Management Principles

MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES

MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANISATION.

What is Management?

Put simply, management is the practice of planning, leading, supervising and organising resources within an organisation or unit with the general aim of accomplishing its objectives (Terry, 1968). This basic principal can then be implemented within an organisation (be it profit or non-profit), business or institution in order to come up with a broader more relevant definition.

This task involves coordinating the labours of people to achieve aims and objectives by utilising accessible resources proficiently and effectively. There are several different resource types within management (Koontz, 1930); the natural resources, the human resources, the financial resources and the technological resources. Resourcing involves the distribution and handling of the aforementioned resources.

Let’s take a look at the management dynamics of Tesco - one of the world’s largest multinational grocery and general merchandise retailers.

Tesco’s Organisational Structure.

Tesco has what is referred to as having a structure that is hierarchical. This is because the general running of the organisation involves different levels of employees reporting to each other before the information reaches the boss.

An organisation like Tesco is known to have a hierarchical arrangement that has many levels with an individual controlling a level. Companies with a hierarchical structure are usually large organisations. The way it works, is that directives are usually handed down from an employee to another until finally they reach the last employee at the end of the hierarchical structure. If there happens to be a problem in the chain, the instructions are moved up through the hierarchy until they reach the level they are supposed to be.

The advantage of the hierarchical structure is that the employees are closely supervised and controlled. The employees of a company like Tesco will distinguish exactly...