POM
Module 1: Overview of Production Operations Management
Unit 2: The Nature & Purpose of Management
Overview:
As you grow personally and professionally, your roles and functions in your chosen
organization will grow as well. There will come a time when you will be assigned
managerial or administrative responsibilities in an organization or you may even decide
to become an entrepreneur and establish your own business organization. Some of you
might even run for government positions and manage a barangay, a municipality or city,
a province, or even become a national political figure. Some of you could become
pastors or members of parish pastoral councils. Even being a father or mother of a
family would require managerial skills.
But what does it really mean to manage? Why do managers exist? And how do
managers accomplish their purpose for existence?
This Unit intends to help you, not just to answer these questions, but also to prepare
you to understand the roles of managers in organizations, especially that of production
operations managers.
Module Objectives:
After successful completion of this Unit, you should be able to:
• Explain what management is;
• Explain why management exists;
• Explain how managers accomplish their purpose for existence; and
• Present your understanding of business management, as informed by
Catholic social teaching, to your classmates.
Course Materials
1. Handout: The Nature and Purpose of Management
2. Web literature: Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection
[Link]
cationofthebusinessleaderpdf/[Link]
Read:
MANAGEMENT: ITS NATURE AND PURPOSE
Management is the process of working with resources by performing the
functions of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling to create a
positive environment where people can harmoniously work together to effectively
and efficiently achieve organizational objectives in an ever-changing
environment. This definition needs to be discussed further:
1. Management is a process – it consists of a series of actions, changes,
and functions designed to bring about desired results.
2. Management involves working with resources – the 6Ms: manpower,
money, materials, machines, methods, moment (time), and information.
3. The management process involves performing the managerial functions
of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling.
4. The purpose of management is basically two-fold:
a) Promote harmonious working together in the organization; thus,
the need for managers to have a systems-perspective and to be
relationship-oriented; and, at the same time,
b) Pursue the achievement of organizational objectives; thus, the
need for managers to be results-oriented.
5. It is not enough that the organization achieves objectives; managers
must see to it that these objectives are achieved effectively and
efficiently.
6. Managers – the people in the organization who are responsible for the
management process – need to be continually aware that the
organization exists as a part of an environment that is constantly
changing; thus, the need for organizations to be continually adaptive
organisms.
THE MANAGEMENT PROCESS
Planning involves choosing or setting objectives and then determining the
course of action needed to achieve them.
Organizing involves determining the activities and resources required to
implement the strategies, combining them into a formal structure, assigning
responsibilities, and delegating authority.
Staffing involves filling, and keeping filled, with the right people the various
positions in the organizational structure.
Leading involves influencing people so that they will do their best, in harmony
with the other members, to contribute to the achievement of the organization’s
objectives.
Controlling involves devising ways and means to ensure that the planned
performance is actually achieved.
The Primary Purpose of Management
• Promote relationships. To create a positive environment
where people can harmoniously work together.
• Achieve results. To achieve organizational objectives
effectively and efficiently.
Effectiveness means doing the right thing. An
organization is doing the right things if these
contribute towards the achievement of the right
objectives. Effectiveness is an organization’s ability to
set the right objectives and to do the things that
enable it to eventually achieve those objectives.
But when is a set objective a right objective for an organization? An objective is
right when the organization gets closer to its avowed Vision and Mission, once
that objective is achieved.
Vision – what the organization sees itself becoming into.
Mission – why the organization exists;
the organization’s basic purpose for existence.
Efficiency means doing things right. An organization is doing
things right if it is achieving its objectives using minimum
resources. While effectiveness is concerned with what you
are doing, efficiency pertains to how you are doing it.
Effectiveness takes precedence over efficiency, but it’s best to
pursue both – to aim for maximum customer satisfaction at
the minimum cost possible.
Review:
1. WHAT: To manage means to work with resources: manpower, money, machines,
materials, method, moment and information.
2. WHY: The purpose of management is two-fold: to ensure harmonious working
together (relationships) and to achieve the objectives of the organization (results).
3. HOW: The purpose of management is achieved by performing the management
process, which consists of doing the management functions – planning, organizing,
staffing, leading and controlling – more or less, in a sequential, cyclical manner.
Activities/Assessments:
Activity 2. Group Assignment: 20 points
• Read and discuss with your groupmates your understanding of the Web literature
“Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection.”
1. Using Powerpoint® (only one slide will do, but you may use animation) and images
from the Internet, design a collage that would depict your understanding of how a
business manager should be and do according to Catholic social teaching.
2. Present and explain your collage to your classmates in a 3-minute video.
3. Schedule of uploading and presentation of group videos to be announced later.