BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED

JTO BASIC COURSE

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION
(PART – II)

H.4

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC
MANAGEMENT
LESSON PLAN ( 2Hrs )

- To briefly narrate the evolution of Scientific Management

- To explain the modern concept of Administrative Management

- To explain the main functions of a Manager and explanations of each

- To explain the responsibilities of an effective Administrative Manager

- To describe the attributes that an effective Manager should possess

- To explain the Principles of Effective Management

- To discuss about the practical approach to Office Management

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1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 What thoughts come to your mind when you hear the word
MANAGEMENT?
- Authority, command, power and influence?
- Achievement, fulfilment, attainment and accomplishment?
- Status, esteem, respect, money and prestige?
- Frustration, discouragement, dissatisfaction and disappointment?
If you answer YES to each part of this question, then you already have a
good idea why management should be studied. Management does
involve the use of authority, results in a sense of achievement and
provide status. But it is also challenging and frustrating.
1.2 Who needs management? `Business` of course. This answer is partially
correct, but incomplete, because management is needed in all types of
organised activities and all types of organisations. In fact management is
needed wherever people work together to try to reach a common goal.
Since we are constantly being managed and managing others, an
increased knowledge of the management would make the job more
facilitative and predictable.
1.3 This knowledge can be applied to all organised human endeavours,
whether they are business, governmental, social, religious or others. It is
equally applicable to all levels of management. It can, therefore, be
concluded that if a manager has this fundamental knowledge and knows
how to apply it to given situation, he should be able to perform the
managerial functions efficiently and effectively.
1.4 In our department most of the managers come from engineering/ technical
background. So their managerial skills are nearer to operative
management rather than administrative management. The objective of this
module is to provide them the fundamental knowledge of scientific
management so that they will be able to perform the functions of
administrative manager more efficiently and confidently.
1.5 What does management mean? The word ‘manager’ or ‘management’ has
the same wide connotation as the manipulative instinct of man. Its
essence lies in the ever present art and science of manipulation in
contriving to use the means to achieve what one aims at. One widely

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 quoted expression to define management process is that ‘it is the art of
getting things done through others’. Henry Fayol, the French Engineer and
Industrialist, views it ‘as the conduct of affairs of a business, moving
towards its objectives through a continuous process of improvement and
optimisation of resources via the essential management functions’.
2.0 EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
2.1 Management is as old as human civilization. Great people have always
considered the management field worthy of study, and for centuries, many
books have been written suggesting how a manager (or Ruler) should
conduct himself. One example of this is ‘Koot Niti’ written by Kautilya –
Chanakya.
2.2 Pre-historic man is believed to have been merely food getter. His main
aim was survival and, hence, all his activities were directed towards
hunting, fishing and roaming in search of food-stuff. However, with the
advent of family, men began to organise social, religious and military
structures.
2.3 The ancient civilization – Babylon, Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, Indian and
Roman – do give evidence of some principles of management. The
management, then, was more of a trial and error kind. The medieval
period was hardly significant for the management development. Only in
the latter part of 18th century, the necessity of the management was felt
due to industrial revolution in Europe. As soon as the ‘factory’ appeared
on the scene, problems of man, material, machinery and market came up
which required coordination, control and planning to maximise the output
and profit.
2.4 In the latter part of the 19th century, F.W. Taylor first used the term
Scientific Management. He carried out his experiments for more than two
decades on various short comings of factory operations and management
of those days.
2.5 Henry L. Gnatt was contemporary of Taylor who also made considerable
contribution for the change of existing management in those days. Frank
Gilberth developed improved technique of management by applying
motion economy. His wife, Lillian Gilberth, contributed new dimension of
psychology of management.
2.6 While Taylor wanted to extract more out of the employees, Henry Fayol
wanted to get more from the management. While Taylor looked

