MANAGEMENT; Is a Art or Science?

Management
is everywhere - office, hospital,
school, curity, Finance, trust etc.,

Management is basically
Planning, Organizing,
Coordinating, Directing,
Assessing, Correcting, Motivating
and Achieving a set goal. It is
objective-oriented. We always
have a doubt whether it is an art
or science. It is the oldest of arts
and youngest of science, because
it is of dynamic nature.
Different Managements need
different approaches; for
example Business Management
and Personnel Management are
based on Common principles but
vary a lot in the approach.

Economists say Management is a
Factor of Production; Socialist
views it as a Group of People;
others say that is a process;

Mary
Parker says “ Management in its
true sense, a process by which
an organization realizes its
objectives in a planned manner”;
Management is all about great
ideas, people and achievements;
though there are many
definitions of Management no
single definition is universally
accepted, as it changes from
situation to situation, industry to
industry; it has got different
dimensions and hence cannot be
defined precisely as a Scientific
Theory or Law;
James A. F. says “
Management is the process of
Planning, Organizing Leading
and Controlling efforts of
organization members and of
using all other organizational
resources to achieve pre-
determined Organizational
goals”.

Dr. James Lundy’s views :
“Management is a task of
Planning, Coordinating,
Motivating and Controlling the
efforts of others towards specific
objectives”.

According to Henry
Fayol, “Management is to
forecast, plan, organize,
command, coordinate and
control".

Peter F Drucker defines
Management as “An Economic
Organ of industrial society”; E.F.L.
Breach says “Management is
concerned with seeing that the
job gets done, its tasks are
centered on planning and
guiding the operations that are
going on in the enterprise”;

According to George R Terry
“Management is a distinct
process consisting of planning,
organizing, actuating and
controlling performance to
accomplish the objectives by the
use of people and resources”.

Management is taking inputs,
transforming them into output-
either a good or service; the
effectiveness of this
transforming the input into
output depends on the
Management - especially when
the resources are scarce; It is a
group activity; motivating others
and getting the things done
within the stipulated time,
without compromising on the
quality of the result; it gives
shape and color to the great
ideas of the manager;
Management involves dealing
with people who have different
understanding, sensitivity,
knowledge, capability,
responsibility, maturity.

Science is a collection of
systematic knowledge, collection
of truths and Inferences after
continuous study and
experiments. The Relationship
between Variables and Limits are
defined and the Fundamental
Principles discovered.

Science has got three specific
characters :

1. It is a systematic and
organized knowledge and based
on scientific methods of
observation.

2. Inferences are arrived after
continuous observation and
experiemtns;

3. It has logical principles which
are well defined and are
Universally applicable without
any limitations.

Management Principles have also
evolved and it is changing day by
day according to the change in
the human behaviour; In science
keeping one factor as Variable
and all others as constants the
same experiment is repeated
many times in order to arrive at a
conclusion; but Management
involves human element and
hence all the factors are wildly
varying.

Art uses the known rules and
principles and uses the skill,
expertise, Wisdom, experience to
achieve the desired result. The
point is how to get the things
done in the desired manner to
get the desired result. New
methods can be adopted from
the past experiences and
incidents what to do and what
not to do; Effective Management
is extracting voluntary
cooperation from the staff. So it
is definitely an art and it can be
acquired only by practicing the
theoretical knowledge skillfully
and prudently.
Management has got two faces
like a coin; on one side it is art
and on the other it is science.

Management has got scientific
principles which constitute the
elements of Science and Skill and
Talent which are the attributes of
Art.

Management skills are acquired
by constant practice as in the
case of medicine, engineering
and accountancy; Mere
knowledge of concepts will not
fetch results; understanding
human behaviour, tactfulness,
vision, pragmatism, creativity,
compassion towards staff, team
spirit are all needed by a
Successful Manager for effective
management. The Science and
Art are not mutually exclusive but
complementary to each other.
Therefore Management is both a
science and an art.