To avoid complacency, managers can adopt principles that commit their organisations to actions defined by society as in accordance with good citizenship. Interestingly, however, many organisations ignore the potential effects of these indirect forces until they become direct forces. Organisations should monitor social and cultural forces because these external forces are extremely important to their performance. Every nation has a social and cultural system comprising certain beliefs and values.Įnvironmental interest groups have lobbied for legislation to further limit industries emissions of fossil fuels (gas, coal and oil) that intensify the greenhouse effect - a phenomenon that could produce disastrous changes in the world’s climate. Cultural and Social:Ĭultural and social forces are changes in our social and cultural system that can affect an organisation’s actions and the demand for its products or services. Consequently, many organisations monitor governmental and legislative developments to ensure their own compliance with the law. Most observers believe that government involvement in organisations will continue, given that people continue to call on government to protect the consumer, preserve the environments and push for an end to discrimination in employment, education and housing. However, when the economy shifts downward (as in a recession), demand plummets, unemployment rises and profits shrink. In times of continual moderate growth, many organisations enjoy a growing demand for output, and funds are more easily available for plant expansion and other investments.
Notes on the Socio-Economic and Cultural Significance of Management:Ĭhange in the economy pose both opportunities and problems for managers. Management is more than a process.Īs Richard Pettinger has rightly put it, “management is partly the process of getting things done through people and partly the creative and energetic combination of scarce resources into effective and profitable activities, and the combination of the skill and talents of the individuals concerned with doing this”.Ģ. This definition is much broader than the one suggested by Drucker that management is a process. Writing in the 1980s, Tom Peters defined it as ‘organisational direction based on sound common sense, pride in the organisation and enthusiasm for its works’. Brech called it ‘the social process of planning, coordination, control and motivation’. Henri Fayol, in the early twentieth century, defined it as the process of ‘forecasting, planning, organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling’. There are many definitions of management. It should be more concerned with practice than with theory. So, management as a subject has practical bias. While science provides a framework of analysis, art follows certain practices.
According to Drucker it is an art, rather than science. Taylor’s influential book- Shop Management in 1903, which brought into focus the scientific character of the subject.īut the study of the subject, in the true sense, started with the publication of Peter Drucker’s Practice of Management in 1954. The study of the subject started after the publication of F.W. The job of managing is likely to become more and more challenging in the 21st century for a number of reasons – rapid growth of the service sector, foreign competition, large number of corporate mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, business process engineering, downsizing, flattening of the pyramid, empowerment and core competencies.Īlthough the study of mathematics started 5,000 years ago, that of economics 250 years ago, the study of management as a separate discipline is a comparatively recent event. Perhaps the most significant factor in determining the performance and process of any organisation is the quality of its management. A manager is not a manager if he works alone, i.e., unless involved in the process of getting things done through others. This often involves the allocation and control of money and physical resources. Management is defined as the process of getting things done through the efforts of other people.