Principles of management: meaning and nature

The essentials

A principle of management is a broad and general guideline for decision-making and behaviour. Principles are different from techniques (procedures or methods) and from values (moral beliefs). They are formed through observation and experimentation by experienced managers and researchers, and they guide managers rather than giving exact answers.

Key points

• Nature of principles: universal applicability (useful in all organisations), general guidelines (not ready-made solutions), formed by practice and experimentation, flexible (can be modified as needed), mainly behavioural (they aim to influence human behaviour), cause-and-effect relationships (they tell what is likely to happen if applied) and contingent (their use depends on the situation).
• Significance: they provide managers with useful insights into reality, ensure optimum use of resources, enable scientific decisions, help meet changing environmental requirements, help fulfil social responsibility, and are useful in management training, education and research.
• Principles are less rigid than the principles of pure science because they deal with people.

Exam tips

• A question may describe a manager modifying a principle to suit a new situation; this shows the principles are flexible or contingent.
• Learn at least four significance points with a short example of each.

Common mistakes

• Treating principles as fixed rules that must be followed exactly. They are guidelines whose use depends on circumstances.
• Confusing principles with techniques. Techniques are procedures for doing work; principles guide decisions about using them.