Nature of Management

1. Universality: Management is an universal phenomenon in the sense that it is common and essential element in all enterprises. Managers perform more or less the same functions irrespective of their position or nature of the organization. The basic principles of management can be applied in all managerial situations regardless of the size, nature and location of the organization. Universality of managerial tasks and principles also implies that managerial skills are transferable and managers can be trained and developed.

2. Purposeful: Management is always aimed at achieving organizational goals and purposes. The success of management is measured by the extent to which the desired objectives are attained. In both economic and non-economic enterprises, the tasks of management are directed towards effectiveness (i.e., attainment of organizational goals) and efficiency (i.e., goal attainment with economy of resource use).

3. Social process: Management essentially involves managing people organized in work groups. It includes retaining, Developing and motivating people at work, as well as taking care of their satisfaction as social beings. All these interpersonal relations and interactions makes the management as asocial process.

4. Coordinating force: Management coordinates the efforts of organization members through orderly arrangement of inter-related activities so as to avoid duplication and overlapping. Management reconciles the individual goals with the organizational goals and integrates human and physical resources.

5. Intangible: Management is intangible. It is an unseen force. Its presence can be felt everywhere by the results of its effort which comes in the form of orderliness, adequate work output, satisfactory working climate, employees satisfaction etc.

6. Continuous process: Management is a dynamic and an on-going process. The cycle of management continues to operate so long as there is organised action for the achievement of group goals.

7. Composite process: Functions of management cannot be undertaken sequentially, independent of each other. Management is a composite process made up of individual ingredients. All the functions are performed by involving several ingredients. Therefore, the whole process is integrative and performed in a network fashion.

8. Creative organ: Management creates energetics effect by producing results which are more than the sum of individual efforts of the group members. It provides sequence to operations, matches jobs to goals, connects work to physical and financial resources. It provides creative ideas, new imaginations and visions to group efforts. It is not a passive force adopting to external environment but a dynamic life giving element in every organization.

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