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Chapter Two Principles of Health Management: March 2019
Chapter Two Principles of Health Management: March 2019
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The principles of management are the essential underlying factors that form the
truth and guidelines for decisions and actions of Managers. They are derived at
through observation and analysis of events which managers have to face in practice.
These principles, which are derived at through observation and analysis of events,
1. Unity of Command
2. Theory of Equity
3. Esprit de Corps
4. Division of Work
6. Discipline
8. Unity of Direction
9. Remuneration
12. Order
14. Initiative
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Unity of Command - It states that every Junior Staff should receive orders
and be accountable to one and only one superior. If an employee receives orders
from more than one superior, it is likely to create confusion and conflict. Unity of
Command also makes it easier to fix responsibility for mistakes. The more complete
an individual’s reporting relationship to a single superior, the less conflict there should
be in instructions. The snag about it any way is that more loyalty is paid to the
superior.
Theory of Equity - Calls for employees to be treated kindly and in a just way
in the workplace. Managers should be fair and impartial when dealing with
employees.
Esprit de Corps - This refers to the need of Managers to ensure and develop
morale in the workplace; individually and communally. Team spirit helps develop an
person has, creating specific professional development within the labour force and
efficiency of labor.
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Authority and Responsibility - Authority in administration implies the
right of a superior to give order to his subordinates. This principle suggests that there
must be parity between authority and responsibility. They are co-existent and go
respect of authority, etc. It is essential for the smooth functioning of all organizations.
personal considerations and put Organizational objectives first. Therefore the interest
of goals of the organization must prevail over the personal interests of individuals.
Unity of Direction - All those working in the same line of activity must
understand and pursue the same objectives. All related activities should be put under
one group, there should be one plan of action for them, and they should be under the
control of one manager. It seeks to ensure unity of action, focusing of efforts and
coordination of strength.
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Degree of centralization - The amount of power wielded with the central
decision making authority at the top management. Sharing of authority with lower
balance.
Scalar chain - refers to the chain of superiors ranging from top management to
the lowest rank. The principle suggests that there should be a clear line of authority
from top to bottom linking all managers at all levels. The principle suggests that there
should be a clear line of authority from top to bottom linking all managers at all levels.
workplace.
too short and employees should not be moved from positions frequently. An
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Initiative - Using the initiative of employees can add strength and new ideas to an
organization because it provides new and better ideas. Employees are likely to take
Elements of Management
1. Planning.
2. Organizing.
3. Leading.
4. Communicating.
5. Controlling.
Importance of Planning
organization. Planning bridges the gap between where we are and where we want to
go. The main questions pertaining to planning are: what are we driving at here and
what outcome do we want from this? It must be borne in mind that planning is the first
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There are several stages of Management ranging from very senior Personnel such
as those at the rank of Executive Secretaries who are regarded as Policy Makers or
task is to see that everyone understands the group’s purpose and objectives and its
methods of attaining them. If group effort is to be effective, people must know what
they are expected to accomplish. Planning involves selecting missions and objectives
and the actions to achieve them; it requires decision making that is choosing from
among alternative future courses of action. Plans thus provide a rational approach to
achieving pre-selected objectives. Planning bridges the gap from where we are to
where we want to go. Although we can seldom predict the exact future and although
factors beyond our control may interfere with the best laid plans, unless we plan, we
will be leaving events to chance. Planning is a way of trying to ensure that the
resources available now and in the future are used in the best possible way. Planning
helps us to reduce uncertainty. Planning gives us the basis from which to decide
what we want to achieve and what to do if we do not have enough resources to meet
the needs.
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Significance of Planning
Planning is done for varieties of reasons, which may be obvious or concealed, praise
these diverse reasons since they will have a major impact on planning processes and
rational approach to decision making and ultimately to shaping future events. Thus
planning can:
Provide a frame work for monitoring and evaluating progress towards defined targets
and goals. The importance of planning includes the value of a systematic way of
identifying problems, setting priorities and developing action plans. Although planning
does not automatically ensure that a programme will be successful, it does give us a
1. Needs Assessment.
2. Planning.
3. Implementation.
4. Monitoring.
5. Evaluation.
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Types of Planning
Three types of planning are distinctly identified and they are as follows:
range planning that covers all the operational activities of an Organization. Its aim is
cover a short period and often focuses on specific organizational need such as staff
recruitment.
Approaches to Planning
1. Top-Bottom Approach: In this approach, the Top Management sets the goals
and plans for all the lower cadres of management to implement. It is based on
the principle that only the top-management has all the means and knowledge to
Management, which says that man by nature dislikes work and responsibility and
prefers to be directed.
