Management

What is management?

Management is the process of getting things done, effectively and efficiently, through and with other people. A manager is a person who performs the process of managing something.

The definition suggests following important features of management.

- Management is a process;

- It is doing things efficiently and effectively;

- It is getting things done through and with other people.

Management is a process

Management is a Process –a continuous never ending process. It is a combination of four functions: Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. A manager performs these four functions while managing something. It means while carrying out the process of management, a manager:

1.    Plans the work to be done;

2.    Organizes the resources and activities to do the work;

3.    Leads his subordinates while they are doing the work;

4.    Controls people and resources.

We will discuss the other two features of the definition of management in the next post. The other two features are:

- It is doing things efficiently and effectively;

- It is getting things done through and with other people.

The Ultimate Manager

No two days in human history came without a night between them and there never happened a day without sun and a night full of sun light. The seasons are matched with the ecological cycles to give rise and fall to species and the solar system has nicely been managed ab initio. 

Who is managing all this?

Allah, the Ultimate Manager, manages the universe in its entirety; he is the manager who controls the universe in entire expanse.

No one else was there to manage, but one Allah. He then delegated his powers to his vicegerent on earth – the human being. However, the vicegerent proved an imperfect manager, still learning theories of management after centuries of existence. He spent a lot of time to define management. He has learnt a lot, but he is still far away from perfection.

My book published by Learning Point Associates and this blog is also one of the efforts to understand management.

The basis of all knowledge and of management

Allah manages the universe in its full expanse. HE placed human being on earth as vicegerent to manage worldly things by knowledge and skills granted to him. He gave humans a powerful skill –the skill to build knowledge by naming things created by Him. The skill captures knowledge to further control of humans over the world. The skill seems very simple; it is just a skill to name things or to put names and labels on things i.e. define things. But to define things and study their interrelationships is the essence of knowledge in all fields. For example, chemistry named 109 elements and now studies their interrelationship to build more and more knowledge about chemistry itself. Similarly, a language defines nouns, verbs; adverbs etc. to study their interrelationship. My book on management is nothing, but the application of the same skill in management field. We define management, manager, and their functions to study the interrelationships. We build theories to understand the inter-relationships. 

The Ultimate Manager

Let us start in the name of Allah, the Ultimate Manager....