Although we tend to think of business management in terms of the organization of a company, and some may regard management as equivalent to business administration and therefore exclude management in places outside the commercial sector, in reality management structures are evident throughout society, from government bodies through military forces, right down to personal home environments.
This is because management may be defined as all the activities carried out by one or more people with the aim of planning and controlling the activities of other people so that an objective can be achieved that would not have been possible through individuals acting independently.
Most accepted authorities on management believe that there are several parts to the concept of management:
- Planning
- Organizing
- Staffing
- Leading
- Controlling
This means that anyone in a managerial role will carry out the above
functions of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling to
varying degrees, depending on the specific needs, practices and methods of the organization, and according to the level at which the managing is taking place. For example, lower level managers may not have much input on staffing, as this might be handled by an authority above them. However, a seam that does run through all levels of management is that managers are engaged in getting things done through other people.