Management methods

Methods are classified according to various (criteria) criteria:

• by scale of application - general, extending to the entire activity of the company, and private, applied to individual components of this company or, conversely, to the external environment (consumers, intermediaries, etc.);
• by industries and fields of application - in federal administration, trade, industry, education, etc .;
• by the role at various stages of the organization’s life - methods of overcoming the crisis, stabilizing, developing, etc .;
• according to the degree of indirectness of impact - direct and indirect;
• by the level of generalization of managerial knowledge - methods of theory and practice of management;
• management functions - methods of forecasting, planning, organization, coordination, motivation, control, etc .;
• on specific objects of management and the nature of the assigned production task, etc.

Regarding the criterion of managing objects and tasks, there is a whole range of management methods. Methods of financial, anti-crisis, innovative management, methods of risk management, production, marketing, communications, quality, personnel, projects, small and large enterprises, etc., as well as methods for managing business processes, the interaction of business structures with each other and developed with customers and others.

Traditional Classification of Management Methods

The traditionally recognized classification groups management methods by the nature of the impact: economic, administrative (organizational and administrative) and socio-psychological. Such grouping is rather arbitrary, since these methods have a lot of similarities and mutually penetrate each other. At the same time, they have certain differences in the methods of influencing control objects, which allows us to consider each of them individually.

The essence of economic methods consists in organizing effective production management through influencing the economic interests of company employees and other persons participating in the company’s economic activity using economic levers (wages, bonuses, profits, taxes, preferential prices, etc.) . These methods are based on material incentives aimed at increasing the responsibility and interest of managers in making effective management decisions, as well as encouraging employees to take the initiative in solving the tasks without special administrative impact. ^[2]

The use of economic methods encourages feedback more effectively, which has a positive effect on the control function. The application of economic management methods allows you to activate personnel in the implementation of tasks, allows you to make the management process more adapted and flexible in relation to a specific workforce. Economic management methods reflect the socio-economic nature of the company and contribute to its development in modern market conditions of production. Among these methods, an important place is occupied by economic calculation.

• Commercial calculation

The essence of commercial calculation is the ratio of costs and analysis of the rationality of the economic activities of the company and ensuring profit. Due to the fact that financial calculation summarizes both economic levers and tools and management functions , it assists in ensuring production efficiency, technological development, optimized use of capital, and a cost-effective personnel policy. The central governing bodies, developing a strategy on all these issues, apply differentiated approaches to different units, depending on the nature and nature of their activities.

Sustained profits, the achievement of the ultimate goal of commercial calculation, are facilitated by: pricing, financing and lending, production costs and other economic levers and tools of commercial calculation.

The principles of commercial calculation are influenced by the nature of the products; degree, scale of economic relations between enterprises; the type of activity of the enterprise, that is, the embodiment of commercial settlement methods is directly related to certain, specific conditions. Nowadays, commercial settlement is carried out, firstly, in the conditions of centralized management, and secondly, in conditions of independence of enterprises and their divisions.

The second feature of commercial calculation is the provision of operational independence to enterprises, divisions (production departments and branches). As a result, there was a form of relationships within the company, which is defined as intra-production (intra-company) calculation .

The financial and economic situation of the unit depends on the degree of operational independence of the organization. Within the framework of the rights granted to the head of the unit, he has the right to make effective decisions and independently choose ways to achieve the goal. The head bears full material and administrative responsibility for the activities of the unit, which is directly determined by his decisions. It is also possible to set prices for final products, take measures to reduce costs, introduce scientific research, introduce innovations into production, study the market, etc. The manager is responsible for the efficient and rational use of funds, and, if necessary, seeks to replenish them with new contributions.

Cost regulator - payments and deductions affecting economic and industrial activities. As a result, in-house settlement carries with it the achievement of the goal of commercial settlement and includes its elements. Their difference is that the intra-production settlement is implemented within the framework of its own organization, on the contrary, the commercial settlement is carried out between different owners. There are differences in pricing. Commercial calculation in prices reflects the existing commodity-money relations, and in the case of intercompany, it implies the establishment of internal prices of the organization.

