Administration being part of Management

Administration is sometimes used to refer to the activities of the higher level of the management group who determine major aims and policies. This can be called the broader use of the term which is often used in government departments. It is also used in the narrower sense, of controlling the day-to-day running of the enterprise.

An administrator can also be a manager, this occurs when the administrator is concerned with implementing policy in dealings with employees to whom responsibilities have been delegated.

Defines of administration is the part of the management process concerned with the institution and carrying out of procedures by which the programmed is laid down and communicated, and the progress of activities is regulated and checked against targets and plans.

Management has even more meanings than administration. Management can mean:

• A process by which scarce resources are combined to achieve given ends. This describes and activity which can be better described by the word managing;
• The management referring to those people carrying out the activity. This should really be the managers;
• The body of knowledge about the activity of managing, regarded here as a special field of study, i.e. a profession

Of these three, the first is preferable, management referring to the process of management.

A useful approach is to consider management to be a process whereby a suitable environment is created for effort to be organized to accomplish desired goals.

Management can define as:

A social process entailing responsibility for the effective and economical planning and regulation of the operations of an enterprise, in fulfilment of a given purpose or tasks, such responsibility involving:

• Judgement and decision in determining plans, and the development of data procedures to assist control of performance and progress against plans; and
• The guidance, integration, motivation and supervision of the personnel composing the enterprise and carrying out its operations.

It can be seen from the above that the process as a whole is called management – administration being part of it.

The term top management usually refers to management above departmental level and is loosely applied to directors.

The word executive is correctly used when referring to a person who carried out policy. The phrase top executive is used for people of a high status, who is fact do no executive work at all, as they spend their time formulating policy. They are of course responsible for executive action done under their jurisdiction. Where words are associated with status rather than function, precision is impossible.