FEATURES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project management is a new technique of getting work done through other people.The following are its features.

1. Body of knowledge-Project management requires application of various skills and knowledge.It includes and embraces all the following areas of expertise.

• Cost management-In order to reduce to wastage, all the functional resources have to be utilized efficiently. Therefor it includes knowledge of cost management.
• Human resources management-Project requires expertise and competences in different discipline.The project team is comprised of various backgrounds and expertise including skills and in conflict solution.
• quality management-Project management emphasis on quality performance of project activities. The management team must have skills for quality control.
• Risk management-Project are operated under condition of risk and uncertainties.The project team has to identify and analyze the risk.

2.Goal oriented-project management is goal oriented. Project management has clearly defined objectives and management is concerned with achieving those objectives.
3.Team based-Project management consist of personnel from various disciplines with varying levels of experience and expertise.Each participant has a responsibility and accountability for each unit of work.
4.Constraints-The project is operated under various constraints.These are time,cost and quality.
5.Planning and controlling-The project activities requires continuous planning. The original plans have to be modified as time passes and work progress.For such modification certain control mechanism have to be designed for continuous control.
6.Change oriented-Project management is a mechanism which facilitates management of change.this requires proper planning as project is operated under condition of risk and uncertainties.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP IN CHANGE MANAGEMENT

When change is imposed (as in downsizing scenarios), clearly the most important determinant of "getting through the swamp", is the ability of leadership to...well, lead. The literature on the subject indicates that the nature of the change is secondary to the perceptions that employees have regarding the ability, competence, and credibility of senior and middle management.
If you are to manage change effectively, you need to be aware that there are three distinct times zones where leadership is important. We can call these Preparing For the Journey, Slogging Through The Swamp, and After Arrival. We will look more carefully at each of these.
The Role of Leadership
In an organization where there is faith in the abilities of formal leaders, employees will look towards the leaders for a number of things. During drastic change times, employees will expect effective and sensible planning, confident and effective decision-making, and regular, complete communication that is timely. Also during these times of change, employees will perceive leadership as supportive, concerned and committed to their welfare, while at the same time recognizing that tough decisions need to be made. The best way to summarize is that there is a climate of trust between leader and the rest of the team. The existence of this trust, brings hope for better times in the future, and that makes coping with drastic change much easier.
In organizations characterized by poor leadership, employees expect nothing positive. In a climate of distrust, employees learn that leaders will act in indecipherable ways and in ways that do not seem to be in any one's best interests. Poor leadership means an absence of hope, which, if allowed to go on for too long, results in an organization becoming completely non functioning. The organization must deal with the practical impact of unpleasant change, but more importantly, must labor under the weight of employees who have given up, have no faith in the system or in the ability of leaders to turn the organization around.
Leadership before, during and after change implementation is THE key to getting through the swamp. Unfortunately, if haven't established a track record of effective leadership, by the time you have to deal with difficult changes, it may be too late.
Preparing For The Journey
It would be a mistake to assume that preparing for the journey takes place only after the destination has been defined or chosen. When we talk about preparing for the change journey, we are talking about leading in a way that lays the foundation or groundwork for ANY changes that may occur in the future. Preparing is about building resources, by building healthy organizations in the first place. Much like healthy people, who are better able to cope with infection or disease than unhealthy people, organization that are healthy in the first place are better able to deal with change.
As a leader you need to establish credibility and a track record of effective decision making, so that there is trust in your ability to figure out what is necessary to bring the organization through.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The concept of project management is not new as mega project were implemented since times immemorial. The project management in the modern times comprises of numbers of activities in order of priority and sequence, planning, resources management and budgeting. In the other words, principle of general management apply to project management. It is an art of getting works done through other people to achieve its objectives within the allocated budget, stipulated time and performance standards. This clearly includes that project management is flexible in using organizational resources and a system approach to achieve the objectives.
The project management m institute has defined project management as '' the art of directing and co-ordinating human and non- human resources throughout the life of the project by using modern management techniques to achieve predetermined objectives of scope, time,cost, quality and participant satisfaction.''
Steps of project management-project management has following steps.

