The Seven Management Disciplines for Organizational Success

Introduction

Management is the art and science of achieving goals through the coordination of people and resources. Management is essential for any organization, whether it is a business, a non-profit, or a government agency. However, management is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Different types of management are required for different situations and purposes.

In this newsletter, we will explore the seven management disciplines that every organization needs to master in order to succeed in today's complex and dynamic environment. These are:

????????? Strategic Management

????????? Business Management

????????? Operations Management

????????? Project Management

????????? Human Resource Management

????????? Information Technology Management

????????? General Management

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My belief has been ingrained over the past fifteen years that all of them are indispensable to any organization, whether governmental, profitable, or non-profit, and whatever its size, whether large, medium, or small. Many consultants and trainers have dealt with these seven subjects individually (such as the discipline of Human Resource Management), but we will present in the coming articles to address them in an integrated way; For example, when we talk about operations we will link it with strategy and so on. These newsletters are concerned with interpreting the higher management discipline levels into the lower ones. When we speak at the strategic level, which is the highest level, about the company's vision, how can it be interpreted at the lower level in the discipline of human resources? How can the discipline of general management be included in the other disciplines? The focus of these newsletters will be on the correct practices in the different management disciplines in an integrated way.

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Strategic Management

Strategic management is the process of defining the long-term vision, mission, goals, and objectives of an organization and developing the policies, plans, and actions to achieve them. Strategic management involves analyzing the external and internal environment, identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of the organization, and formulating strategies that leverage the strengths and opportunities, and mitigate the weaknesses and threats. Strategic management also involves monitoring and evaluating the performance and outcomes of the strategies, and making adjustments as needed.

Strategic management is typically done at the top level of the organization, with a time horizon of three to five years. Strategic management provides direction, alignment, and coherence for the organization, and guides the allocation of resources and priorities.

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Business Management

Business management is the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the activities and operations of an organization that generates value for its customers, stakeholders, and society. Business management involves setting the short-term goals and objectives of the organization, designing the business model and value proposition, developing the products and services, managing the marketing and sales functions, managing the financial and accounting functions, managing the legal and ethical aspects, and ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Business management is typically done at the middle level of the organization, with a time horizon of one year. Business management ensures efficiency, effectiveness, quality, and profitability for the organization.

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Operations Management

Operations management is the process of designing, managing, and improving the processes and systems that produce and deliver the products and services of an organization. Operations management involves optimizing the use of resources (such as materials, equipment, labor, and energy), ensuring quality standards and compliance requirements are met, minimizing waste and errors, enhancing productivity and flexibility, reducing costs and cycle times, increasing capacity and reliability, and satisfying customer expectations.

The value chain is a concept that describes the sequence of activities that create and deliver value to customers. Within the context of operations management, the value chain can be used to analyze and improve the processes and systems that produce and deliver the products and services of an organization.

By identifying the value chain of an organization, operations managers can evaluate the efficiency, effectiveness, quality, and competitiveness of each activity, and identify the sources of competitive advantage and differentiation.

Operations management is typically done at the lower level of the organization, with a time horizon of daily or weekly. Operations management ensures operational excellence and competitiveness for the organization.

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Project Management

Project management is the process of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing a specific project that has a defined scope, schedule, budget, and deliverables. Project management involves defining the project objectives, scope, and requirements, identifying the project stakeholders, risks and assumptions, developing the project plan, schedule, and budget, allocating the project resources, roles, and responsibilities, implementing the project activities, tasks, and milestones, tracking the project progress, performance, and quality, communicating the project status, issues, and changes, resolving the project problems, conflicts, and changes, delivering the project outcomes, outputs, and benefits, and closing the project documentation, lessons learned, and feedback.

Project management is typically done at any level of the organization depending on the size and complexity of the project with a time horizon of quarterly, monthly, weekly, or daily.

Project management ensures the successful completion and delivery of projects for the organization.

Human Resource Management

Human resource management is the process of acquiring, developing, motivating, retaining, and managing the human capital of an organization. Human resource management ensures the effective utilization and development of human resources for the organization.

Human resource management involves planning the human resource needs and strategies of the organization, aligning them with its goals and objectives, recruiting, selecting, hiring, onboarding, training, developing, appraising, rewarding, compensating, motivating, engaging, retaining, managing performance, managing diversity, managing conflict, managing ethics, managing health and safety, managing career development, managing succession planning, managing employee relations, managing employee satisfaction, and loyalty.

Human resource management is typically done at any level of the organization depending on its size and structure with a time horizon of ongoing.

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Information Technology Management

Information technology management is the process of planning, organizing, implementing, maintaining, and improving the information technology infrastructure systems, applications, data, and security of an organization. Information technology management ensures reliable, efficient, effective, secure, and innovative information technology solutions for the organization.

Information technology management involves assessing the information technology needs and opportunities of the organization, aligning them with its goals and objectives, designing, developing, acquiring, implementing, integrating, maintaining, upgrading, testing, troubleshooting, securing, protecting, backing up, recovering, disposing of, auditing, evaluating, measuring, improving, innovating, leveraging, optimizing, automating, enhancing, supporting, enabling, facilitating, and empowering information technology solutions for the organization.

Information technology management is typically done at any level of the organization depending on its size and complexity with a time horizon of ongoing.

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General Management

General management is the process of applying the general principles skills and techniques of management to any situation or context. General management involves analyzing the situation or context, identifying the problem or opportunity, defining the goal or objective, generating the alternatives or options, evaluating the pros and cons or criteria, selecting the best alternative or option, implementing the actions or solutions, monitoring the results or outcomes, and reviewing the feedback or learning.

General management ensures effective decision-making, problem-solving, change management, performance management, communication management, leadership management, teamwork management, and interpersonal management for the organization.

General management is typically done at any level of the organization depending on the nature and scope of the situation or context with a variable time horizon.

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Conclusion

The seven management disciplines are strategic management, business management, operations management, project management, human resource management, information technology management, and general management. These disciplines are interrelated and interdependent and should work together in an integrated way to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. By mastering these disciplines, an organization can enhance its performance, productivity, quality, innovation, competitiveness, sustainability, and success in today's complex and dynamic environment.