection of the most suitable alternatives from among them for solving a problem. The problem in this context has positive connotation also. How to achieve growth is a problem which has a positive implication only.
Therefore planning is deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who is to it. Planning bridges the gap from where we are to where we want to be in a desired future.
Planning involves decision making. It is selecting the courses of action that a company or any other enterprise, and every department of it, will follow.
Types of Plans
Managers create various types of plans as part of the planning activity. Objectives
Objectives are the ends toward which the activity of an organization is aimed.
Goals
Goals represent the rate at which objectives of an organization are achieved. Goals quantify the objective with a time frame. For example, if a country has the objective of switching to unconventional sources of energy, the goals could specified as so many gigawatts of energy by end of year 2012.
Grand strategies
According to R.N. Anthony strategies result from the processes of deciding "on objectives of the organization", "on changes in these objectives", "on the resources used to attain these objectives", and "on policies that are to govern the acquisition, use, and disposition of these resources." The main meaning and usefulness of grand strategies are to describe a type of planning program of a broad nature which gives over-all direction to the other and more detailed programs of an enterprise.
The emphasis in grand strategies is on the pattern of basic objectives of the organization and goals and the major policies and plans for achieving them.
The purpose of grand strategy of an enterprise is to determine and communicate, through a system of major objectives and policies, a picture of what kind of enterprise is envisioned. A framework is given in the grand strategy which is a useful plan to guide company thinking.
Koontz and O'Donnell give the opinion that strategy is not a new type of plan actually. It is a program. But the concept of strategy is practically very useful and its importance in guiding detailed planning justify its separation as a different type of plan.
Competitive strategies
Competition exists where two or more persons strive for the same goals under conditions in which not all can gain from them. Competitive strategy is a plan made in the light of the plans of a competitor. The plans are made either with an estimate of plans or competitor or plan is a reaction to the strategic move of competitor either announced or executed. To estimate the competitor's plans, a manager has to put himself in his competitor's place and develop a set of plans for his competitor, using the knowledge has regarding the objectives and the circumstances in which the competitor is operating. No doubt some industrial espionage will be tried to get an understanding of competitor's plans.
Policies
Policies are general statements which guide or channel thinking in decision making of subordinates. Policies delimit an area within which a decision is to be made and assure that the decision will be consistent with and contribute to objectives. Policies tend to predecide issues, and avoid repeated analysis. Polices are based on analysis and once pronounced avoid repeated analysis.
Procedures
Procedures are plans and they establish a method of handling activities. They specify a chronological sequence of required actions.
Rules
A rule is the simplest type of plan. A rule requires that a specific and definite action be taken or not taken with respect to a situation.
Programs
A program is a complex of policies, procedures, rules, task assignments assembled to carry out a given course of action. A program is supported by necessary capital and operating budgets.
Budgets
A budget is a plan for a specific period. We can say it is a period plan. It is goals of a period expressed in terms of resources required and output expected and authorized or agreed by the organization. It is a statement of expected results expressed in numerical terms
Organizing
Organization as envisaged by Fayol is the plan for material organization and people organization required to achieve the objectives of the organization. It could have been a part of the planning process. But it is a complex step and hence it is given as a separate function. Subsequent to Fayol, in the management text books material organization was not given any attention. All the attention has gone to people organization. This is a shortcoming of the management theory at this stage (2014).
Organizing is explained currently as the grouping of activities necessary to attain the objectives, the assignment of each grouping to a manager with authority necessary to supervise it,and the provision for coordination horizontally and vertically in the enterprise structure.
Formal Organization and Informal Organization
Formal organization means the intentional structure of roles specified through a formal organization structure chart.
Informal organization is any joint personal activity without conscious joint purpose, even though contributing to joint results (Chester Barnard).
Important concepts in organizing
1. Principles of span of control
2. Departmentation: By numbers, by time (shifts), by function, by territory, br product, by customer segment, by maketing channels, by process (in manufacturing).
3. Line and staff relationships
4. Delegation
Staffing
The managerial function of staffing is defined a filling positions in the organization structure through identifying work force requirements, inventorying the people available, recruitment, selection, placement, promotion, appraisal, compensation, and training of people.
Leading
The managerial function of leading is defined as the process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of organizational goals.
Important Concepts
Behavioral model of man
Motivation
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
McCleland's needs
Vroom's Expectancy Theory of Motivation
Reinforcement theory
Job enlargement
Job enrichment
Leadership
Styles of leadership
Managerial grid
Situation leadership or contingency theory of leadership
Communication
Controlling
The managerial function of controlling is the measurement and correction of performance in order to make sure that enterprise objectives and plans devised to attain them are accomplished. The control actions include planning once again, reorganization, new staffing decision and leading activities.
Control of overall performance refers to the assessment of higher level managers, managers of departments and profit centers.
Replace Staffing by Resourcing
Prof. Narayana Rao's suggestion in 2010
A Manager's Job is to get results through people and other resources. Hence acquiring all resources (including human resources) is a function of management. - Narayana Rao
Koontz and O'Donnell outlined Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling as the five functions of management and explained the process of management of these five functions.
In the place of staffing, using the word resourcing, could be a better description of management function at the current stage.
A plan to achieve something (objective) is to be converted into an organizational plan that requires resources (facilities and materials) and people. The manager has to acquire these resources to set up the organization to implement his plan. Acquisition of human resources is staffing. But normally in modern business, the manager has to acquire money resources or finance. Then, using capital and finance, he has to acquire land, buildings, machinery, materials and various other services. Then comes directing and resource allocation (execution).