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 management ‘from top to bottom’, Henry Fayol viewed management in
terms of total industrial activities and theory dealing with ‘planning’,
organising, commanding, co-ordinating and controlling’. Whereas Taylor
was interested to deal with specifics of ‘job analysis, employees’ motion
and time standard’, Fayol emphasized that managerial process and
principles which he had developed were applicable not only to business
but also to governmental, military, religious and other organisations. He
stated that management should be found on certain principles, like.
1 Division of work
2 Authorities and Responsibility
3 Disciplines
4 Unit of command
5 Unit of direction
6 Remuneration
7 Centralization
8 Stability of the tenure of personnel
3.0 MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
3.1 ‘Government’ and ‘Management’ have been allowed as synonymous of
‘Administration. Conversely, the dictionary meaning of administration is
also management.
3.2 The usage seems quite clear that the functioning of government is
administration, For example, ‘Railway Administration’ and the ‘Postal
Administration’ are more common expression than the ‘Railway
Management’ and ‘Postal management’.
3.3 Basically, administration is more general and comprehensive connotation.
It comprehends what we understand by management and goes above it.
There are three distinct spheres where administration over-reaches
management.
1 Where the time dimension is much wider and where the outcomes of
the efforts of the administration are much more diffused over time.
Examples are health, hygiene, education, fiscal and monetary
administrations.
2 Where the beneficiaries of the administration are often neither well
identified nor homogeneous, the gains of administration spread

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 generally throughout to the society at large without any rigid or even
visible link between the contributions made and benefits received by
the beneficiaries.
3 The profits or monetary returns on efforts or investment in the
management process is almost necessarily in the forefront. In the
general administration, long term social costs and social gains occupy
a central position in administrative decisions and programmes.
3.4 Therefore, the broad distinction between the scope and connotation of the
two terms is not simply quantitative or qualitative. It lies in the emphasis
which tends to be wider, long range, diffused, comprehensive and more
fundamental.
3.5 Administrative Management is more concerned with setting objectives and
then planning, organising, staffing and controlling activities so that the
organisation’s objectives are accomplished. Whereas in the Operative
Management, there is more involvement with supervising, motivating,
communicating and leading the employees to achieve effective results.
3.6 In large organisations the lower level mangers are more concerned with
Operative Management. As they rise to the higher levels, they become
more involved with Administrative Management. However, no
management position is exclusively either operative or administrative. All
the level has elements of both aspects.
3.7 Some of the differences between these two types of management are
shown in Fig.1.

Top managers Administrative Management

Objectives setting, Planning,
organising,Staffing and Controlling

Middle managers

Operative Management , Leading

by supervising, motivating and
communicating with people.
Low level managers

Fig. 1 Two Types of Management

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 Administrative and operative managers differ to the extent to which they
perform the management functions.
4.0 MODERN CONCEPT OF ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMNET
4.1 In the light of the change in approach to management. the Administrative
Management can be defined as ‘organising, planning and controlling of
the organisational activities and leading the people to achieve the
objective of the organisation.
4.2 The office structure in Indian Post and Telegraph Department was a
legacy of the British Empire. The Head Clerk, with four or five clerks
under his control, could effectively control the office activities of a sub-
division. In pre-independence era, the relationship between a Sub-
divisional Officer, Head Clerk and Clerks was, in general, of a master and
servant.
4.3 Post Independence era has witnessed an unprecedented wave of
democratic philosophy. There are corresponding changes in organisation
structure. People no longer want to work under the concept of master and
servant. Management was mostly centered around the officer activities
and controlling the clerical staff. Today the office is considered to be the
nerve centre of every organisation and the clerk is an important member
of the team. The change in outlook is due to the complexity of the
organisational activities, be they commercial, industrial or Governmental.
These activities embrace to control and plan the socio-economic
revolution also.
4.4 The changes which have taken place in the past few decades, have
altered the nature and extent of administrative management. Today the
administrative manager has to take care of office management, good
employee relations, financial management, material management,
planning and co-ordination of project activities, liaison with officers of other
units, and personnel management.
4.5 Today the office activities include communication; written and oral, record
keeping through filing procedures, systematizing and cost reducing
through system and procedure analysis and collecting, summarising the
operation result.
5.0 ELEMENTS OF MANAGEMENT
5.1 We would serialise the main elements of management in the order in
which the management process is conceived, evolved and implemented.

