Management is everywhere - office, hospital, school, curity, Finance, trust etc., Management is basically Planning, Organizing, Coordinating, Directing, Assessing, Correcting, Motivating and Achieving a set goal. It is objective-oriented. We always have a doubt whether it is an art or science. It is the oldest of arts and youngest of science, because it is of dynamic nature.

Different Managements need different approaches; for example Business Management and Personnel Management are based on Common principles but vary a lot in the approach. Economists say Management is a Factor of Production; Socialist views it as a Group of People; others say that is a process; Mary Parker says “ Management in its true sense, a process by which an organization realizes its objectives in a planned manner”; Management is all about great ideas, people and achievements; though there are many definitions of Management no single definition is universally accepted, as it changes from situation to situation, industry to industry; it has got different dimensions and hence cannot be defined precisely as a Scientific Theory or Law; James A. F. says “ Management is the process of Planning, Organizing Leading and Controlling efforts of organization members and of using all other organizational resources to achieve pre-determined Organizational goals”.

Dr. James Lundy’s views : “Management is a task of Planning, Coordinating, Motivating and Controlling the efforts of others towards specific objectives”. According to Henry Fayol, “Management is to forecast, plan, organize, command, coordinate and control". Peter F Drucker defines Management as “An Economic Organ of industrial society”; E.F.L. Breach says “Management is concerned with seeing that the job gets done, its tasks are centered on planning and guiding the operations that are going on in the enterprise”; According to George R Terry “Management is a distinct process consisting of planning, organizing, actuating and controlling performance to accomplish the objectives by the use of people and resources”.

Management is taking inputs, transforming them into output-either a good or service; the effectiveness of this transforming the input into output depends on the Management - especially when the resources are scarce; It is a group activity; motivating others and getting the things done within the stipulated time, without compromising on the quality of the result; it gives shape and color to the great ideas of the manager; Management involves dealing with people who have different understanding, sensitivity, knowledge, capability, responsibility, maturity.

Science is a collection of systematic knowledge, collection of truths and Inferences after continuous study and experiments. The Relationship between Variables and Limits are defined and the Fundamental Principles discovered.

Science has got three specific characters :
1. It is a systematic and organized knowledge and based on scientific methods of observation.
2. Inferences are arrived after continuous observation and experiemtns;
3. It has logical principles which are well defined and are Universally applicable without any limitations.

Management Principles have also evolved and it is changing day by day according to the change in the human behaviour; In science keeping one factor as Variable and all others as constants the same experiment is repeated many times in order to arrive at a conclusion; but Management involves human element and hence all the factors are wildly varying.

Art uses the known rules and principles and uses the skill, expertise, Wisdom, experience to achieve the desired result. The point is how to get the things done in the desired manner to get the desired result. New methods can be adopted from the past experiences and incidents what to do and what not to do; Effective Management is extracting voluntary cooperation from the staff. So it is definitely an art and it can be acquired only by practicing the theoretical knowledge skillfully and prudently.

Management has got two faces like a coin; on one side it is art and on the other it is science. Management has got scientific principles which constitute the elements of Science and Skill and Talent which are the attributes of Art.

Management skills are acquired by constant practice as in the case of medicine, engineering and accountancy; Mere knowledge of concepts will not fetch results; understanding human behaviour, tactfulness, vision, pragmatism, creativity, compassion towards staff, team spirit are all needed by a Successful Manager for effective management. The Science and Art are not mutually exclusive but complementary to each other. Therefore Management is both a science and an art.