What is Management? An Introduction

Nietsche proposed the view that we have a single, underlying drive that explains all behaviour. That drive is the will to power.

Darwin, earlier in the nineteenth century, took the view that the underlying drive is the drive to survive and reproduce; Nietsche took this view and extended it to say that the will to survive and reproduce does not sufficiently characterise how we conduct ourselves in the world - we also desire to lead long and flourishing lives. And, to achieve that aim in a competitive and harsh environment, we need power.

By will, Nietzsche meant that we, firstly, desire something, and, secondly, that this desire is the drive which motivates all our strategies and actions - with the aim of securing what we desire.

By power, Nietzsche meant securing control of our environment, resources and other people, such that we can maximise our chances of securing a flourishing and long life.

While most people would say that Nietzsche went a bit far in characterising all human behaviour as being motivated by the will to power, his view has a lot of force in the arena of business and management. Businesses, understood as seperate entities, by and large are motivated by the desire to gain power over resources and people in order to flourish and thrive; and the art of management by and large is about seeking to ensure that businesses flourish maximally, along with, of course, seeking to ensure that the manager flourishes maximally as well if at all possible. It would not be going too far to say that the extent to which businesses and managers have a will to power largely determines the extent of their success.

Translating the will to power into a practical definition of management results in a two-fold definition:

1. Management is getting people to do what they would not otherwise do; and
   
   
2. Management is getting people to do what maximises the flourishing of the business and/or those parties who exercise power in it or over it.

We will make a few observations about these two connected definitions.

Management is about people - resources, finances and processes are all controlled and administered by people, so by managing the people you manage all aspects of the business. Managers require technical capability in understanding and administering resources, finance and so on, but at its core, management is about managing people rather than resources.

Management is about the exercise of power: getting people to do what they would not otherwise do is, at heart, what the exercise of power is all about. Getting people to do what they would have done anyway is not exercising power, and a manager who does no more than this is failing in his or her basic function as a manager. Getting people to do what they would not otherwise do includes getting people to:

• think things they would not have otherwise thought;
• do things they have not done before;
• do things faster than before;
• do things to a higher, more consistent standard; and
• do things more co-operatively with others

The people who need to be "managed" are not just employees: the task of a manager is to get suppliers, customers, bank managers and any other associated people to do what they would not otherwise do just as much as it is to get employees to do what they would not otherwise do.

Definition 1: getting people to do what they would not otherwise do

This could involve one or more of a multiplicity of methods. Here are some of the methods available to managers, although not all methods are open to all managers in all countries to the same extent - different methods are applicable in, and suit, different circumstances:

• Coercion, intimidation and threat of coercion - this ranges from physical force through to threats to seek a legal remedy created through contract law. The latter is frequently open to managers, the former two are generally precluded, at least in the most obvious forms. (Although, having said this, organised crime gangs are often run as businesses, and coercion and intimidation are used as standard management techniques, as they were in businesses based on slavery or indeed in Germany and Japan in the second world war for forced labour.)
  
  
• Repetition - people get used to things if they are exposed to them regularly. Creating habitual behaviour and rituals around that behaviour is one way of ensuring that people do things they would otherwise not do.
  
  
• Lying, misrepresentation and omission - telling people things that are not true, or at least saying things that lead people into thinking things that are not true while not actually crossing the line into lying - is a highly effective way of getting people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do (think of advertising, food labelling, cosmetic marketing, and so on, which misrepresent and omit information to persuade while, generally, staying just the right side of the law).
  
  
• Meeting, or promising to meet, the needs or desires of the people being managed. Financial rewards, promotion, new contracts; there are a wide range of tactics available to ensure compliance of those being managed. Also, deeper needs are important to bear in mind, such as the need for self-realisation in performing a job, the need for positive interaction with others, the need to feel worthwhile and appreciated.
  
  
• Telling the truth. That is, altering people's perceptions of how things are by shifting their perspective or the information available to them in order to get them to do something.
  
  
• Allied to the above, reasoning. I.e. demonstrating that the views currently held are not supported by the reasons given for those views, and therefore pointing out that those views should change in a way that makes it obvious to someone that they need to do whatever the management wishes to get them to do.

There is an ethical aspect to the methods outlined above: some managers will choose to use some of the methods and not others on ethical grounds. Even if some of the methods above are deemed to ethical, they could be used in the achievement of an unethical objective. If the objective is unethical, then, I suggest, an ethical method automatically becomes unethical.

The ethical dimension to business and management - and consideration of how and whether ethical conduct contributes to the achievement of business objectives - is covered in another white paper.

Definition 2: getting people to do what maximises the achievement of the objectives of the management

The objectives of the management are often multiple. The primary objective of management is to retain the power and financial resources currently accruing to the management position, and if possible extend that power and command over resources. In other words, management needs the means to exercise power, and the more power it has the greater its ability to get people to do what they would not otherwise do in pursuit of its objectives.

Secondary objectives include the flourishing and success of the business in the short- or long-term (and these two timescales can often be in conflict), those things which will contribute to the largest bonuses for the management, those things that will further the career prospects of the management, those things that will further the interests of shareholders or other stakeholders. Or it could be a mix of a number of these plus others.

Often, the most successful managers are theose able to integrate a range of objectives (long- and short-term, and satisfying a range of stakeholders) into a coherent set of easily-understood and communicated activities and messages which together enable the business and/or the most powerful stakeholders to flourish.

In summary, Nietzsche's concept of will to power provides a valuable tool for analysing the objectives and methods of management, and provides a good method of measuring the success or otherwise of managers.

For further reading: as well as Nietsche for the more theoretical exploration of the will to power, Machievelli provides a very pertinent and down-to-earth approach to the gaining, retention and exercise of power in The Prince. Although Machievelli is writing for a different age and audience than modern managers, a lot of his advice still applies; and most of the rest can be interpreted quite easily into modern business scenarios. But perhaps the biggest lesson from The Prince is not the practical advice, but the stance it recommends for those with power and oversight over people - the need to adopt clarity of thinking, and the need to tie short-term practical actions ruthlessly to underlying strategic goals.

The Prince is a short and very easy to read book.

© Martin Ludlow 2009

How we can help you become a better manager

In order to be a better manager, defined as being more successful at using the above tools in the achievement of objectives, it is first necessary to understand what business is all about (in other words have a good mental map of the terrain covered by business) and secondly, arising from that understanding, have the ability to navigate through the terrain in an optimal fashion.

These white papers have been written to help managers gain this understanding, and our consultancy service can help you explore the issues raised in more depth and apply them to your business.

At Metamarketing we take a no-nonsense approach to exploring what business is all about, and then aim to help managers draw lessons about what, therefore, they should do in order to make good progress in business.

We do not, however, provide a you with a list of "how-to's". Our aim is to get managers to think for themselves. First, by opening up different perspectives on business; and second, by giving managers the confidence and tools to think constructively about their approach to business and the businesses they are currently involved in.

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