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 1 Horizon – There has to be a horizon of management - in the order in
which the manager must perform. This may be large or small
2 There must be an organisation – the human team with its pattern.
3 Planning – future forecast, looking ahead, planning a system, etc.
4 Staffing – quantitative and qualitative assessment of staff, its training ,
development and posting.
5 Leadership – direction. Even a well equipped powerful army would
lapse into disarray without effective leadership.
6 Communication – It is the life blood of any organisation.
7 Co-ordination – the assurance that the vehicle of management will not
swerve off the rails.
8 Evaluation, monitoring or control – every things is going on schedule.
9 Innovation – assuming arms to combat the anticipated pitfalls, from
outside environment or from inside.
6.0 MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS
6.1 Management can be defined as achieving objectives by performing certain
functions, but there is no agreement about what these functions are. One
of the earliest classifications was made by Fayol, who suggested that
planning, organising, co-ordinating, commanding, and controlling are the
primary functions. Other management specialists have narrated various
other functions including those as given by Fayol.
6.2 Generally, regardless of the type of organisation, at least the following six
functions must be performed by any one who is a manager
a. Setting objectives
b. Planning and Policy making
c. Organising
d. Communication
e. Decision making
f. Controlling
g. Leading
6.3 In general, to be an effective administrative manager, one should have
skills to discharge the following responsibilities.

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 a. Determining realistic performance objectives (in terms of quality
and safety, etc.).
b. Providing workers with the necessary resources to perform their
tasks.
c. Communication to workers what, specifically, is expected of them.
d. Providing an adequate reward structure to encourage performance.
e. Delegating authority, where needed, and inviting participation
where possible.
f. Removing barriers and stumbling blocks to effective performance.
g. Appraising performance and communicating the results of
evaluations.
h. Showing personal considerations for the employees.

6.2.1 SETTING OBJECTIVES

The manager makes the things happen.
1. An ’objective’ is an end result, the end point, a goal, and something we
aim for and try to achieve
2. Objectives are ideas and statements which give direction to behaviour and
efforts.
Although the two terms, ‘objective’ and ‘goal’ are synonyms, yet the nature of
objective is general and broader in sense, whereas goal connotes greater degree
of distinctiveness, and consequently is more operative in everyday activity.
Before the entrepreneurs determine objectives, they establish an overall mission
or purpose of the organisation – beginning. The organisational mission identifies
the functions that organisation intends to perform within the social and economic
system. Only after the basic mission is established, the specific objectives,
strategies, programmes, policies and plans are set.
The following figure shows general relationship among mission, objectives and
plan. This is also applicable to the telecommunications.

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 Mission/ Situation Objectives Plan

Get evaluated Which are the

in terms of generating force for

Organisation’s mission Telecom for consumers

Broad and overall Objectives Higher growth, efficiency and
Revenue with least maintenance cost.
Specific Objectives - Increase efficiency and quality of
customer’s service.
- Increase effectiveness of calls.
- Decrease Interruptions.
- Increase availability of service for
meeting customer’s need.
The objective of all organisations is to optimize values, goods and services for
the community at the minimum sacrifice (cost). It is obvious that objective is
common to all forms of human activities and is fundamental to growth and
prosperity.
The objectives must be:
- Measurable and usually quantitative
- Specific and operative
- Able to identify expected result
- Well within the power
- Realistic and obtainable
- Able to clearly state time limit for completion
Areas needing objectives

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 Peter Drucker identified eight major areas in which any organisation
should set objectives
- Market standing
- Physical and financial resources
- Innovation
- Productivity
- Public and social responsibilities
- Manager’s performance and development
- Worker’s performance and development
6.2.2 PLANNING AND POLICY MAKING
Planning focuses on estimating the future, and establishes the base for making
decisions.
Planning means, ‘Predetermination of events through Predictions and making
decisions in advance of the need of co-ordinated action’.
Planning is determining the policies, projects, programmes, procedure, methods,
systems, budgets, standards, and strategies needed to achieve the set
objectives.
By failing to plan, you are planning to fail.
Planning is fundamental managerial skill. The more fully or correctly a manager
plans the works of a department, the less likely he is to find himself fighting
unexpected crisis and emergencies and he is more likely to achieve the goals
that he has set for his section. A careful planning transforms the department’s
purpose into action by setting up concrete objectives. And it gives the manager
greater control over the direction and progress of his department’s activities. As a
manager, you may have a number of goals to be achieved. In order to achieve
these goals, you have to manipulate a number of elements, such as men,
material, equipment and money, operating still within the framework of rules.
Faced with this kind of complexity, you can safely appreciate how essential it is
to plan your work skilfully. Skilful planning means predetermination of events,
through prediction and decision making, in advance of the need of action. It
involves the following activities.
1) Analysis of the organisation’s objectives.
2) Study of men and material resources.

