Management

What the official syllabus says

RAS Main Examination, Paper I: General Studies I, Unit III (Sociology, Management, Accounting & Auditing), Part B: Management.

• General Management: Concept of Management, Managerial skills and levels, Management Functions. MBO, Decision making: process, techniques and models
• Organizational behaviour: Nature and Scope, Perception, Motivation - Concepts and Theories, Group Dynamics and Team Building, Organizational Climate and Culture.
• Marketing Management: Concept and Scope, Marketing mix: Product, Pricing, Promotion and Physical Distribution. Service and digital marketing.
• Human Resource Management: Concept and Scope, Human Resource Planning, Recruitment, Selection, Placement and Training, Performance Appraisal System, Modern Trends in Human Resource Management
• Strategic Management: Concept and Scope, Business environment and SWOT analysis, Strategic Formulation and implementation, Strategic control and evaluation.

Topics in detail

General management

• Concept and nature of management; management as art, science and profession
• Managerial skills (technical, human, conceptual) and levels (top, middle, lower); managerial roles
• Functions: planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling; Fayol's principles
• Management by Objectives (Peter Drucker): process, merits and limits
• Evolution of management thought: scientific management (F. W. Taylor), administrative management (Henri Fayol), bureaucracy (Max Weber), human relations (Hawthorne studies), systems and contingency approaches
• Decision making: steps (identify the problem, generate alternatives, evaluate, choose, implement, review); programmed and non-programmed decisions; decisions under certainty, risk and uncertainty
• Decision-making techniques: brainstorming, nominal group technique, Delphi, decision trees, cost-benefit analysis
• Decision-making models: rational (classical) model, bounded rationality and satisficing (Herbert Simon), intuitive and political models

Organisational behaviour

• Nature and scope; individual, group and organisation levels
• Perception: process and errors (stereotyping, halo effect)
• Motivation: Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Herzberg's two-factor theory, McGregor's Theory X and Y, McClelland's needs theory, Vroom's expectancy theory
• Group dynamics and team building: formal and informal groups, stages of group development (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning), cohesion
• Organisational climate and culture: meaning, elements (values, norms, symbols, rituals) and how they are built; Edgar Schein's levels of culture; strong and weak cultures
• Why organisational behaviour matters for public offices: morale, absenteeism, conflict and change management

Marketing management

• Concept and scope; production, selling, marketing and societal marketing concepts
• Marketing mix: product (product life cycle, branding), pricing (skimming and penetration), promotion (advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity) and physical distribution (channels, logistics)
• Service marketing: features of services (intangibility, inseparability, variability, perishability) and the extended mix
• Digital marketing: search, social media, email and content marketing; online consumer behaviour

Human resource management

• Concept and scope; HR planning
• Recruitment (internal and external sources), selection process, placement
• Training methods (on-the-job and off-the-job)
• Performance appraisal: rating scales, 360-degree feedback, appraisal by objectives
• Compensation and career development as links between appraisal and training
• Modern trends: HR analytics, e-HRM, flexible and remote work, employee engagement, the gig workforce, diversity and inclusion, competency mapping

Strategic management

• Concept and scope; vision, mission and objectives
• Business environment (internal and external; PESTLE) and SWOT analysis
• Formulation and implementation of strategy; tools such as Porter's five forces and generic strategies, the BCG matrix, the McKinsey 7S framework
• Strategic control and evaluation: premise control, implementation control and strategic surveillance; balanced scorecard

Overlaps

Leadership, communication and morale also appear in Public Administration (Administrative Behaviour) and in Behaviour in Paper III.