Difference Between Management and Administration
Difference Between Management and Administration
Difference Between Management and Administration
Answer:
Difference between Administration and Management
There are many factors according to which administration can be distinguished from
management. These are as follows:
Administration Management
Nature of work It is concerned about the It puts into action the policies
determination of objectives and plans laid down by the
and major policies of an administration.
organization.
Decision making Its decisions are influenced by Its decisions are influenced by
public opinion, government the values, opinions, and
policies, social, and religious beliefs of the managers.
factors.
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functions are involved in it. functions are involved in it.
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In addition to fulfilling roles, managers also need a number of specific skills
• The most fundamental management skills are:
– Technical
– Interpersonal
– Conceptual
– Diagnostic
– Communication
– Decision-making
– Time-management
Technical Skills
• Necessary to accomplish or understand the specific kind of work being done.
• These skills are especially important for first line managers.
Interpersonal Skills
• The ability to communicate with, understand, and motivate both individuals and groups.
• Be able to get along with:
– Subordinates
– Peers
– Those at higher levels
Conceptual Skills
• A manager’s ability to think in the abstract.
• The mental capacity to:
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– Understand organizational goals and its environment.
– How the organization is structured.
– Viewing the organization as system
Diagnostic Skills
• Skills that enable a manager to visualize the most appropriate response to a situation.
c) Enumerate Managerial success factor.
Managerial Success Factors
Personal Factors
– Abilities and skills
– Motivation
– Personality
Situational Factors
– Nature of the work and environment
– Relationships with subordinates and supervisors
– Abilities of subordinates
Actions Taken
– Appropriate for the situation?
Luck
– Being in the right place at the right time?
d) Explain the concept of scientific Management
Scientific Management
– The application of scientific methods to increase individual workers’ productivity.
– Concerned with improving the performance of individual workers (i.e.,
efficiency).
– Grew out of the industrial revolution’s labor shortage at the beginning of the
twentieth century.
Question 1: Explain key managerial roles.
Answer:
Category Role Sample Activities
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Liaison Coordinating activities of two projects
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Planning is the most importance of all the management functions. Some of the
importance
are as follows:
(a) Planning reduces uncertainty, risk and confusion in operation. Through planning, the
future course of action is known to all and so, everybody knows exactly what needs to be
done. This gives a sense of direction resulting in efficiency in operations.
(b) Planning guides the decision making by the managers. Planning of goals to be achieved
and the course of action to be followed to achieve the goal act as a guide in their own
decision making and action plans.
(c) Planning helps in achieving coordination and facilitates control. Proper planning
Integrates the tasks at the operational level, thereby making coordination more effective.It
also helps in identifying deviations and taking the corrective action.
(d) Planning with an element of flexibility makes the organization adaptable. In other words
planning makes the organization capable of coping with the changing environment and
facing challenges.
(e) Planning leads to economy and efficiency in operations. Best methods are selected
out of available choices, thus, reducing overlapping and wasteful activities.
(f) Planning begins with the determination of objectives and directed towards their
achievement. It keeps the executive alive and alert. Managers have to review the
progress periodically and recast their strategies to meet the objectives
Define planning. Explain the importance of planning and planning process.
• Generally planning is deciding in advance what is to be done; it is a projected course of
action. Planning process starts with the assumption that the future will be different from
the present and it attempts to determine how the enterprise will take advantage of that
difference. Planning thus becomes a device for change to meet the future.
Importance of planning
• Specific objective.
• Primacy of planning.
• Coordination with decision.
• Contribution to Purpose and objective.
• Efficiency, economic and accuracy
• Pervasive in all division
• Flexibility.
The Planning Process
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• The planning process takes place within an environmental context. Managers must
develop a complete and thought understanding of this context to determine the
organization’s mission and develop its strategic, tactical and operational goals and plans.
