CIA-1
BY-PRAGYA JOSHI 1927741, MBAJ
MANAGEMENT
DEFINITION
According to Henry Fayol, “to manage is to forecast and to plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate
and to control”.
Management involves optimum utilisation of human, financial, technological and natural resources of an
organization in an appropriate and best possible way in order to achieve the goals of an organization.
For example: - If company A wants to capture the market of company B i.e. it wants the customers of B
to buy their products, then the role of management will lie on the fact that how they strategize further in
order to capture the market, what all steps will be required in this process and even drafting a sound plan
to achieve its set targets like in this case capturing of market.
Before starting with the management styles I would like to mention the functions of management which
serves as a framework for comparing the managerial practices of two or more economies.
Following are the important functions of management.
1. Planning: - It is a pre-decided course of action which involves selection of missions, objectives and
deciding on the suitable actions to achieve them. It begins with being aware of the opportunities in the
external as well as internal environment of an organisation and ends with budgeting.
2. Organising: - It is the process of identifying and classifying required activities, grouping them to attain
necessary objectives, defining and delegating authority and responsibility to coordinate the activities
effectively and efficiently.
3. Staffing: - Staffing is the process of identifying the workforce requirements of an organization, recruiting,
selecting, placing, promoting, appraising, compensating and training them so that they can work
efficiently.
4. Leadership: - Leadership is an art of influencing people so that they work with zeal and confidence in
obtaining the goals of the organization.
5. Controlling: -It is the process of measuring performance of an organization against the established
standards and correcting variations from standards and plans.
COMPARISON BETWEEN JAPANESE AND AMERICAN
MANAGEMENT STYLE
JAPENESE MANAGEMENT STYLE
Japanese management emphasizes on achieving common goals by putting hard work, consultative
decision making i.e. consensual and collective decision making , two way communication, long term
planning, sharing the overall objectives of the organisation with the employees, establishing harmony
among the employees and the management, giving value to the workers and being concerned for them.
According to Japanese style of management it is necessary for the information to flow from bottom of the
company to the top. This results in framing of policies at the middle levels of a company before passing it
upwards for ratification. The Japanese manager should focus on building a healthy and cooperative
working area so that the groups can flourish and succeed. There is a reciprocal relationship between
manager and group (team) which he is addressing. Manager should make himself available at all the time
and he should be willing to share relevant information within the group. In return for this open approach,
there is an expectation of getting information regarding recent developments from the team members.
Learnings from Japanese style of management:
1. Decisions by consensus
2. Focusing on the problem
3. Understanding the needs of the workers
4. Willingness to change
5. Sound appraisal policy
6. Job security is there
7. Increased effectiveness
Thus the Japanese style of management can be briefly summarised as follows:-
1. Planning- long term oriented
2. Decision making-collective decision making, flow of decision takes place from top to bottom in case of
critical decisions and bottom to top in case of non- critical decisions, process of decision making is slow
but its implementation is fast.
3. Organizing-informal organisational infrastructure, collective responsibility and accountability, well
known common organization culture and philosophy, spirit of competitiveness toward other enterprises
is high
4. Staffing- young people are hired, there is no mobility of people among companies, slow promotion
through ranks, the companies expect loyalty, appraisal of long term performance is preferred, lifetime
employment is commonly observed in large companies, training and development is also given due
consideration.
5. Leading- paternalistic style of leadership is followed, leader act as a social facilitator and member of the
group, emphasis on harmony thereby avoiding confrontation and focussing on facilitating cooperation,
bottom up communication is encouraged where the employees at the lower level can convey information
to their immediate superiors.
6. Controlling- Focus on group performance, extensive use of quality control circles is preferred, controlling
is done by peers.
AMERICAN STYLE OF MANAGEMENT
In American style of management managers are accountable for the decisions made within the scope of
their responsibility and that is why it is more of an individual approach. Some important decisions might
be discussed in open forum but the ultimate responsibility to take and bear the consequences of decision
lies with the manager (boss). There is no such provision of obtaining consensus like Japanese style of
management. American managers disregard the opinions of subordinates and even sometimes the
opinions of other managers which create confrontations in the business meetings. Features of American
style of management
1. Planning:- Short term oriented
2. Decision making: - emphasis on individual decision making, no involvement of subordinated in decision
making process, decisions are taken by top level management, process of decision making is fast but its
implementation is slow.
3. Organizing: - Formal bureaucratic organization structure, authority and responsibility lies on one person,
lack of common organization culture.
4. Staffing:- people are hired out of schools or from other companies , mobility in changing companies, no
job security, promotion is granted on the basis of individual’s performance and it takes into account only
short term performance, not much emphasis on training and development of workers.
5. Leading: - leader is the head and decision-maker of the group, directive style of leadership is applicable.
Communication flows from top to bottom, individualism restricts and hinders cooperation and face to
face confrontation is common.
6. Controlling: - limited use of quality circles, major focus is on individual performance, control exercised
by superior.