What is administrative management?

We explain what administrative management is, its functions, importance and other characteristics. In addition, a brief historical review.

1. What is administrative management?

Administrative management is the set of activities that are carried out to lead an organization through a rational management of tasks, efforts and resources.

Its ability to control and coordinate the actions and the different roles that are played within the company allows to prevent problems and achieve the objectives . The systematic conduct of proper administrative management favors the obtaining of favorable results for the organization.

The importance of administrative management consists in preparing the organization and arranging it to act but in advance, contemplating all the means and procedures it needs to meet its objectives and reduce the negative effects or possible problems.

2. Functions of administrative management

Administrative management is a process that includes four main functions:

• Planning. It is the first function necessary to guide and successfully develop the following stages. It consists of projecting goals , defining objectives and establishing the necessary resources and activities that will be carried out in a certain period of time . For that, for example, an internal and environmental investigation can be carried out through analysis tools such as “Porter’s five forces” or “SWOT”.
• Organization. It consists of putting together a structure to distribute the human and economic resources available to the company to organize and develop its work and achieve the planned objectives. Here the areas within the organization are determined, the tasks are grouped according to the jobs and the suitable personnel is selected.
• Address . It consists in executing theplanned strategies , directing the efforts towards the objectives through leadership , motivation and communication . It involves encouraging employees, maintaining a fluid communication with all areas of the organization and establishing mechanisms for constant evaluation, among others.
• Control . It consists of verifying that the daily tasks move in line with the planned strategies, in order to optimize decision making , redirect some activities, correct problems or evaluate results, among others. It is an administrative task that must be exercised with professionalism and transparency. The measurement of the results obtained (to compare them with the planned results) allows us to seek continuous improvement.

3. Characteristics of administrative management

Administrative management is the responsibility of the administrative manager , who oversees the operations of the organization and ensures that the flow of information is effective and that resources are used efficiently. Provide added value to the organization, since it can identify obsolete practices and develop processes that contribute to the improvement.

The administrative manager usually has a team in charge, composed of bosses, analysts and managers . The administrative manager and his team have several responsibilities to fulfill and, depending on the field or specialty in which they work, they can deal with:

• Propose and develop policies , standards and procedures.
• Lead several work teams .
• Supervise the budgetary execution of the company.
• Propose and implement improvements in personnel management policies.
• Control the employee compensation process.
• Develop training and staff development programs.
• Perform periodic studies and diagnoses on the work environment.
• Propose, inform and keep updated the organization’s directory.
• Prepare sales plans and forecasts.
• Select sales strategies.
• Diagram the distribution of work space for employees.

4. History of administrative management

The current administrative management is the result of several contributions that took place throughout history. Among the main protagonists are:

• Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC). He was a philosopher, politician and renowned Chinese thinker who enunciated a series of rules for public administration . For example, that public employees should know the situation of the country well in order to solve the problems, they should not be selected by favoritism or partisanship and the officials should be honest people.
• Adam Smith (1723-1790). He was a Scottish economist and philosopher who in his thesis “The wealth of nations” enunciated the key to social welfare that resided in two principles: the division of labor and free competition, as necessary actions to increase the level of production and to achieve the specialization of the positions within an organization.
• Henry Metcalfe (1847-1927). He was an American military, inventor and theorist who published new control techniques for scientific administration through his book “The cost of production and administration of public and private workshops.”
• Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924). He was an American politician and lawyer who managed to separate the concepts of politics and administration , granting the latter the status of science , which propelled his teaching at the academic level.
• Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915). He was an American industrial engineer and economist promoter of scientific methods of work, with the aim of achieving greater efficiency in industrial production by optimizing the work of the employee.
• Henry Fayol (1841-1925). He was a Turkish engineer and theorist who developed the general theory of administration, but focused on the performance of the hierarchical management of the organization to develop all administrative functions (and not only in the employee’s work as Taylor proposed).