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Before answering the question of what mangers do, we need to distinguish between management and administration. A widely accepted distinction, and the one that this book employs, is that administrators establish fundamental patterns of operation and goals for an organization, white managers primarily carry out the directions of the administrators. In the profit sector, the board of directors is empowered to establish the overall direction of an organization (as administrators), while the officers of the company (from the president down) are the managers. Very often the top / senior officials of the company also are members of the board of directors; hence, outsiders. and lower-level employees often have difficulty making a distinction between management and administration Practically all librarians, including library directors when they are in their librarian role, are managers rather than administrators. Since almost all libraries are part of a larger organizational unit (corporation, educational institution, or government unit), libraries must operate within a body of guidelines, goals, objectives, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, etc.
that are formulated by others. Managers are not, however, without influence and a void in the establishment of these directions. Quite often a manager or a director sees the need for a change, formulates specific suggestions for that change, and passes these suggestions on to the person (s) empowered to make decisions. A properly functioning situation includes cooperation between manager (s) and an administrative body that is based on mutual respect.
Now, just what do managers do? Many answers to that question occur; however, the question can be seen from two points of view-function and behavior. Some examples of functions are planning, directing, budgeting, etc. ; behavior is defined in the sense of roles filled, such as leader. Writers tend to take one side or the other. Most basic management textbooks seem to take a functional approach.
Advanced level books seem to favor the behavioral approach. This book, white organized according to functions, explores behavioral aspects as well. In the next few pages I explore a few of the approaches that have been employed by some important writers in the field of management. To gain an idea of what managers do, try this experiment. Approach a person you know to be a manager, director, or unit head, or someone who is responsible for overseeing the work of someone else (the scope of the individual's duties is not important in this context). Simply ask the person to tell you what he or she does.
Do not be surprised if the response is something like "Well, I'm head of the reference department, " or "I'm assistant director for technical services, " or "I'm the director of the library. " You must then probe further by saying "Fine, but tell me what you actually do during a typical work day. " You will seldom get the answer "Oh, I direct, plan, control, delegate, budget, and hire and fire people. " More often, the answer will be "I attend lots of boring meetings, write letters, reports, and memos, and listen to complaints. It seems like I never get anything done. " Presumably a manager who says something like "I never get my real work done" is referring to some of the classical concepts of the functions of a manager. One set of labels for these functions was set forth in a classic paper by Gulick and Urwick (1937). In it, they coined the acronym POSDCORB, which stands for the following functions: These seven functions (for which labels may vary) are assumed to underlie, in one form or another, all management activities.
They do not describe the work of a manager; they merely identify the objectives of a manager's work. At least one writer claims that, because the labels fail to describe what is actually done, they are of little use 2. This seems to be too harsh a judgment, for if we do not know where we are going (that is, if we do not have objectives), how shall we know when we get there? By studying the concepts covered by labels such as POSDCORB, a student can gain an understanding of what good management attempts to accomplish. Various writers use slightly differing labels, , but all of them draw directly or indirectly from a set of concepts described by the French industrialist, Henri Fayol.
After many years of profitably managing several unrelated industrial organizations, Fayol set down principles that he had found valuable in his work. All of his principles reflect the thinking of a practical person, not of someone concerned with developing a grand philosophy or a great theory. Fayol's concepts may seem to reflect common sense, but no management text in the United States identified them until the late 1940 s (although he published his observations in 1916). Today his views fit extremely well into most contemporary thinking.
Fayol divided the activities of organizations into six fundamental groups: (1) technical, or production, aspects; (2) commercial aspects (buying, selling, and exchanging goods); (3) financial aspects (the search for, securing of, and efficient use of money); (4) security (protecting the safety of employees and property alike); (5) accounting (including statistics and record keeping); and (6) managerial activities (planning, organization, and control). At the time Fayol wrote his book, the sixth group had not been adequately defined; he devoted most of his attention to the question of defining managerial activities. Fayol reasoned that a worker's most important attribute is the technical ability to carry out a prescribed function properly. As a worker rises in the hierarchy of an organization, the importance of managerial ability increases, until, at the top level, it becomes the basic requirement. Fayol thought that managerial skill could be acquired and that the best way to acquire it was through a combination of education and practical experience. In many ways, this view reflects my philosophy.
Education in the fundamentals of management must be seasoned with experience in situations entailing real responsibilities and duties. When a solid background is lacking, learning on the job can be tedious and frustrating, because the manager-in-training needs a great deal of time to become a productive staff member. As libraries have come to recognize this problem, some larger systems have attempted to provide special management training. An example of on-the-job training is the trainee fellowships offered by the Council on Library Resources for a year-long work-study management program. The program is needed, because, until very recently, library schools did not offer courses in general management, and practitioners found themselves at times lacking basic information about management. Fayol's entire list of activities is useful in the library situation.
Production is obviously an aspect in the processes of cataloging books and making them ready for use. Buying, selling, and exchanging library materials certainly represent commercial activities. There is a clear financial aspect, in that administrators, and frequently the entire staff, are concerned with locating sources of funds to support library programs. Security is an important library concern whether it involves protection of material against theft and physical deterioration or the consideration of the safety of personnel and patrons. Anyone who has had experience with an acquisitions department recognizes the significance of the accounting function.
And, finally, although a profit-loss statement does not exist for the library, good managerial skills are just as critical to the library as they are to a profit-making organization. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Buying Selling And Exchanging Selling And Exchanging Management
