Management Designated a Profession - Essay Example

? Management, Essay Contents Essay 3 References 8 Bibliography 9 9 Essay Consider why management should be designated a profession, with managers as 'professionals’ who demonstrate not only leadership skills, but emotional intelligence and a knowledge of organisational behaviour and management Management can be defined as a process of designing, as well as maintaining, the environment where individuals tend to work together as a group to efficiently accomplish the goals and objectives (Koontz & Weihrich, 2006, p.5). However, there are no exact definitions for management which has been universally accepted. According to definitions given by Mary Parker Follett, management is an “art of getting things done through people.” This indicates that manager contributes to the accomplishment of the goals of an organisation by way of directing the efforts which are put in by other employees. Sometimes a person working in the organisation tends to take on the role of a manager and employee simultaneously. For example, a sales manager of the organisation performs the role of manager while directing the sales force in order to meet the goals of the organisation but at the same time when he is contacting a customer the employee performs a non-managerial role. It can be said that in the former role the person directs the efforts of other members and in the latter role he is utilising the skills as sales man in order to meet the objectives of the organisation. Management is being involved in the act of achieving the objectives of organisations (Tripathi & Reddy, 2007, p. 2). With respect to organisational behaviour, management and organisational behaviour are inter-connected. Managerial work involves complexity, it is unpredictable and enriched with excitement and opportunity. The functions of management are “planning, organising, leading and controlling.” As organisations make use of various sources in achieving the goals and objectives, in management the resources can be classified in four groups, namely, human, physical, financial and information resources (Griffin & Moorhead, 2011, p. 8). Organisational behaviour can be defined as a study of human behaviour with the context of organisation with the main focus on individuals and groups’ actions. Thus, it includes the exploration of both organisational and managerial processes in the context of an organisation (Brooks, 2007, p. 2). Organisational behaviour can also be defined as a broad area which aims at studying the actions of people in the organisation. Thus, managers can use the related theories, as well as knowledge, in relation to organisational behaviour in order to improve management practice and influence the employees to make them work effectively and attain the goals of organisations. The most successful organisations tend to make the best of use of the employees energies and talent. Organisations, which are able to effectively manage the employees, usually hold an advantage over its rivals. According to Pfeffer (1998), firms which have the ability to manage people can reap up to 40% gain and can build in commitment, learning, involvement and competence of the organisations. As employees are vital to the success of the organisation, interaction from mangers are also key towards success of management. Therefore, a manger that possesses skill in organisational behaviour will be able to effectively work with its colleagues and employees in the organisation and also assist, influence and support in achieving the goal and objectives of organisations. In today’s business environment the role of a manger is vital for the growth and better functioning of the business. Managers are important in any business and responsible for all the major activities which take place in the organisation. The main role of the management is delegating the various tasks to the most competent staff members. Before going into detail let us evaluate the characteristic of management (McGinnis, n.d, p. 39). In order to be effective manager need to possess various skills right from technical to design and it varies according to the level of the organisation. A manager needs to posses personal skill which is essential in order to achieve the organisational objectives. In the process the manager makes use of his personal skills and overcome the obstacles which might hinder the attainment of the objectives of the organisations. Taking effective and serious decisions are important in the work of the management and, thus, qualities are found in varying degree among the managers. Next characteristic is practical knowledge which managers tends to possess and in business importance of manager is recognised by way of applying the principles of management effectively and efficiently. The third characteristic of a manager implies that he should follow results’ oriented approach as for management; meaningful results translate into maximum profits with minimum investment. Thus, success of a manager is determined by his/her ability to effectively and economically use the objectives and resources to attain maximum profit (Singla, 2011, p. 26). Apart from the above features, analytical and problem solving ability are highly important and manager needs to posses such characteristic. Managers should be able to identify the problems and thereby analyse the situation and solve the problem encountered and exploit the opportunities in the given situation. Manager’s role is to scan the environment and therefore identify the factors that tend to stand in a way of opportunities. In addition to the different types of skills required by manager several personal characteristic are also vital for the effective working of the organisation. Some of the personal characteristics are desire to manage, communication skills of the manager and empathy, honesty and integrity and past performance which will help the organisation determine the effectiveness of the managers (Koontz & Weihrich, 2006, p. 228). The question aims to answer whether management can be regarded as a profession and to understand the issue it is required to understand and learn the meaning of profession. As per Hodge and Johnson, profession is a term which requires significant knowledge which is