• Grouping activities-All related activities in a project are grouped together as a work package. These activities contribute to the same goals and are bound by definite time period, cost and performance.
• Fixing responsibility-The responsibility of the project activities are entrusted to single authority called project manager. The project manager co-ordinates,directs and exercises control over the project activities.
• Servicing the project-This means that the project has to be supported internally by establishing matrix organization.
• Negotiation-It refers to building commitments by means of negotiations, co-ordination, communication and direction to achieve the overall project objectives. In the process of negotiation time shedules ,budgets and contracts have to be agreed upon by the parties concerned.
• Execution of task-The task has to be completed within time shedules, budgets and predetermined specification and quality for the accomplishment of objectives.
  

CONTINGENCY THEORY OF MANAGEMENT

The contingency theory was developed by managers, consultant and researcher who tried to apply the theories and principles of the major schools to real life situation.It is based on the nation that proper management techniques in a given situation depends upon the nature and condition of that situation approach. This theory doesn't accept any single method of management.this theory believes that there may be different forms of management according to the situation.According to this theory the form of management is affected by the elements such as size,nature, situation, challenges etc of the business organization.This theory strongly maintains that there is not only one best way to solve the problems. It believes in 'no one best way to do things.The external environment elements remain out of the control of organization and they also cant be easily forecast.So the principle of management cant be equally applied in any and every situation.Different organization should use various ways to study problems, analyze and solve the problems according to the situation. this theory teaches to bring the principle of management in practice according to time and situation for the achievement of organizational goals.
CONTRIBUTION

• Contingency theory is practical and it is equally important for every organization.
• Contingency theory doesn't believe in 'one best way' so many methods and principles may be used in management om an organization according to time and situation. LIMITATION
  
• Every situation is unique so manager may not be able to analyze each and every situation.
• It is difficult to identify relevant contingency variable and determine their interrelationship.
  
• More human resources and financial resources is needed to scan the situation
  

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT THEORY

Scientific management theory was developed to solve the major problems,(1) how to increase the output of the average employees and (2) how to improve the efficiency of the management. This theory focuses on job. It is concerned with improving the performance of individuals workers. This theory was propounded by F. W Taylor. The essence of this theory is division of labour and to achieve specialization in work. Taylor divided each work in different sub division on the basis of time needed to complete any work, motion study and fatigue study. Doing so production cost decreased, quantity to quantity of product increased a lot. This principle gave emphasis on study of wage according to the work. As a result workers began to work hard with the hoping getting more wages. Taylor has given mire important to the improvement in working methods and environment, study of time, motion and fatigue study,effective working, making operational plan, scientific selection of employees, training programme for them etc. Some the basic features of this theory are scientific selection and training of employees, specialization in work, harmony between management & employees & time and motion study.
Principle of scientific management theory

1. Division of labour - Applied division of labour system to increase skill of employees and specialization in work.
2. Training for workers - The workers are supposed as machine. As the good machine need repairs and lubricants, workers also need training.
3. One best way - It accepts only one methods to being effectiveness in work such as study of time and motion scientifically.
4. Harmony - Management and workers remain harmonic environment. Management and workers have common interest i.e productivity and profit.
   

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

Management information system is an important, effective and widely used method for effective control. It provides right information to all levels of management at right time. management information system was developed at the second phase of the development of information management. It collects information according to the need and desire of the managers, organizes the received information and distributed them. This is modern computerized information system.
According to John R Schumann-''A management information system collects, organizes and distributes data in a such way that is meets the information need of management.''
management information system is an important system of information management. This system was developed to provide necessary information to the management. It provides necessary, correct & reliable information to the concerned manager at reasonable cost at right time. So it has an important role in collecting information, organizes them and distribute to the concerned persons and when needed.
Components of management information system,
The major components of management information system are as follows.

