Practical Management for the Digital Age

An Introduction for Engineers, Scientists, and Other Disciplines

Martin Baumers, John Dominy

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000485851
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Project Management in Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Practical Management for the Digital Age is an innovative introductory management textbook that shows the sweeping impact of information technology on the business world. At the same time, it addresses the pressing issue of how environmental aspects are interwoven with management decisions. This book forms an academically rigorous, accurate, and accessible first exposure to a topic that often challenges novices with competing definitions, inconsistent use of terminology, methodological variety, and conceptual fuzziness. It has been written for readers with little or no prior knowledge of management and is compact enough to be read cover-to-cover over the course of a semester.

Features of this book:

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• Provides a broad, self-contained treatment of management for those without prior knowledge of management or commerce, emphasizing core ideas that every manager should know.

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• Establishes the context of modern management by characterizing the nature of the private enterprise, the economic theory of the firm, the economics of digitalization and automation, processes of innovation, and life cycle thinking.

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• Introduces readers to various activities of managing, including business modeling, new business formation, operations management, managing people, marketing, and the management of quality and risk.

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• Provides practical introductions to broadly applied management techniques, including financial planning, financial analysis, evaluating flows of money, and planning and monitoring projects.

This book is aimed at a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate students in a variety of disciplines, as well as practitioners. It will be especially useful to those in the fields of engineering, science, computer science, medicine, pharmacy, social sciences, and more. It will help student readers engage confidently with project work in the final parts of their degree courses and, most importantly, with managerial situations later in their careers. For instructors, who may not have a management background, this book offers content for a self-contained year-long course in management at the intermediate undergraduate level. In addition, it has been developed for undergraduate and postgraduate courses with accreditation requirements that include a taught element in management, such as the UK Engineering Council's Accreditation of Higher Education (AHEP) framework.

Part I
The Context of Management

1 Toward Modern Management

DOI: 10.1201/9781003222903-2

Objectives and Learning Outcomes

The objective of this chapter is to establish the basis of this book by defining what management is and to introduce the reader to how management has emerged as a distinct practice and field of inquiry. The chapter presents a brief history of management, showing that the automobile industry in the 20th century was the venue for crucial developments in the field of management. In doing so, it presents the origins of mass-production and outlines developments in Japan ultimately leading to the Lean approach, which is extremely influential in contemporary management. The chapter finishes with a brief overview of current trends in management. Specific learning outcomes include:

• the ability to usefully define management and identify the five general functions of management;
• knowledge of precursors of modern management and understanding how innovation in management follows technological development;
• understanding the evolution of mass-production in the 20th century and the role of managerial innovation in this;
• knowledge of Lean processes and their impact on management as a response to mass-production, including a definition of Lean;
• knowledge of major trends that are addressed by management and current themes in management;
• understanding important terms, synonyms, and accepted acronyms; and
• appreciation of important thinkers in the history of management.

First Things First: What Is Management?

Management is a wide field. It is both a practical endeavor as well as an academic discipline. It comprises many different activities and can be applied in many different areas. Perhaps best thought of as a body of knowledge that should be put into action, management is rife with competing definitions, inconsistent use of terminology, a wide variety of methods, and conceptual fuzziness. While these aspects make management an interesting and rich area for reflection and academic study, they can also pose challenges for learners at the beginning of their management journey. The ambition of this book is to equip readers with the knowledge needed to cut through this complexity.

Many aspects and concepts have been added to the field of management in an ongoing process, especially throughout the 20th century. This chapter, therefore, puts first things first^* and provides a brief history of management. This is useful since the simplicity and clarity of the early management innovations make them particularly instructive for novice readers. In this spirit, the book opens with a traditional definition of management and presents an – even more traditional – first characterization of management as consisting of five general functions.

* As the reader will see in Chapter 10, even the seemingly obvious logic of “first things first” has been absorbed into the management literature (Covey, 1989).

The word management is commonly used in two senses. In the first sense, it describes the general human activity of managing, referring to the process of taking responsibility for the purpose, progress, and outcome of events. Used this way, the word management captures human agency, which can be defined as a universal human ability to make a difference in the world through intentional and goal-oriented action. Management can, therefore, be described as the pursuit of goals with the support of other people and the resources available. This makes clear that management is a common activity in which we all engage almost every day.

The second sense of the word management reflects a distinct role that people, especially in organizations, can take on. To understand this meaning, it is necessary to first understand that management activity, as defined in the previous paragraph, is separate from the actual work to be done. Only if these two activities are separate, is it possible for a person to assume the role of a manager and in most cases, this will entail that the effort of other people is to be managed. Following this line of thought, this book uses a modified version of a traditional definition of management:^†

† Adapted from Spriegel and Lansburgh (1947).

Management is that group of functions in an organization which concerns itself with the direction of various activities to attain the organization’s ­objectives. In doing so, management deals with the active direction of human effort.

This two-part definition shows that the role of management is about directing activities in order to reach the goals of an organization. It also shows that the element of human effort is central. In line with this definition, anyone performing this role, which amounts to being in charge of an organizational unit (however small) is a manager and should be referred to as one.

A first impression of the scope of management activities can be obtained by considering Henri Fayol’s model of the five functions of management, first published in 1916. Fayol was a mining engineer and is seen as one of the founders of the field of management as we understand it today. His model views management as formed of five general functions that allow the goals of an organization to be achieved.

Henri Fayol (1841–1925)

1. Planning
   A course of future action must be planned to achieve a goal or desired state. Planning includes the development of a logical sequence of stages, timing, allocating activities to people, and determining the resources needed for execution. Both short-term and long-term planning are required.
2. Organizing
   Building on a plan, managers make available the resources required for execution, including any materials, equipment, funding, and people. Organizing also requires assigning responsibilities to people, establishing who reports to whom, and how the elements of the organization relate to each other.
3. Commanding
   To execute the plan, managers lead people to achieve the goals of the organization. Directing people in this way requires communication skills, the capacity to motivate people, and an ability to balance the needs of those involved in the organization with the requirements of the tasks at hand.
4. Coordinating
   Managers coordinate the required activities for successful execution. The underlying structure of communication between people provides the basis for t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author Biographies
• About This Book
• PART I The Context of Management
• PART II The Activity of Managing the Business
• PART III Practical Management Techniques
• Glossary
• Index