principles of management

¶ … devoted to the Principles of Management

When comparing these three different Internet Resources, on, in the words of one "the art and science of management," (Reh, 2004) a reader is struck at once by their similarities of principles yet their varieties of different levels of complexity and intent. Some are academically oriented, such as the Bamboo web dictionary of management, as obtained through the search engine Google. It offers an article on management tracing the history of theories of management back to ancient Egypt, and provides a basic definition of what management is across a variety of disciplines. "Management," the site states, characterizes the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business one, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). One can also think of management functionally: as the action in measuring a quantity on a regular basis and adjusting an initial plan and the actions taken to reach one's intended goal." (Bamboo Web, 2004)

Thus, management, the site suggests, boils down to a theory of constraints. "This "approach to management boils the effort down to a repetitive cycle of three basic questions -- what to change? To what to change to? How to make the change happen?" The finite nature of economic resources is intrinsic to all financial disciplines, and thus it ahs proven a core to management theories, academic and popular. (Bamboo Web, 2004)

The sense that the business world is growing faster paced all the time, that resources of time are even more limited, while financial pressures continue to mount in an increasingly money-conscious world, is confirmed by many popular sites that 'sell' one theory of another to managers. Although accessed through AOL sponsored web links, the "Simplify Your Business" site is clearly a marketing device for a type of promotional managerial seminar series, accompanied by business empowerment books and lectures on tape. Seductively, it promises that management is simple, provided one is "in the zone" in one article, the site presents the personal testimony of one of its developers and advocates, David Brewster, who chronicles how he morphed from a stressed out and under producing manager to one who learned how, "although it didn't feel like it at the time," to know "what to do (clarify), have the ability to do it (capability), and being able to do it over and over again (consistency). " Easier said than done -- unless one purchases one of the company's books, of course, and follows its philosophy, and then things will become "pretty simple. Slowly but surely, my team and I got on top of three things knowing what we needed to do." (Brewster, 2004)