1. Data gathering- the important and necessary data for conducting a business organization are collected from both internal and external sources and are incorporated within the system.
2. data storage- The task of storing data is an important elements of management information system. It stores the collected data incorporation within the system.
3. Data transformation- After storing the collected data, they are transformed into useful information with the help of computer software programme.
4. Information utilization- After the data have been transformed into useful information with the help of computer software, they are used in taking different decision. Following are the major characteristics of management information system.

• Management information system classifies information and data by which only those data or information which are necessary can be studied for taking any decision.
• Management information system encourages using tables, graphs and charts by which it becomes easy to present information.
• Management information system is flexible and can be changed according to the changing of environment.
  

MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

Although management and administration are used as synonyms words, they are not so. They have their own meaning. Their roles are also totally different. The process of making working plans according to the policy and objectives formed by administration is called management. Management implements the policies and programmes. It makes arrangement of means and resources and utilizes them effectively to achieve certain goals.It co-ordinates different activities.it is operative not ideological.

The process of forming policies and programme of a business organization is called administration. The formulation of chain of command and control according to the policies is also included in administration. the administration gives direction, guidance and leadership. It It works as ideology. There are two views about management and administration.they are as follows.

• British school of thought-According to this view, the word management covers a wide areas but the words administration covers a little meaning. The important function such as planning, policy making, co-ordinating, controlling etc come under management. according to this view administration is one of the part of management itself. Only the function of planning and controlling come under administration.So management is great work, it covers wider as well as more important areas but the administration is only a part of management. Administration falls under management but management doesn't come under administration. This view has classified management into two categories. They are administrative management and operative management.
  
• American school of thought-According to this view administration is high level function whereas management is lower level. The important function such as planning,organizing, policy making, controlling etc come under administration. But the task of implementing such plans, policies and programmes come under management. Generally management conducts daily functions. so administration is ideological work but the management is functional.

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

After the organization takes decision to enhance the quality of its products, another decision should be taken, how to implement the decision. The quality of goods and services is an important issues which all the business organization have to face. Total quality management is the entire effort made by an organization to enhance the quality of goods and services. The total quality management pays special attention to satisfy the wants of costumers. The total quality management creates committed culture within the organization for regular improvement in all sectors.

Components of total quality management.

following are the major components of TQM.

1. Strategic commitment- Total quality management is the commitment made by high management. It becomes important for many reasons. Such commitment takes quality as the goals of the organization but not as an ideal.
2. Employees involvement- Employees involvement is the another important components of total quality management. The management should give right job to right persons and make them responsible for the job. Training should be given them as needed because it is decisive factors to bring improvement in goods and services.
3. Materials- The other important factors of total quality management is materials. The quality of product depends upon the quality of raw materials used in production. If the materials of high quality, the quality of products also becomes higher.
4. Technology- New technology also becomes useful in total quality management. High level technology produces high quality goods and services and maintains uniformity and reliability.
5. Methods- The another important components of total quality management is methods. Improved methods increases quality of goods and services. The operating system used in process of transforming raw materials into finished goods id called method.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

The group of mutually dependent on one another person for achievement of certain goal is called team. Team creates feeling of co-operation, increases flexibility, gives agreement to managers for strategic management takes benefits from work force and increases work efficiency.

According to Rabbins & Coulter-''work teams are formal group made up of interdependent individuals, who are responsible for the attaining of a goals.''

In conclusion the formal group formed to develop product, solve problems and to perform effectively other organizational function is called team.The team has an important role in taking strategic decisions and making the decision quick and effective.

TYPES OF TEAM

There are various types of team, among them major types of team are as foll owes.

