Introduction
Management was defined by Mary Parker Folette as “the art of getting things done through people”[1]. Charles Handy referred to the manager as being a General Practitioner in the medical world thus as “the first recipient of problems”[2]. Therefore the manager is just like a doctor:
• Identifies the symptoms in any situation
• Diagnoses the disease or cause of the trouble
• Decides how it might be dealt with a strategy for health
• Starts the treatment
The next question is what managers do exactly. The first view of the manager’s job comes from writers of the classical school. In 1915, the father of this school, Henri Fayol, introduced his five basic managerial functions ' planning, organising, coordinating, commanding and controlling. Synthesising this view with later writers, the basic elements of “managerial cycle”[3] can be identified:
Identification of objectives
Setting targets
Planning
The organisation of resources
Communication
Motivation
Feedback and control
Corrective action as appropriate
How people become managers
Many people start their careers without expecting to become managers in the future. However, they may realise that over the time they gradually acquire managerial responsibilities. Such people may find that, even though their main job is specialist, the increasing part is management. In other cases, people may be promoted from the specialist job and become managers. However, in this case they may still be required to participate in a specialist job. Whatever the reason why people choose to become managers, they still need to discharge their responsibilities clearly.
The structure of organisation usually implies people working in a specialist activity. There are not many people that start their careers right from the managerial position. Therefore, employees may be either engaged at a low level of specialist activity or may have advanced specialist skills gained by experience or...