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 3) Time span.
4) Formulation of specific objectives for subordinates.
5) Allocation of responsibilities and resources to subordinates.

Programme Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT) / Critical Path

scheduling:
Management today is faced with unprecedented and complex problems in the
planning and execution of projects. Development of PERT came above when
programmes could not be managed with simple activity time bar charting. It was
first used by US Navy in 1958 in connection with development of Polaris Missile.
Now-a-days it is used on most national defences development programmes,
construction industry, in large manufacturing and developmental engineering
projects etc. PERT is a useful scheduling tool to assist in project control. It
provides management with the ability to plan the best possible use of resources
and to achieve a given goal within overall time and cost limitations.
There are some basic requirements for the use of PERT. The first requirement is
that necessary task must be visualised, clearly, to be included in a network
comprising of events and activities, as are depicted in the pert chart. Simplified
PERT chart for Commissioning of a Telephone Exchange is shown below.

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 1
2
1
3
4
N
M
5 P
START Q
D END

A B C E F Q 1 R 1 T 1 U 1
1 2 3 4 6 8 4 5 6 7
4 4 4 4

G
H S
9 7 1
1
4
J K
1
0
4

PERT CHART

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 Activities Code Dependency
- Acquisition of land A -
- Project estimate sanction B A
-Award of Building Construction C B
-Building construction D C
-Preparation & Sanction of Eqpt estimate E B
- Firm order to manufacturer F E
- Sanction of staff, training and posting H B
-Approval of UG scheme and placing of order J H
- Receipt of UG cables & storage K J
- Award of A/C plant work M D
-Completion of power supply connections N D
- A/C Plant commissioning P M,N
- Receipt of Exchange equipment Q F
- Equipment installation R D,Q
- Subscriber network S K
- Pre cut-over tests T P,R,S
- commissioning U T

An event is defined as a specific accomplishment at a particular instant of time

and is usually represented by circle on the chart. An activity is defined as the
time and/or resources necessary to progress from one event to the next. They
are usually indicated by an arrow of the chart. For example, activity A represents
the work and the time to progress from event 1 (start) to event. 2. This network
requires sufficient precision so that there is no difficulty in monitoring actual
accomplishment as the programme proceeds.
The second requirement is that events and activities must be sequential in the
network under a logical set of ground rules which allow the determination of
critical and sub critical paths. One of the ground rules is that no successor event
can be considered complete until all of the predecessor events have been

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completed. Another ground rule is that no looping can take place. An example
would be that no successor event can have an activity which is dependent on
predecessor event.
The third requirement makes use of three ‘time estimates’ for activities;
optimistic, most likely and pessimistic .The optimistic estimate assumes minimum
time an activity will take, if every thing goes well. The most likely estimate
assumes normal or average difficulties and represents the time that would be
required if the activity could be repeated several times. The pessimistic estimate
assumes the maximum time an activity should require, given some initial ‘project
failure’ and ‘above average’ difficulty.
Critical Path Method( CPM)
In critical path method a single time estimate is mentioned. The critical path
is defined as the most time-consuming series of tasks in a project from start
to completion. For example, the PERT Chart on preceding page depicts
several paths for the project completion. 1st path is events 1, 2, 3, 4, 6,
8,14,15,16, & 17. The second path is events 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 15, 16, 17 or 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 15, 16, & 17. The third is 1-4, 9, 10, 11, 15-17 and the fifth path
is 1-4,9,10-11,15-17. Critical path shall be any one of these, whose
completion time is maximum. It is seen from the network diagram of PERT
that major part of the ‘controlling and directing’ a project is the scheduling of
the critical path.
Identification of the critical path is important step in the planning and
management of a project. It will immediately draw the attention of the
management to those activities which govern the date of completion of the
project.
6.2.3 ORGANISING
Organising is
- determining what sources and which activities are required to achieve
the organisation’s objectives,
- combine them into workable groups,
- assigning the responsibilities for accomplishing them to responsible
subordinates, and then
- delegating to those individuals the authority necessary to carry out
their assignments.
Organising means matching job and people.

