Chapter 1. The Birth of Great Organizations: General Management and Strategic Thinking

Welcome to the world of Business Administration. What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘Management’? A CEO in a sky-high building? A heated meeting room? Or complex spreadsheets?

In my view, management is the “art of the organization that turns dreams into reality.” No matter how brilliant an idea is, without the ‘management’ that gathers people, allocates resources, and moves toward a goal, it is merely a fantasy. Today, we will draw the grand map from the foundations of management to the sophisticated strategic thoughts that dominate modern business.

1. The Essence of Management: Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

Management is not an activity limited to one field. Nations, hospitals, NGOs, small clubs, and above all, ‘myself’—all require management.

The key indicator of managerial success is not simple control, but Performance.

Comparison of Two Major Management Performance Indicators
Category	Effectiveness	Efficiency
Definition	Doing the right things (Goal attainment)	Doing things right (Resource allocation)
Perspective	Direction (Doing the right things)	Productivity (Doing things right)
Key Question	Are we going to the right place?	Are we using minimum costs?
Failure Consequence	Waste without results (Going nowhere)	Failure to reach goal (Under-performance)

2. Managerial Roles (Henry Mintzberg)

A manager’s daily life is highly fragmented. Mintzberg summarized this into 3 categories and 10 roles.

10 Roles of a Manager
Category	Specific Role	Key Activities
Interpersonal	Figurehead, Leader, Liaison	Ceremonies, Motivation, Managing external networks
Informational	Monitor, Disseminator, Spokesperson	Information gathering, Passing to subordinates, PR
Decisional	Entrepreneur, Disturbance Handler, Resource Allocator, Negotiator	Identifying opportunities, Crisis response, Budgeting, Alliances/Contracts

3. Chronicle of Management Theory Evolution

Paradigm Shifts in Management Theory
Era	Theory	Core Perspective	Critique/Limitation
Late 19C~	Scientific Management (Taylor)	Economic Man, Scientific time/motion study	Mechanization of humans, ignoring social needs
1920s~	Human Relations (Mayo)	Social Man, Informal groups, Psychological satisfaction	Neglect of organizational structure/environment
1960s~	Contingency Approach	Situational fit (Contingency)	Hard to generalize due to too many variables
Modern	RBV / ESG	Core competencies, Sustainability, Stakeholder value	Concerns over increased costs and lower efficiency

4. Knowledge Management and Performance Management (SECI & BSC)

The killer move of modern management lies in systems that connect intangible assets to ‘performance.’

(1) Nonaka’s SECI Model

Stage	Transformation	Key Activities
Socialization	Tacit → Tacit	Shared experiences, Apprenticeships
Externalization	Tacit → Explicit	Writing manuals, Conceptual definitions
Combination	Explicit → Explicit	Processing data, Systematizing knowledge
Internalization	Explicit → Tacit	Learning by doing

(2) Balanced Scorecard (BSC)

4 Balanced Perspectives of BSC
Perspective	Key Question	Measures
Financial	How should we appear to shareholders?	ROA, Operating Margin
Customer	How should we appear to customers?	Market Share, CSAT
Internal Process	In which processes must we excel?	Innovation cycle, Efficiency
Learning & Growth	Can we continue to improve and create value?	Employee skills, IT systems

Professor’s Tip: “Management is a practice, not a theory.” As Peter Drucker said, try applying these logics to your daily life.

📖 참고문헌

[The Effective Executive] - Peter Drucker: Common habits of highly effective people.
[Good to Great] - Jim Collins: The secrets of sustainable growth.
[The History of Management Thought] - Claude George: The dramatic shifts in management philosophy through the ages.

Next time, we will explore Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage—the strategist’s toolkit.

The Birth of Great Organizations: General Management and Strategic Thinking