Management Theory: Framework, Application, and Results

Definition of Management Theory

According to BusinessDictionary.com, Management Theory is defined as: “A collection of ideas which set forth general rules on how to manage a business or organization.
Management theory addresses how managers and supervisors relate to their organizations in the knowledge of its goals, the implementation of effective means to get the goals accomplished and how to motivate employees to perform to the highest standard.”

To accomplish this, a framework should include project management, human resource management, stakeholder management, and information technology management that cover planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (POLC) and that incorporate people, data, technology, and processes.

Explanation of Effective Management

An effective, modern era manager works within the framework to guide management processes, cognizant of leadership’s goals and strategic intent while driving toward pragmatic, shorter-term targets and tactical solutions.
Some key challenges are to 1) balance among the strategic, tactical, and operational aspects, 2) communicate scope, milestones, and targets, 3) facilitate and coordinate among multiple constituencies, 4) communicate progress, issues, and risks, and 5) drive activities leading to the stated and desired outcomes.

The key management areas outlined (project, HR, stakeholder, and IT) do not imply any order, since they all need to be performed in concert (concurrently and synchronized).

Learning Activity #1:

As an example, we can look at a manager put in charge of a strategic financial initiative in a large Fortune 1000 company.
Executive leadership identified the need to implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System to consolidated six finance and accounting systems into one centralized application.
This would require efforts from Finance, Technology, and Operations.
It would require new technology and data suppliers.
It would impact processes performed

Case Analysis: Read the McDonald's case and write a case analysis u...