Introduction

This unit will deal with the following issues:

In 21st century the economy has become global and is driven by innovations and technology and organizations have to transform themselves to serve new customer expectations.

Today's economy presents challenging opportunities as well as dramatic uncertainty.

The new economy has become knowledge based and is performance driven.

Being a manager can mean having to lead a busy and hectic work life.

Managers are involved with various types of activities.

These activities may include having to attend meetings, doing paperwork, corresponding with clients or suppliers and supervising workers, amongst other things.

To be able to be able to carry out all his work responsibilities, a manager has to know how to utilize his resources well.

In the light of the mentioned points a new kind of leader is needed to guide business through turbulence.

Managers in organizations do this task.

Introduction

This chapter sheds light on the term management, the different levels of management, the significance of being effective and efficient in managing an organization and the four management functions.

It also describes the three categories of management roles and each of their sub roles, describes the three management skills and how different management levels put different emphasis on each skill, define organization by its characteristics, describes the principles of Islamic management and compare and contrast Islamic and conventional management.