PCL 311 Pharmacy Management

Basic Principles and functions of Management

Pharmacy is both a profession and trade (biz) whether in the community, hospital or industry in
other words it is both service and profit driven.

What is Management?

1. Management is an act of knowing what is to be done and seeing that it is done in the best
possible manner according to Frederick W Taylor (Father of Scientific Management).
2. Management is to forecast, plan, organize, command, coordinate and control activities of
others – Henry Fayol (Father of modern management).
3. Management is a social and technical process that utilizes resources, influences human
action and facilitates changes in order to accomplish an organization’s goals – William Scott
4. Management is a process of working with and through others to achieve organizational
objectives in a changing environment, central to this purpose is the effective and efficient
use of limited resources – Robert Kreitner
5. Management is the process by which managers create, direct, maintain and operate
purposive organization through systematic, coordinated and cooperative human effects -
McFarland.

However, a functional definition of Management may be basically: the process of combination of

productive resources to achieve set goals and objectives effectively and efficiently.

Productive resources are the tools of management which include 4 Ms namely Men, Money,
Materials and Machines.

Processes include Planning, Organising and control.

Goals and objectives are the end results which are achieved through strategies and tactics.

Effectiveness implies the attainment of set goals/objectives, i.e, doing the right things

Efficiency implies cost of achieving such objectives, i.e., doing things right.

Relevance of Management.

1. Scarcity of resources – both human and material resources are limited in supply.
Management optimizes their utilization.
2. Competition – Management helps to withstand competition and remain in business.
3. Environment (could be internal or external).
Internal includes materials and personnel and their competencies which are within the
manager’s control.
External environment (Macro environment) include political stability, legal/ regulatory,
Technology, Economic, price system, value of naira, purchasing power, competitors both
(legal and illegal).
 Basic Function of Management:
1. Planning: This involves the determination in advance of objectives and courses of action to
be followed (strategies) to achieve set goals, targets and objectives.

Effective planning must be based on facts and takes into account the internal resources
of the organization and the macro environment.
Planning is futuristic since it involves the statement of objectives to be attained in the
future and also an intellectual process because it is based on creative thinking.

Planning is of 3 broad categories

i. Strategic (long range) - for the entire organization

ii. Tactical (medium range) - for administrative or departmental use
iii. Operational (short range) – for day to day operations.

2. Organizing – this entails the assignment of tasks, i.e. duties and responsibilities to different
people.

2 main features of an organizational structure are ;

a. Chain of command which refers to the hierarchy or pyramid of authority between

subordinates and superiors in a given organization.
b. Span of control which refers to the number of subordinates under the authority of a
superior.
A narrow span implies a small number of subordinates report to a manager which results in
a tall organizational structure.
A large span implies that each manager directly supervises many subordinates resulting in a
short organizational structure.

Delegation is the process by which a manager transfer authority or power to make decisions
to a subordinate. It is based on 2 principles
a. Span of control. Once this is exceeded, authority should be delegated.
b. The principle of exception. States a manager must focus his attention on areas of
weakness and efficient functioning while he delegates routine functions to subordinates.

Advantages of delegation

 Enhances training of subordinates

 Breaks down organizational objectives into achievable goals.
 Motivates subordinates
 Gives a sense of achievement
 Enhances responsibility
 Reduces workload of superiors
 Saves time
 Gives subordinates the feeling of involvement.
Reasons for reluctance to delegate

o Feeling of indispensability
o Feeling of omnipotence
o Lack of confidence in subordinates
o Fear that subordinates may take over
o Fear of losing trusted subordinatesto promotion or transfer
o Fear of Criticism
o Skeleton in the cupboard.

3. Controlling

This is the process by which objectives are accomplished as planned in order to achieve set
objectives. It is a continuous process with3 basic steps

i. Establishment of standards e.g. costs, revenue targets, working hours.

ii. Comparison of performance against the standards e.g. through weekly or monthly
reports
iii. Correction of deviation from standard.

4. Leading – Leadership is a dynamic process whereby one individual influences the others to
contribute (voluntarily) to the achievement of group tasks in a given situation.
A leader must be skillful, be knowledgeable, have a personality and be good at delegation.
Types of leaders
i. Traditional leader (by birth)
ii. Charismatic leader (by personality)

[Link]/Functional leader ( selected or elected by what he does rather than what he is.

iv. Appointment Leader.

5. Staffing
Entails manpower recruitment (staffing), selection appraisal, compensation and training.

6. Motivation:
This might be defined as the willingness to voluntarily contribute to group action or progress
of work. Often times when motivation is high, productivity is high and vice versa. Failure to
motivate employee will lead to employee frustration, reduced output and increased turn
over. The various theories of motivation can be grouped into 2 broad viewpoints namely
Content and Process.
Content is concerned with what motivates
Process is concerned with how people are motivated .
Abram Maslow identified 5 hierarchy of needs as follows:
1. Physiological needs- food, clothing and shelter, air, Water.
2. 2. Safety needs – need for security, stability, freedom from fear of danger.
3. Social needs- need for friendship, affection, acceptance.
4. Esteem needs -personal feeling of achievement or self-esteem .
5. Self - actualization needs- achieving the height of what one is capable of achieving, that
is, reaching one’s potential.
6. Communication – The success of any organization depends on the flow of
communication within it and between it and other organizations. Communication is the
glue that holds an organization together.