Explain Contingency Planning and Crisis management
• Contingency Planning
– Planning for change
– Seeks to identify in advance important aspects of a business or its market that
might change and the ways in which a company will respond to changes
– The determination of alternative courses of action to be taken if an intended
plan is unexpectedly disrupted or rendered inappropriate.
– These plans help managers to cope with uncertainty and change.
• Crisis Management
– Involves an organization’s methods for dealing with a crisis—an unexpected emergency
requiring immediate response
– The set of procedures the organization uses in the event of a disaster or other
unexpected calamity.
Explain the barrier to goal setting and planning. How to overcoming the barrier?
Barriers to goal setting and Planning
• Inappropriate goals
• Improper reward system
• Dynamic and complex environment
• Reluctant to establish goals
• Resistance to change
• Constrains
Overcoming the Barriers
• Understand the purpose of goals and planning
• Communication and participation
• Consistency, Revision and Participation
• Effective reward system
Enumerate the steps in planning
Steps in planning
1. Be ware of opportunities.
In light of:
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• The market.
• Competition.
• What customers want?
• Our strength.
• Our weakness
2. Establishing objectives.
• Where we want to be and what we want to accomplish and when.
3. Considering planning premises
• In what environment – internal or external will our plans operate?
4. Determining alternative courses of action.
• What are the most promising alternatives to accomplishing our objectives.
5. Evaluating alternative courses:
• Which alternative will give us the best chance of meeting our goals at the lowest cost
and highest profit?
6. Selecting course
• Selecting the course of action we will pursue.
7. Formulating derivative plans
Such as plans to :
• Buy equipment; Buy materials; Hire and train workers; Develop a new product.
8. Numberizing plans by Budgeting Develop such budgets as:
• Volume, price and cost of sales.
• Operating expenses necessary for plans
• Expenditures for capital equipment.
Different between strategic goal and tactical goal
• Strategic plans are the plans develop to achieve strategic goals. More precisely, a
strategic plan is a general plan outlining of resource allocation, priorities and action
steps necessary to reach strategic goals.
• Tactical plans aimed at achieving tactical goals and developed to implement parts of
strategic plan.
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A) Explain the nature and purpose of Organization control?
The Nature of Control in Organizations
Control is a process to regulate organizational activities so that some targeted element of
performance remains within acceptable limits.
Provides organizations with indications of how well they are performing in relation
to their goals.
Example: ship’s rudder, keeps the organization moving in the proper direction. Like a
rudder, control provides an organization with a mechanism for adjusting its course if
performance fails outside of acceptable
The Purpose of Control
Control is one of the four basic management functions. The control function, in turn, has four
basic purposes.
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Adapt to environmental change
Limit the accumulation of error
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Financial Budget Sources and Uses of Cash
Cash-flow or cash budget All sources of cash income and cash expenditures in
monthly, weekly, or daily periods
Capital expenditures budget Costs of major assets such as a new plant, machinery, or
land
Balance sheet budget Forecast of the organization’s assets and liabilities in the
event all other budgets are met
Sales or revenue budget Income the organization expects to receive from normal
operations
• Bureaucratic Control
– A form of organizational control characterized by formal and mechanistic
structural arrangements.
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• Decentralized Control
– An approach to organizational control characterized by informal and organic
structural arrangements.
Degree of formality Strict rules, formal controls, rigid Group norms, culture, self-
hierarchy control
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C) Why manager resist to control? How to overcome resistance to control?
• Resistance to Control
– Overcontrol
Trying to control too many details becomes problematic when control affects
employee behavior and employees perceive control attempts as unreasonable.
– Inappropriate Focus
• The control system may be too narrow or it may focus too much on
quantifiable variables and leave no room for analysis or interpretation.
– Rewards for Inefficiency
• Rewarding operational inefficiency can lead employees to behave in ways
that are not in the best interests of the organization.
– Too much accountability
Efficient controls are resisted by poorly performing employees.
• Resistance to control can be overcome by:
– Designing effective controls that are properly integrated with organizational
planning and aligned with organizational goals and standards.
