Management and Administration: Conceptual Clarification

In general, management is a force that unifies and co-ordinates numerous activities and resources
to accomplish organizational goals. Administration on the other hand, is a systematic procedure
that lay down the vital framework of an organization, within which the management of the
organization functions. There has been a debate concerning the interpretation (similarity and
difference) of the concepts (management and administration). Hence, some academics (William
Newman, Peter Drucker) maintained that there is no difference between the two, and they are
interchangeable on the basis of three fundamental premises:
1. Every manager is concerned with both - administrative management function and
operative management function.
2. Administration and management are not performed by different people. Both
administration and management are performed by managers at all levels.
3. Both administration and management involve the basic functions of planning, organizing,
directing, and controlling.

Another cluster of management experts such as William Spriegel, Landsburgh and McFarland
claimed that there are differences between management and administration. Accordingly, they
delineate a distinction in terms of scope and nature of management and administration. These
scholars posit that administration is wider, more generic and all –inclusive compare to
management. The major difference between management and administration are depicted in
Table 1 below.
Major difference between management and administration are depicted in Table 1 below
BASIS ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT
1. Meaning/Scope Administration is concerned with the Management is the art of
formulation of broad objectives, plans directing others efforts
and policies. towards the achievement of
pre – determined objectives.
2. Nature Administration is a decision – making Management relates to
function. execution of decisions.
3. Level of Management It is a largely a top – management It is a largely a middle and
function. lower level management
function.
4. Process Decides what is to be done and when it Decides who should do and
is to be done how it should be done.
5.Factors in Decision – Decisions are influenced by the forces Decisions are influenced by
Making of public opinion, government policies, the opinions, beliefs and
religious and social customs. values of managers.
6. Environment Administration has direct interaction Management is mainly
with external environment of business concerned with internal
(economic, socio-cultural, legal etc.) forces, (i.e., objectives,
plans and policies of the
organization.
7. Applicability It is applicable to non-business It is applicable to business
 concerns
8. Skills Required Conceptual and human skills.
9. Status Represents owners of the enterprise
who earn return on their capital
invested & profits in the form of
dividend.
concerns
Technical and human skills.
Constitutes the employees
of the organization who are
paid remuneration (in the
form of salaries and wages)

Sources: Literature Review-Multiple Sources

Management and Leadership

Although management and leadership are similar in some respects, they may involve dissimilar
types of outlook, skills, and behaviors. While the focus of management is how to mobilize both
human and material resource, leadership influences the behavior of people towards expected
performance. In other words, leaders develop vision of what can be accomplished, evolve
strategies for realizing them and then communicate to others on how to accomplish the desired
goals by mobilizing resources and motivating people to support the goals. Some of the notable
definitions of leadership documented in the literature include: (1) Leadership is the process of
influencing the activities of an organized group toward a common goal. (2) Leadership is a
process whereby one individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. (3)
Leadership denotes a conscious attempt aimed at influencing the activities of followers through
the communication process to accomplish some goals. Essentially, good managers should strive
to be good leaders and good leaders, need management skills to be effective.
LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS OR TRAITS
There are several personality characteristics or traits on which leadership has been measured or
evaluated. Some of the characteristics or traits commonly associated to leadership are as follows-
 Assertiveness
 Warmth
 Tolerance
 Charm
 Inspirational
 Adaptability
 Performance oriented
 Knowledgeable
 Risk taking
 Flexible
 Generous
 Rational
 Empathy
 Listening skills
 Diplomacy and tact
 Patience
 Emotional stability
  Sociable
 Ethical/Integrity
 High degree of commitment
 Courageous
 Intelligence
 Global minded
 Self-confidence
 Open minded
 Resourceful
 Determination

Traditional Leadership Styles

Literarily, leadership style is a way of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating
people. Leadership style is essentially the way in which the leader influences the followers
towards a common goal. There are a number of different styles of leadership which are based on
different theories. In general, there is no generic or one best leadership style rather, different
styles are required for different situations and leader need to know when to exhibit a particular
leadership style. Three issues that influence which leadership style to adopt are: the manager’s
individual characteristics (personality, knowledge, values, ethics, and experiences etc.),
employee being supervised, and the organization (i.e. traditions, values, and philosophy). The
traditional leadership styles are: democratic or participative, autocratic, bureaucratic, and laissez-
faire.
Democratic Leadership Style
Democratic leadership style is also called the participative style as it inspires employees to be a
part of the decision making. The democratic leader keeps his or her subordinates informed about
everything that upsets their work and shares decision making and problem solving
responsibilities.

