Management perspectives

Management involves five perspectives: technical, political, symbolic, psychological and cognitivist. These perspectives are at the heart of the book. Part I sets the scene by describing each of them. The first chapter traces the history of management theories, and the second chapter proposes a tool for diagnosing management styles. The second part focuses on traditional management, with which contemporary forms of management are at odds. Even a broad outline of this historical form of management enables us to better assess how far contemporary management has come, and thus to highlight how it differs from the tradition which, until the beginning of the twentieth century, reigned unchallenged over organizations. The third part is entirely devoted to the technical perspective, which is often seen as the heart of management, something that needs to be mastered perfectly to claim excellence, but also something from which we need to distance ourselves in order to build organizations with a human face. The fourth part focuses on social and human perspectives. The section opens with a chapter on social management, which highlights the need to take into account the social and human dimensions of the organization, and to adapt management practices accordingly. Part four then includes a chapter on each of these social and human perspectives. The fifth part focuses on some of the main management areas, where all perspectives come into play and offer their full potential. As the reader explores organizational identity, management philosophy, competitive strategy, organizational structure and decision-making, he or she realizes the value of mobilizing all management perspectives, rather than confining oneself to the narrow confines of any one of them. Finally, the last section contains a series of practical management case studies describing administrative problems. To solve them, the reader can then mobilize management perspectives, put into action the skills and levers they offer and, in this way, open up real management projects.