Raj Bhargava 601, PT2, Shalimar Township,

B.E.(CIVIL), A.M.I.E, A.I.V AB Road, Near Patel Moters,

Chartered Engineer NO. AM/087382/1 Indore 452010 (M.P.)

Approved Valuer A-9969 Phone 0731-4258902, Mobile 70241-58902

Student: MBA Executive Program at Symbosis, Indore

Essay
“Management is Science or an Art”

Being An Engineer its obvious for me to find Science in every aspect of

work and life, it will be a pretty difficult task to defend Management is
a Science and not an Art.
Lets see what does legends define and say about
Management :-
 According to Henri Fayol author and director of mines and developed
general theory of business administration that is often called Fayolism.
He and his colleagues developed this theory independently of scientific
management. Defines management "to manage is to forecast and
to plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate and to
control."

 Fredmund Malikis an Austrian economist with focus on management

science and the founder of a management consultancy (Malik
Management) in St. Gallen defines "the transformation of
resources into utility."

 Ghislain Deslandes is a French philosopher defines “a vulnerable

force, under pressure to achieve results and endowed with the
triple power of constraint, imitation and imagination,
operating on subjective, interpersonal, institutional and
environmental levels”.

 Peter Drucker (1909–2005) was an Austrian-born American

management consultant saw the basic task of management as
twofold: marketing and innovation. Nevertheless, innovation is
also linked to marketing (product innovation is a central strategic
marketing issue). identifies marketing as a key essence for business

Essay on “Management is Science or an Art”

Page 1 of 7
 Raj Bhargava 601, PT2, Shalimar Township,

B.E.(CIVIL), A.M.I.E, A.I.V AB Road, Near Patel Moters,

Chartered Engineer NO. AM/087382/1 Indore 452010 (M.P.)

Approved Valuer A-9969 Phone 0731-4258902, Mobile 70241-58902

Student: MBA Executive Program at Symbosis, Indore

success, but management and marketing are generally understood as

two different branches of business administration knowledge.

 In another way of thinking, Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933) was an

American social worker, management consultant, philosopher and
pioneer in the fields of organizational theory and organizational
behaviour, allegedly defined management as "the art of getting
things done through people".

In simple terms, management is a body of knowledge that enables

entities to deal with a multitude of situations involving people, process
and the environment, to ensure work is done efficiently to deliver
goods and services useful to the society. Good management must
result in greater satisfaction for all stake holders. If we carefully
study the Gita, we infer that the central issue is all about
doing work (karma yoga), in the most efficient manner. Gita
offers a framework for stimulating high levels of motivation.

Now kindly note what legends say about Art

Rene Magritte “Art evokes the mystery without which the

world would not exist”.

Frank Lloyd Wright “Art is a discovery and development of

elementary principles of nature into beautiful forms
suitable for human use”.

Thomas Merton “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose

ourselves at the same time”.

Essay on “Management is Science or an Art”

Page 2 of 7
Raj Bhargava 601, PT2, Shalimar Township,

B.E.(CIVIL), A.M.I.E, A.I.V AB Road, Near Patel Moters,

Chartered Engineer NO. AM/087382/1 Indore 452010 (M.P.)

Approved Valuer A-9969 Phone 0731-4258902, Mobile 70241-58902

Student: MBA Executive Program at Symbosis, Indore

Edgar Degas “Art is not what you see, but what you make
others see”.

Leo Tolstoy “Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one

man consciously, by means of certain external signs,
hands-on to others feelings he has lived through, and
that others are infected by these feelings and also
experience them”.

Now I would like to discuss what is an Art and what is

Science.

Art is ability, skill, creativity and imagination and we can define art as
“Ability or skill associated to do a particular task”.

Example of Art are : Drawing, painting, photography, craft, leadership,

making friends, making tasty food, acting, etc

Science is the logic, reason and factual analysis and we can define
Science as “Science is the logic and reasoning of ‘WHY’ Behind
every task, something which can be proved on the basis of
experiments”

Example’s of Science are : How aeroplanes, trains, cars move. How

buildings are designed,. How telephone work. How digital meters
measure blood sugar.

I think Art and Science can not be separated completely from each
other.
We can relate art and science
Art of cooking tasty food – HOW to cook food to make it tasty.
Art of designing jeweller – How to make ornaments using metal and
stone.
Art of sketching a beautiful building – How to convert brick, mortar,
steel to build a Building.

Essay on “Management is Science or an Art”

Page 3 of 7
Raj Bhargava 601, PT2, Shalimar Township,

B.E.(CIVIL), A.M.I.E, A.I.V AB Road, Near Patel Moters,

Chartered Engineer NO. AM/087382/1 Indore 452010 (M.P.)

Approved Valuer A-9969 Phone 0731-4258902, Mobile 70241-58902

Student: MBA Executive Program at Symbosis, Indore

Now I would like to through light on functions of modern

management which focus efforts on gaining results. The five
functions of management are :-

1. Planning: is a process of choosing appropriate goals and actions

to pursue and then determining what strategies to use, what
actions to take, and deciding what resources are needed to
achieve the goals.
2. Organizing: is a process of establishing worker relationships
amongst workers to work together to achieve the organizational
goals.
3. Leading: This function involves establishing a vision, energizing
employees, inspiring and motivating people using vision,
influence, persuasion, and effective communication skills.
4. Staffing: Recruiting and selecting employees for positions within
the organization, grouping them in teams and departments.
5. Controlling: Evaluate how well you are achieving your goals,
improving performance, taking actions. Put processes in place to
help you establish standards, so you can measure, compare, and
make decisions.
Chanakya also identified as Kautilya or Vishnugupta, is a famous Indian
scholar known for writing Arthashastra – the epic, the Bible for
Corporate strategy and Management in ancient India. Defines the
principals of management in ancient times.

