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Explain the following principles of management: (i) Authority and Responsibility (ii) Initiative (iii) Subordination of individual interest to common…

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Principles of Management: (i) Authority and Responsibility: ▪ Managers require authority commensurate with their responsibility and there should be a balance between authority and responsibility. According to Fayol, “Authority is the right to give orders and obtain obedience, and responsibility is the corollary of authority. ▪ An organisation should build safeguards against abuse of managerial power and a manager should have necessary authority to carry out his responsibility. (ii) Initiative: ▪ Initiative means taking the first step with self-motivation wherein workers should be encouraged to develop and carry out their plans for improvement but it does not mean going against the established practices of the company for the sake of being different. ▪ A good company should have an employee suggestion system whereby initiative/suggestions which result in substantial cost/time reduction should be rewarded. (iii) Subordination of individual interest to common good/ Subordination of individual interest to general interest: ▪ The interests of an organisation should take priority over the interests of any one individual employee as larger interests of the workers and stakeholders are more important than the interest of any one person. ▪ A manager can ensure this by her/his exemplary behaviour, which will raise her/his stature in the eyes of the workers and ensure same behaviour by them. Or Q (b). Explain the following characteristics of the principles of management: (i) Primarily practical (ii) Cause and effect relationship (iii) Uncertain/Accidental Characteristics of Principles of Management: NOTE: for (i) Primarily practical and (iii) Uncertain/Accidental and separately. characteristics in part (i) and part (iii) 1. Universal applicability: ▪ The principles of management are intended to apply to all types of organisations, business as well as non-business, small as well large, public sector as well as private sector, manufacturing as well as the services sectors. ▪ However, the extent of their applicability would vary with the nature of the organisation, business activity, scale of operations and the like. 2. General guidelines: ▪ The principles are guidelines to action but do not provide readymade, straitjacket solutions to all managerial problem because real business situations are very complex and dynamic and are a result of many factors. ▪ However, the importance of principles cannot be underestimated because even a small guideline helps to solve a given problem. 3. Formed by practice and experimentation: ▪ The principles of management are formed by practice as well as experience ▪ They are also formed by collective wisdom of managers as well as experimentation. 4. Flexible: ▪ The principles of management are flexible and not rigid prescriptions, that can be modified by the manager when the situation so demands. ▪ Individual principles are like different tools serving different purposes, the manager has to decide which tool to use under what circumstances. 5. Mainly behavioural: ▪ Management principles aim at influencing behaviour of human beings and therefore mainly behavioural in nature. ▪ These principles enable a better understanding of the relationship between human and material resources in achieving organisational goals. 6. Contingent: ▪ The application of principles of management is dependent upon the prevailing situation at a particular point of time. ▪ The application of principles has to be changed as per requirements. (ii) Cause and effect relationships: ▪ The principles of management are intended to establish relationship between cause and effect so that they can be used in similar situations in a large number of cases. ▪ In real life, situations are not identical and therefore accurate cause and effect relationships may be difficult to establish; however, principles of management assist managers in establishing these relationships to some extent and are therefore useful.

Explain the following principles of management :
(i)
Authority and Responsibility
(ii)
Initiative
(iii)
Subordination of individual interest to common good

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