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Unit 1: Introduction to Management

13. Management draws ideas and concepts from various disciplines: Management is an Notes
interdisciplinary study. It draws ideas and concepts from various disciplines like economics,
statistics, mathematics, psychology, sociology, anthropology etc.
14. Management is goal oriented: Management is a purposeful activity. It is concerned with
the achievement of pre-determined objectives of an organisation.
15. Different levels of management: Management is needed at different levels of an organisation
namely top level, middle level and lower level.
16. Need of organisation: There is the need of an organisation for the success of management.
Management uses the organisation for achieving pre-determined objectives.
17. Management need not be owners: It is not necessary that managers are owners of the
enterprise. In joint stock companies, management and owners (capital) are different entities.

18. Management is intangible: It cannot be seen with the eyes. It is evidenced only by the
quality of the organisation and the results, i.e., profits, increased productivity etc.

Is Management a Science or an Art?

A question often arises whether management is a science or art. It is said that “management is
the oldest of arts and the youngest of sciences”. This explains the changing nature of management
but does not exactly answer what management is? To have an exact answer to the question it is
necessary to know the meanings of the terms “Science” and “Art”.
What is “Science”?

Science may be described, “as a systematic body of knowledge pertaining to an area of study and
contains some general truths explaining past events or phenomena”.
The above definition contains three important characteristics of science. They are:

1. It is a systematized body of knowledge and uses scientific methods for observation,
2. Its principles are evolved on the basis of continued observation and experiment, and
3. Its principles are exact and have universal applicability without any limitation.
Judging from the above characteristics of science, it may be observed that:
1. Management is a systematized body of knowledge and its principles have evolved on the
basis of observation.
2. The kind of experimentation (as in natural sciences) cannot be accompanied in the area of
management since management deals with the human element.
3. In management, it is not possible to define, analyse and measure phenomena by repeating
the same conditions over and over again to obtain a proof.
The above observation puts a limitation on management as a science. Management like other
social sciences can be called as “inexact science”.

What is “Art”?

‘Art’ refers to “the way of doing specific things; it indicates how an objective is to be achieved.”
Management like any other operational activity has to be an art. Most of the managerial acts
have to be cultivated as arts of attaining mastery to secure action and results.

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