Authoritarian or Autocratic Leadership Style

Authoritarian leadership style is founded on the classical approach of leadership where leader
retains as much power and decision-making authority as possible. Authoritarian leader make
decisions independently with little or no participation from the group member, thus, there is a
clear separation between the leader and the followers.
Bureaucratic Leadership Style
Bureaucratic leadership is where the business manager or executives adhere strictly to policy
issues as stated in the company policy and they ensure that every form of activities must be done
according to laid down procedure or policy. Manager that adopts this style of leadership function
more or less as a regulatory or compliance officer and strives to enforces the rules.
Laissez-Faire Leadership Style
Laissez-faire leadership style is also known as delegative leadership. It is a form of leadership
style in which leaders hands-off and permit group members to make decisions or use their
personal initiatives in accomplishing their tasks. Using this leadership style, the manager offers
little or no direction and gives employees as much autonomy as possible to determine goals,
make decisions, and resolve complications on their own.

LIKERT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Likert adopted a continuum of management system ranging from the most autocratic to the most
democratic to describe the general principles of management system in organizations. The four
management systems used in organization are: exploitative authoritative, benevolent
authoritative, consultative and participative group.
Exploitative Authoritative
Under this form of management system, decisions are taking at the top echelon of the
organization and passed to the lower level. Thus, the organization relies on fear, use of monetary
incentive, desire for status or power to exercise control.
Benevolent Authoritative
Under benevolent authoritative, major decisions or policies are made at the top level in the
organization, but specific implementation decisions may be delegated to some lower levels
employees for implementation.
Consultative
Under consultative arrangement, broad policies are decided at top while more specific decisions
are made at lower levels. Upward and downward communication is adopted, while the use of
lateral communication is on the average.
Participative Group
Under the participative management arrangement, decisions are made throughout the
organization and are connected together by the presence of overlapping groups which implement
the decision making. Also, goals are established by group participation except in situation of
emergencies.

Managerial Skills
Management skills refer to manager’s competence in organizing materials and human resources
to accomplish organization objectives. The role of a manager irrespective of the organization
he/she is managing demands a mixture of numerous types of skills, thus, a manager can only be
successful when he/she is able to develop the right managerial skills to ensure smooth
functioning of the organization. The different types of managerial skills are inter-related and
business managers require all of them to function optimally. Some of the major managerial skills
highlighted in the literature are:
Conceptual Skills
Conceptual skill refers to manager capability to comprehend the organization as a whole and it
embraces recognizing how the various functions of the organization depend on one another.
Human Skills/Behavioral Skills
Human skills are the capabilities required to resolve conflicts, motivate, lead and communicate
effectively with others.
Technical Skills
Technical skills refer to expert knowledge and talent in handling methods, processes and
techniques of specific jobs.
Analytical Skills
Refer to capability to break down a problem into its components and to critically examine its
magnitudes for problem solving and decision – making.
Administrative Skills
Refer to capabilities to coordinate different activities, for effective utilization of resources and
getting things done effectively and efficiently by subordinates.
Interpersonal and social skills
These skills are difficult to define but they generally imply working with other people using
careful judgment.
Cognitive /Thinking skills
Cognitive /thinking skills refer to manager’s ability to think. That does not mean that they have
to be original conceptual thinkers, but they do need to have good, clear minds and to be able to
see the whole picture.

MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES
Objective is a specific concrete and time bound desire which business organization is willing to
make some sacrifice to accomplish. Goal on the other hand, is a long term often multiple future
state of affairs which the organization is aiming at in fulfilling its mission. Objectives should be
defined in a practical manner and meet five basic criteria: SMART – specific, measurable,
achievable, realistic, and time bound.
The notion of “Management by Objectives”-MBO was introduced into management literature at
the mid of 1950s by Peter Drucker. According to Drucker, objectives are required in every area
of business where performance and results are germane to the survival and competiveness of the
organization. Essentially, MBO relies on the defining of objectives for each employee, directing
their efforts towards the objectives that have been set and then comparing performance against
targets. It is also a process or approach through which employees collaborate with management
in the setting of goals or objectives of the organization.

References
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