Many Definitions of Management

Definitions of Management:

It is very difficult to give a precise definition of the term ‘management’. Different scholars from different disciplines view and interpret management from their own angles. The economists consider management as a resource like land, labor, capital and organization. The bureaucrats look upon it as a system of authority to achieve business goals. The sociologists consider managers as a part of the class elite in the society.

The definitions by some of the leading management thinkers and practitioners are given below:

(i) Management consists in guiding human and physical resources into dynamic, hard-hitting organization unit that attains its objectives to the satisfaction of those served and with a high degree of morale and sense of attainment on the part of those rendering the service. —Lawrence A. Appley.

(ii) Management is the coordination of all resources through the process of planning, organizing, directing and controlling in order to attain stated objectives. —Henry L. Sisk.

(iii) Management is principally the task of planning, coordinating, motivating and controlling the efforts of others towards a specific objective. —James L. Lundy.

(iv) Management is the art and science of organizing and directing human efforts applied to control the forces and utilize the materials of nature for the benefit of man. —American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

(v) Management is the creation and maintenance of an internal environment in an enterprise where individuals, working in groups, can perform efficiently and effectively towards the attainment of group goals. —Harold Koontz and Cyrill O’Donnell.

(vi) Management is the art of knowing what you want to do and then seeing that it is done in the best and cheapest way. —F.W. Taylor.

(vii) To manage is to forecast and to plan, to organize to command, to coordinate and to control. —Henry Fayol.

(viii) Management is the function of executive leadership anywhere. —Ralph C. Davis.

(ix) Management is concerned with seeing that the job gets done; its tasks all center on planning and guiding the operations that are going on in the enterprise. —E.F.L. Breach.

(x) Management is a distinct process consisting of planning, organizing, actuating and controlling performed to determine and accomplish the objectives by the use of people and resources. —George R. Terry.

(xi) Management is guiding human and physical resources into dynamic organizational units which attain their objectives to the satisfaction of those served and with a high degree of morale and sense of attainment on the part of those rendering services. —American Management Association.

(xii) Management is a multi-purpose organ that manages a business and manages Managers and manages Workers and work. —Peter Drucker.