• Price policy

In fact, prices reflect all aspects of an organization’s economic activity. Pricing includes, firstly, regulatory factors, and secondly, market competition. Two categories of prices are used in the world: published and estimated.

Published - fixed prices, for example, price lists and reference prices, stock quotation prices, actual transaction prices of large firms in the international market.

Settlement (contractual) prices - prices of complex industrial equipment or non-standard products.

The most common among the published prices are list prices . Firms issue under their trademark a price list for standard consumer goods. Companies aimed at selling products make sales at set prices or prices of export (import), and profit is achieved through discounts from prices established by the price list, or due to the difference in prices between list and export (import) prices. Licensees who sell goods under their own trademark or under the sign of the company from which the license was acquired can also create and issue their price lists. Settlement prices are relatively stable. Their difference is a single level for the same products. There are various methods for pricing and pricing. The most famous way to set prices is the “target” method of pricing on the principle of “useful costs” , its essence is that we get the price when adding the target rate of profit and production costs.

• Financial policy

In a concentrated form, the financial policy of any company reflects the influence of many internal and external factors. It includes all aspects of economic activity - production, scientific and technical, material and technical supply, sales. It reflects the identification of sources of financial resources and their distribution between units; distribution (redistribution) of profit; lending and financing of various departments; the nature and structure of intercompany financial transactions. The flexibility of this policy is due to adaptation to the money market, exchange rates and tax laws. Intercompany cash flows are regulated by finance and settlements are carried out centrally.

Financial management methods include the main approaches to the distribution (redistribution) of profit: firstly, all profit is concentrated in the central unit of the organization’s management, and secondly, profit is distributed among units with special rights to use it.

External sources of financing include loans and borrowings, as well as the formation of share capital and the sale of shares. The main principle is self-financing, that is, the use of internal sources. In second place is the use of borrowed funds from commercial organizations, specialized regional and international investors, and international banks. Usually, loans and credits are received by the central link of the organization, and then they are distributed among enterprises and units.

Administrative management methods are a set of ways and means of influencing personnel based on authority and discipline. The main feature is the direct impact on the object and the behavior of the performers in a specific environment. The form of expression is the orders and orders of a higher authority, which are binding on the lower level. Based on a clear delineation of the rights, responsibilities and duties of the governing body, which are enshrined in the provisions of structural units, instructions and functional responsibilities of officials.

The organizational and managerial method is the operational impact on the production process, on the one hand, the adoption of promising and effective decisions to improve the management and production system, on the other hand. To classify these methods, a division into three groups is considered more rational and acceptable: organizational-stabilizing, disciplinary and administrative.

Organizational and stabilizing effect is performed:

• During organizational regulation, the composition of the enterprise, the functional set of its bodies and officials are determined. The basis is the law on enterprises, that is, it has the nature of legal regulation of the entire management system.
• Rationing - the establishment of standards, that is, a framework for lower and upper limits, norms, rules for the interaction of services and units.
• Instruction - the creation of conditions for the implementation of processes independent of the individual qualities of people, and the following from the requirements of the management system.

Management cannot carry out the management process without administrative influence when specific tasks are assigned to the managing and controlled systems - to provide technical, organizational and economic regulation of the production process, preventing deviations, restoring previously provided parameters. Managing influence is ensured through orders, orders, statutory instructions.

In order for the administrative impact to be effective, it is necessary to organize strict control over its implementation.

Control and verification of execution are necessary parts of any administrative document. The control function is an important part of the management process. Both current and final control over the fulfillment of the production assignment allow achieving the most effective result in managerial activity.

Mastering the effective use of organizational management methods is the key to the success of a manager at any level.

Socio-psychological methods are based on the motivation of the needs and interests of the individual, the team, on their professional connections and communication, initiate creative and professional activity. The essence of socio-psychological methods is to use an effective working mechanism by influencing the non-economic interests of workers and economic counterparties.

