Quite often leading and managing are considered as synonymous terms. Both require several qualities or traits and both are processes involving interpersonal relations. Both involve setting goals and mobilizing resources. They are complementary qualities inexorably linked to each other, and any attempt to extricate one from the other is impossible. What is the difference between management and leadership? It is a question that has been asked more than once and also answered in different ways. “There is a profound difference between management and leadership, and both are important. To manage means to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge of or responsibility for, to conduct. Leading is influencing, guiding in a direction, course, action, opinion. The distinction is crucial” — Continue reading
Management Concepts
Difference Between Administration and Management
The use of two terms Management and Administration has been a controversial issue in the management literature. Some writers do not see any difference between the two terms, while others maintain that administration and management are two different functions. According to those who held management and administration distinct, management is a lower-level function and is concerned primarily with the execution of policies laid down by administration. Dalton E. McFarland states: “in government agencies administration is preferred over management, although in recent years the term management has become widely used in government agencies.” But some authors are of the opinion that management is a wider term including administration. This controversy of difference between administration and management is discussed as under in Continue reading
Team Development Life Cycle
When a number of individuals begin to work at interdependent jobs, they often pass through several stages as they learn to work together as a team. The stages of team development life cycle are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. This model of team development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who maintained that these phases are all necessary and inevitable and allow team growth. Though these are not followed rigidly, they do represent a broad pattern that may be observed and predicted in many settings across team’s time together. These stages are the result of a variety of questions and issues that team members face such as “who will be members of the team?” “Who will perform Continue reading
Process of Team Building
Team building attempts to improve effectiveness of the team by having team members to concentrate on: Setting goals and priorities for the team. Analyzing how team’s goals and priorities are linked to those of the organization. Analyzing how the work is performed. Analyzing how the team is working, and Analyzing the relationships among the members who are performing the job. The process of team building is a collection of steps which lead to a specific change in the approach among people, to make effective teams. Various steps of team building process are not one-shot action, rather, they are repetitive and cyclical. 1. Problem Sensing There are a number of ways in which problems of a team can be obtained. Often Continue reading
Building Effective Teams
An effective team is one which contributes to the achievement of organizational objectives by performing the task assigned to it and providing satisfaction to its members. Team effectiveness depends on the complementary of team members, other factors remaining the same. From this statement, it appears that there are many factors in effective teams. These factors are skills and role clarity, supportive environment, super-ordinate goals and team rewards. Let us see how these factors make effective teams. Skills and Role Clarity: For an effective team, two things are required from its members; skills which are complementary to the team requirement and understanding of one’s own role as well as roles of other members. While skills are relevant for job performance, understanding Continue reading
Comparison of Classical and Behavioral Approaches to Management
Management has been as old as the human beings and with the evolvement of humans management has also evolved. The history of management and its theories can be traced back to thousands of years. However, systematic development of the theories of management is generally viewed from the end of nineteenth century with the emergence of large industrial organizations and the ensuing problems associated with their structure and management. This is the time when work of various writers on the management has started to come into the light. These works can be clubbed together to form different approaches to the theory of management. Two of the most popular and widely accepted approaches to management are: Classical Approach to Management, and Behavioral Continue reading