1.2 Characteristics Or Features Of management

1: Management is goal oriented process: Management always aims at achieving the organisational objectives. The functions and activities of manager lead to the achievements of organisational objectives; for example, if the objective of a company is to sell 1000 computers then manager will plan the course of action, motivate all the employees and organize all the resources keeping in mind the main target of selling 1000 computers.

2: Management is Pervasive: Management is a universal phenomenon. The use of  management is not restricted to business firms only, it is applicable in profit-making, non-profit making, business or non-business organisations ; even a hospital, school, club and house has to be managed properly. Concept of management is used in the whole world whether it is in USA, UK, Australia or India etc.

3: Management is Multidimensional: Management does not mean one single activity but it includes three main activities:

•  Management of work
• Management of people 
• Management of operations

(i) Management of work: All organisations are set up to perform some task or goal. Management activities aim at achieving goals or tasks to be accomplished. The task or work depends upon the nature of Business for example  work to be accomplished in a school is product. Management makes sure that work is accomplished effectively and efficiently.

(ii) Management of people : People refers to human resources and human resources are the most important assets of an organisation. An organisation can win over competitor with efficient employees only because two organisations can have same physical, technological and financial resources but not human resources. Management has to get task accomplished through people only.

Managing people has two dimensions

(a) Taking care of employee's individual needs.

(b) Taking care of group of people

4: Management is a continuous process: Management is a continuous or never ending function. All the functions of management are performed continuously, for example planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling are performed by all the managers all the time. Sometimes, they are doing planning, then staffing or organizing etc. Managers performs ongoing series of functions continuously in the organizing.

5: Management is a group activity: Management always refers to a group of people involved in managerial activities. The management functions cannot be performed in isolation. Each individual performs his/her role at his/her status and department,then only management function can be executed. Even the result of management affects every individual and every department of the organisation so it always refers to a group effort and not the individual effort of one person.

6: Management is dynamic function : Management has to make changes in goal, objectives and other activities according to changes taking place in the environment. The external environmental such as social, economical, technical and political environment has great influence over the management. As changes take place in these environments, same are implemented in organisation to survive in the competitive world.

7: Intangible: Management functions cannot be physically seen but its presence can be felt. The presence of management can be felt by seeing the orderliness and co-ordination in the working environment. It is more easy to feel the presence of mismanagement as it leads to chaos and confusion in the organisation.

8: Composite process: Management consists of series of functions which must be performed in a proper sequence. These functions are not independent of each other. They are inter -dependent on each other. As the main function of management are planning, organizing, directing, and controlling ; organizing cannot be done without doing planning. similarly directing function cannot be executed without staffing and planning and it is difficult to control the activities of employees without knowing the plan. All the functions inter-dependent on each other that is why management is considered as a composite process of all these functions. 

9: Balancing effectiveness and efficiency: Effectiveness means achieving targets and objectives on time. Efficiency refers to optimum or best utilization of resources. Managements always try to balance both and get the work done successfully. Only effectiveness and only efficiency is not enough for an organisation : a balance must be created in both.