Principles of Management

COURSE OVERVIEW

Principles of management are both art and science. It is the art of making people more effective than they would have been without you. The science is in how you do that. This course focuses on the entire organization from both a short and a long-term perspective. It helps students to understand managerial process of forming a strategic vision, setting objectives, crafting a strategy and then implementing and executing the strategy. It goes beyond the organization’s internal operations to include the industry and the general environment. The key emphasis is on issues related to environmental scanning and industry analysis, appraisal of current and future competitors, assessment of core competencies, strategic control and the effective allocation of organizational resources.

AIM

The aim of the course is to provide an understanding of basic concepts, principles, and practices of management and inculcate the ability to apply multifunctional approach to organizational objective

Course (module) objectives (outcomes):

Having successfully completed the unit/module, students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

  • ·        Management and outline various principles of management
  • ·        Explaining how management is both an art and a science
  • ·        Tracing the evolution of management thought
  • ·        Explaining why is it important to be familiar with past management history
  • ·        Discussing about levels of management
  • ·        Outlining and discuss about the functions of management.
  • ·        Discuss about the various theories of motivation
  • ·        Outline and discuss about components of leadership
  • ·        Differentiate between traditional views and contemporary views of leadership.
  • ·        Discuss the relationship between an organizations strategy and its structure?

COURSE OUTLINE

This course unity is structured under six chapters titled as follows:

Chapter One: General Introduction 

Chapter Two: Evolution of management thoughts/Approaches to management

Chapter Three: Managerial functions

Chapter Four: Application of motivation theories and values

Chapter Five:  Leadership in organization

Chapter Six: Organization behavior, dynamics and design

Working through this course

This course, principles of management expects you to do a lot of reading and practicing, in order to cover the materials in the course material. This means that you should devote much time to this course by reading through this material and getting more information from numerous texts and journals. These abound in every library and from the internet. The course material has been made easy to read and user-friendly. You will need to work in groups with other students in order to discuss, compare notes and thoughts as well as to exchange and share ideas.

Teaching strategies and Methodology

The lectures will include discussion, both group and individual based. Meetings will be held every day from Monday to Friday. The lecturer will only be absent due to unavailable circumstances and all efforts will be made to communicate before the meeting, students are advised to use this time for reading, and preparing the next lectures. The final day of the meeting will be used for general revision of the course; this revision will be done by the help of the course leader during the allocated time. The lecturer will provide review questions to facilitate revision.