What does the management class do?

Management Studies The discipline that studies the laws of management, explores management methods, constructs management models, and maximizes management benefits.

Definition

Management studies the laws of management, explores management methods, constructs management models, and maximizes management benefits. [1]

Interpretation

Management is a comprehensive interdisciplinary discipline, is a systematic study of the basic laws of management activities and general methods of science. Management science is adapted to the needs of modern socialized mass production, its purpose is: to study the existing conditions, how to improve the level of productivity through rational organization and configuration of human, financial, material and other factors. [2]

Management refers to a specific environment, managers through the implementation of planning, organizing, leading, controlling and other functions, the integration of the organization's resources, to achieve the organization's established goals of the activity process. [3] It has three meanings:

(1) Management is a conscious, purposeful activity that serves and is subordinate to organizational goals. [3]

(2) management is a continuous process of activity, the process of achieving organizational goals is the process of managers to implement the functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Because this series of functions are interrelated, thus making the management process is reflected in a continuous process of activity. [3]

(3) management activities are carried out in a certain environment, in the open conditions, any organization is in the ever-changing environment, the complexity of the environment has become an important factor in determining the survival and development of the organization. [3]

Historical Development

Factory Management

Classical Management Stage

The theory of factory management is based on scientific management, which focuses on production management and aims to improve the productivity of factories. Scientific management was aimed at the economic man and followed the principle of efficiency, emphasizing that factories should replace traditional empirical management with systematic management, and that workers should replace their accustomed ways of working with scientific methods. This view of efficiency was elevated by Emerson to an organizational approach to efficiency, and was further promoted by Cook to spread efficiencyism in non-industrial organizations. [4]

With the application or popularization of statistical methods, quantitative models, and computers, production-centered management theories began to evolve in the direction of management science, resulting in decision theory, operations management, systems theory, and control theory. [5] The formation of these theories laid a solid foundation for the development of management science. There is a lot of overlap between decision theory and process theory, and the combination of the two provides a theoretical basis for organizational decision-making; operations management extends the content of management from production management to business management; and systems theory and cybernetics as an analytical tool to promote the overall development of management science. [4]

In the process of transforming the individual efficiency of workers into organizational efficiency, Fayol's theory of organizational management and Weber's theory of administrative organization complemented the scientific management theory, thus forming the classical theory of organization. Fayol's views on the principles of management were summarized by Erwick as eight principles, and the principles of management functions were further developed by Gulick into the seven-function theory (planning, organizing, personnel, commanding, coordinating, reporting and budgeting). The hierarchical system proposed by Weber has also been regarded as a necessary form of organization. [4]

Organizational Management

Contemporary Management Stage

Mayo's Hawthorne Experiment can be regarded as a watershed in the history of management. Mayo argued, on the basis of the social man hypothesis, that the need for money was only a part of the needs that workers wanted to fulfill, and that most of the workers' needs were for emotional comfort, security, harmony, and belonging . Since man is a social being and there are informal organizations within formal organizations, management must focus on social and human skills, balance the economic needs of the formal group with the social needs of the informal group, and focus on interpersonal relationships. Thus, the doctrine of human relations was born. [4]

But an extreme view of human relationships emerged, one that viewed relationships as an end in themselves rather than as a means to an end. According to this view, if good relationships are established and maintained, increased productivity will come naturally. This extreme view of interpersonal relationships confuses the starting point and purpose of management. In order to restore the logical starting point of management, the behavioral science theory developed from the doctrine of interpersonal relationships explores human nature in depth along the individual and group levels. Maslow regarded human beings as mentally mature self-actualized human beings, McGregor's Super Y theory made a preliminary integration of economic and social human beings, Hertzberg's two-factor theory, Skinner's reinforcement theory, and Frum's expectancy theory analyzed the process of human psychological activities. At the group level, Lewin's group dynamics theory analyzes the group behavior of informal organizations. In addition, Tannenbaum's leadership behavior continuum theory, Likert's four systems model of leadership, and so on, have explored leadership behavior and leadership types. [4]

