MANAGEMENT: Part two of Prologue: Business Management
Date 26 July 2024
Introduction
I made the distinction that business was the hardware and management the software. More specifically management is the human side of this productive partnership. We know humans are capable of boundless positive creativity and in contrast, mammoth negative destruction. What makes the difference? Vision and Values.
HISTORY of MANAGEMENT
The term management has its roots in the 16th century derived from the Italian word maneggiare meaning to handle or control. It is also related to French word manège and relates to the art of training and handling horses.
Henri Fayol (1841–1925) was the first person credited for identifying management as a discipline of its own. He was a French mining engineer. To plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate and to control, the five areas that formed the foundation activities of management.
Peter Drucker (1909 – 2005) took management to new heights. He became one of the most influential pioneer management thinkers. His books were widely read, he was followed by numerous authors mostly academics from Business schools around the world. Referred to as Management Gurus they have continued to build the concept of Management into a sustainable force for achieving organisation.
“We are beginning to realize that management itself is the central institution to our present-day society, and that there are very few differences between managing a business, managing a diocese, managing a hospital, managing a university, managing a research lab, managing a labour union or managing a government agency.” A quote from Drucker.
Business has been the most receptive to management practices and has achieved value creation through productivity.
Perhaps the highest accolade to management comes from Rosabeth Moss Kanter:
“Good management is our best hope for world peace”
There are more accolades
The words of Gary Hamel in his book “The Future of Management.”
“Taken cumulatively modern management theories are one of humanity's greatest inventions - right up to there with fire, written language and democracy. Management has allowed society to draw maximum benefit from production capacity of the industrial age”.
What of the future of management, this is another quote from Gary Hamel.
“No other innovation provides a greater return than management innovation. If you improve how, you manage work, the potential profit is unlimited because managing covers so many aspects of work.”
Wow! Now we know! The Japanese with their Kaizen practice of “continuous improvement in small steps,” quality circles, suggestion system and more. The just-in- time concept would have resulted from management innovation.
THE CONCEPT of MANAGEMENT
The Concept of Management started after the First World War and accelerated after the Second World War. Up to this time the military’s command and control, with its hierarchical structure, ensured people carried out what they were told to do. In peace time, the management model took over from this autocratic model.
Management was characterised by being practical, facing reality, being able to make a collection of diverse and knowledgeable groupings and individuals productive in achieving objectives.
Planning, leading, organising and controlling were regarded as the initial building blocks of management. It has since gone beyond this, has embraced democratic value systems and uses science and technology in performing many different management functions.
Management together with business has played a major part in moving many nations out of poverty. This is well illustrated in Hans Rosling book “Factfulness,” with his four levels of income replacing the binary divisions of countries into only developed or developing. Achieving the ending of poverty worldwide, is certainly an aspiration for the enlightened leaders of the World. Nelson Mandela was one such leader, an enlightened strategist.
MANAGEMENT and LEADERSHIP
Warren Bennis
Famous for his statement “Managers do things right; Leaders do right things.” He was a New York born (1925) industrial psychologist. He is best known for his leadership theory. He is a writer and has done important research into leadership. In 1985 he studied 90 successful public figures and came up with four areas of ability that top leaders shared:
• The management of attention. Forming a clear vision is an important bridge from the present to the future.
• The management of meaning, e.g. communications – good skills in communicating are necessary to achieve results.
• The management of trust – the emotional glue that bonds followers and leaders together.
• The management of self – a prerequisite to leading – acquiring knowledge, taking up challenges.
One of his lasting impressions of leaders in his study was how leaders responded to failure………They simply don’t think about failure, don’t even use the word, using synonyms as such is a mistake and bungling.
I will in time make my article available on my blog titled “Leadership Insights,” and say more on this subject. In the practice of management, the manager must do both, doing the right things and doing things right.
I am also happy to see Warren Bennis including management of self. A prerequisite to leading.
VISION and VALVUES
Vison: You cannot aspire to greatness without ideals, stiving for excellence. More will be said on this subject in a later blog on strategic planning. Management does not neglect the emotional side of being inspired by the contribution business management makes to society. Purpose is important in the vision, as is sustainability, as is awareness of the environment, a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses opportunities, threats) analysis helps.
Values: These can be divided into Moral Values and Competency Values. For greater emphasis and to be on founding statements of a business, the term Core Values can be used there should only be about three or four.
Core Moral Values: to do what is right in relationships with others
Example:
honesty and integrity
respect and empathy
Ubuntu
Core Competency Values:
accountability
delivering on time
innovative products
environmentally friendly products
UBUNTU AND DIVERSITY
“Ubuntu teaches the value of inclusivity, cohabitation, harmony, and the search for reciprocal understanding. Respect for diversity is the first proof of genuine adherence to the principles of African humanism.”
Quote from the Foreword in “Let Africa Lead” by Reuel J Khoza.
THE SPIRIT of PERFORMANCE
To quote Peter Drucker. “The fact is that when a business is up there, aspiring to be excellent, they have a certain vibe – or spirit of performance, maybe “morale”. You feel this when you visit businesses, hospitals, schools – there is a certain energy about them, a spring in the step. You also feel it when the organization hasn’t got it”. Drucker described this spirit of performance as arising from four areas.
The focus must be on performance – being productive.
The focus of the organization is on opportunities rather than problems.
The decisions that affect people must be based on true values, fairness, competitive conditions of service, reward system etc.
The one quality that managers must bring with them is integrity.
In these hard times, this spirit of performance will be tested.
THE STUDY of MANAGEMENT
Business Schools at Universities in South Africa have a good record of teaching students, with MBAs (Master of Business Administration) and other degrees. At some schools certainly subjects as economics, bookkeeping and possibly business management maybe a choice. But what about our schools in poorer communities?
In ending this blog and wanting to bring the two parts together business and management it strikes me the individual is a good business model. After youths have finished with school, studies and skills training at tertiary institutions, be these professional or technical, they go out into the wide world.
They are like a business, they must market their skills and get a job, earn an income and manage their lives. It requires self-management to be a good business leader of oneself. Not to mention that later in life they might become a good leader and manager of a business entity.
A host of authors have contributed to subjects allied to business management, this is where I learnt my management, I quote many of them in this series. These authors called management gurus, they have contributed to management evolving, building on the good and where necessary reinventing what is needed.
Professor Henry Mintzberg of McGill University in Montreal Canada is one such guru, regarded by many as the present-day leading thinker in this field. He has made a name for himself for focusing on the Practice of Management. This is the tile of my next blog. Mintzberg started a course IMPM (International Masters in Practicing Management). The degree is also given in South Africa at the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science. I look forward to telling you more.
Neil Wright