Administrative Management (Meaning and Explanation)

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

What is administrative management?

Administrative management It is the set of activities carried out to run an organization through rational management of tasks, efforts and resources.

Your ability to control and coordinate the actions and the different roles performed within the company allows you to prevent problems and achieve objectives. The systematic conduct of correct administrative management favors obtaining favorable results for the organization.

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

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 to be carried out in a certain period of time. For this, 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, tasks are grouped according to jobs and suitable personnel are selected.
Address It consists of executing planned strategies, directing efforts towards objectives through leadership, motivation and communication. It involves motivating employees, maintaining fluid communication with all areas of the organization and establishing constant evaluation mechanisms, among others.
Control It consists of verifying that daily tasks are progressing in line with planned strategies, in order to optimize decision making, reorient some activities, correct problems or evaluate results, among others. It is an administrative task that must be carried out with professionalism and transparency. Measuring the results obtained (to compare them with the planned results) allows for continuous improvement.

Characteristics of administrative management

Administrative management is in charge of the administrative manager which oversees the organization's operations and ensures that the flow of information is effective and that resources are used efficiently. Provide added value to the organization, given that it can identify obsolete practices and develop processes that contribute to improvement.

The administrative manager It usually has a work team in charge, made up of bosses, analysts and management people. 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 company's budget execution.
Propose and implement improvements in personnel management policies.
Control the employee remuneration process.
Develop staff training and development programs.
Carry out studies and diagnoses periodically on the work environment.
Propose, inform and keep the organization's board of directors updated.
Prepare sales plans and forecasts.
Select sales strategies.
Diagram the distribution of the workspace for employees.

History of administrative management

administrative management adam smith — Adam Smith postulated the need for the division of labor and free competition.

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 Chinese philosopher, politician and renowned thinker who enunciated a series of rules for public administration. For example, public employees had to know the country's situation well in order to solve problems, they should not be selected based on favoritism or partisanship, and officials had to be honest people.
Adam Smith (1723-1790). He was a Scottish economist and philosopher who in his thesis “The Wealth of Nations” stated the key to social well-being 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 positions within an organization.
Henry Metcalfe (1847-1927) He was an American soldier, 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 promoted his teaching at an academic level.
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915). He was an American industrial engineer and economist who promoted scientific work methods, with the aim of achieving greater efficiency in industrial production by optimizing the employee's work.
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 so that it developed all administrative functions (and not only in the work of the employee as Taylor proposed).