In the process of the development of interpersonal relationship theory and behavioral science theory, the study of conflict between organizations, groups and individuals has also gained rapid development. The fusion of conflict and behavioral research led to the emergence of modern organizational management theory, based on which the theory of organizations was built to include the doctrine of human relations.[6] Follett's theory of conflict and behavioral science is a good example of how conflict and behavioral science can be integrated into a modern organizational management theory. [6] Follett's constructive discussion of conflict views the organization as a collaborative system, and accordingly believes that organizational management should not only focus on the construction of interpersonal relationships, but also focus on the state of cooperation between employees; moreover, this cooperation should be a continuous process. On this basis, Follett proposed participatory management. Influenced by Mayo, Follett and others, Barnard introduced the social system view into the study of formal organizations, and a new interpretation of power and authority, the organization as a social system, rather than the Weberian sectional system. In the specific way of organizational management, Aguirre's personality management, McGregor's human nature management, Likert's group interaction and adaptive behavior research, Thompson's systematic research method for the organization of the traditional process theory have been supplemented and expanded, and Drucker's management ideas focus on the practice of management, especially in the question of how to improve the efficiency of the organization as a whole has made a great contribution. The publication of Drucker's book The Practice of Management marked the formal entry of management into the modern stage of development of management theory, especially Drucker's theory of management by objectives has been included in the post-modern management ideas of participatory management and self-control. [4]

Interorganizational Management

Modern Management Stage

As the theory of organizational management was maturing, scholars noticed that although management had been based on the assumption of the human nature of the social human being, the employee was confined to a single organization and treated as an organizational person. With the development of the knowledge economy, people have become the carriers of knowledge, knowledge management has become particularly important, and knowledge and skills have become the core issues of management. [7] Under the influence of post-modern philosophy, management is also developing towards post-modern, enterprise employees are not just simple managers, but should be self-managers. In the face of complex organizational situations, any one management model does not have the so-called universal applicability, which requires management science to use different socio-historical factors to examine the more effective management in different contexts. [8] Human beings are regarded as symbolic animals, and management studies have begun to emphasize the irrationality of human beings while denying their rationality, thus forming the postmodern management theory. Corporate culture theory views people as cultural beings. This stage of management theory abandons the traditional rational view of human nature, and advocates to improve the efficiency of the organization by giving full play to the subjective initiative of human beings. As a result, human nature has been fully liberated, and each person should be their own master, and seek their own comprehensive development. [4]

In the postmodern period, single-organization research is gradually replaced by business ecosystem research, and the network breaks the original spatial scope of the organization, forcing scholars to redefine the boundaries of the organization. As a result, network theory has become a representative theory to explain inter-organizational relationships, and some complex organizations are also called network organizations. In the new competitive environment, the enterprise itself is a collection of multiple relationships and embedded in a huge network. Inter-organizational relationships can help enterprises break through the boundaries of their own boundaries, constantly interact with external organizations and environments, and obtain resources they lack from the outside to build their competitive advantages at relatively low costs. Academics and enterprises also pay more and more attention to inter-organizational relationship management. Morgan and Hunter have put forward five basic conditions of network organization management, they are the selection of appropriate strategic partners and maintain good partnerships, the establishment of scientific credit management system between partners, the establishment of an effective conflict management system, the cultivation of core competitiveness and the formation of unified values and **** the same goal. On the other hand, Gannardi believes that enterprises should follow the three principles of compatibility, competence and commitment, the so-called 3C principles, when choosing partners and establishing long-term cooperative relationships. In the research on inter-organizational relationships, scholars have explored inter-organizational relationships from four perspectives: resource-based, knowledge-based, socio-logical, and learning theory. [In addition, scholars have summarized the market-based management and control model, the hierarchical management and control model and the trust-based control model, which construct inter-organizational management and control systems from the aspects of market transactions, contractual terms, and social relations, respectively. [4]

The development trend

The rapid development of modern science and technology has led to a profound change in management science, resulting in fundamental changes in management in function, organization, methods and concepts, which has led to the following development trends in the study of management:

Firstly, the status of management in the system of sciences will be further improved. Because people are more and more y realized that management is not only an indispensable element to determine the level of development of a country's productive forces, but also the primary constituent of modern productive forces. Education in management will become more widespread, and the important role of management will be more fully realized. [10]

