Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)

Figure used to produce outstanding principal: the factor that is applied to the original principal of a loan to give the amount of outstanding principal at a particular time

Q5.

A. Explain the principles functions of management. Would you attach different Levels of Importance to these functions at various levels of management?

Principles of Management:

A manager is the one who manages all the operations in his assigned functional area. He needs the organized knowledge of the science,that is the principles of Management.

(a) Management is a Process in the sense of a combined pattern of mental action and human behavior; it is not per se an art, nor an in born aptitude, nor a technique, nor a science.

It can be looked upon as a process by which managers formulate, direct and operate organizations with the coordinated human efforts in order to achieve pre determined objectives. Management is a process of planning, executing and controlling the activities of an enterprise. A manager's decisions and actions are primarily result-oriented or goal directed and there are a series of events and activities in succession by which the work of the of the enterprise proceeds towards a goal.

(b) Management as a Profession : Management is very much recognized as a profession. A professional is a person who has undergone a certain vigorous training to acquire a body of knowledge and develop certain skills with the objective of rendering a service to society.

Decision forms the essence of management, and this presupposes consideration and judgment preceding the decisions, as well as facts and data from which to judge.

Professionalism has two basic elements-

(i) the acquisition of certain knowledge and skills

(ii) having the right attitudes Manager must be aware of his responsibilities to the shareholders, to the employees of the company, to customers, to society and so on.

(c) The decision has to be carried into effect by the other people who, for this purpose may or may not have to be held under the jurisdiction of the manager; in either case, he has to solicit or attain their effective cooperation, which implies an inherent social facet to the process, and a need for social skills.

(d) The objectives at any given time are determined, and such determination is reached through the judgment and decisions which are the basis of the actions to accomplish them

(e) Actions relate to the Utilisation of resources. Since the resources concerned could be used in alternative ways, to achieve the specific objective, the choice of the best alternative becomes part of the basic decisions. The criterion of judgment being the relative outcome from any given allocation of resources.

(f) The management process thus has an essential economic character in its primary concern for effective attainment of chosen or expected objectives within optimum or minimum use of resources.

(g) The economic achievements can be ensured only by continuous review of the actions ensuing from the decisions, which means that the judgment and decision process recurs over and over again after evaluating the outputs with reference to the plan of actions (control function).

(h) To maintain the recurrent action and interaction is the crux of the responsibilities inherent in the management process.

(i) The management process is future oriented by reason of its concern with planning, what is to be done and how it will be done.

Functions of Management:

The basic functions of the Management can be broadly categorized as,

Organizing, Planning, Leading, Measuring and controlling, Framework

Organizing: Once the work of an enterprise grows beyond what a single craftsman can do, organization becomes necessary. We have to assign the various tasks to different people and to coordinate their efforts. This process leads to departments and divisions as the enterprise expands, each of which has its particular mission

A manager must view organization as a social arrangement. Because the organization is composed of people rather than physical objects. Managerial actions influence the way men respond.. The attitudes of these people are continually shifting and evolving.

In organizing the objective of getting the work done has to be achieved and at the same time a social structure has to be built. The social structure helps the needs of the people doing work

Planning: A key activity of all managers is planning the work under their direction. Working with each other and with the people who will carryout the plans, managers clarify objectives and set goals for each department or sub-division. They establish policies and standard procedure to guide those who do the work. Managers must develop programs, strategy and schedules. This development can only keep the work moving towards objectives The plans have to be changed or readjusted periodically if required based on new information and changes in Market forces leading to changes in Production programs.

The process of planning is best understood if one first examines the basic stages in making a decision. These stages are diagnosing the problem, finding good alternative solutions, projecting the result of each alternative, and finally selecting the action to be taken. Decision making is not the act of a isolated individual. It takes place in the organization which is established fully. Many different persons in the organization may contribute to the formulation and final selection of the master plan.

Leading: A manager must also provide leadership if the team working with him in the organization are to work together and achieve the desired results. A Manager must keep good relation with every member of his team .In leading a manager strives to integrate the needs of his subordinates with the welfare of the company. A leader (Manager) must try to maintain a good balance between individual motivation and efficiency.

The kind of Behavior by a manager fosters atmosphere of trust, respect and confidence .This will help subordinates to perform their duties and achieving personnel aspiration .At certain times the manager as leader has to be tough hold people to high standards performance, disciplines wisely and occasionally using the power.

1. Top-management: This refers to the top one or two hierarchical levels in the organization structure. Managers at these levels have responsibilities for the total organizational performance covering multiple business activities.

2.Middle-management: These are the managers between the top- and first-level management. They generally do not have the responsibility for more than one type of business activity, and even within that may be responsible for only a segment of the total work in the organization.

3. First-level-management: They are at the lowest one or two levels of management hierarchy. They are the people responsible for directly supervising the work of operational staff, and form a link between them and the management.

As we move from top to the first-level managers, the total proportion of effort on management work tends to decrease. Within management work, the effort spent on planning and controlling functions tends to decrease, and on leading function tends to increase, as we move down the organizational hierarchy. There is a drop in amount of organizing effort requirement also with decreasing level of organization hierarchy, but much less pronounced drop in comparison to that for planning and leading.

non financial information in accouting which is used for decision making can explained depending on certain type of industries/companies e.g. non financial information for airline company include

1. number of route
2. number of passengers
3. number of flights per day, week etc
4. comments of passengers

etc

An effective control system should be:

• Accurate
• Timely
• Objective and Comprehensible
• Focused on Strategic Control Points
• Economically Realistic
• Organizational Realistic
• Coordinated with the Organization's Work Flow
• Flexible
• Prescriptive and Operational
• Accepted by Organization Members

Vicarious Learning/Observational Learning/Social Learning/Modeling

Observational learning (also known as: vicarious learningor social learning or modeling) is learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining and replicating behavior observed in others. It is most associated with the work of psychologist Albert Bandura, who implemented some of the seminal studies in the area and initiated social learning theory. It involves the process of learning to copy or model the action of another through observing another doing it.

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