There are numerous and widespread errors and misunderstandings about management. They hinder the progress of management theory and, above all, they prevent effective management practice.
1. The opinion that only top managers are managers
This misunderstanding of management narrows the view to the very top executives – a picture that is still shaped by the media world, but which provides little insight into the reality of management. Modern organizations need many managers. Everyone with leadership roles has responsibilities and is part of management.
2. The opinion that only those are managers who have employees
This mistake equates management with managing people. This view excludes all those people – who are important for an organization because of the contribution they often make alone to the success of an organization. It is the rapidly increasing number of knowledge workers and high-class experts.
They are critical to success because of their own personal expertise and their special knowledge and experience. Their importance is defined by their expert contribution. Their self-management is decisive. Without people of this type, few organizations of today can function at all, and for an increasing number of organizations, self-management is crucial to success.
3. The opinion that specialist and technical business administration tasks are management tasks
In a hospital, surgery will never be confused with management, because operating on patients is clearly a specialist task. However, in order for this to be done professionally and without errors, management tasks must be performed in addition to surgery. In business administration, tasks such as personnel selection or market communication are also subject tasks, and not management tasks, just like treasuring or production. Such tasks are managed, but they are not management themselves.
4. The opinion that only employees should be managed
Management is also the management of subordinates, but that is not all. That’s the way it used to be, and that’s where this error came from, which persists even though the world has changed radically on this very point.
Today it is far more important to “manage” bosses and colleagues as well. All the sophisticated management tools, such as communication, co-operation, coordination and so on, are not primarily needed where they are recommended and taught, namely for managing employees. You need it for the managing many other people in the organizational network of which you yourself are a part.
5. The opinion that management is only a matter of business
Management is nothing typically “economic”. It was also not created in the economy. Other – earlier – organizations were managed long before there was such a thing as large commercial enterprises. For example, the civil service in ancient China has managed very successfully, as well as the “management” in the monasteries of various religions.
In business, however, it is most evident that a systematic application of management leads to success. However, management is even more important for other organizations, such as hospitals, administrative authorities or research institutes, precisely because undesirable developments there are late – and in some cases much more difficult to detect. These organizations do not have such a clear bottom line.
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