Nature and Significance of Management Practice Flashcards

Flashcards covering the core vocabulary from the lecture on the nature and significance of management, including definitions, characteristics, functions, for specific case studies like Tata and ITC.

Management (Harold Koontz and Heinz Weihrich)

The process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims.

Effectiveness

Being concerned with the end result; it involves doing the right task, completing activities, and achieving goals.

Efficiency

Doing the task correctly and with minimum cost; it involves a cost-benefit analysis between inputs (resources) and outputs (benefits).

Process

The primary functions or activities that management performs to get things done, including planning, organising, staffing, directing, and controlling.

Management of Work

The dimension of management that translates the organisation's purpose into goals to be achieved and assigns the means (plans, budgets, responsibilities) to achieve them.

Management of People

Dealing with employees as individuals with diverse needs and as a group to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.

Management of Operations

A production process that entails the flow of input material and the technology for transforming this input into the desired output for consumption.

Organisational Objectives

Management's responsibility to fulfill economic objectives for a business, specifically survival, profit, and growth.

Social Objectives

The obligation of an organisation to consistently create economic value for various constituents of society using environmental friendly methods and providing community amenities.

Personnel Objectives

Meeting the diverse needs of employees, including financial needs (salaries), social needs (peer recognition), and higher level needs (personal growth).

Planning

The function of determining in advance what is to be done and who is to do it, which includes setting goals and developing ways to achieve them.

Organising

The management function of assigning duties, grouping tasks, establishing authority, and allocating resources required to carry out a specific plan.

Staffing

Also known as the human resource function, it involves finding the right people for the right job through recruitment, selection, placement, and training.

Directing

Influencing, leading, and motivating employees to perform assigned tasks and creating an environment that makes them want to work.

Controlling

The function of monitoring organisational performance, establishing standards, measuring current performance, and taking corrective action where deviations are found.

Coordination

The essence of management that provides the synchronisation of different actions or efforts of various units to ensure unity of action in achieving common objectives.

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata

The founder of the Tata Group in 1868, whose goals included setting up an iron and steel company, a learning institution, a unique hotel, and a hydro-electric plant.

Taj Mahal Hotel

The only one of Jamsetji Tata's four goals to become a reality during his lifetime, inaugurated at Colaba waterfront in Mumbai on 3 December 1903.

Tata Code of Conduct (TCOC)

The document in which the values and principles that have governed the Tata Group for a century are enshrined.

Namchi Designer Candles

A venture established by Smita Rai in South Sikkim in August 2012 with 100 per cent women employees.

Jack Welch

The CEO of GE appointed in 1981 who focused on vision, strategic issues, the big picture, and leading by example through the 'four Es' of leadership.

Four E’s of Leadership

The traits espoused by Jack Welch: Energy, Energise, Edge, and Execution.

E-Choupal

An ITC initiative in rural India that provides farmers with a direct marketing channel using information technology to improve decision-making and price discovery.

ISO 14001

The standards met by the Environmental Management Systems at all of Tata Steel's main manufacturing sites.

Top Management

The senior-most executives (Chairman, CEO, COO, President) responsible for the welfare, survival, and overall goals and strategies of the organisation.

Middle Management

The link between top and lower level managers (Division Heads) responsible for implementing plans and coordinating their department's personnel.

Supervisory Management

Lower level managers (Foremen and Supervisors) who directly oversee the workforce and ensure the quality of output and safety standards.

Anthropology (in Management)

The study of societies that helps managers understand differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior between people in different countries.

Sociology (in Management)

The study of people in relation to their fellow human beings, helping managers understand how societal changes affect organisational practices.