SELF MANAGEMENT AND TEACHING

CAREER MANAGEMENT

1. General management concepts

1.1. Management: conceptual elements
1.2. Challenges of human resource management
1.3. Modern theories in human resources management
1.4. Human resources management from A to Z
2. Organizational behaviour
2.1. Human action
2.2. Understanding the behaviour
2.3. Communication way of personal interaction

Objectives: after having studied these chapters, students will be able to:
1. Define the management notion
2. Analyze the theories and components of human resources management
3. Explain the motivations of the human action
4. Understand the complexity of understanding individual behaviour in organizational
context
5. Become familiar with the components of interpersonal communication
6. Identify psychological phenomena accompanying communication

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 1. GENERAL MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

OVERVIEW

This chapter aims to present the conceptual elements of management from an

organizational perspective and those regarding the human resources management in order to
generate a scientific knowledge to develop the managerial skills of the trainees.
Management is a complex notion, which is attributable to multiple interpretations.
From an etymological point of view, the word derives from the Latin manus (hand), and
later to derive in the Italian and French noun manege - a place for schooling horses. In
English, it is taken by the verb manage, which expresses guidance and training. For the
first time, the word management was interpreted in the current terms by Frederick Winslow
Taylor in The Principals of Scientific Management in 1911, in which for the first time have
been based the principles of scientific management.
Today, this concept has a different interpretation depending on the terms under which
it is viewed, and the subjective views of the author.
A general approach to management can be found if you consult the Oxford English
Explanatory Dictionary the way, the manner of reaction to people, the power and the art of
leadership, the skill and the administrative dexterity; governing body, administrative unit.
However, once the emergence of different views on the management process, the
emergence as a separate discipline of technical, financial, environmental, human resources,
strategic, industrial management etc., there are different interpretations, which sometimes
differ significantly from each other.
So, for example, Larry Smeltzer in the Management Communications a Strategic
Approach, given that 75% of his time, the manager spends it communicating, concludes that
the communication is the key to achieving the established targets. Another explanation can be
found at Joseph L. Bower, professor at Harvard Business School, in his book The Craft of
General Management. The management in its design is focused on solving the six general
issues: defining the internal cultural environment, setting the strategy, resource allocation,
staff development, building the organizational structure and supervising the operational
activity.
Management is a set of activities including forecasting (planning), organization,
training (motivation), coordination and control, all oriented towards the use of human

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resources, financial, material and informational of the organization in an effective and
efficient manner in order to achieve certain goals.

The functions of management

As a result of the definition of management, its essence is represented by its
functions. The knowledge and understanding of management functions is a major
prerequisite for deciphering the content of science and practice of management.
The management process is divided in five functions:
- Forecasting (planning)
- Organizational
- Training (motivation)
- Coordination
- Control

The forecasting function involves estimating the evolution of future processes and
phenomena, of the positive and negative effects that it may generate on the driving system,
different scenarios and strategies for action and the necessary resources and principal means
to achieve them.
The organizational function describes all the leading processes, which divide the
activity of the staff, detaching the tasks and delegating the responsibilities required to achieve
them.
The training function (motivation) incorporates all the processes which determine the
firm's staff to help achieve the expected objectives. Therefore, this function has a strong
operational character by the most effective involvement of the leading and execution
personnel to achieve their working tasks.
The coordination function consists of a set of processes by which the decisions and
actions of the personnel of an organization are synchronized within the forecast and the
organization set previously. Therefore, the purpose of this function is to direct the resources
to be available at the right time in the quantity and the quality set to attain the goal of the
objectives of the organization.
The control function (evaluation) can be defined as the set of processes by which
business performance is measured and compared with original targets in order to eliminate
deficiencies.