applied with high degree of consistency towards service of a particular segment of the society. The next step is to find out whether the characteristic of profession matches with that of management. The primary quality of a professional is the possession of techniques and knowledge. The management tends to have its own set of principles which are based on experiments and requires special competence and thus management can be accepted as profession. In the current scenario, management has made available the required facilities which are needed to acquire specialised knowledge through training and education. Business organisation selects those people who are managers who are trained as well as experienced. However, it is also true that some people work without the required managerial training and education. But the managerial ability thus cannot be under estimated as they tend to have lot of work experience. Thus, it is founded that good managers tend to possess similar kind of ability and quality. The third characteristic of professionals is code of conduct. Professional’s members are bound to follow a certain code of conduct which means specific rules and regulations which are framed in order to guide the behaviour of the professionals. Here management and professionals do not go hand in hand as there are no certain codes of conduct for management and can be asserted that management is not a profession. Therefore based on the above analysis of characteristic between management and professionals and can be said that management ends to fulfil the characteristics of profession (Singla, 2011, p. 29). As stated above that organisational behaviour contributes towards the development of management and aims to illustrate the complex and discursive nature of management. Organisations and management together offers various positive advantages where it enables the management or the managers to take various approaches to best suit the requirements of the situation. For example let us take into consideration Japanese management in comparison to British and American management process. The western management in 1960s has showed lack of curiosity with regards to competition from Japan. Managers of Europe and British were highly obsessed by the Americans. Japanese had built heavily on what they had previously borrowed from the Americans and has also perfected and practised what the management scientist had often preached. Although the British management failed to live up to the standards of Japanese, professional standards in Britain have improved greatly in the past few years (Mullins, 2006, p. 19). Talking about management, a management tends to adapt various management styles according to the different approaches initiated by enterprise management and depends on various situation faced by the managers (Morden, 2004, p. 171). In the long run, there is no definite leadership style that can suit all organisations. The changes in market, internal circumstances along with external pressure lead to the adoption of various management styles. The type of management thus required to force through re-branding or restructuring will be different from the management. Therefore, the different types of management style adopted by mangers in organisation includes, autocratic leaders who gives orders and considered to be a “Theory X manager” and do not considers Maslow’s higher needs or even the motivation factors of Herzberg’s. They can be effective when the organisation requires rapid restructuring and in order o be effective will relay on hierarchical structure; next form of management style is directive leadership. The directive manager directs the subordinates with their respective roles and tasks and also provides a blue print of how to proceed with the job and thereby monitors the performance. The third type is of participative leadership style that tends to consult with its subordinates in the various decision making process. The subordinates are thus involved with the managers in designing and in the task involved and are considered to be Theory Y manager. Other form of style includes missionary leadership, laissez fair leadership (ALoA, 2000, p.1-2). Therefore, effective leadership or management styles make business successful and different forms of leadership style suits various circumstances. Managers can be people or task oriented and this would dictate the approach to control, motivate the workers. From the above it can be said that management tends to possess leadership qualities and has the ability to be regarded as profession. Thus organisational behaviour and management are equally important and as stated above the characteristic of professionalism matches with that of management and can be concluded that management has all the ability to be designated as profession with mangers who act as professionals and tends o demonstrate not just leadership skill but also emotional intelligence along with knowledge of organisational behaviour and management. References ALoL, 2000. Leadership and Management Style. [Pdf]. Available at: < http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/bus_studs/WJEC%20Business/Core%20Notes/Leadership%20styles.pdf> [Accessed 24 Dec. 12]. Brooks, I., 2007. Organisational Behaviour, 3/e. Pearson Education India. Griffin, R. W. & Moorhead, G., 2011. Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. Cengage Learning. Koontz, H. & Weihrich, H., 2006. Essentials of Management. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. McGinnis, S. K., No Date. Organisational Behaviour and Management Thinking. [Pdf]. Available at: < http://www.jblearning.com/samples/076373473x/3473x_ch03_4759.pdf> [Accessed 24 December 2012]. Morden, T., 2004. Principles of Management. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. MULLINS, L. J., 2006. Management and Organisational Behaviour. [Pdf]. Available at: < http://licf.ronaldboadi.com/ebooks/0273688766.pdf> [Accessed 24 Dec. 12]. Singla, R. K., 2011. Principles of Management. FK Publications. Tripathi, P. C. & Reddy, P. N., 2007. Principles of Management, 3/E. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Bibliography Mullins, L., 2010. Management and Organisational Behaviour (9th edition). Prentice Hall/Financial Times. Read More