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SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES CREATE A SURPLUS THROUGH PRODUCTIVE OPERATIONS. ALTHOUGH THERE IS NOT COMPLETE ARGUMENT ON THE TRUE MEANING OF PRODUCTIVITY, LET US DEFINE IT AS THE INPUT-OUTPUT RATIO WITHIN A TIME PERIOD WITH DUE CONSIDERATION FOR QUALITY. IT CAN BE EXPRESSED AS FOLLOWS:

Productivity =Output/Input (with a time period, quality considered)

This formula indicates that productivity can be improved a) by increasing outputs with the same inputs, b) by decreasing inputs but maintaining the same output, or c) by increasing output and decreasing inputs such as labor, materials, and capital. Total factor productivity combines various inputs to arrive at a composite input. In the past, productivity improvement program were mostly aimed at the worker level. Yet, as P. F. Drucker, one of the most prolific writers in management observed, “ The greatest opportunity for increasing productivity is surely to be found in knowledge work itself and especially in management.”

1.      Effectiveness refers to the achievement of objectives.

2.      Effectiveness is achieving objectives (ends) with the least amount of resources.

 Principles:

Principles in management are fundamental truth ( or what thought to be truth in a given time), explaining relationship between two or more set of variables, usually an independent variable and a dependent variable.

A Principle may be defined as a fundamental statement or truth providing a guide to thought or action. They are guide to action. They are basic but not absolute. They are working hypotheses that are reasonably well established, accepted and used in many successful organizations. As more research is conducted, new principles will emerge, other management principles will be modified, and some will be discarded as not truly representative of management practice today.

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Management: Science or Art?

1. Essential Elements of Science:
2. Systematic body of knowledge
3. Universal Principle
4. Scientific Enquiry and experiment
5. Cause and effect relationship
6. Test of validity and predictability

1. The term management refers to the process of getting activities completed effectively and efficiently with and through others.

 Characteristics of Science:

1.      Certain general principles and facts those are universally applicable

2.      Establish cause and effect relationship

3.      Improve through scientific enquiry and experiments

4.      It serves as a guide to action.

 Characteristics of Art:

1. Personal skills
2. Creativity
3. Achievement oriented
4. Development through continuous practice
5. Practical application 

Skills allow individuals to perform activities and to function in society.

A role is a set of expectations of manager’s behavior.

Management is Inexact Science.

 Management science is the body of systemized knowledge accumulated and accepted with the understanding of general truth concerning management. Management is an inexact science and it is not a pure science as physical science. Because the inclusion of human elements in managing makes this discipline not only complex but also controversial as a pure science. Human behavior is unpredictable, different people think, act or react differently not identical circumstance.

 A paradigm is the set of assumptions held relatively in common and taken granted in an organization.