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 The management process is a set of interventions and actions through which the
manager provides, organizes, leads, coordinates and controls the activity of the staff of an
organization in order to achieve the objectives established in efficient and effective
conditions.
Therefore, the management functions are actually functions of the management
process. And the management process is a set of interrelated and dependable functions and
thus gaining new features of distinct entity.
Characteristic to the interconnected functions in the management process is the
emergent effect. Emergence occurs as a result of the fact that the total effect produced by the
operation of the whole ensemble is greater than the effects of the parties separately.
The characteristics of a management process are:
The dynamism of the management process is determined by the potential possible
change of the problems, of the different ways to resolve them, of the ways of interconnecting
of various functions.
The continuity of the management process is determined by achieving some goals of
the production activity.
The stability of the management process is determined by the cyclicality of the
managerial activity, using the same methodological tools.
The repeatability of the management process is due to the cyclical character of the
relation cause-effect.
Then, there are presented the main activities of the human resource management and
the best-known contributions of specialists, proposing a review of the human resource
management from A to Z.

A Align the objectives of the personnel to the objectives of the organization.

B The basis of success are belief and commitment.
C Communicate, train and create a work environment more and more favourable.
D Develop talent at all levels, not only for the chosen ones.
E It is necessary to understand an efficient management of the human resources.
F Facilitate knowledge sharing within the organization.
G Generate enthusiasm and devotion by the way you lead.
H Decide the dismantling of hierarchical structures.
I Inform, invest, innovate and, above all, inspire.
Try to know your staff and yourself.

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 J Justify your actions and decisions.
L Let your actions win the confidence of the staff.
M Measure, monitor, motivate.
N Never drive your employees, lead your people.
O Orient, teach and balance the skills of the staff.
P The staff eager to learn must be supported.
Q The quarks of the culture of the organization collaboration and trust.
R Recruit and retain your staff.
S Stimulate your staff to achieve the goals of the organization and to assume
responsibility.
Honest communication helps to the development of trust too.
T You have to respect the psychological contract.
Aimed at the continuous upgrading of skills.
U Use trust as the main guide to an efficient management of human resources.
V Values and vision influence the personnel behaviour.
X X is a theory whose presumptions should be cancelled.
Z The staffs zeal and enthusiasm must be supported by providing opportunities to
fulfil its tasks successfully.

2. ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

OVERVIEW

To highlight the self management aspects of organizational behaviour we have found

a useful overview of the motivations and characteristics of some elements of human action
completed by some elements on understanding the behaviour and communication as a form
of personal interaction.
The personal traits of each acting man represent the fundamental element from which
we must start in a praxeological approach of the human behaviour. From the perspective of
Ludwig von Mises, man acts starting from the category of means and ends that automatically
imply cause and effect.
Understanding the behaviour must be based on a system of individual, professional or
occupational values, of group or team.

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 The components of interpersonal communication and psychological phenomena
accompanying communication, determine transformations of the social behaviour:
accommodation, assimilation, alienation and stratification transformations.
The content of human action, the aims pursued and the means employed to achieve
these goals is determined by the personal characteristics of each man acting. Each individual
is the product of a long evolutionary zoology progenies, which outlined his physiological
inheritance. He is born as a survivor and as heir of his predecessors, and his biological
heritage is the precipitate and sediment of all the circumstances to which his ancestors had
been subjected.
The human action is the behaviour directed towards a goal. The ultimate goal of the
human action is always satisfying the human desire to act. There is no other criterion for
registration of the increase or decrease of satisfaction than the value judgments of the
individuals, which differ from one person to another and from one moment to another for the
same people.
The behaviour that people have at work is difficult to understand, there are two
approaches:
- Rational-individualist approach based on the interpretation of mental status that
determines the behaviour;
- Addressing the social conventions starts from the analysis of how the pressures,
constraints act unconsciously on the behaviour of the individuals.
The way people behave shapes how we think about them, but how we think about
them affects how we perceive their behaviour.
The interpersonal relationship is a process mediated by communication. The
communication is the main manifestation of psychosocial interaction, because all the
interpersonal effects (perceptive, sympathetic or functional) are handled through
communication. The essential element of the message is attracting the attention of the listener
on a certain thing - namely, the reference object and on its characteristics.
The main formal propriety of the message is the symbolic character. From the
psychological point of view, messages are distinguished primarily by the criterion of
information / uncertainty. To reduce uncertainty means to reduce the number of possibilities
contained in the message (the number of possible reference objects and the number of
possible features).
Not all interpersonal interaction is based on sending an encoded message that is
transmitted to the receiver (intentional communication); thus, there is also unintentional

