Explain management as “The art of getting things done through the efforts of other people”; in the context of a company operation

Question:

Explain management as “The art of getting things done through the efforts of other people”; in the context of a company operation.



Answer:

  Management is defined as “The art of getting things done through the efforts of other people” in the text because the function of management is to decide the group goals of the organization and ensure that every individual in the organisation is assigned an individual role that contributes to the successful accomplishment of the group goals of the organisation in the most efficient way.

  Management is both the art & science of Planning, Organising, Leading and Controlling ( P-O-L-C ) people within an organisation in other to accomplish the organisations goals, so it is all about the art of using the efforts of others to accomplish what managers planned to accomplish.

  For example, if I was the Manager of a Restaurant and I had several employees working for me. One major group goal of the restaurant is to make a profit. However, for that to happen, individual employees have to been given different individual roles to perform. 

  Somebody has to be the Chef, Somebody has to serve the food, Somebody has to be the Cleaner, Somebody has to be the Valet, Somebody has to work security,...etc.

  All these individual roles must be efficiently performed to ensure the Restaurant's group goal of making a profit is accomplished.

  Thus, management gets what it wants done accomplished by using the individual efforts of others within the organisation. 



References: 

Management Principles (v. 1.1). Chapter 1: Introduction To Principles Of Management. 

 

Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management. by P. Graham.

(Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1995).