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Management

An introductory map of management practices, leadership, decisions, and organizational operations.

For: Learners at different starting points, including people studying organizations or preparing to coordinate work.

After this page you can: Choose a learning path and use management concepts to analyze a workplace decision or process.

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Part of: Business

About Management

Management studies how people coordinate organizational work through planning, organizing, leading, and controlling; managers’ tasks and skills vary with their level and function. The field spans strategic and human resource management as well as behavioral topics such as motivation.

A useful way to study management is to connect concepts to cases, identify the options and people affected by a decision, and consider what results would prompt a plan to change. Open resources offer routes through the basics, leadership, decision-making, and operations; you can begin with the broad map or follow a specific goal. Management also connects to project management, finance, and psychology.

Start here

route

I’m new to management

Start with the introductory framework, then choose a section based on the work or question that interests you.

Start with: Principles of Management: Preface

route

I’m returning to management

Use this course to revisit how business policy and strategy relate to organizational structure and operating policies.

Start with: Introduction to System Dynamics

route

I have a specific decision to analyze

Read the overview, then use its questions to examine your options, uncertainty, and who may be affected.

Start with: Overview of Managerial Decision-Making

Learn the foundations

1.Planning, organizing, and checking progressPlanning connects goals to possible actions, while monitoring results can inform the next planning cycle.

Planning connects goals to possible actions, while monitoring results can inform the next planning cycle.

Plan

A decision to carry out an action to achieve a specific goal.

Control

Monitoring activity against plans and taking corrective action when results deviate.

Try it

A team wants to reduce delays in responding to requests. Write one goal, one action, and one result the team could monitor.

Goal: reduce response delays. Action: assign a rotating person to review new requests. Result to monitor: whether requests are answered within the team’s chosen target window.

2.Leadership and working with peopleCompare leadership and management through a group situation: what needs doing, and how will people coordinate?

Compare leadership and management through a group situation: what needs doing, and how will people coordinate?

Leadership

A social influence relationship between people who depend on one another to attain mutual goals.

Manager

A person whose work can involve planning, organizing, directing, and controlling.

Try it

A group has a shared deadline but unclear responsibilities. Suggest one leadership action that supports the task and one that supports group coordination.

Task support: clarify the next deliverable and who owns it. Group coordination: invite members to agree on how they will share updates and raise obstacles.

3.Decisions, evidence, and ethicsManagerial decisions often involve several options and uncertain outcomes, so it helps to consider both the evidence available and the people affected.

Managerial decisions often involve several options and uncertain outcomes, so it helps to consider both the evidence available and the people affected.

Decision-making

Thinking through possible options and selecting one.

Stakeholder

An individual or group affected by an organization.

Try it

A team is choosing between two ways to handle a recurring service delay. List one stakeholder to consider and one question that would help compare the options.

A stakeholder could be the people waiting for the service. Ask which option is more likely to reduce their delay, and what information supports that judgment.

4.Operations and improvementOperations management examines how manufacturing and service work is designed, planned, controlled, and improved.

Operations management examines how manufacturing and service work is designed, planned, controlled, and improved.

Operations management

The design, planning, control, and improvement of manufacturing and service operations.

Continuous improvement

An ongoing effort to improve processes and the goods or services produced.

Try it

Choose a routine service process, such as answering requests. Name one step that could be observed and one small change whose effect could be reviewed.

Observe the time between receiving a request and assigning it. Try assigning requests at a set point during the day, then review whether the delay changed.

Explore subtopics

Leadership

Explore leadership as influence, learning, communication, teamwork, change, and ethical responsibility.

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Books

Glossary

Every free Management course and book on RedLectern

Free Management online courses

  1. Advanced Communication for LeadersMIT 15.281 · Browse materials
  2. Advanced Research Seminar in System Dynamics:MIT 15.879 · Browse materials · Video
  3. Advanced Stochastic ProcessesMIT 15.070J · Browse materials
  4. Advanced StrategyMIT 15.963 · Browse materials
  5. Analytics of FinanceMIT 15.450 · Browse materials
  6. Applied Economics for ManagersMIT 15.024 · Browse materials
  7. Applied Macro- and International EconomicsMIT 15.012 · Browse materials
  8. Applied Macro- and International Economics IIMIT 15.014 · Browse materials
Show all 40 listed coursesShow fewer courses
  1. Blockchain and MoneyMIT 15.S12 · Browse materials · Video
  2. Building and Leading Effective TeamsMIT 15.316 · Browse materials
  3. Business Analysis Using Financial StatementsMIT 15.535 · Browse materials
  4. Communicating With DataMIT 15.063 · Browse materials
  5. Communication for ManagersMIT 15.280 · Browse materials
  6. Communication Skills for AcademicsMIT 15.289 · Browse materials
  7. Competition in TelecommunicationsMIT 15.020 · Browse materials
  8. Consumer Finance: Markets, Product Design, and FinTechMIT 15.483 · Browse materials
  9. Cross-Cultural LeadershipMIT 15.996 · Browse materials
  10. D-Lab: Supply ChainsMIT 15.772J · Browse materials
  11. Data MiningMIT 15.062 · Browse materials
  12. Data, Models, and DecisionsMIT 15.060 · Browse materials
  13. Digital AnthropologyMIT MAS.966 · Browse materials
  14. Doctoral Seminar in Research Methods IMIT 15.347 · Browse materials
  15. Doctoral Seminar in Research Methods IIMIT 15.348 · Browse materials
  16. Downtown Management OrganizationsMIT 11.422 · Browse materials
  17. Dynamic Leadership: Using Improvisation in BusinessMIT 15.969 · Browse materials
  18. Early Stage CapitalMIT 15.391 · Browse materials
  19. Economy and Business in Modern China and IndiaMIT 15.225 · Browse materials
  20. Energy Decisions, Markets, and PoliciesMIT 15.031J · Browse materials · Video
  21. Entrepreneurial MarketingMIT 15.835 · Browse materials
  22. Entrepreneurial SalesMIT 15.387 · Browse materials
  23. Entrepreneurship Without BordersMIT 15.395 · Browse materials
  24. Ethical Practice: Leading Through Professionalism, Social Responsibility, and System DesignMIT 15.270 · Browse materials
  25. Executing Strategy for ResultsMIT 15.361 · Browse materials
  26. Finance Theory IMIT 15.401 · Browse materials · Video
  27. Finance Theory IIMIT 15.402 · Browse materials
  28. Financial AccountingMIT 15.515 · Browse materials
  29. Financial and Managerial AccountingMIT 15.514 · Browse materials
  30. FinTech: Shaping the Financial WorldMIT 15.S08 · Browse materials · Video
  31. Fundamentals of ProbabilityMIT 6.436J · Browse materials
  32. Game Theory for ManagersMIT 15.040 · Browse materials

40 of 210 shown. Search the Catalog for Management →

How these courses are chosen

Listed as Management courses:

  • those whose department’s name includes “Sloan School of Management”, or
  • those whose title contains “Management”, or
  • those tagged “Management” as one of at most 2 topic tags, or as the first of 3.

Free Management textbooks and books

Show all 60 listed booksShow fewer books

Search all 333 Management books on the Books page →

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