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communication. There are cases in which receiving the message is made only by perceiving
the other (in which case we have non-verbal and non-intentional communication). This kind
of communication does not necessarily imply the occurrence of a behavioural response, or
intentional use of symbols.
The accuracy with which are received the messages communicated indirectly
(unintentional) is due to a process of social learning. Within the group certain cognitive rules
are formed, under the influence of which individuals learn that some events are indicative of
certain states of affairs. A common semantic is born, which consists of all the similar
meanings that the transmitter and the receiver assign to different symbols (words, gestures,
etc.). The common code allows the massage to be transmitted / received with some certainty
that it is sent / received with precision.
The transfer of meaning between two individuals depends on the degree of similarity
of their cognitive structures. The higher the similarity, the quicker, more complete and
accurate will be the transfer of meaning.
How the individual relates to a particular social group determines an evolution,
stagnation or on the contrary its mismatch between to a social and professional context,
indicating the directions in which self-management should focus first.

REZUMATUL CURSULUI

The first chapter aims to familiarize students with the conceptual elements of the term
management starting from the functions of management and identifying the characteristics of
the management process.
The challenges of the management of human resources relate to the selection and
recruitment, training and improvement, evaluation and promotion of personnel.
The modern theories of the management of human resources are presented just to
highlight the complexity of the management of expectations of employees as part of an
organization's success.
To summarize the above issues, a set of recommendations available for any manager
is made, including for the self-management allowing educational counsellors an optimization
of their professional and personal activity.
Personal traits of each acting man are the fundamental element from which you must
start in the praxeological approach of the human behaviour. From the perspective of Ludwig

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von Mises, the man acts starting from the category of means and ends, which implies
automatically the category of cause and effect.
Understanding the behaviour should be based on a system of individual professional
or occupational values, of group or team.
The components of interpersonal communication and the psychological phenomena
accompanying the communication determine transformation of the social behaviour, of the
type of accommodation, assimilation, alienation and stratification.

KEY CONCEPTS

1. Management definitions
2. Management functions
3. Human resources management components
4. Managerial theories
5. Personal motivation and work behaviour
6. Rational-individualist approach
7. Addressing social conventions
8. Individual, professional, group values
9. Psychic phenomena accompanying communication

RECOMMENDED BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. D. Borun, Psihologia comunicrii, coala Naional de Studii Politice i Administrative,

studii postuniversitare, 2003
2. W.L.French-Houghton Human Resources Management. Miffin Company, 1994, pag. 22-
64.
3. K. Horney, Conflictele noastre interioare, Editura IRI, Bucureti, 1998
4. A. Huczynski , Buchanan D., Organisational Behaviour, London, Prentice-Hall, 1991
5. S. Kermally Maetrii managementului resurselor umane, Meteor Business, 2009
6. A. Koontz Management . McGraw-Hill. 1990 pag. 5-62, pag. 513-609
7. J.Longenecher Small Business Management . South-Western Colleg Publishing, 1997,
pag. 396-415.
8. Ludwig von Mises - Aciunea uman. Un tratat de teorie economic.

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9. O.Nicolescu Management. Ed. Economic. Bucureti. 1997 pag. 37-54, pag. 449-503
10. M.Zaharia Management teorie i aplicaii. Ed. Tehnic. 1993 pag. 7-44, pag. 87-103
11. W.L.French-Houghton Human Resources Management. Miffin Company, 1994, pag. 22-
64.
12. *** Managementul resurselor umane. Comportamentul organizaional (vol.1) The
Open University, CODECS, 2005

OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES

http://www.scritube.com/sociologie/psihologie/comunicare/Comunicarea-dincolo-de-
cuvinte94826.php
www.abacon.com/commstudies/interpersonal/interpersonal.html
www.pstcc.edu/facstaff/dking/interpr.htm
www.queendom.com/communic.html
managementhelp.org/commskls/listen/listen.htm
http://www.selfmgmt.com
http://ezinearticles.com
http://books.google.ro/books/Principles of Self Management
http://www.briantracy.com