Business Management

Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of coordinating the efforts of people to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively.

Management comprises:

• planning
• organizing
• staffing
• leading
• directing
• controlling

Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources.

Business management came to consist of six separate branches, namely:

• Human resource management
• Operations management or production management
• Strategic management
• Marketing management
• Financial management
• Information technology management

Basic functions

Management operates through various functions, often classified as planning, organizing, staffing, leading/directing, controlling/mo­nitoring and motivation.

• Planning: Deciding what needs to happen in the future (today, next week, next month, next year, over the next five years, etc.) and generating plans for action.
• Organizing: (Implementati­on)pattern of relationships among workers, making optimum use of the resources required to enable the successful carrying out of plans.
• Staffing: Job analysis, recruitment and hiring for appropriate jobs.
• Leading/direc­ting: Determining what must be done in a situation and getting people to do it.
• Controlling/mo­nitoring: Checking progress against plans.
• Motivation: Motivation is also a kind of basic function of management, because without motivation, employees cannot work effectively.

Basic roles

• Interpersonal: roles that involve coordination and interaction with employees.
• Informational: roles that involve handling, sharing, and analyzing information.
• Decisional: roles that require decision-making.

Management skills

• Political: used to build a power base and establish connections.
• Conceptual: used to analyze complex situations.
• Interpersonal: used to communicate, motivate, mentor and delegate.
• Diagnostic: ability to visualize most appropriate response to a situation.
• Technical: Expertise in one's particular functional area.

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