Leadership and Management Issues Free Essay Example, 1750 words

Management is an old concept. It originated from the Latin word manus which means by hand or power. Management may also come from the Italian word mangeggiare pertaining to officers in charge of a certain production facility. It evolved then into the French manager and later on, it became the English term management. In the concept of English people, management pertains to business organizations with people working as guides and to supervise the performance of others (Witzel 2004, pp. 1-2). American Management Association in 1980 defined the concept of management and according to the group, management is getting things done through other people, (Montana and Charnov 2008, p. 2). It means the efforts of other people are involved and the management is just the supervision and guidance on the efficiency of the whole group. Currently, management can be defined as "working with and through other people to accomplish the objectives of both the organization and its members (Montana and C harnov 2008, p. 2). According to Montana and Charnov (2008, p. 2), there are three key differences between the two definitions: the employees play the great part in the organization, the focus is the result to be obtained and personal goals are aligned with the organizational goals. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership and Management Issues or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The practice of managing people in the organization is called the management process. The management process has six fundamental functions: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating and controlling. Planning is the most basic function of management. It is concerned with what, how and when the activities or performance be carried out by an organization. The course of actions is created in the process of planning. It involves the identification of long-term and short-term objectives, the creation of strategies and formation of policies and rules to be followed by the members of the organization. Usually, the top management creates the initial planning and identification of long-range objectives but the planning function is being done by all managers from all levels in an organization. The second function is organizing.