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Organising may be defined as how well you co-ordinate all the resources of your
sub-divisional men, material, equipments and methods, to reach the goals. In
other words, skilful organising means having the right man on the right job at the
right time with the right material and equipment.
Following are the various elements of organising skill
1) The ability to establish cleat-cut duties and jobs for every worker under
control.
2) The ability to assign clearly defined authority and accountability to each
job.
3) The ability to co-ordinate job through clear-cut channel of
communication.
4) The ability to schedule each departmental work effectively.
5) The ability to develop organisational methods that will accomplish
specific goals.
6.2.4 COMMUNICATING
Communication is the process whereby the ideas and images of one person are
transmitted to another person or group of persons.
Management communication is somewhat different from the general
communication. It is an important chain of understanding which links the
members of various units of an organisation at different levels and in different
areas.
It is important to all managers and is needed by all employees.
Communication should be simple, easy to understand having definite information
in verbal or written form or in both.
COMMUNICATION MEDIA
Oral : Verbal orders/instructions
Meetings : Discussions, Seminars
Written : Ordinary/DO-letters/Telex/Telegraph
Physical/Practical : Show-how
6.2.5 DECISION MAKING
“A decision is the product of a process; a choice; the result of conscious mental
activity and directed towards a purpose.”

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Managerial decision making can be defined as the conscious selection of a
course of action from among available alternatives to produce a desired result.
Top level managers are not alone in making decisions of importance. Middle and
lower level managers are also in the situation of making important decisions.
A logical process for developing a rational decision includes
1) Consciousness of the problem-provoking situation.
2) Diagnosis, recognition and definition.
3) Find available alternatives and their consequences.
4) Acceptance of the solution by the organisation.
The following figure shows a decision making process.

IDENTIFY & MAKE AND

DEVOLOP EVALUATE EVALUATE
DIAGNOSE THE IMPLEMENT
ALTERNATIVES ALTERNATIVES RESULTS
PROBLEM DECISION

FEED BACK

6.2.6 CONTROLLING
Controlling is the act of checking, regulating and verifying whether things occur in
conformity with the plan that has been adopted, the instructions issued and the
principles established. It is through control that operations and actions are
adjusted to predetermined standards.
Controlling is devising ways and means of assuring that planned performance is
actually achieved. In general, it is the process that measures actual performance
and guides it towards some predetermined standards.
For an administrative manager, controlling means developing, directing and
analysing the whole system and procedure to be followed in completing each
phase of work .

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Controlling may be positive or negative. Positive control tries to see that the
objectives of the organisation are efficiently and effectively reached. Negative
control tries to ensure that the unwanted or undesirable activities don’t occur or
recur.
Controlling process involves
a. Setting-up standards of performance.
b. Determining performance measurements.
c. Measuring actual performance and comparing it with the
established standards.
d. Taking corrective actions to bring actual performance into
conformity with standard, if necessary.
Controlling, to a manager, should mean controlling results rather than controlling
subordinates. It is more important to ensure that result conforms to the
manager’s plan and that the organisation is making good headway towards the
goals it has to achieve. Controlling is a necessary action taken to ensure that a
plan is being carried through to attain an objective. Controlling is one of the more
technical, managerial skills, but anyone with a reasonable, well organised mind
can become proficient at it. Moreover, there are number of useful tools available
to the manager that makes it easier for him to learn, at the earliest possible
moment, when plans are going off-target. Such tools are charts, graphs, tables
or other kinds of systematic methods.
The tool, of course is only as good as the skill with which it is used. Many
managers who lack skill in the controlling function tend to have an unnecessary
elaborate system of reports and controls that get them too bogged down in
meaningless information, to see what is really important. One of the fundamental
skills, in controlling, is the ability to wisely select the things one should know and
be willing to do without the things really not required to know.
6.2.7 LEADING
Leading, if simply stated, is ‘getting the employees to do the things you want
them to do’. Therefore, it requires the leader’s qualities, style and power, as well
as the leadership activities of communication, motivation, and discipline.
Leading, is inducing another person or a group of persons to produce some
“output or performance”, getting employee to do what you want them to do by
communicating with and motivating them to perform, leading them towards goal
achievement, and informing them about their work assignments.