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It has however been argued that the Top-Bottom Approach is against the spirit of
programmes.
interest groups prepare their own goals and plans that are presented to
management, which states that man by nature likes and enjoys work and
developing the plan and once approved it becomes the official organizational
tasks.
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Participatory Rural Approach
In the past, planning was done by the influential people with the resources. These
people had virtually no formal training in planning but they believed that their
experience was what mattered most. They believed that experience would overcome
the problem of lack of formal qualifications. The people who plan development
programmes were often “Outsiders” sent from Donor Agencies e.g. UN Agencies,
Appropriate planning starts with the people. Therefore, some important reasons for
1. Local people have a great amount of experience and insight into what works and what
2. The involvement of local people can increase their commitment to the project.
3. Involving local people help to increase the resources available for the Programme.
4. Involvement is a way of bringing about “Social learning” for both planners and
beneficiaries.
5. The input of diverse groups to the designing and implementation of the planning process
can help gain their understanding of the problems and acceptance of the
recommendations.
6. The views of affected groups may significantly improve the study design by taking into
7. These groups may be able to contribute valuable staff time and or data to the planning
process.
8. By their involvement, these groups can gain a sense of ownership of the final
recommendations.
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The importance of planning includes the value of a systematic way of identifying
problems, setting priorities and developing action plans. Although planning does not
start towards achieving our goals. As the adage goes, “HE WHO FAILS TO PLAN,
PLANS TO FAIL”.
we need to involve all the local people who are intended to benefit from the
Organizing
are: how can I get people and equipment to where they are needed and who will do
resources in a way that set objectives are carried out. Organization helps to secure
the vision of the organization to work smoothly and to ensure unity of effort.
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Leading
The word lead means a lot. It may mean to show a way to an individual or a group, to
they can contribute to organizational or group goal and has to do mainly with the
interpersonal aspect of managing (Adeleke 2004). Leading starts with the questions
like has he started work or did that stuff come from the right place? Leading is about
influencing people so that they can contribute to organizational and group goals. All
Managers would agree that their most common problems arise from people who by
nature have different characters and therefore very unpredictable. People are
groups.
organization, communication should flow from the top to bottom and from the bottom
Communication is to know what and how we can best get this message across? It
links all management processes together and managers could not do their jobs
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In a more precise way, communication can be thought of as a process by which
as it helps the staff to understand the policies, values and objectives of the
communication, which breeds misconception, distrust, rumours and low staff moral
that can in turn lead to labour unrest. Very often, low staff moral leads to low work
output.
Definition of Communication
Education are processes where pieces of knowledge are passed from a person who
knows to individuals who do not know. Information and education are one-way
(4) Sender gets the feedback. And the process may continue over, and over again.
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Types of Communication
means of sound, eg. Radio and a combination of images and sound eg.
Television.
etc.
Communication Barriers
because:
The Sender uses a language that the Receiver does not understand eg.
The Sender uses words that the Receiver cannot understand eg. technical
The Sender uses signals that the Receiver cannot understand eg. written
The Sender communicates to people who are not interested in the message;
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Managing and Communicating
Purpose of Communication
There are a number of reasons why good communication is vital for management.
They are:
These are processes that are concerned with resource mobilization, developing
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Communication Cycle
Communication has five stages and all of these stages have to be completed for the
1. Perceive.
2. Encode.
3. Transmit.
5. Respond.
Perceive
meaning to the signals he receives from the environment. The initiator of a message
must receive some signals from the environment that he perceives as requiring
initial perceptions to a second person. In view of this, the initiator must clearly define
Encode
As long as the initiator clearly defines the thoughts he wishes to convey, then he puts
these thoughts into a code using communication symbols that will be understood by
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Transmit
receiver. The quality, cost accuracy and speed of the means of transmission must be
Once the initiator has sent out a message, the receiver must assign meaning to it.
Thus the receiver must in other words, decode the message. If in the process, the
receiver fails to understand what the message tries to convey, then the process is not
considered successful.
Response
by the receiver shows exactly how well the original perception and message have
been conveyed.
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Principles of communication
system. There is the need to examine the principles, criteria for and quality of the
communication:
1. Both the Sender and the Intended Receiver must be clearly identified.
2. The language used by the Sender must be within the understanding of the
the Sender.
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Barriers to effective communication
2. Lack of clarity in a message leads to how vague that message is, therefore will
In essence, the main drawback with oral communication is that in general, there is
often no accepted record of what was said by the sender and receiver during the
Controlling
The commonest questions about controlling are: how do we compare with the
available budget and how can we find replacement for faulty equipment. Controlling
ensure that events conform with plans. In short, controlling facilitates the
accomplishment of plans
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