Practical Guide of Effective Management

PRACTICAL GUIDE OF

EFFECTIVE

MANAGEMENT

M.D. Mgulwa

Published by M.D. Mgulwa at Smashwords.

Copyright M.D. Mgulwa 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced or transmitted either electronically or mechanically without written authorisation by the author.

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Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. What is Management?

3. Levels of Management

4. Management Functions

5. Poor work performance by employees.

6. Managers who are not motivated.

7. Conclusion

8. Summary.

9. References

1.Introduction

You may just be promoted to a management position or you may be an experienced manager in terms of number of years you are managing. This guide is for you.

You may be an entrepreneur who has just started your small business or have started your business some time ago. Still this book is for you.

What is entailed in our discussion is, first, to define and explain what management is. Then we define what is meant by the concept manager. In other words, what is a manager? We then proceed by explaining management functions.

Let's then start the discussion.

Before we take on the discussion, may I ask you to spend some few minutes answering the following few questions so as to test your current knowledge about management?

I also ask you to write your responses on a piece of paper and keep it safely so as to compare your answers with the knowledge you will gather from our discussion.

The question:

1.What is management?...........................................................................................................

…………………………………………………………………………………………….….

2.What is a manager?...............................................................................................................

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

3.Management functions are....................................................................................................

……………………………………………………………………………………………......

4.List the environments in which management operates .........................................................

………………………………………………………………………………………………...

5.The primary function of management is. ..............................................................................

………………………………………………………………………………………………...

6.Planning means. ....................................................................................................................

………………………………………………………………………………………………...

7.Steps of Team Building are. ..................................................................................................

………………………………………………………………………………………………...

8.I motivate my subordinates by. .............................................................................................

………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Sharpen your axe

May I share the following story cited from the book, Help! I'm a Manager by A. Mol:

There was a farmer who was manufacturing timber in his farm. He hired a man to chop trees from which he made the timber. He paid him a fixed amount of money paid for each tree he chopped. When the project grew because of increasing demand for timber, he decided to hire a second person who was also paid the same amount of money as the first one. They received their payment at the end of the week, on Friday.

As time passed, the first man noticed that the other man is earning more than he was. He decided to go to the employer to ask the reason. The farmer told him that there is nothing wrong he has done because he is rewarding him according to the same agreement of the same amount for each tree chopped. He advised him to ask the man whether how he does.

After work he visited the man in his home. He found him honing his axe. When he asked how he does to be able to chop many trees than he did. He said, 'Every day after work I sharpen my axe so that it withstands the amount of work that needs to be done "

When the first man went back home he also sharpened his axe.

From that day onwards he was able to chop as many trees as possible. Every day he sharpened his axe after work. He sometimes chopped more than the second man, and he was earning a lot of money.

Also you, manager, I am presenting to you a honer that will enable you to achieve better results when executing your duties.

Just before we start, let me indicate that I will use a feminine pronoun and feminine possessive pronoun whenever I have to use a pronoun, except where I cite an e example of a masculine gender. That use will apply to both genders. My simple reason to that is only to deviate from what has appeared to be a norm to use masculine pronoun. I also wouldn't like to use both pronouns either together or interchangeable.

Now let's start our discussion.

2. What is Management?

Management is a process of directing an organization towards achievement of its goals and objectives through use of its available resources effectively and efficiently in the environment in which it operates

That's the simplest definition of management that ever had been. But it captures everything which the concept of management entails.

Before going further, let's what a manager is.

A manager is a person employed to direct the organization towards achievement of its goals and objectives through use of its available resources effectively and efficiently in the environment in which it operates. To shorten, a manager is employed to execute or implement management.

There are many definitions of management out there. In reality, every management literature starts with a definition. For the purpose of our discussion, I request you to put those definitions aside and let us proceed with the one I provided above.

It is very rare to find a definition of a manager. This may be the reason why most managers fail to execute their duties. In the management trainings that I conducted, most participants, who were actually managers, would say management is instructing subordinates to carry out their work. Some would say it is to give orders to subordinates, while others didn't have a clue about what management means. They wouldn't write their responses. The questionnaire I gave is exactly what I gave you above. This may be one of the reasons why managers are failing to manage organizations. My belief is that if you don't know what management is, then you won't know what a manager is, and you won't know how and what to manage despite wearing a cap of a manager.

That is why I strongly advise you that if you had a definition of management and manager which doesn't capture the concepts marked bold in the definitions provided above, then fold those definitions, put them in a plastic bag, tie them to a stone and throw them into the deep end of the sea.

Let us now comment on the different parts of the definition of management, more especially the words written in bold.

Process

Management is not an event where one does and stop after completing it. Management is a continual execution of activities or actions. Whenever the manager is at work, it is expected that she directs the organization.

Directing

When talking about directing, I'm reminded of the words which are said to have been said by Jesus Christ that, 'there is no blind man who can lead other blinded, lest they fall into a cliff'. You can ask your priest or preacher as to who actually said those words. The bottom line is that the person who leads others is supposed to see the road and be mindful of the destination to where she leads the people who follow her. If the manager doesn't know where she is leading the organization to, then it follows logically that she will direct it to any direction. Most probably she will take the nearest route, whether it is the route that was planned by the organization or not. That will lead to a situation where the organization is compelled to do what it didn't intend doing.

Therefore, directing is showing the route to follow. A manager is employed to show the organization which route to follow.

Organization

An organisation is an entity which is established to fulfil certain goals that support its reason for existence (mission).

Example: a bank is established for safekeeping of individual and business funds. A labour organization is established to protect employee interests viz a viz employer interests. The justice department is established to ensure justice prevails in hearing and judging court decisions, the health department is established to ensure prevention and