Fundamentals of Management
Fundamentals of Management tests the functions managers perform, the skills and levels involved, and classic theories of motivation, leadership and control. Questions often ask you to distinguish planning from organizing, authority from responsibility, and line from staff roles.
Core rules
- Management process: planning (goals and means), organizing (structure, delegation), staffing, directing (leading, motivating, communicating), controlling (standards, measurement, corrective action).
- Katz skills: technical, human, conceptual; top managers need more conceptual, first-line more technical.
- Fayol: unity of command (one boss) differs from unity of direction (one plan for a group); scalar chain and gang plank.
- Span of control is the number of subordinates reporting to a manager. Narrow spans create taller structures and more levels; wide spans create flatter structures.
- Maslow: physiological, safety, social, esteem, self-actualization, in order. Herzberg: hygiene factors prevent dissatisfaction but do not motivate; motivators such as achievement and responsibility do.
- MBO sets cascading, measurable goals with participation and feedback.
Worked example
A firm has 64 operators and a uniform span of 8. First-line managers = 64/8 = 8. If these 8 report to one middle manager, that manager is one more level; total managers = 8 + 1 = 9. If span were 4, first-line managers would be 16, showing how a narrower span adds managerial posts and layers.
Traps
Do not treat responsibility as delegable; authority may be delegated, accountability remains. Do not call staff advisers line managers. Hygiene factors are not motivators. Unity of command is not the same as unity of direction. Span of control is not the same as chain of command.