Page 16 - DLIS003_LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

Unit 1: Library Administration and Management

are the activities that should be treated as managerial, are hard to identify, unless some yardsticks Notes
are prescribed. This becomes more difficult especially when those performing managerial
activities have different titles in one organisation as well as in different organisations.
Management in this context has been defined as the process of getting things done by and in
cooperation with others.
Some of the important definitions of management are:

According to Koontz, “Management is the art of getting things done with people and
through informally organised groups. It is the art of creating an environment in which
people can perform as individuals and yet cooperate towards attainment of group goals.
It is the art of removing blocks for such a performance, a way of optimising efficiency in
reaching goals.”

According to Dalton E. McFarland, “Management is the fundamental integrating and
operating mechanism underlying organized effort.”

According to George R. Terry, “Management is a distinct process . . . performed to determine
and accomplish stated objectives by the use of human beings and other resources.”
According to Harold Koontz and Cyrill O’Donnel, “Management is the creation and
maintenance of an internal environment in an enterprise where individuals, working
together in groups can perform efficiently and effectively towards the attainment of group
goals.”

According to W. Jack Duncan, “Management consists of all organizational activities that
involve goal formation and accomplishment, performance, appraisal and the development
of an operating philosophy that ensures the organization’s survival within the social
system.”
According to Kimball and Kimball, “Management may be defined as the art of applying
the economic principles that underline the control of men and material in the enterprise
under consideration.”
According to Brech, “Management may be defined as a social process entailing
responsibility for the effective planning and regulation of the operations of an enterprise.
Such responsibility involves (a) the installation and maintenance of proper procedures to
ensure adherence to plans, and (b) the guidance, integration and supervision of the
personnel comprising the enterprise and carrying out its operations.”
There is no universally acceptable definition of management; so much so that Brech has stated,
“Exactly what the term means is not always clear and not always agreed.” Common to all above
definitions is the connection of management to organizational goals. It evaluates the effectiveness
of goals accomplished and devises methods for achieving those tasks which are compatible with
the demands of the society within which it operates. The most widely accepted meaning of the
term “management” is that management is a process by which responsible persons (e.g., managers
or executives) in an organization get things done through the efforts of other persons in group
activities. Before summing up, it is essential to quote the definition of management given by the
American Management Association. It reads, “Management is guiding human and physical
resources into dynamic organization units which attain their objectives to the satisfaction of
those served and with a high degree of morale and sense of attainment on the part of those
rendering services.”

Notes Management as a process refers to different processes or steps of management –
right from planning to organising, staffing, supervising and controlling.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 11