What is the meaning of Management?

Ordinarily, the term management denotes utilisation of available resources to achieve some objectives. Every individual person has to manage his individual problems. It is more common in group life, as we find it in the business, factory, school, hospital, trade union, etc., as well as in the Government. It started to exist in human life since man started his sedatory habits and forming into a society.

Management is a distinct function and so it can be separately studied. It consists of some basic and interrelated activities. It is a way or a discipline, which adds effectiveness to human efforts and brings order to them. As a process it has a dynamic aspect. It is developing as a distinct branch of sociology. But there are some difficulties with regard to the terminology. The people who perform management are also known as ‘the management.’ It is perhaps better to use the word ‘managing’ to denote the function of management.

Peter Drucker, a modern exponent of management thoughts goes a step further and considers management “as an essential, a distinct and a leading institution” which has a pivotal position in social history. Drucker says “Management, which is the organ of society specifically charged with making resources productive, therefore reflects the basic spirit of the modern age.”

Lawrence Appley has written that “Management has been defined in very simple terms as ‘getting things done through the efforts of other people’ and that function breaks down into at least two major responsibilities, one of which is planning, the other control.”

Common to all these definition is the contention that management involves activities that are directed towards determination and accomplishment of organizational goals.