1. Problem solving team- The team formed to by an organization for the purpose of problem solving is called problem solving team.This team hold meeting for discussion at least once a week. This team plays an important role to improve quality of goods and services.
2. Virtual team- virtual team is temporary network formed by an organization. this team keeps contact with different sides of organizations through information technology. This team becomes able to identify changing opportunities and utilize them. The working boundary of such team is vast.
3. Cross functional team- The team formed of same level employees representing different departments for performance of special task is called cross functional team. The members of such team becomes experts of different sectors.
4. Self managed team- The spontaneously formed team is called self managed team. This team makes routine for works, gives responsibilities to work, takes operational decision and bears the responsibilities to solve the problems.

MANAGEMENT ETHICS

Ethics is the discipline dealing with what are good and bad with moral and obligation. It is concerned with what is right and and what is wrong in human behabhiour. Ethics refers both to the body of moral principles governing a particular society or group and to the personal moral. In this regard, management ethics are the standards of behabhiour that guide individuals managers in their works. They are moral principles or belief about what is right or wrong. This belief guide manager in their dealing with other individuals and group.
According to John R -''managerial ethics are principles that guide the action and decision of manager,and determine if they are good or bad or right or wrong in normal sense.''
In conclusion, management ethics are the standard of behabhiour that guide individuals manager in the work place.They involve morale issues. Management ethics are necessary for the success of business organization. It makes the organization moral. Management ethics affects management activities and practices. The importance of management ethics are as follows

• Standard of behaviour - Management ethics helps to determine appropriate standard of behabhiour .
• Guideline for the decision making and conflict resolution- Management ethics serve as guideline for decision making and for attempting to conflict resolution.
• Motivation - Management ethics helps in employee motivation by determining what rewards or outcomes are sought.
• Promotes social responsibilities - management ethics promotes social responsibilities in management. It helps to organization to keep in touch with society. So management ethics are very important in business management. If an organization maintains management ethics, all the employees become morale. As a result they work for the interest of the organization.
  

Theory of Management

Administrative Management Theory

The scientific management theory states individual works of employees in an organization, whereas administration management theory gives emphasis to all the aspects. The person to contribute to the development of administrative theory are Henry Foyal, Urwick, Max Weber etc. Among them Henry Foyal is supposed as the father of administrative theory of management. This theory gives emphasis to management activities and principles. According to him management can be studied in the process. This included managerial skills, function of management, principle of management and business activities. similarly, according to him physical skill, mental skill, will power skill, education skill, technical skill, experience etc are managerial skills.Such skills cant be found by birth, they can be earned. Division of labour, authority and responsibility, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination of candidates, interests to organization interest, remuneration of staff, centralization, equity,order,stability of staff etc are the principle of administration management theory. Administration theory focuses on managing the total organization. Henry foyal has divided business activities in six categories, they are as follows.

• Technical activities- the technical activities include the activities relating to the production of goods and services.
• Financial activities- It includes identification of financial resource, collection and their effective use.
• Security activities- It includes the activities relating to the security of assets, goods and employees of business organization.
• Commercial activities- It includes the purchase and sale of raw materials and final goods and services.
• Accounting activities - It includes all the activities relating to financials recording, preparation of journals, balance sheet,income statement etc.
• Management activities - This includes planning, organizing,directing, controlling, staffing and co-ordinating activities.   

Basic Management Skills

1;Plan
Management starts with planning. Good management starts with good planning. And proper prior planning prevents… well, you know the rest of that one.

Without a plan you will never succeed. If you happen to make it to the goal, it will have been by luck or chance and is not repeatable. You may make it as a flash-in-the-pan, an overnight sensation, but you will never have the track record of accomplishments of which success is made.

Figure out what your goal is (or listen when your boss tells you). Then figure out the best way to get there. What resources do you have? What can you get? Compare strengths and weaknesses of individuals and other resources. Will putting four workers on a task that takes 14 hours cost less than renting a machine that can do the same task with one worker in 6 hours? If you change the first shift from an 8 AM start to a 10 AM start, can they handle the early evening rush so you don't have to hire an extra person for the second shift?

