Approaches to management

By peit14121951

All organizations have objectives. However in a market economy the prime motive of any organization is to maximize owners wealth or to earn a rate of return, which is in line with the risk. In addition, all business have stakeholders such as suppliers, workers, government, community, interest groups such as trade uniions, employer associations and other interest groups such as environmental groups in the contemporary world.

This requires management of a business to plan, organize, control, coordinate and motivate all levels of employees to meet the set and agreed objectives. However, the managment can use appropriate management theories to accomplish the main functions of business. They also provide the requisite knowledge to understand human behavior and feasible human resource policies to control and motivate employees to maximize the potential of all the employees to improve the efficiency and effctiveness of the organization as whole on a continuous basis.

The main management theories are classical managment theories, human relation theories, systems theories, political perspectives of managment and modern contingency theory of managment. The classical managment theories focus is on the principle of specialization or division of labor, specifiic authority and resposibility, prescibed rules and procedures, pyramid structure of organization, low span of control, top down communication channel, less employee direction in the decison making process, mostly authoritiave managment style in planning, organizing, coordinating, control and motivating emplyees. They beleived employees are primarily has to be directed and they are primarily motivated only by money.

They also belived that this theory can be applicable to any organization irrespective of size, nature of activities, nature of employees. the nature of external environment, cultural factors and political factors, group behavioral factors. However, it has been found that even though classical managment theories are used in varying degrees the oversigt of the complex factors at work in organizations may create conflict and dysfunction in organizations particularly in large organizations, where the external and internal enviornment is dynamic and nature of tasks are complex in nature.

The other theories of managment have evolved over a period of time due to the weaknesses observed by organizational theorists in the 19th and 20 th century. In the modern thought, all theories have some relevance, however the choice of these theories is contingent on internal and external environment in terms of dynamics, nature of tasks, nature of managment, nature of employees, motivational factors, political activity, importance of leadership, approriate mangement style development, change managment issues, decentralization vesus centralization, organizational culture. That is in most organizations the size, and the issues as mentined above will determine, which mix of theories are useful in accomplishing the functions of management and management roles in modern organizations. That is managment theories, without context will not work and may create more dysfuctions than improve the organizational effectivess in achieving its set goals.

As mentioed above, the theories of managment are one of the essential store house of knowledge to management. If used wisely, will enable the top managment in undertaking their main fucntions of managment to meet organizational goals in their specific internal and external environment. That is, the contingency approach is the best possible world combined with the insights in to human behavior by other management schools of thought.

Content Source: Approaches to management - Bukisa.com

Outsourcing: The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Outsourcing

Author: Dee Power

Outsourcing occurs when a business secures (purchases) products and/or services from a third party, as opposed to producing them in-house. There are several advantages and disadvantages to outsourcing. Advantages of Outsourcing One of the biggest advantages can be lower personnel costs. By outsourcing job duties to non-employees, a business does not have to pay consistent wages or offer additional employee benefits. The company may pay lower taxes because independent contractors, the people who complete the outsourced projects, pay their own withholding, social security, and other taxes. This can add up to substantial savings. Some businesses choose to take their outsourcing one step further by choosing a vendor, located in another part of the world. Doing so typically saves them more money because they end up paying a much lower wage than would be necessary in their home country. The disadvantage is that these vendors may not understand English and communication is more difficult. Many times, outsourcing speeds up production time. Since the third-party vendor will only be concentrating on one specific task, instead of numerous office duties, actual production time can be greatly increased. Outsourcing gives a business the flexibility to change third-party vendors whenever necessary. This process is not as time-consuming as the normal employee hiring process, because they are not screening individuals, they are considering established companies with proven track records. An excellent example of this is customer service. When a business outsources its customer service department, it does not have to hire and oversee thirty individual operators. Instead, it can hire one call center, which will perform all needed tasks. Recent studies show that information technology-related tasks are outsourced more than anything else. Other common department functions that are outsourced include: human relations, training, accounting and supply management. Whether a business chooses to outsource on a temporary basis or permanently, the advantages are well worth the decision to do so. Most businesses, which set out to outsource temporarily end up making an ongoing commitment. Disadvantages of Outsourcing One of the biggest disadvantages of outsourcing is undesirable results. This is especially true when a company hires a third-party vendor to mass produce a product. In the event that the finished products do not meet quality standards, the manufacturing process must be repeated by a different vendor. Not only is this a waste of time and materials, it can also be very costly for the company who outsourced the project. They are essentially paying twice for the same job. In addition there is always the possibility that the company may lose sales, during this same period because of the lack of available product. Another disadvantage of outsourcing is a loss of jobs. Many times work is outsourced simply as a means to save money. Outsourcing to a foreign country typically saves a company a great deal in wages. So, the choice is made to reduce their local workforce, at the expense of the laid-off employees. In turn, it can cause community uproar and even a decrease in business and profits. This happens when local consumers make the decision to shop elsewhere, as a way to voice their disdain. Outsourcing customer service jobs, to foreign countries, is on the rise. Many large corporations including credit card companies, shopping networks and computer manufacturers are making this change. The problem with this is a lack of communication. It can be very frustrating for a consumer who is calling in with a customer service issue. When this individual cannot understand the customer service representative they are speaking with, it just causes more frustration and does little to solve the problem.

About the Author:

Find more about outsourcing. Dee Power is the author of several nonfiction books and the novel "Over Time." More professional expert resources

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