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There are indications that certain traits, such as intelligence, enthusiasm,
dominance, self-confidence, social participation and egalitarianism are frequently
found to characterise leaders.
Leading means directing and supervising effectively the personnel activities.
Maintaining and adhering to the principles of discipline, rewarding and
compensating personnel for hard and good work, establishing a communication
link between the top management, middle management and employees. Getting
best out of the employee as well as getting them to work as team.
Leading ability is the ability to lead effectively under any circumstances. It is not
a specific technical skill but is made up partly of attitude, partly of experience,
partly of intelligence and partly of skills, such as communicating and decision
making. Leading ability is important to a manager or a supervisor as he has to
face a continual barrage of new problems and pressures. As long as dealings
are lenient and decision easy, he may get by. But sometimes schedules get
tight, work piles up, employees are unexpectedly absent, supplies don’t arrive on
time, and conflicting demand come in from all sides. It is then that the manager
must demonstrate his leading ability. Unless he can cope-up with these problems
and does not collapse under them, he can never expect to be a successful
manager.
Therefore, a manager must learn to function under conditionals of extreme
stress, somewhat like an astronaut who must learn to function during critical
emergencies in outer space. He must be able to lead, even when he feels
frustrated, in getting what he wants. He must accept the inevitability of obstacles
and road blocks and try to break through them or work around them. He must be
able to concentrate on making them right rather than bemoaning his fate
7 ATTRIBUTES THAT EFFECTIVE MANAGER SHOULD POSSESS
7.1 Tolerance
All people have some faults and shortcomings. It is not good for a
manager to be perfectionist. A good leader should be tolerant of a
person’s shortcoming in the same way that he must respect and
recognise each person’s strong points. “Do unto other as you wish others
to do unto you”.
7.2 Ability to Reason
“Avoid Arguments”
Many managers believe that an argument can alone decide the facts.
However, when a subordinate really believes that he is right and you know
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 that he is wrong, it may not be adequate to use logical reasoning only. In
case like this, it may be necessary to cater to emotions to ‘bring people
around’.
7.3 Empathy
The narrow definition of empathy is the capacity to feel what others feel.
Empathy should be spontaneous instinct, not something that is
consciously turned on and off. One important facet of empathy is saving
face for the other person who persists with the previous point using
emotionally oriented arguments. Few people like to be proved wrong
even when the facts show they are wrong. Hence, some form of face-
saving for the subordinates is extremely important to his emotional well-
being.
7.4 Good emotional Control
The leader who is always losing his temper or showing irritation with
people, will rarely command the respect of his subordinates. This doesn’t
mean that the boss can’t get mad occasionally and how off steam. He is
also a human. But when there is an underlying current of emotionalism
between the supervisor and his subordinate, it quickly undermines any
confidence his subordinates may have in him.
7.5 Readiness to Give Others Credit
The manager who appears to be always right (even if he is always right),
generally has difficulty in motivating his subordinates to work creatively.
So it is well to give credit to others even a little more them due. This will
result in an adequate motivation.
7.6 Willingness to Listen
Many executive feels that because they are the boss, they should do most
of the talking. When they do this, subordinate naturally stop speaking up,
with the result that the sources of information from down the line dry-up
and the managers and supervisors become ill-informed on important
happening in their areas.

7.7 Quick to Praise

A good manager will praise his men for a job well done and will blame
them by constructive criticism for jobs poorly done. A supervisor should
not deliver criticism that may degrade the dignity of the subordinates.

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7.8 Quickness to See Good in Others
If manager does not have this trait, he owes it to himself to develop it by
being more optimistic for good points first, and not the bad ones. You
should analyse your subordinates to find good points and create situations
to develop them further. You should also avoid communicating your
subordinate’s bad points to you colleagues, because it may reach him
through grapevine and aggravate the situation.
7.9 Lack of Suspicion
Mutual trust is extremely necessary to generate confidence in the
subordinate. If the manager is a cynic and does not believe in people, it
will be reflected in poor morale, poor work and a corresponding cynical
attitude on the part of his subordinates.
7.10Flexibility
A good manager cannot afford to be inflexible, because he is dealing
primarily with people rather than things, ideas or facts. Since, people
exhibit varying behaviour under different circumstances, flexibility is a
must to cope with these changing situations. A person who is ‘generally a
good worker ‘may on a particular occasion commit a ‘blunder’. His good
performance need to be given due weightage and not ignored in the light
of occasional unsatisfactory performance which could be due to may
reasons, including personal problems. A rigid manager may view only
isolated events and take action. This must be avoided by a manager who
wants to be successful. He must change himself according to
environment to get work from the subordinates.
7.11Recognition of differing Views
The Manager must recognise not only that two or more points of view can
exist, but also occasionally, more than one may be correct. The attribute
of a mature manager can earn him a great deal of respect from his
subordinates.

