Management
Management tests how organizations plan, organize, lead, and control resources. Expect coordination, structure, motivation, decision-making, and performance control.
Core rules
- The management process is often summarized as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, or POLC.
- Span of control is the number of direct reports a manager supervises. A narrow span creates taller hierarchies; a wide span creates flatter structures but demands more employee autonomy.
- Centralization keeps authority at the top; decentralization pushes decisions closer to operations.
- Motivation theories differ: Maslow orders needs; Herzberg separates hygiene factors from motivators; expectancy theory links effort to performance and reward.
- Control sets standards, measures performance, compares results, and takes corrective action.
Worked example
A unit has 24 frontline staff and a target span of 6 staff per supervisor. It needs 24/6 = 4 supervisors. If the manager can supervise 4 supervisors directly, one manager coordinates them. This creates three layers: manager, supervisors, and staff. If the span were 12, only two supervisors would be needed, flattening the structure. The trade-off is that wider spans reduce administrative cost but may weaken coaching and monitoring, so the choice depends on task complexity and staff experience.
Traps
Confusing leadership with management; assuming centralization is always inefficient; treating Herzberg's hygiene factors as motivators; and mixing efficiency with effectiveness. Efficiency means doing things with less waste; effectiveness means achieving the goal. Also avoid applying a motivation theory without checking whether the reward is valued and perceived as attainable.