The General Theory of Management

Management has to do with people, and with people playing roles within the form of an organization. According to Claude George, management is the element which brings some degree of unity and cohesiveness to every human undertaking. Managers are the people who provide or create the appropriate environments (both physical and intellectual) conductive to the performance of acts by others to accomplish the undertaking. Managers have to recognize not only the goals of the organizations, but also the personal goals of the individuals in an organization.

Managers function in certain ways:

• Planning.Involves two components: the vision of the organization and the strategic planning and strategic design planning. The vision of an organization involves the ideas and values of an organization and where the organization should go. The vision shouldn't be collapsed into planning; they aren't the same thing. Vision involves why the organization exists. Strategic planning and strategic design vision on the other hand are the how, the direction forward for the organization's products and services. Planners should be driven by vision, but vision should not be driven by planning.

  Planning also has to do with the governing ideas of the organization. These are composed of the vision (where the world will be in five years), the mission (what the organization's role will be in that future), and the operating values (how the organization will get to that future).

• Organizing. Finding a way to gain order in everyone's thinking, the relationships between people, and with the physical environment.
• Directing. Make objectives known to people so that the work has focus.
• Control. Watching out for things that go wrong and stepping in to correct that. Has to do with making sure the organization is meeting its objectives.

Managers create group dynamics. There are three different kinds of managers:

• Leaders. Have a vision that brings people together. They usually start organizations, but aren't good managers.
• Managers. Creates (but can also break) the rules that an organization runs by. Doesn't change the vision of an organization.
• Bureaucrats. Brought about by a decaying vision. Following the rules is central to their management. The rules become self-fulfilling. Need a new leader to clean them out.

The activities of any business enterprise are these:

• Executive and management group (HR/staffing/communications)
• Finance to raise capital
• Accounting to keep track of all the beans
• Technical (design is a part of)
• Commercial (sales and marketing)
• Security to protect property and people

Philosophic differences about people and organizations cause profound differences in the types of organizations we have. Philosophies are present in every organization. Schools of management are really schools of thought. The organizations we create have conversations with each other and with the public.

Originally posted on Friday, January 28, 2005