7.12Good Sense of Humour

Probably the most important part of good sense of humour is the ability to
laugh at oneself. This single attribute can earn mountains of respect for

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 the manager in situation where more ‘scientific’ techniques would be of no
avail.
7.13Freedom from Prejudice
The antonym of the word ‘Prejudice’ is ‘Judgement’. Hence, prejudice can
be equated with lack of judgment. Centrally the good executive must be
free of minority-ground prejudice to be fair and effective with a worker from
a minority group. Even if this work situation does not exist, probably a
supervisor with narrow racial prejudice would have prejudices carrying
over into other areas. We may have prejudices, but should continually
strive to subjugate them.
7.14Objectivity
Objectivity is the ability to look at issues and problems rationally,
impersonally, and without bias while the leader needs to be personally
empathetic, he also needs to be able to keep emotional and rational
considerations in perspective. Objectivity is a vital aspect of analytical
decision making. It helps to ensure a fair and consistent course of action
from the leader.
7.15Participation
Participation can be an over worked word or concept, but a manager’s
failure to recognize its worth may often lead to disaster. If the subordinate
passively accept the manager’s plans while really objecting to them, he
may not take corrective action when the plans are working, since he really
did not accept them in very first place. But if the subordinate could be
involved in the planning process, he would do everything in his power to
make sure that the plans work. The technique employed to ensure such
success is participation.

8 FIVE PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT

8.1 Five important principles for effective management are illustrated in Table 1.

9 PRACTICAL APPROACH TO OFFICE MANAGEMENT

9.1 In scientific management, findings of other sciences, such as Economics,
Statistics and Industrial Psychology, are applied. First the problem, or the

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goal is stated clearly and concisely. Next all data pertaining to the stated
problem are collected, classified and analysed. In this process, best use of
latest facts finding, techniques of statistical procedure, flow-charts, job
analysis, job description, job specification and job evaluation, motion and time
study, PERT/CPM, and Operational Research, are applied. A tentative
principle or law is them formulated and applied to judge its validity and
usefulness. Scientific management can be summed up in the word ‘Doing
that which is most logical by using great deal of common-sense’.
Table 1 Principles of Effective Management
1 PLAN 1 What work is to be done?
To plan rightly one must know 2 How it is to be done?
3 When it is to be dome?
4 Where it is to be done?
5 How fast it can be done?
2 SCHEDULE 1 Definite,
The work must be 2 In harmony with other
scheduled. Schedules,
A schedule to be effective, 3 Not difficult to accomplish,
It must be 4 Possible to accomplish,
5 Rigidly kept.
3 EXECUTE 1 Skilfully,
It must then be executed 2 Accurately,
3 Rapidly,
4 Without unnecessary effort,
5 Without unnecessary delay.
4 MEASURE 1 As to your potentiality,
The work accomplished 2 As to your past records,
must be Measured 3 As to the past records of be others,
4 As to quality,
5 As to quantity.
5 REWARD 1 Good working conditions,

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 If your work is 2 Health,
accomplished 3 Happiness,
Effectively, you would be 4 Self-development,
Rewarded with 5 Money.
9.2 There are many ways to describe scientific management with particular
reference to office management. For supervising and directing office work,
study of office job has to be done for which the following questions may be
answered continuously
Why is the job done?
Can it be eliminated?
Can it be combined?
Can it be simplified?
Are the right personnel used?
Asking these questions represents logical approach to all the activities and
is termed ‘Common-sense’.
10 CONCLUSION
10.1 Management functions and knowledge are universal. Managers are
required everywhere. It is needed to reach objective, achieve efficiency and
balance conflicting goals. Management is both an art and science. It is an
occupational grouping, an academic discipline and a process necessary for
all persons performing supervisory functions.
10.2 Management functions are setting objectives, planning and policy making,
organising, decision making, communicating, leading, and controlling.
Manager engages in interaction, administrative and technical skills.
10.3 A successful manager must have the attribute of tolerance, ability to
reason, empathy, good emotional control, readiness to give credits to others,
willingness to listen, quick to praise, lack of suspicion, flexibility, recognition of
objectivity and participation.
10.4 All officers in the Company now a days require development of managerial
skills on the basis of modern concept of Scientific Management to accomplish
their multifarious duties effectively.

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