Leadership and Business Wisdom - Management: The Central Social Function.

• Author: Kazmi, S. Kamal Hayder

Byline: S. KAMAL HAYDER KAZMI

Non economic institutions need a yardstick that does for them what profitability does for business.

Non business institutions flock in increasing number to business management to learn from it how to manage themselves. The hospital, the armed service, the Catholic diocese, the civil service - all want to go to school for business management.

This does not mean that business management can be transferred to other, non business institutions. On the contrary, the first thing these institutions have to learn from business management is that management begins with the setting of objectives and that, therefore, non economic institutions, such as a university or a hospital, will also need very different management from that of a business. But these institutions are right in seeing, is simply the first of the species and the one we have studied the most intensively. Non economic institutions need a yardstick that does for them what profitability does for the business. 'Profitability,' in other words, rather than being the 'exemption' and distinct from 'human' or 'social' needs, emerges, in the pluralist society of organizations, as the prototype of the measurement needed every institution in order to be managed and manageable.

The Function of Management Is to Produce Results

Above all management is responsible for producing results.

Management has to give direction to the institution it manages. It has to think through the institution's mission, has to set its objectives, and has to organize resources for the results the institution has to contribute. Management is, indeed, J.B. Say's 'entrepreneur' and responsible for directing vision and resources toward greatest results and contributions.

In performing these essential functions, management everywhere faces the same problems. It has to organize work for productivity; it has to lead the worker toward productivity and achievement. It is responsible for the social impact of its enterprise. Above all, it is responsible for producing the results - whether economic performance,, student learning, or patient care - for the sake of which each institution exists.

Organizational Inertia

All organizations need a discipline that makes them face up to reality.

All organizations need to know that virtually no program or activity will perform effectively for a long time without modification and redesign. Eventually every activity becomes obsolete. Among organizations that ignore...