Management: an evolving technology

Management is a relatively modern and distinctively American concept. Developed in response to the needs created by the growth of large corporations and institutions, management processes essentially deal with concepts of a hierarchy of authority and control over broad scale activities. The process is dependent on communications and information; its development reflects both increasing sophistication in establishing lines of communications and efforts to systematize the application of management techniques.

Noting that the process concept of management articulated by Henri Fayol in 1916 remains an accepted element of management theory, the author describes developments in operations research – the use of scientific method to solve management problems – as major modern efforts to understand and articulate the conceptual basis of the management process. He questions, however, how far the management sciences can go toward making a science of management. Their usefulness has been greatest at the lower tactical levels of management.

The higher levels of management issues, on the other hand, deal with a dynamic and open environment, rather than the type of closed stable system that can be defined and clarified through science. When dealing with strategic issues of an organization, management is a process of searching, groping and testing rather than of problem solving; it is an intuitive art rather than a systematic technique.

While management as a profession must live with the limitations of management technology, it is essential that that technology change to keep pace with changes in other technology and changing social needs.

Modern information and communications technology, for example, makes widespread organizations ‘smaller’ and also makes it possible to develop more flexible, less hierarchic, management systems. This will change organizational structure.

Another issue is the positioning of a management system between a totally administered system – that is, one in which decisions products and services are made from above or within – and a market system, in which decisions tend to be made in response to perceived demand.

The environment within which management operates is changing. Management must develop greater understanding in order to create an environment that encourages individual initiative in the framework of ethical policy guidelines and to meet the expectations of its markets and society.

The challenges to modern management are becoming more difficult and complex. A new generation of elite will be required to meet those challenges. Opportunities to move into top positions must be open to all, but equality of opportunity should not be confused with equality of reward.