Management is a professional activity aimed at achieving the goals with the help of the optimal use of labor and material resources based on the principles, methods and functions of the economic mechanism of management theory.
At its core, this term is synonymous with the word "management." However, “management” is a narrower concept and applies only to the management of various social and economic processes across the enterprise or organization. This concept includes:
- marketing and market forecasting;
- production of goods with minimal cost and maximum profit from their sale;
- analysis of information and drawing up a plan to achieve the intended goal;
- personnel management, which implies knowledge of the fundamentals of psychology and sociology.
The main skill of a born manager is the ability to successfully solve problems. In a small company, the manager is usually the manager. But if the company reaches medium and large sizes, then a manager (manager, organizer, leader) comes to his aid. And it often happens that it is thanks to his professional skills that a manager solves many problems even better than a director.
Management Theory is the science of the methods and principles of such management. For a better understanding of this scientific discipline, it is useful to consider its historical development. The evolution of management theory began more than a hundred years ago. There are 5 main formed schools of managerial thought:
• A school that focuses on scientific management methods (from 1885 to 1920).
• Classical school (1920 - 1950).
• A school that studied the impact of human relations (from 1930 to 1950).
• Behavioral school, also called the school of behavioral sciences (from 1950 to the present).
• Mathematical school or quantitative approach (from 1950 to the present).
The school of scientific management is based on the principles and ideas of Frederick Taylor. This management theory pays great attention to the scientific study of each type of labor activity, specialization of labor and the introduction of a differential payment system. Taylor believed that using observation, measurements, logic, manual operations can be significantly improved. Other famous representatives of this trend are Henry Gantt, spouses Lilian and Frank Gilbreth.
The founder of the classical school was Henri Fayolle. Its representatives for the first time separated management from production, separating it into an independent type of activity. This management theory focused on improving and developing the principles of the enterprise management process as a whole. A. Fayol developed 14 universal principles of management, and M. Weber formulated the foundations of a bureaucratic approach to management.
The doctrine of "human relations" has become the cornerstone of the next school of management - the school, which considered the organization as a specific "social system". The founders of this school (Elton Mayo, Abraham Maslow, Fritz Rotlisberger) noticed that human needs influence labor productivity. According to them, the manager should strive for informal leadership and win "the favor of the people."
In contrast to the supporters of the school of human relations, which focused on the needs of the individual, representatives of the behavioral school (F. Herzberg, K. Ardzhiris, D. McGregor, R. Linkert) examined and studied the behavior of people in the group, both formal and informal. In these two schools, theories of motivation in management are developed.
In a mathematical school, control is a specific logical process that can be described by an appropriate mathematical model. Therefore, attention is focused on economic and mathematical methods, the use of statistics and the computerization of organization management. Among the founders of this school, the most famous are G. Smoey, D. Woodward, D. March, G. Ackoff, N. Lowre, D. Thompson.
The interconnection of the above schools leads to the creation of highly effective management. Each direction is like a thread of a control rope, which, interwoven with each other, create the highest strength. Modern management theory has absorbed and continues to deepen and develop all the best achievements and ideas of each school.