1. The means of starting undertakings(assignments/project)

2. Excellence of men & materials

3. Suitable place & time

4. Provision against failures

Essay on “Management is Science or an Art”
Page 4 of 7
Raj Bhargava 601, PT2, Shalimar Township,

B.E.(CIVIL), A.M.I.E, A.I.V AB Road, Near Patel Moters,

Chartered Engineer NO. AM/087382/1 Indore 452010 (M.P.)

Approved Valuer A-9969 Phone 0731-4258902, Mobile 70241-58902

Student: MBA Executive Program at Symbosis, Indore

5. Accomplishment of work, Desire to learn, Power of retention,

Thorough understanding, Intentness on truth, Ability to lead an
army, Sweetness of speech.

Now after understanding definition of Management, Art , Science and

functions of management following inference can be summarised as
Management is the action of getting things done through people. It
means optimizing the use of human and material resources for the
attainment of desired objectives. In its effort to fulfil its functions of
planning, organizing, leading and controlling, the field of management
has borrowed extensively from different disciplines namely psychology,
sociology, mathematics and decision sciences.

Management as an art
Art refers to the way of doing specific things. It is the skill in conducting
any human activity. Art indicate how an object can be achieved
through the application of skill. Art is therefore, a skilful application of
knowledge which entirely depends on the inherent capacity of a person
and is learned from practice and experience. Art is concerned with the
understanding of how a particular work can be accomplished. In this
sense, management is certainly an art as manager uses his skill,
knowledge and experience in solving various problems that arise in the
working of his enterprise successful.

Management is considered as an art rather than science mainly

because managerial (managerial responsibilities decisions skills)
is profession, predicting things and intuition. Therefore, management is
an art, simply because managing requires certain skills which are a
personal possession of the managers. In addition, management is an
art of getting things done through others in dynamic and mostly non-
repetitive situations. The resources of men, machine and money have
to be coordinated against several constraints to achieve given
objectives in the most efficient manner. This requires skill.

Essay on “Management is Science or an Art”

Page 5 of 7
Raj Bhargava 601, PT2, Shalimar Township,

B.E.(CIVIL), A.M.I.E, A.I.V AB Road, Near Patel Moters,

Chartered Engineer NO. AM/087382/1 Indore 452010 (M.P.)

Approved Valuer A-9969 Phone 0731-4258902, Mobile 70241-58902

Student: MBA Executive Program at Symbosis, Indore

Management as a science
Science can be described as a systematically body of knowledge based
on proper findings and exact principles and is capable of verification. It
is a reservoir of fundamental truths and its findings apply in all the
situations. Science is knowledge as of facts and principles; knowledge
gained by systematic study or observation and experimentation. The
methods used in scientific inquiries are systematic and empirical.
Moreover, information can be ordered and analysed and the result or
findings of scientific studies are cumulative. Based on this,
management is a science because it has developed some systematized
knowledge.

Like other sciences management has also developed certain principles,

laws and generalization which are universal in nature and applicable
wherever the efforts of the people are to be coordinated. Managers
often use a specific body of knowledge consisting of principles,
generalization, approaches and concepts to apply in certain situations.
These principles of management have been developed and formulated
on the basis of observation, research, analysis and experimentation
and also based on the relationship of cause and effect like other
sciences. Furthermore, management deals with people and it is very
difficult to predict their behaviour accurately.

Management empirical studies the man and the factors affecting him
to understand human behaviour in the work place. It is therefore a
behavioural science. Managers when faced with managerial problems
usually expect that there is a rational an objective way to determine
the correct course of action. Lastly, early management researchers
subscribed to the vision of managers as scientists.

The scientific management practice emphasis on reducing the

inefficiencies and understanding the psychology of workers, changed
managers and employee attitudes . This is evident with the
development of early scientific theories of management such as the
classical and scientific management theory by Fredrick Taylor, neo –
classical approach, Weber’s Theory of Bureaucracy, behavioural
Essay on “Management is Science or an Art”
Page 6 of 7
Raj Bhargava 601, PT2, Shalimar Township,

B.E.(CIVIL), A.M.I.E, A.I.V AB Road, Near Patel Moters,

Chartered Engineer NO. AM/087382/1 Indore 452010 (M.P.)

Approved Valuer A-9969 Phone 0731-4258902, Mobile 70241-58902

Student: MBA Executive Program at Symbosis, Indore

approach and others which emphasized the scientific approach to

management.

Conclusion
As an engineer after looking to the aspects of Art of Skill to manage
people, situations, material etc. In conclusion I also accept the fact
“Management is an Art as well as a Science”. It involves both the
elements of art and science. It is considered an art because managing
requires application of certain skills and a science because it has an
organized body of knowledge which contains certain universal truths.
The science provides the knowledge and the art deals with the
application of knowledge and skills. According to the American society
of mechanical Engineers, management is the art and science of
preparing, organizing and directing human efforts to control the forces
and utilize the material of nature for the benefit of men. Thus, it has
now been accepted that management is both an art and a science.

Essay on “Management is Science or an Art”

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