Look at all the probable scenarios. Plan for them. Figure out the worst possible scenario and plan for that too. Evaluate your different plans and develop what, in your best judgement, will work the best and what you will do if it doesn't.

2:Organize
Now that you have a plan, you have to make it happen. Is everything ready ahead of your group so the right stuff will get to your group at the right time? Is your group prepared to do its part of the plan? Is the downstream organization ready for what your group will deliver and when it will arrive?

Are the workers trained? Are they motivated? Do they have the equipment they need? Are there spare parts available for the equipment? Has purchasing ordered the material? Is it the right stuff? Will it get here on the appropriate schedule?

Do the legwork to make sure everything needed to execute the plan is ready to go, or will be when it is needed. Check back to make sure that everyone understands their role and the importance of their role to the overall success.

3:Direct
Now flip the "ON" switch. Tell people what they need to do. I like to think of this part like conducting an orchestra. Everyone in the orchestra has the music in front of them. They know which section is playing which piece and when. They know when to come in, what to play, and when to stop again. The conductor cues each section to make the music happen. That's your job here. You've given all your musicians (workers) the sheet music (the plan). You have the right number of musicians (workers) in each section (department), and you've arranged the sections on stage so the music will sound best (you have organized the work). Now you need only to tap the podium lightly with your baton to get their attention and give the downbeat.

4:Monitor
Now that you have everything moving, you have to keep an eye on things. Make sure everything is going according to the plan. When it isn't going according to plan, you need to step in and adjust the plan, just as the orchestra conductor will adjust the tempo.

Problems will come up. Someone will get sick. A part won't be delivered on time. A key customer will go bankrupt. That is why you developed a contingency plan in the first place. You, as the manager, have to be always aware of what's going on so you can make the adjustments required.

This is an iterative process. When something is out of sync, you need to Plan a fix, Organize the resources to make it work, Direct the people who will make it happen, and continue to Monitor the effect of the change.

THEORY OF MANAGEMENT

System Theory of Management.

1. A system is a group of interrelated and interdependent part working towards a common goals. It is combination of several parts forming a complete whole. This theory takes management as a system. Management is a system which works under certain rules and regulations. In system human resources, capitals, raw materials, technological knowledge, skills and information are used. Communication is changed into goods, services through transformation process. It gives equal importance to all the elements including men. Management system is made of different sub-system such as production, marketing, research and development sub-system etc. As a result management system gets dynamism and strength due to which organizational goals become possible to achieve. System can be divided into two kinds as follows

• Closed system- Organizational system that doesn't interact with its environment.
• Open system- Organizational system that interacts with its environment.
  

All the elements become equally important in management system. All the elements do works regularly in order. If one element lacks, the whole system is adversely affected. So the system can be compared with human body.
Main features of system theory are as follows.

• System theory accepts management as an input process output system,
• Different sub-systems lie in one system,
• All the sub-system are linked with one another,
• It becomes useful to study the complex problems and find proper solution,
• It is goal oriented to have existence in its main goals,
• It studies interrelationship of different organs in a system,
• This theory identifies environmental influences,
• It takes an organization as an integrated forms and
  
• It recognizes all the sub-system and close interaction.
  

Personal time management.

What is Personal Time Management?

Personal Time Management is about controlling the use of your most valuable (and undervalued) resource. Consider these two questions: what would happen if you spent company money with as few safeguards as you spend company time, when was the last time you scheduled a review of your time allocation?

The absence of Personal Time Management is characterized by last minute rushes to meet dead-lines, meetings which are either double booked or achieve nothing, days which seem somehow to slip unproductively by, crises which loom unexpected from nowhere. This sort of environment leads to inordinate stress and degradation of performance: it must be stopped.