– Creating controls that are flexible, accurate, timely, and objective.
– Avoiding overcontrol in the implementation of controls.
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– Guarding against creating controls that reward inefficiencies.
– Encouraging employee participation in the planning and implementing of control
systems.
– Developing a system of checks and balances in the control systems through the
use of multiple standards and information systems that allow the organization to
verify the accuracy of performance indicators.
Describe the steps in the control process
1 2 Compare 3 Determine 4
need
Establish Measure performance for corrective
standards performance
against standards action
Establish Standards
The first step in the control process is establishing standards. A control standard is a target
against which subsequent performance will be compared. Example: at Taco Bell Fast –food
restaurant service standards are
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– Employee performance is often measure in terms of quality or quantity of
output.
Compare Performance Against Standards.
Performance may be higher than, lower than, or identical to the standard. In some cases
comparison is easy. The timetable for comparing performance to standards depends on a
variety of factors including the importance and complexity of what is being controlled. For
longer-run and higher-level standards, annual comparisons are necessary. In another
circumstances, more frequent comparisons are necessary. Example: a business with a cash
shortage may need to monitor its on-hand cash reserves daily.
Consider Corrective Action
Decisions regarding corrective actions draw heavily on a manager’s analytic and diagnostic
skills. After comparing performance against control standards, one of the three actions is
appropriate.
– Maintain status quo (do nothing) : preferable when performance matches the
standard
– Correct the deviation: some actions are needed to correct the deviation. Sometimes,
if performance is higher than expected it may cause problems. Example: Ford
enjoyed a huge demand for Contour (car). There were customer’s waiting list and
many were willing to pay more for the car. Ford did not increase production in the
fear that demand would eventually drop. To deal with the excessive demand, ford
reduced its advertising for the car. That curtailed the demand for the car.
– Change the standards: changing standard is necessary if it was set too high or too
low. This is apparent if most employees routinely beat the standard by a wide
margin or if no employees ever meet the standard. Also, standards that seemed
appropriate when they were established may need to be adjusted because
circumstances have changed.
D) Steps in the Control Process (cont’d)
– Establish Standards
• Control standard—a target against which subsequent performance will be
compared.
• Control standards should be expressed in measurable terms.
• Control standards should be consistent with organizational goals.
• Control standards should be identifiable indicators of performance.
– Measure Performance
• Performance measurement is an ongoing process.
• Performance measures must be valid indicators (e.g., sales, costs, units
produced) of performance.
– Compare Performance Against Standards
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• Define what is a permissible deviation from the performance standard.
• Utilize the appropriate timetable for measurement.
– Determine the Need for Corrective Action
• Maintain the status quo (do nothing).
• Correct the deviation to bring operations into compliance with the standard.
• Change the standard if it was set too high or too low.
E) Explain the type of control in response of area and level
Organizations practice control in a number of different areas and at different levels, and the
responsibility for managing control is widespread.
– Areas of Control
• Physical resources—inventory management, quality control, and
equipment control.
• Human resources—selection and placement, training and development,
performance appraisal, and compensation.
• Information resources—sales and marketing forecasts, environmental
analysis, public relations, production scheduling, and economic
forecasting.
• Financial resources—managing capital funds and cash flow, collection
and payment of debts.
– Levels of Control
– Operational control:
– Focuses on the processes used to transform resources into products or services.
– Financial control:
– Concerned with financial resources. Example : Monitoring receivables to make
sure that customers are paying their bills on time.
– Structural control:
– How the elements of organization’s structure are serving the intended purposes.
Example : Monitoring the administrative ration to make sure that staff expenses
do not become excessive.
–
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– Flexibility
The control system must be flexible enough to accommodate change.
– Accuracy
Inaccurate information results in bad decision making and inappropriate
managerial actions.
– Timeliness
– Objectivity
• Strengths
• Weaknesses
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