Friday, September 16, 2011

Management Vs. Administration

Management and administration are the terms used as synonymous in the business.Few people use them interchangeably and few use them as different terms.

Every word has its meaning in its context- American scholars and European scholars have different thinking on Management and Administration.

American scholars like  Oliver Sheldon, Schultz, are having of this view that Administration and Management are two different concepts and have different use in business world. According to these American scholars, Administration is superior than Management because,  it involves thinking,decision making,high level planning, policy and strategy formulation. Management is subordinate or inferior to administration because it is doing or, executing or,and implementing function. Management is responsible for the implementation of the policies and major plans  , strategies laid down by Administration.
Thus according to American view, Administration and management are different, administration is superior than management because management has to follow the policies, plans, strategies, decisions laid down by administration. Administration is concerned with the function of top level managers but management is concerned with middle and lower level.

European scholars like Breach are opposite the American viewpoint. According to them Management is broader and superior than administration because it is responsible for formulation of strategies, policies, plans and higher level decision making and is function of top level managers in the organisation. Administration is inferior to management because it is responsible for implementation of these plans,strategies, policies and installation of systems to execute the decisions of Management( top level managers). Thus management is determinative function and administration is implementing function( Management is thinking and administration is doing).

Management and administration are same: Many writers like Henri Fayol, William Newman, Chester Barnard, George Terry, Louis. A. Allen, Koontz and O’ Donnell make no distinction between management and administration.
According to these scholars, Management and administration both are made on similar set of principles( like henry fayol's 14 principles) and have to perform overall managerial functions(planning, directing, commanding, controlling, coordinating etc.) Management can be classified in to two parts-
1. Administrative Management- Thinking, Planning
2. Operative Management- Implementing
and every manager at each level has to do perform these two functions. So there is no any practical difference between Administration and management.

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