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"Managing is the art of getting things done through and with
people in formally organized groups. It is the art of creating an
environment in which people can perform as individuals and yet
co-operate towards the attainment of group goals."
HAROLD KOONTZ
"It"s dog eat dog in this business, Henderson.
And you"re at the bottom of the food chain."
What is Management?
Complete the text using these verbs:
Analyse communicate contribute divide form
improve measure commercialise perform risk
select train understand use work out
You want me to explain what management is? Well, I guess I can manage that! Actually, management as we (1) it today is a fairly recent idea. Most economists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example, wrote about factors of production such as land, labour and capital, and about supply and demand, as if these were impersonal and objective economic forces which left no room for human action. An exception was Jean-Baptiste Say, who invented the term "entrepreneur", the person who sees opportunities to (2) resources in more productive ways.
Entrepreneurs are people who are alert to so-far undiscovered profit opportunities. They perceive opportunities to (3) new technologies and products that will serve the market better than it is currently being served by their competitors. They are happy to (4) their own or other people"s capital. They are frequently unconventional, innovative people. But entrepreneurship isn"t the same as management, and most managers aren"t entrepreneurs.
So, what"s management? Well, it"s essentially a matter of organizing people. Managers, especially senior managers, have to set objectives for their organization, and then (5) how to achieve them. This is true of the managers of business enterprises, government departments, educational institutions, and sports teams, although for government services, universities and so on we usually talk about administrators and administration rather than managers and management. Managers (6) the activities of the organization and the relations among them. They (7) the work into distinct activities and then into individual jobs. They (8) people to manage these activities and perform the jobs. And they often need to make the people responsible for performing individual jobs (9) effective teams.
Managers have to be good at communication and motivation. They need to (10) the organization"s objectives to the people responsible for attaining them. They have to motivate their staff to work well, to be productive, and to (11) something to the organization. They make decisions about pay and promotion.
Managers also have to (12) the performance of their staff, and to ensure that the objectives and performance targets set for the whole organization and for individual employees are reached.
Furthermore, they have to (13) and develop their staff, so that their performance continues to (14).
Some managers obviously (15) these tasks better than others. Most achievements and failures in business are the achievements or failures of individual managers.
Management Skills
EXERCISE 1
Divide the following styles of behaviour into pairs of opposites:
a. being group oriented
b. being cautious and careful
c. being decisive and able to take rapid individual decisions
d. being individualistic
e. being assertive, authoritative, ruthless and competitive
f. being happy to take risks
g. being good at listening and sensitive to other people"s feelings
h. being intuitive
i. being logical, rational and analytic
j. liking consensus and conciliation
Which five of the above styles do you think are generally preferable for managers?
Now look at the following list of qualities. Which are the most important for a manager?
k. being competent and efficient in one"s job
l. being friendly and sociable
m. being a hard worker
n. being persuasive
o. having good ideas
p. being good at communicating
q. being good at motivating people
r. being good at taking the initiative and leading other people
Make a list of the five most important qualities from a. to r.
Which of these qualities do you think you have? Which do you lack? Which could you still learn?
Which do you have to be born with?
Do any of these qualities seem to you to be essentially masculine or feminine?
EXERCISE 2
What are the nouns related to the following adjectives?
1. analytic .................................................. 7. intuitive ...................................................
2. assertive ................................................ 8. logical .....................................................
3. cautious ................................................. 9. persuasive ..............................................
4. competent .............................................. 10. rational ..................................................
5. efficient .................................................. 11. ruthless .................................................
6. individualistic ......................................... 12. sensitive.................................................
Company Structure
Sentences 1 to 9 make up a short text about different ways in which companies can be structured. Complete each sentence, by taking a middle part from the second box and an end from the third box.
1. Most organizations have a hierarchical or pyramidal structure,
2. A clear line or chain of command runs down the hierarchy,
3. Some people in an organization have an assistant who helps them;
4. Yet the activities of most large organizations are too elaborate
5. Large companies manufacturing a wide range of products, e.g. General Motors,
6. Businesses that cannot be divided into autonomous divisions with their own markets
7. An inevitable problem with hierarchies is that people at lower levels
8. One solution to this problem is matrix management, in which people report to more than one superior:
9. Another, more recent, idea is to have a network of flexible groups or teams,
a. are normally decentralized into separate operating divisions,
b. are unable to make important decisions, but are obliged to pass on responsibility to their boss,
c. can simulate decentralization, setting up divisions that use
d. instead of the traditional departments, which are often at war with each other;
e. so that all employees know who their superior or boss is, to whom they report,
f. e.g. a brand manager with an idea can deal directly with
g. this is an example of a staff position: its holder has no line authority,
h. to be organized in a single hierarchy, and require functional organization,
i. with a single person or a group of people at the top,
j. and an increasing number of people below them at each successive level.
k. and is not integrated into the chain of command.
l. and who their immediate subordinates are, to whom they can give instructions
m. each with its own engineering, production and sales departments.
n. internally determined transfer prices when dealing with each other
o. the appropriate managers in the finance, manufacturing and sales departments.
p. they are formed to carry out a project, after which they are dissolved and their
members reassigned.
q. unless responsibilities have been explicitly delegated.
r. usually with production or operations, finance, marketing and personnel departments.
Sentence 1: ........ Sentence 4: ........ Sentence 7:
Sentence 2: ........ Sentence 5: ........ Sentence 8:
Sentence 3: ........ Sentence 6: ........ Sentence 9:
An Organization Chart
Read the whole text and then complete the organization chart:
I think we have a fairly typical organization for a manufacturing firm. We"re divided into Finance, Production, Marketing and Human Resources departments.
The Human Resources department is the simplest. It consists of two sections. One is responsible for recruitment and personnel matters, the other is in charge of training.
The Marketing department is made up of three sections: Sales, Sales Promotion, and Advertising, whose heads are all accountable to the marketing manager.
The Production department consists of five sections. The first of these is Production Control, which is in charge of both Scheduling and Materials Control. Then there"s Purchasing, Manufacturing, Quality Control, and Engineering Support. Manufacturing contains three sections: Tooling, Assembly, and Fabrication.
Finance is composed of two sections: Financial Management, which is responsible for capital requirements, fund control, and credit, and Accounting.
Source: ‘MANAGEMENT and MARKETING with Mini-Dictionary’ by Ian MacKenzie
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