Management. Basics
What is Management?
If we look in a dictionary, we can find that speaking of management means the basic functions of foreseeing, planning, organizing, integrating, directing and controlling that a person (manager) must perform within the organization. Also,we must remember that the high management of the enterprise, the President, General Manager, Directors, etc. is in charge of decision making in great importance and magnitude for the well-functioning of the enterprise.
Essential principles of management.
The Peter Drucker Foundation points out the following essential principles of Management in a document:
1. Management is an applicable science to human being. The part of he who exercises it is to make them work together.
To this respect, we must remember that not everyone was born to lead. Moreover, it depends of our personal attributes, our social attitudes, to be able to perform as good bosses. In many occasions, because of a good performance, a technician can be promoted to a higher rank and it turns out that you "lose a good technician and you gain a bad boss", a very common story in many enterprises.
2. Management is immersed in culture. You need to be capable of identifying the parts of your own history and tradition that will serve as bricks to build your future.
All employees must be compromised with the values and purposes of the enterprise, which constitutes the bases for the organizational culture. The necessary mechanisms must be found for all the employees of the enterprise to be involved positively in the search for excellence. They must be made to feel that they are an important part in the accomplishment of organizational goals, and above all, that the enterprise belongs to them.
3. Don't look for results inside the enterprise. The important ones only exist outside the enterprise.
Every enterprise emerges for and because of its clients, to satisfy human needs. The focus of this principle is precisely that; keeping our clients satisfied assures a lasting permanence in the market.
The Manager of the XXI century.
These days, the constant changes in which we live, the unknown future, cyberspace, globalization, etc. force managers all over the globe to keep up with reality; informed and ready to act.
Before this modification of global economy, it is characterized as:
· More agile Organizational Structures.
· Leverage through excellent service.
· Exploitation of competitive advantages.
· Maturity in the market.
· Product diversity.
Lorenzo Giordano, engineer, has proposed the following profile for the XXI century Manager:
1. Possessing the knowledge and academic maturity to accurately comply all the assigned projects.
2. Having abilities in directing the executive team and become the leader in a group.
3. Being a positive person, having character and authority with his team, but also, recognizing and congratulating when things are done well.
4. Maximizing ethical and moral values, promoting respect for human beings, complementing actions with good example, both in the working environment as well as in the social and family environment (being always the same person).
To cover this new role, the new manager must break three management paradigms based in its old customs:
· The administration of personnel based in punishment, persecution, intolerance and constant scolding, which would lead to working alone, with a discouraged and unsupportive team.
· On the contrary, the new manager must spread his collaborators with enthusiasm, teach them planning and organizing their work efficiently and be able to make them go to work every day looking forward to face new challenges.
· Dedicating too much time to small details, not trusting the work of his collaborators. Not running to what is urgent. Administration fails when what is urgent takes time from what is really important.
