B.Com. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 2 Principles and Practice of Management 2012 Jan Question Paper with Solutions

For full marks, cover: the meaning of management with definitions (Fayol, Koontz and Weihrich) and its nature (goal-oriented, process, universal, group activity, dynamic, intangible, science and art); the scope of management explained fully in five senses with examples (as functions; as functional areas of business; as a field of knowledge covering principles, techniques and behaviour; across kinds of organisation; across levels), together with the scope of management as a profession and a subject of study; how the scope has widened; a table; and a conclusion.

Meaning of management

Management is the process of reaching an organisation's goals by working with and through people and other resources. The manager decides what is to be done, arranges the means of doing it, guides the people who do it and checks the outcome.

1. Henri Fayol (1916): "To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control."

In the first sense, management covers the functions that every manager performs.

1. Planning: deciding objectives and the course of action to achieve them.
2. Organising: arranging work, people and resources into a structure.
3. Staffing: recruiting, selecting, training and appraising the people who fill the structure.
4. Directing: guiding, motivating, leading and communicating with people.
5. Controlling: checking performance against plans and correcting deviations.

Co-ordination runs through all of them. These functions are the core of management wherever it is practised.

2. Scope as the functional areas of business

In the second sense, management applies to each department of an enterprise.

1. Production management: what to produce, how and how much; plant layout, production planning, quality control and maintenance.

In the third sense, management is a body of knowledge that covers:

1. principles of management and organisation, such as unity of command, span of control and delegation;
2. techniques such as budgeting, standard costing, network analysis, work study, quality control, operations research and information systems;
3. behavioural knowledge about motivation, leadership, communication, groups and change;
4. theories developed by schools of thought, from scientific management to the systems and contingency approaches.

4. Scope across kinds of organisation

In the fourth sense, management is needed in every kind of organisation, not only in business. Government departments, public sector undertakings, hospitals, schools and universities, banks, co-operatives, the armed forces, religious institutions, clubs, political parties and charities all need management. The principles are the same, though their application differs. This is the universality of management.

Example: a district collector plans relief work, organises staff, directs officials and checks progress, just as a business manager does.

How the scope has widened

The scope of management has grown over time. Information technology, quality management, environmental management, customer relationship management and international operations have become distinct fields. The management of non-profit and public organisations has also received growing attention. As organisations become larger and more complex, more of their activities need management.

Summary table

Scope and the manager's job

The different senses of scope meet in the daily work of every manager. A marketing manager in a company works in one functional area. He or she performs all the functions of management, uses techniques such as market research and budgeting, and works at a particular level. The same is true of a ward sister in a hospital or a section officer in a government department. The scope of management is therefore not an abstract list but a description of what managers actually do.

Conclusion. Management is the process of reaching goals through people and resources. By nature it is goal-oriented, universal, dynamic and both a science and an art. Its scope is very wide. It covers the functions of planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling, and every functional area of business. It is a field of principles, techniques and behavioural knowledge, and it applies to every kind of organisation and at every level. It is also an emerging profession and a subject of study. This breadth is why management is needed wherever people work together for a common purpose.