This article supports the first lecture of Review of Research in Management
Industry 4.0 is term for the application of a set of new technologies on production of goods. Germany has taken the lead in announcing the fourth industrial revolution.German machine and plant manufacturers are currently engaged in developing products and processes using the new technologies. Some perceive it as an opportunity to expand their business and some perceive it as a
challenge to overcome and stay and succeed in business. Industry 4.0 is applicable in case of SMEs also. But definitely for SMEs, it is challenge to a greater extent. The challenge for small and medium businesses is first the task of reducing the declared benefits of Industry 4.0 technologies to viable
development stages that show tangible benefits for their own company research, development, design and production activities. The possible project ideas are to be quantified monetarily into revenue/cost figures and cash inflow/outflow figures to do engineering economic analysis and financial analysis.
Industry 4.0 - Brief Introduction
Modern information and communication technologies are merging with production technologies to form new methods of design and production. The information related to consumer and business products products in use and also information related to processes as they are performing the operations will be available in in real time at each stage of the supply chain through networking of all partners involved in the entire value-adding process. This can lead to dynamic, real-time optimization, self-organization, self-maintaining cross-company networks.
In practical terms, the introduction of Industry 4.0 results in ability to adapt more individually to the needs of the customers and offer a high variant diversity down to a batch size of 1 at prices close to mass production prices. The approaches of Industry 4.0 allow to build production networks that produce efficiently and effectively at low costs.
Industry 4.0 - Opportunity to Earn Additional Revenues and Profits
The technologies and the solution ideas so far discussed in the literature relating to Industry 4.0
are paving the way for new product innovations, product-related services and improved production processes. Thus Industry 4.0 can help companies to improve productivity and reduce costs of production. This can result in price decreases and increase in sales. Also, existing products can be improved and new products created with additional functionalities that increase sales due to the enhanced usefulness and value contribution at the user end.
How to Adopt and Realize the Potential of Industry 4.0?
The technologies for comprising the Industry 4.0 opportunity set are already available as technically feasible solutions. But the real benefits of Industry 4.0 revolution will only unfold through a clever
combination of these technologies by product solution architects in various product segments. At the moment, large number of companies are unaware of the road leading to the identification and successful combination of Industry 4.0 solution approaches. Industry, academic institutions and governments have to put in lot of effort to create useful frameworks to spread the adoption of Industry 4.0 and turn the anticipated/estimated/forecasted potential into reality.
The German mechanical engineering industry association has come out with a guide proposing a framework giving guidelines for adoption of Industry 4.0 concept by SMEs of German industry,
Objective of this guideline
The guideline is developed to support small and medium sized companies of the German mechanical engineering industry in identifying potentials for products and production with a systematic process for using Industry 4.0 set of technologies and in developing their own specific ideas in this respect. The guide presents a suitable procedure for direct application in any company.
The procedure in this guide is divided into five process steps.
An in-depth knowledge of the products currently being produced and sold and the relevant market
and of own production technology and process is the starting point for elaborating product ideas and
improving production. So preparation phase focuses on the knowledge regarding the current operations, technologies and market conditions
Analysis phase
The analysis phase aims at identifying the expertise available in the company concerning Industry 4.0 technologies. The analysis may indicate the need for acquisition of additional knowledge and the company has to take steps to acquire sufficient knowledge by buying books, deputing personnel to seminars and also sponsoring personnel for e-learning courses. Plant visits may also be encouraged to develop understanding.
Creativity phase
The aim of the creativity phase is the generation of new ideas and the subsequent elaboration
of concepts for business models. The new ideas normally will be in the existing products or nearby product areas. Sometimes even totally different product ideas may come up.
Evaluation phase
The objective of this phase is the assessment of the proposed business models for strategic, business and financial fit. For this purpose, the business models proposed have to be ranked according to their market potential or to their potential for production respectively as well as according to the required resources for implementation. The aim is to identify business models with a high market potential, low resource requirement, and utilization of the company’s strengths.
Implementation phase
Finally, the project team makes recommendations of the projects for acceptance by the company
management.
The five step procedure can be conducted as a workshop in SMEs and the result of the workshop
can be transferred to suitable Industry 4.0 projects for practical implementation.
Every manager must have the ability or skills of identifying business opportunities and providing providing goods and services at profit in the light of the business opportunity.
Identifying and evaluating a business opportunity means demand is to be estimated. Economics subject has its special focus on analysis of consumer demand. Managers have to use the economics theory to come out with demand forecasts for potential businesses and existing businesses. Actually Philip Kotler, the celebrated author of the book Marketing Management, is an economist by education and he said he worked in marketing as marketing is economics.
In the economics subject, production cost analysis is also undertaken. Ideas like economies of scale, marginal diminishing productivity etc. are important theories in production economics which are to be used by managers.
Economics has subareas which are more focused on specific issues related to businesses. Engineering economic analysis deals with the profitability analysis of income expansion and cost reduction expenditures proposed by engineers in the production systems. It can be used for expenditure or investment proposals made by any body like repairs to house or automobiles etc. Even investment in shares and bonds can be analyzed using methods of engineering economic analysis.
In managerial economics, Joel Dean described the application of economic analysis to many managerial decision making like advertising expenditures and pricing decisions when multiple products are there etc.
Industrial economics examines why certain industries have higher profit margins at a point time. Monopoly and Oligopoly may be the reasons for higher profits. Hence creating barriers to entry becomes a competitive activity for firms. But on the other hand, society tries to support more competition.
Managers have to acquire the relevant theories from various economics subjects and be on the lookout for new theories that support their work.
Even accounting tools are used in business conceptualization as proforma income statements, balance sheets and cash flows statements need to be prepared to submit to financial organizations to fund a business.
"Noise: How to Overcome the High, Hidden Cost of Inconsistent Decision Making," Daniel Kahneman, Andrew M. Rosenfield, Linnea Gandhi, and Tom Blaser; https://hbr.org/2016/10/noise
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