Management: The most important area of human activity

Management: The most important area of human activity

Management as defined by Mary Parker Folet as the act of getting things done through people, on its own describes what management actually is. Management is seen as a science, as an academic field of study, as an art, and as a process of everyday life.

Management as a process

The process of management involves the functions of planning, organising, leading and controlling. Management as an act/process is the most important area of human activity, because of its logic and science. Every man (including women and all) is a manager, because they are involved in decisions of management one-way or the other. Management is a systematic process, which goes a long way into accomplishment of our individual and collective goals.

Planning as a process of management

Planning is the act of setting out objectives and ways to accomplish the objectives. Human activities involve setting objectives, having what you wish to accomplish and ways by which you achieve them. Planning as a process of management is applicable to all facets of human activity and interaction. For instance, a homemaker who needs to stock up the home with more foodstuffs will plan to buy foodstuffs. She should have a list of items she needs to buy and ways by which she wishes to buy these items. The decision of how to achieve the objective could include the choice of market, the duration of the transaction(s), the quantity to purchase and several other considerations. It is a vital part of the management process because it determines how sweet/pleasant the other processes will be.

In the corporate world, ‘management as a process’ proves more evident. The management process is more in demand like in the case of the budgetary process. The budgeting process is a planning process that would serve as a guide to the organisation on how they incur expenditures. This shows how important planning is; serves as a guide, as a means of check, and simplifying the means of reaching the goal.

Organising as a process of management

Organising is the process of pooling resources and allocating the available resources. It involves putting obtainable resources together and allocating what is available (scarce resources) to instruments that will ensure that the goals are accomplished.

The definition of management as ‘an act of getting things done through others’, comes out to play. The process of organising/organisation involves resources getting things done (in these cases, human resources). The need to get things done and the objectives are covered in the plan. To move an object from point A to B, at the same time to move another from point C to D, would require help if they must be achieved at the same time. The time is limited, as such, the need to organise and allocate resources.

Using the previous instance of a homemaker who needs to get foodstuffs. Assume she has gotten the foodstuffs, and is ready to cook. She would need several utensils for several functions. This is to save time, and resources. Similarly, in the corporate world, the need to achieve a goal would require the activities of several departments. For instance, the need to maximise profit. The accounting department, sales department, production department, human resource department and a host of others would need to work together to achieve the corporate goal of profit maximisation.

Organisation is not actuating the plans, but consideration of alternatives and options to match resources available to the right people.

Leading as a process of management

Leading as a process is the most daunting of all. It is where the phases of planning and organisation comes to play. It is the process of actualising goals and objectives, as so desired by the entity (could be an individual or company).

The processes of planning and organising will be a waste of time if they are not played out. If I plan to go out at a particular time, yet I do not, then the plan is not valid. Where functions are allocated to different departments, there could be need for supervision and leading the department. The manager transforms his paper works to reality. It is recognised as the most daunting because this is the stage where the manager relates with human resources.

Resources are allocated to the different departments to use and actualise the corporate goals and objectives. This stage of the process cuts across human activity in the sense of relations, with human resources; being a manager or being managed, one way or the other.

Controlling as a process of management

Control is the most important process of them all. It is the process of comparing planned objectives with the actual objectives and making adjustments for variances. This process is very important, because it guides us with the way we plan. Also, for us to learn from it.

For instance, an organisation made plans to get a sales revenue of $94,000, but at the end of the period achieved a sales revenue of $35,000. This very wide gap needs to be bridged. It shows that the goals were not realistic enough. The right variables were not included or the wrong variables were included. This measure should help in case of the next planning period.

Conclusion

Is it not clear that management is the most important area of human activities? Is it not clear that if the management process were applied to our daily lives, we would achieve our goals easily? Is it not preferable to get the best results? Management process cutting through the major facets of human activities would help.

It is now without doubt that the application of management to what we do; the application of the process in the way we go about things; the application to simple and basic processes would be of the highest and greatest benefit, and give us a clearer picture of our path to achieving our goals.

Management being the process of getting things done through people remains valid and explains how important it can be to every area of human activity.

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