The Concise Handbook of Management

A Practitioner's Approach

Jonathan T Scott

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136430879
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Discover the practical tips to make you an effective, customer-oriented manager!Focusing on the pervading belief that everything a manager does must be customer oriented, The Concise Handbook of Management: A Practitioner's Approach gives you an overview of everything you need to know about managing in one practical, concise book. This plain-talking guide not only explains management theories, but also presents commonsense suggestions on the best ways to effectively manage people and things, no matter what type of business you are in. Taking a practitioner's approach of discussing management issues with customers ultimately in mind, this practical book motivates, is easily understandable, and is entertaining to boot.The Concise Handbook of Management: A Practitioner's Approach uses succinct chapters with several real stories and case studies designed to clearly illustrate each concept and suggestion. Written with the busy manager in mind, each chapter is compact, clear, true-to-life, and is always aimed at the bottom line. The book includes a small business marketing and promotion checklist, a helpful bibliography, and a useful glossary of terms.The Concise Handbook of Management: A Practitioner's Approach explores:

• the first three steps in becoming a good manager
  
• understanding the importance of customers
  
• getting the most from employees
  
• management competencies and styles
  
• organizational structures and cultures
  
• managing change
  
• managing conflict and stress
  
• managing teams and workgroups
  
• ethics
  
• leadership
  
• managing time
  
• written business communication
  
• mastering the skills of a presentation
  
• dealing with people in the workplace
  
• a small business marketing checklist
  
• project or program planning
  
• the marketing basicsproductstrategymarketingpricing
  
• developing external and internal customers

The Concise Handbook of Management: A Practitioner's Approach proves the adage that less is more, and has already been called the undergraduate/graduate student's or practicing manager's best all-in-one source and reference for simplified management theory and skills.

PART I:
BUILDING THE MANAGEMENT FOUNDATION

Chapter 1

What Is Management?

1: the act or art of managing: the conducting or supervising of something (as a business) 2: judicious use of means to accomplish an end 3: the collective body of those who manage or direct an enterprise

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary

1: the control and organizing of a business or other organization 2:… also refers to the people who do this 3: the way you control someone or something

Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary

1: the art or practice of managing (especially a business or money) 2: the people in charge of a company or industry 3: skill in dealing with people or situations (judgment)

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

1: the application of skill or care in the manipulation, use, treatment, or control of things or persons, or in the conduct of enterprise, operation or organization of commercial enterprise

The New Oxford English Dictionary

1: planning, organizing, leading and controlling the use of resources to accomplish goals

A popular definition seen in many textbooks

1: overseeing the work of others

A classic definition

By any stretch of the imagination, there will probably never be a shortage of management definitions or management job titles (see Exhibit 1.1). The problem with most definitions of management is that they only tell part of the story. For example, in the definitions previously mentioned (indeed in every definition of management I’ve ever seen) the word customer isn’t seen. This is astonishing because servicing customers is the crux ofevery business organization. Equally as remiss is that most writers neatly filter out human nature in their descriptions of management. Let’s face it, aseptic words and terms are great for dictionaries and academic tomes but they’re terrible when it comes to explaining, warts and all, the full scope of what management entails. So how can the art and science of management be summed up in a few succinct words? Well, truth be told, it can’t. Management is about more than leading, controlling, planning, organizing, and setting goals and objectives. Much more.

EXHIBIT 1.1. Three Basic Categories of Management Positions

TOP MANAGERS (ADMINISTRATORS)

Presidents
Managing directors
Vice presidents
CEOs (chief executive officers)

MID-LEVEL MANAGERS

Department heads
District managers
Unit chiefs

FRONTLINE MANAGERS

Supervisors
Foremen
Coordinators
Team or project leaders

Perhaps the best way to present a richer and more accurate concept of management is to look at what good managers do—or are supposed to do—in the course of a typical working day. Good managers constantly streamline their organizations toward making a sale. In other words, good managers keep their organizations on track by ensuring that everything that’s being done is geared toward providing what customers want. In this regard, a good manager is responsible for reducing ambiguity, keeping costs down, and motivating others to do the same. In the same vein, good managers regularly take educated risks and exercise good judgment. These risks include trying new approaches, successfully adjusting to constant change, developing subordinates (good managers aren’t afraid of letting other people shine—in fact they encourage it), and improving their own skills.

Since most managers are responsible for more work than one person can normally perform, a good manager delegates and integrates the work of others by acting as a clear channel of communication within the businesses they serve. Good management is about rising above the often monotonous grind of a working day and injecting motivation, creativity, discipline, and enthusiasm into areas in which they either don’t exist or they’re not wanted. It entails doing things you don’t want to do in order to get and do the things you want. And while all this is occurring, the ups and downs of life in general must be successfully dealt with, such as fear, insecurity, births, deaths, romances, divorces, physical injuries, bad-hair days, bad-manner days, personal failings, and attitude problems to name a very few. Again, I’m talking about good managers. These are the men and women who face problems, put in long hours, set a good example, and have an inherent knack to create something from nothing. Good managers work well with others (including those they don’t like) and can be counted on to be honest and upstanding. They concentrate on goals and results rather than showing who’s boss, because the creed they live by is integrity, responsibility, and maturity. This means financial figures aren’t manipulated and production numbers aren’t fiddled with. That’s not to say that good managers always score; they most certainly do not, but when good managers don’t succeed the first time they pick themselves up, brush themselves off, learn from what happened (without blaming others), and then score. Good managers create value. In other words, they don’t make excuses; they produce results.

