PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT
BCOR 120
Imène Chakroun
1–1
Course Overview
• Whether the student is a business, engineering, MIS or science
major, everyone needs to understand the fundamentals of
management. Management is a critical skill required of everyone.
The objective of this course is introduce the student to the
foundational skills of management while providing them with
practical application skills.
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Contact details
•Email: Imene.chakroun@tbs.u-tunis.tn
• Office hours: Wednesday
from 11h30 am to 12h30
Chapter 1
Role and Functions of
Managers in Organizations
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DO YOU KNOW THEM ?
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Introduction
• Managers are responsible for achieving organizational
goals through the effective and efficient utilization of
resources. (make decisions, allocate resources, and direct
the activities of others to attain goals)
• Organization- A consciously coordinated social unit,
composed of two or more people, that functions on a
relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or
set of goals. (manufacturing and service firms are
organizations, and so are schools, hospitals…) 1–7
What is an Organization ?
• Organization- A group of people who work together in an
organized way and use resources of various kinds in order to
achieve a common goal or set of goals.
• Examples of organization are: for profit organizations (firms),
governments, non-government organizations (NGO), armed forces,
non-profit organizations, etc.
• Firm’s goal is selling products or services and getting a profit. In
nonprofit organizations, money and expenses are important
concerns, but success is usually measured by how effectively
services are delivered
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Common Characteristics of Organizations
Goals Structure People
A goal or a set of goals A structure that defines the roles Made up of people that have
and the responsibilities of each make decisions and activities
member
How Do We Define Management?
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• Management is the process of achieving organizational
How Do We Define Management?
goals through the effective and efficient utilization of
resources.
• Managers are concerned not only with attaining goals
(effectiveness) but also attaining them efficiently.
• Achieving goals effectively means making the right
decisions and executing them successfully
• Achieving goals efficiently means using resources
(people, money, raw materials…) wisely and cost-
effectively.
How Do We Define Management?
INPUT OUTPUT
Efficiency Effectiveness
Goals
Goal Attainment
Resource Usage
Low High
Waste Attainment
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•Efficiency relates to inputs and what the
How Do We Define Management?
manager does. Managers should make the most
economic use of resources.
•Effectiveness relates to outputs of the job and
what the manager actually achieves.
• Effectiveness is related to the achievement of some purpose or task
and is measured in terms of the results that the manager is supposed
to achieve.
• Effectiveness is more important than efficiency because one must be
doing the right kind of work. Only then does it matter whether the work
is done efficiently.
The Manager’s Resources
• Resource is a person, an information, an asset, material or
capital that can be used to create value
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Management Levels
•Management levels refers to the lines of
separation between different managerial
positions. In traditional organizations, there are 3
levels that vary in terms of duties, responsibilities
and authority related to each level.
• The number of managers at each level is such
that the hierarchy looks like a pyramid.
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• Top managers are responsible for the performance of an
organization as a whole or for one of its significant parts. They
make important decisions and set policies. Exp: CEO, CFO,
president, vice president
• Middle managers report to top managers and are in charge of
relatively large divisions. They translate the goals into specific
details that lower-level managers can perform. Exp: Sales
manager, branch manager, or department head
• First-line managers supervise the daily activities of small work
units. Exp: group leader, unit leader, supervisor, or office manager.
• Operatives: have no responsibility for overseeing the work of
others. Exp: Cashiers/Specialists/Technicians
The Levels of Management
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•However:
•Not all organizations get work done using this
traditional pyramidal structure.
•Some organizations are more loosely configured,
with work being done by ever-changing teams
of employees who move from one project to
another as work demands arise.
Managerial skills
•Not everyone can be a manager. Managers
should have certain skills.
•Robert Katz – has identified three essential
management skills:
• Technical Skills
• Conceptual Skills
• Human Skills
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Technical Skills
• The ability to use a special talent or expertise to perform
particular tasks.
• For example, mechanics work with tools, and their
supervisors should have the ability to teach them how to
use these tools.
• Managers acquire these skills initially through formal
education and then further develop them through
training and job experience.