Secondly, the theorizing and philosophizing trend of the development of management. Throughout the history of the development of management, by management activities and management, by management and management principles, by management principles and management philosophy, which shows the deepening of human understanding of the course of management, but also the general trend of the development of management theory. Management theory of the trend of the theorization, manifested in the various types of management **** with the regularity of the understanding and summary, and the general generalization of these laws and abstraction. Philosophical trend of management science, manifested in the height of philosophy, the management of the highest level of investigation and interpretation, management and philosophy of communication, and finally make the general management science can be established in a complete manner. [10]

Third, the development of new branches of management will be more rapid. An important feature of the development of management is the development of management branches. As socio-economic activities are facing great structural changes, the world economy into the 21st century will be qualitative changes. Management work will have to solve many brand-new problems, such as the management of intellectual capital in the era of knowledge economy, the construction and management of information **** enjoyment system, the innovation of human capital management, new organizational structure, such as learning organizations, strategic alliances, virtual enterprises and other new forms of organizational management, the management of organizational adaptability in a more complex socio-economic environment, etc., will form a number of emerging branches of management science, the prosperity of young management science. Branches, prosperity of young management science. The development of management science today has shown some of these trends. [10]

Fourth, management will be more closely integrated with economics, psychology, sociology, mathematics and so on. Management itself is a comprehensive discipline. Its development in addition to the continuous promotion of innovation in management practice, another important driving force is the development of other similar disciplines, in which the latest results of the development of economics, psychology, sociology, mathematics and other disciplines have been used in the study of management. Today, the development of these disciplines closely related to management science is very rapid. It can be predicted that the future of management in management methods will draw more on the results of the development of these disciplines, showing a closer integration with the development of these disciplines to the characteristics. [10]

Fifth, management research will be more prominent people-oriented features. In the era of knowledge-based economy, determining the future and destiny of enterprises and the country will depend more and more on the quantity and quality of human resources, so the study of how to fully develop the human intellect and physical strength, will become a more important task of management science. In particular, the study of people as a carrier of knowledge will be more prominent. [10]

Sixth, the combination of theory and practice more closely. The most powerful driving force for the development of management is the practice of management. With the development of social productivity, changes in the structure of social organization and innovation in management activities will provide more research objects and cases for the development of management science, and will also form a new theory of management on this basis. In addition, people will put management under the guidance of scientific theories more often in order to improve the efficiency of management work and avoid mistakes in management. Management theory is more and more valued by people, not only the scientific research will attract more theoreticians' interest, but the management workers will pay more attention to the role of management theory, and more consciously carry out the management work under the guidance of management theory. It is not difficult to infer that the combination of management science and management practice will be more closely. [10]

Basic Functions

Planning

Planning is the process of establishing goals and defining the necessary steps to achieve them, including the evaluation of opportunities, the establishment of goals and objectives, the development of strategic programs to achieve the goals, the formation of coordination of a variety of resources and activities of the specific program of action and so on. Simply put, planning is to solve two basic problems: the first is what to do, and the second is how to do. Organization and all other work around the plan to determine the goals and programs, so that the plan is the primary function of management. [11]

Organization

Organization is the process of dividing departments, assigning rights, and coordinating work in an organization in order to effectively achieve the goals set by the plan. It is a natural extension of planning and includes the design of organizational structure, establishment of organizational relationships, staffing, and organizational change. [11]

Leadership

Leadership is the process by which a manager uses his authority and prestige to exert influence, to guide and motivate a wide range of people in their efforts to achieve goals. A manager engages in leadership when he motivates his subordinates, directs their actions, chooses the most effective means of communication, or resolves disputes among members of the organization. There are two main points in the function of leadership: first, the effort to improve the work of the organization; and second, the effort to meet the individual needs of the members of the organization. The core and difficulty of leadership is to motivate the members of the organization, which requires the leader to use the scientific theory of motivation and appropriate leadership style. [11]

Control

Control work includes establishing control objectives, measuring actual performance, conducting variance analysis, and taking corrective measures. It is also a non-negligible function of management activities. The above four functions are interlinked, mutual constraints, in which the plan is the primary function of management, is the organization, leadership and control functions of the basis; organization, leadership and control functions are important links and necessary means of effective management, is the plan and its objectives to achieve the security, only the unity and coordination of these four aspects, so that the formation of the front and back of the related, continuous and consistent management activities as a whole process, in order to ensure that management work The smooth running of the organization and the full realization of the objectives. [11]