Sound like a tall order? Well, it’s not so high that it can’t be reached. The truth is that there are tens of thousands of good managers in this world quietly going about their work and performing admirably. That most of them don’t attract attention to themselves, in part, shows their management acumen and the dedication they have for their craft. Good managers understand that management isn’t merely a rank; it’s a responsibility, and they more often than not let their work speak for itself. They don’t need to be charlatans, actors, or show-people. Yes, a little bit of flashiness sometimes goes a long way in business; nevertheless, prioritizing showmanship is not the mark of a good manager.

Now let’s look at the other side of the coin. What constitutes bad management? Simply put, bad managers are insecure, overbearing, dictating bosses who, in the long run, do little more than manage to get to work on time, instill fear in others instead of respect, barely put in an eight-hour day (or less) of real work, collect a paycheck, and/or maintain the status quo when opportunities abound. At an administrative level, bad managers tend to see their profession as only a game of acquisitions and mergers or act as though what they do involves only numbers.

Calling yourself a manager doesn’t make you one in the same manner that cooking dinner doesn’t make you a chef, penning a letter doesn’t make you a writer, and going jogging doesn’t make you an athlete. For those of you who think management is glamorous, well, placing the word manager on your door or a business card isn’t an invitation to a gold-encrusted club and a bottomless expense account. Most management positions, particularly those in small to midsized businesses, aren’t glamorous and don’t come with perks. A business’s resources are best spent serving customers—not managers— and that involves deflating one’s ego,* rolling up one’s sleeves, and working with everyone in an organization’s hierarchical structure. In this regard, management is not about you. It’s about serving others.

I often tell anyone who’ll listen that although managing a business isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do, too many teachers and students try to make it as complex as brain surgery. Certainly management, like so many other tasks, can be made as complicated as you’d like, but the truth of the matter is that it needn’t be complex. Nor is it dry and boring. In most cases management is fascinating—or at least it should be. (It’s based on the study of human nature for heaven’s sake. Who among us isn’t intrigued by money, influence, passion, achievement, success, failure, greed, good deeds, and similar emotions, attributes, and weaknesses?) What else besides management demands the successful maneuvering of the strengths and weaknesses of those who perform it alongside those being managed? What else besides romance, sport, and warfare constantly tries and tests an individual both personally and against others?

Suffice it to say that all these factors combined with planning, organizing, leading, and controlling is a tough, relentless, and time-consuming job that demands regular assessment, constant improvement, and the ability to give more than is taken. And that, in part, is what makes management so difficult to define—let alone do.

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* Winston Churchill was once asked if he was flattered by the size of the crowds that came to hear him speak. “Yes,” he replied, “but then I remind myself that if I was being hanged the crowds would be twice as big.”

Chapter 2

A Brief History of Management

Because before taking any journey, it’s important to know where you’ve been, where you are, and which direction you’re going.

Every day new technologies and innovations make our world a better place. Advancements on almost every front are being made at an astonishing rate. Yet when it comes to management, there isn’t much that’s new under the sun. If you traveled back in time thousands of years you’d probably be surprised to discover that we’re really no more intelligent than our ancestors (i.e., our tools have changed, but human behavior hasn’t). We live in a rather arrogant age in which too many people believe we have nothing to learn from the past. For a species that constantly relives its mistakes, this is a disturbing trend. Long before skyscrapers, multithousand-employee corporations, and the computer, people, not unlike us, built the great pyramids, the Great Wall of China, sailed the seas, explored the earth, and traded with far away lands. It took highly intelligent brains to do that.

Consider the pyramids, designed and built approximately 5,000 years ago by people—not a super human race of beings, not individuals anointed by Gods, and certainly not by alien intervention, but people—regular people who sat down, thought through, and carried out the entire process. Experts today concede that this monumental achievement, still unsurpassed today, was primarily the result of a well-managed, orderly system of volunteerism and rotating conscription. As proof of this, the ruins of medical facilities, housing areas, recreation grounds, kitchens, communal eating locations, and other remnants of a vibrant community project are scattered over the vast area surrounding the pyramids’ bases. The general belief today is that it took 10,000 people twenty years to build the great pyramid—or perhaps 20,000 people ten years. Other sources state it took many more people and much more time. Either way, it took scores of competent managers to organize the stone cutters, labor crews, artists, and planners, as well as those who fed thousands of people every day, provided medical assistance, ran the housing areas, and so on. Force and fear alone cannot be attributed to the successful completion of such a massive project. Good management techniques had to be preeminent.

The same applies to the Great Wall of China, built thousands of years ago and still one of the only reported man-made objects (apart from light) observable on earth from space.

And what about the Romans? In their day the Romans conquered and governed most of Europe and parts of the Middle East and North Africa. After the Romans had conquered an area, the locals more often than not assimilated to the “enemy” way of life because the Roman lifestyle was much more advanced, better managed, and more comfortable than theirs.

The great cathedrals and artworks of Europe make for additional managerial examples. Take Michelangelo for example. It’s been reported that when he died his house was virtually empty except for a bed alongside which stood a locked iron strongbox filled with today’s equivalent of $8 million in gold coins. Did he acquire this breathtaking fortune from single-handedly sculpting and painting portraits? No. Michelangelo was an accomplished manager. When a work was commissioned (such as the Sistine Chapel, the Medici Chapel, or the Laurentian Library)...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• About the Author
• Contents
• Preface. Why Another Book About Management?
• Acknowledgments
• Part I: Building the management foundation
• Part II: Basic thoughts on and theories of management
• Part III: The basic skills of management
• Part IV: The basics of business
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index