These management methods involve mechanisms based on moral and emotional incentives, on maintaining a positive microclimate in the work collective. Socio-psychological management methods affect a person through satisfaction and conviction, using various techniques: persuasion, suggestion, "infection with an idea", etc. Modern company management cannot do without socio-psychological management methods, which are always complemented as administrative-command and economic management methods. ^[3]

• Social methods

In the context of the production of a post-industrial society, creative approach to solving economic problems is of particular importance, the success of which is greatly facilitated by the creation of optimal working conditions, both for an individual employee and the entire creative group, team working on the project. The business, creative environment and healthy microclimate in the team are the most important factors that have a beneficial effect on production results.

The labor collective is a social group, for the effective existence of which it is necessary to observe a certain order aimed at maintaining an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual assistance.

The main goal of the work collective is to fulfill the production task, for the sake of which, in its own words, this collective was created. As the labor collective exists, certain goals and objectives arise and disappear, a significant part of which relates to the social and spiritual life of people working in this collective. These goals and objectives stem from the public interest and contribute to the formation of labor relations. If within the collective there is an imbalance of the collective will of the collective, the existing labor relations, then there are contradictions in views, elements of the struggle of opinions and the like appear, which leads to the collapse of the collective.

To preserve and maintain the team in working condition, it is necessary that all its members comply with the same requirements: internal work schedule, production discipline, the rules of law and morality that have developed in the team, local acts of the company, informal requirements and traditions that have developed in this team.

Special management methods are the means of managing social processes taking place in the labor collective, based on sociological research and scientific approaches. Studies cover various aspects of the life of the workforce, including job certification, employee qualifications, morbidity and industrial injuries, relationships with colleagues, the psychological state of employees, and much more.

В практике применяются разные методы сбора социальной информации, в зависимости от ситуации, но в целом дающие возможность обеспечить её полноту, достоверность, объективность и своевременность. К самым распространенным относятся интервью , анкетирование , анализ документов , создание структурных карт, наблюдение, социальный эксперимент .

• Психологические методы

Психологические методы — это совокупность механизмов воздействия на межличностные отношения, направленного на создание оптимального психологического микроклимата. Эмоциональный фон, сопровождающий процесс производства, крайне важен для достижения положительного результата при выполнении производственных задач. Положительная реакция сотрудника на выполняемое поручение, оказывает непосредственное положительное влияние на личный результат, и, в конечном счете, на коллективный результат всей компании. Поэтому, руководителю крайне важно направлять значительные усилия на создание условий, для комфортного психологического климата в коллективе. Пути реализации могут быть разнообразны и многогранны: от четкой постановки цели, формирования творческих, малых групп, до личностной мотивации сотрудника. Для реализации принципа гуманизации труда, то есть создания комфортных внешних условий труда: оформление рабочего места, мест отдыха, исключение монотонности в работе и т. д., необходимо также учитывать совместимость работников, объединенных в группы по разным признакам: симпатия, образование, эмоциональность и т. д.

Умелый руководитель умело применяет в своей деятельности систему мотивации сотрудников. Это и моральные мотивы (похвала, награждение грамотой и т. д.), и профессиональные (престижные курсы, продвижение по службе и т. д.), и материальные (премии, повышение оклада и т. д.). Самой эффективной мотивацией является внутренняя заинтересованность человека в выполнении определенной работы. Руководитель обязан разбираться в факторах, под воздействием которых складываются отношения работника к труду: традиции, профессиональная гордость, перспектива роста, привлекательность труда и т. п. Одни и те же условия труда оказывают различное влияние на работников, поэтому важно видоизменить их.

• Производственная педагогика

Овладение основами и применение на практике инструментов и методов производственной педагогики — обязанность каждого руководителя. Каждый руководитель должен:

• знакомить сотрудников с перспективами развития общества, для того, чтобы сотрудники могли четко понимать место и роль компании на рынке труда, а также перспективу её развития;
• знакомить сотрудников с миссией, с целями, задачами и результатами работы компании;
• привлекать сотрудников к формированию цели и задач деятельности компании, для того, чтобы они сознательно и систематически повышали предъявляемые к ним требования;
• при планировании, постановке задач, осуществлении контроля для деятельности сотрудника, учитывать его индивидуальные особенности;
• to orient employees on the choice of optimal ways to solve the production problem, to take into account their personal qualities when issuing an individual task and determining the method of incentive.