Poor time management is often a symptom of over confidence: techniques which used to work with small projects and workloads are simply reused with large ones. But inefficiencies which were insignificant in the small role are ludicrous in the large. You can not drive a motor bike like a bicycle, nor can you manage a supermarket-chain like a market stall. The demands, the problems and the payoffs for increased efficiency are all larger as your responsibility grows; you must learn to apply proper techniques or be bettered by those who do. Possibly, the reason Time Management is poorly practised is that it so seldom forms a measured part of appraisal and performance review; what many fail to foresee, however, is how intimately it is connected to aspects which do.

Personal Time Management has many facets. Most managers recognize a few, but few recognize them all. There is the simple concept of keeping a well ordered diary and the related idea of planned activity. But beyond these, it is a tool for the systematic ordering of your influence on events, it underpins many other managerial skills such as Effective Delegation and Project Planning.

Personal Time Management is a set of tools which allow you to:

eliminate wastage

be prepared for meetings

refuse excessive workloads

monitor project progress

allocate resource (time) appropriate to a task's importance

ensure that long term projects are not neglected

plan each day efficiently

plan each week effectively

and to do so simply with a little self-discipline.

Since Personal Time Management is a management process just like any other, it must be planned, monitored and regularly reviewed. In the following sections, we will examine the basic methods and functions of Personal Time Management. Since true understanding depends upons experience, you will be asked to take part by looking at aspects of your own work. If you do not have time to this right now - ask yourself: why not?

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Management:Art,science and profession

Management can be define as art, science and profession. So lets discuss why it is an art, science and profession.

1. Management; an art - art an such an ability through which any thing can be presented in simple and beautiful way because effective. Generally the qualities of an art are practical knowledge, personal knowledge, creativity,result oriented. The above mentioned qualities are also connected with the management. So management is an art. Art is necessary to bring theoretical knowledge of management in practice. In the absence of art it is impossible to make plans, organize, co-ordinate,motivate the employees to work, make effective communication and control. Therefor management is also called an art.
2. Management: a science - Science is a systematic knowledge. It is prove by right thought, observations and experiments. It is based on proved principles. To be science the following characters are necessary such as develop through observation, able to be rested and estimated, universally rue principle and that can be applied, irrefutable principle etc. As the above mentioned characters are found in management, it is also called science. Management is also a systematic knowledge. its principles are also developed through observation and experiments. The principle of management is also universally implemented. So it is a science.
3. Management: as profession- Management is also a profession. In former days only the occupation of advocates, doctors,priests and were taken as the profession. But now-days the management is also taken as profession. The persons having knowledge, ability and skills can be profession. So the management is getting recognition as a profession. As the characteristics of profession like formal education and training, social sanction, self control, acquisition of knowledge etc are found in management, it is taken as profession.
   

Functions of management

following are the major functions of management.

1. Planning- Every function starts with planning. So is in the business also. In common sense planning is predetermined course of action to accomplish the set objectives. planning a business organization its objectives and set up the best procedures for reaching them. It involves decision making as to what is to be done, how it is to be done, where it is to be done, when it is to be done etc. Thus planning includes determination of objectives, setting rules, determining projects, setting procedures and strategy etc. So it is an important function of management.
2. Organizing- Organizing involves divided works into different parts, grouping these activities in the form of position, grouping of various positions into departments, assigning such position to the manager and delegating authority to each manager to accomplish the work in a planned manner.Thus organizing function can be viewed as a tool to translate plans into realities. In this way organizing in ultimate analysis provides a mechanism for purposive, integrated and co-operative action by people in a joint or organized effort to implement plans.
3. Staffing- Staffing involves manpower planning and manpower management. In simple words, staffing functions includes preparing inventory of personnel available, requirement of personnel, sources of manpower, their selection, remmuniration, training and development and periodic appraisal of personnel working in the enterprises. It is very complex and difficult functions of management because it relates to the selection of those people who are properly qualified and mentally rich for business requirements.
4. Leading-The function of like planning, organizing and staffing are merely preparation for doing the works, the leading is or directing functions actually states the works. The leading is concerned with guiding, teaching, stimulating and actuiying the members to work efficiently.