Business: Understanding and Application of Management
Principles of Management BUS 201
Toni Smith
November 22, 2010

This research will focus on the understanding and application of management by addressing: Describing the role of a manager in a typical organization, the three traits an individual should possess in being an effective manager, and finally how the three traits fit the four functions of management.
In order to describe the role of a manager in an organization, one must first know what a manger is, and what an organization is. A manager is a person who plans, controls, manages and directs a team of individuals. (www.blurtit.com/q360923.html[->0])
Today we talk of "managing one's boss," and of having "relationships with strategic partners, suppliers and customers." But, if partners can manage their relationships with each other, then management cannot be a one-sided, controlling activity. And, if you can manage your boss, management isn't restricted to the use of authority to control the people who report to you. Management is much more than what managers simply do to get work done through employees. Today, we can manage ourselves, our time and many other activities that don't require one to have a formal managerial role or even to manage people. This is why today, the function of management, as distinct from the role of the manager, has become everyone's business.
The truth is that the role of the "manager" is only a particular application of management, not the whole story of managing. A broader perspective avoids the negative connotations so commonly attributed to management, such as controlling and restricting people. Moreover, employee engagement, especially with respect to innovative knowledge workers, cannot become a reality until we move beyond our industrial-age definition of a manager. (McCrimmon, M..