Conceptual Skills
• To analyze and interpret information and diagnose
complex situations to predict how things fit together
• To have a critical thinking, to see the organization as a
whole, to break down problems into smaller parts and
see the hidden relations among the parts.
• Again, managers may acquire these skills through
formal education and then further develop them by
training and job experience.
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Human Skills
• The ability to work with and through people (in
cooperation with others).
• The capacity to understand or empathize with the feelings
of employees, predict, explain & control their behaviors,
solve their problems and get accepted by them.
• Some managers are naturally born with great human skills,
while others improve their skills through classes or
experience.
Different Skills For Different Managers
• Although all three skills are essential for managers, their
relative importance vary at different management levels.
• Technical skills are most important at lower levels of
management since they have to supervise other workers
• Human skills are critical for all managers because of the
highly interpersonal nature of managerial work.
• Conceptual skills are especially important for top-level
managers, who must develop long-range plans for the
future direction of their organization.
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Different Skills For Different Levels of Management
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Management Functions
Management Functions
Planning
Planning is about deciding the future course of
action -setting goals, objectives and deciding
how best to achieve them. It includes defining
an organization’s goals and establishing an
overall strategy for achieving those goals.
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Management Functions
• Organizing
After a plan is in place, a manager needs to organize his
team and resources according to the plan.
Assigning work and granting authority are two important
elements of organizing. It includes determining what
tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks
are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where
decisions are to be made.
Management Functions
• Directing (or leading)
Leading involves motivating, communicating,
guiding, and encouraging. It requires the
manager to coach, assist, and problem solve
with employees.
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Management Functions
• Controlling
Managers need to continuously check results
against goals and take any corrective actions
necessary to make sure that the plans remain
on track.
Management Functions
➢ Management functions are not steps in a linear process.
It does not always start with planning and ends with
controlling.
➢ Instead, managers often perform them simultaneously.
➢ All managers plan, organize, direct, and control. But the
amount of time they give to each function is not
necessarily constant.
➢ The importance of managerial functions varies
depending on a manager’s position within the
organization.
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Different Skills For Different Levels of Management
• Technical skills becomes less important as we move to higher
level, but even top managers need some expertise in the
organization’s specialty.
Management Functions
• Managers at the lower level are more concerned with planning and
organizing the operations at the departmental level.
• They implement the policies. They also play the supervisory role
since they are in direct contact with the employees at the
workplace.
• They are more concerned with control function as compared to
planning and organizing functions of the management.
• They directly guide and control the day-to-day performance of the
employees at the workplace.
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The Relationship among the Management Functions
Planning
Management
Functions
Controlling Organizing
Management
Skills
Leading
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Ten Roles Managers Play
• Management is a complex and challenging task so
managers have to play various roles.
• A role is a set of expectations of how a manager
will behave in a given situation
• Henry Mintzberg, a management thinker, identified
10 different roles that managers has to perform,
classified into 3 role categories
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Ten Roles Managers Play
• Interpersonal: This role involves human interaction.
• Informational: This role involves the sharing and analyzing of
information.
• Decisional: This role involves decision making.
The interpersonal roles
• Figurehead: representing the company legally and
socially in all matters of formality. He performs
ceremonial or symbolic roles.
• Leader: includes hiring, training, motivating, and
disciplining employees
• Liaison: interacting with peers and people outside the
organization.
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The informational roles
• Monitor: collecting information by scanning the media
(periodicals, reports…) and talking with experts to
predict changes in customer’s tastes, competitors
strategies, new regulations, etc.
• Disseminator: transmit information to organization
members via memos, emails, reports, phone calls, etc.
• Spokesperson: transmit information to outsiders about
the organization`s plans, policies, actions, and results via
reports, speeches, press conferences...
The decisional roles
• Entrepreneur: the manager initiate change, oversees new
projects, and identifies new ideas
• Disturbance handler: take action when organization faces
important, unexpected events
• Resource allocator: decide where, when and how people
and projects receive resources, manage schedules and
budgets and set priorities
• Negotiator: represent the organization when negotiating
contracts or agreements with unions, customers, suppliers…
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