Do you think Business Management as an Art?

Management as an Art!

An art requires application of personal skills and knowledge to achieve the desired results. It involves continuous practice and creativity. It can be attained with the help of study, observation and experience.

Following are the main features of art:

1. Existence of Theoretical Knowledge:

Art involves the existence of theoretical knowledge. For example, literature in music, singing, acting, dancing etc. is widely recognised. Moreover, experts have derived certain principles of say public speaking in the form of abundant literature that is well recognized all over.

2. Personalised Application:

Every individual makes use of the basic knowledge in his own personal way. It varies from person to person. For example two singers, two dancers, two writers will always be different in showing their art.

Likewise, two different speakers even after reading the same literature on public speaking will always differ in their demonstration. After reading the same tips of Arindam Choudhary, a famous public speaker and motivator, two different persons definitely will give different results in their demonstration. Thus, use of knowledge is based on personalized concept.

3. Based on Practice and Creativity:

Art involves creative practice of theoretical knowledge gained in order to be an expert in his/her field. For example, music is based on seven basic notes and the musician uses them in a creative manner for making his composition unique. A. R. Rehman, a famous musician is an example of practice and creativity of art. (He is the first Indian to win the Oscar Award recently for his composition “Jai Ho”)

Let us see whether Management fulfills the criterion of Art:

(i) Theoretical knowledge in Management:

The various areas of management like marketing, sales, finance, human resource etc. involve a lot of literature. Thus, there is an existence of theoretical knowledge.

(ii) Personalized Application in Management:

A manager skillfully applies the acquired knowledge according to the situation in his own unique way. There is no “best management”, hence Management is considered as situational.

(iii) Practice and Creativity in Management:

A good manager works through a combination of continuous practice, creativity and innovation. Over a period of time, he gains a lot of experience and formulates his own theories for use in a given situation. This gives rise to different styles of management.

Thus, above features like existence of theoretical knowledge, personalized application and practice and creativity strengthen the view that management is an art.