Modern “tools” of management. Organizational HR Management Toolkit

Personnel management methods (HRM) are ways of influencing teams and individual workers in order to coordinate their activities in the functioning of the organization. Science and practice have developed three groups of municipal unitary enterprises: administrative, economic and socio-psychological.

• - Administrative methods are based on power, discipline and penalties and are known in history as “whip methods”.
• - Economic methods are based on the correct use of economic laws and, according to their methods of influence, are known as “carrot methods”.
• - Social-psychological methods are based on motivation and moral influence on people and are known as “methods of persuasion.”

Administrative methods are focused on such motives of behavior as the perceived need for labor discipline, a sense of duty, a person’s desire to work in a certain organization, and the culture of work.

Economic methods are elements of the economic mechanism with the help of which the progressive development of an organization is ensured. The most important economic method of personnel management is technical and economic planning, which combines and synthesizes all economic management methods. With the help of planning, the program of the organization's activities is determined. After approval, the plans are sent to line managers to guide the work on their implementation. Each division receives long-term and current plans for a certain range of indicators.

The role of economic management methods is enhanced in the conditions of a market economic system and the complex interaction of the system of prices, profits and losses, supply and demand. They become the most important condition for creating a holistic, effective and flexible economic management system for an organization that acts in the market as an equal partner of other organizations in social labor cooperation. An economic development plan is the main form of ensuring a balance between market demand for a product, the necessary resources and the production of goods and services. The government order is transformed into the organization’s order portfolio, taking into account supply and demand, in which the government order no longer has a dominant role.

To achieve the set goals, it is necessary to clearly define efficiency criteria and the final results of production in the form of a set of indicators established in the economic development plan. Thus, the role of economic methods is to mobilize the workforce to achieve final results.

Socio-psychological management methods are based on the use of a social management mechanism (system of relationships in a team, social needs, etc.). The specificity of these methods lies in the significant use of informal factors, interests of the individual, group, and team in the process of personnel management. Social-psychological methods are based on the use of laws of sociology and psychology. The objects of their influence are groups of people and individuals.

Based on the scale and methods of influence, these methods can be divided into two main groups:

Sociological methods that are aimed at groups of people and their interaction in the process of work.

Psychological methods that specifically influence the personality of a particular person.

Sociological methods play an important role in personnel management; they make it possible to establish the purpose and place of employees in the team, identify leaders and provide their support, connect people’s motivation with the final results of production, ensure effective communications and conflict resolution in the team. The setting of social goals and criteria, the development of social standards (standard of living, wages, housing needs, working conditions, etc.) and planned indicators, and the achievement of final social results are ensured by social planning.

The necessary data for the selection, assessment, placement, training of personnel and justification for making personnel decisions allows us to obtain the following sociological research methods (scientific tools):

• - Questioning allows you to collect the necessary information by mass surveying people using special questionnaires.
• - Interviewing involves preparing a script (program) before the conversation, then, during the dialogue with the interlocutor, obtaining the necessary information. -An interview is an ideal conversation with a leader, political or government figure - it requires a highly qualified interviewer and considerable time.
• - The sociometric method is indispensable when analyzing business and friendly relationships in a team, when, based on a survey of employees, a matrix of preferred contacts between people is built, which also shows informal leaders in the team.

The observation method allows us to identify the qualities of employees that are sometimes discovered only in an informal setting or extreme life situations (accident, fight, natural disaster).

• - An interview is a common method in business negotiations, hiring, educational events, when small personnel problems are solved in an informal conversation.
• - Psychological methods play an important role in working with personnel, since they are aimed at a specific personality of a worker or employee and, as a rule, are strictly personalized and individual. Their main feature is the appeal to the inner world of a person, his personality, intellect, images and behavior, in order to direct the internal potential of a person to solve specific problems of the organization.

Personnel management methods are also classified according to their belonging to management functions:

rationing;

organizations;

planning;

coordination, regulation;

motivation;

stimulation;

control;

A more detailed classification of personnel management methods based on their belonging to a specific personnel management function allows them to be built into a technological chain of the entire cycle of work with personnel. Methods based on this feature are:

• - recruitment, selection and reception of personnel;
• - business assessment of personnel;
• - socialization, career guidance and labor adaptation of personnel;
• - motivation of staff work;
• - organizing a personnel training system;
• - conflict and stress management, personnel safety management, personnel labor organization, business career management and professional advancement of personnel;
• - release of personnel.

Personnel management tools are a system of controls, means and methods aimed at meeting the enterprise's needs for labor of the required quality, quantity and by a certain time. Management goals are achieved through the implementation of certain principles and methods.

Management tools are ways of implementing management influences on personnel to achieve production management goals. There are many management tools that have different ways of influencing people.

Marenkov N.L. identifies three main personnel management tools:

1. Administrative - based on power, discipline and penalties.

2. Economic - based on the correct use of economic laws of production.

3. Socio-psychological - based on methods of motivation and moral influence on people and are known as the “method of persuasion” (see Fig. 1).

In addition, in the process of specifically solving management problems, it is very useful to organize effective communications and analysis of specific situations, which make it possible to take into account “other people’s mistakes” and provide ways to solve economic and personnel problems.

Administrative methods are a way of implementing management influences on personnel based on power, discipline and penalties. Administrative methods are focused on such motives of behavior as the perceived need for labor discipline, a sense of duty, a person’s desire to work in a certain organization, etc. These instruments of influence have a direct impact: any regulatory or administrative act is subject to mandatory execution.

Figure 1.3. Enterprise HR management tools

Instruments of administrative influence can be divided into several groups.

1.Organizational impacts:

Staffing table;

Regulations on divisions;

Job descriptions;

Organization of the workplace;

Collective agreement;

Labor regulations;

Organizational management structure;

Charter of the enterprise.

These documents (except for the charter) can be drawn up in the form of enterprise standards and must be put into effect by order of the head of the enterprise.

At an enterprise where there is a high level of organizational influences brought to enterprise standards and management regulations/high labor and executive discipline, the need for the use of administrative actions is significantly reduced. Those enterprises that have not brought their actions up to standards and regulations need constant operational administrative influence and, presumably, their final production results will be worse.

On the other hand, the implementation of organizational influences largely depends on the mentality of employees, their desire to strictly follow instructions and work according to the rules approved by the administration. An employee of a European enterprise strictly follows the rules established by the enterprise as a matter of course, and their violation is considered an emergency.

An employee of a Russian enterprise views internal company standards as a given limitation, which, based on his personal interest, can be violated when the watchful eye of his superiors is asleep. As a result, there are numerous cases of violation of labor discipline, theft of materials and finished products, a high percentage of defects, and low executive discipline. This is a typical manifestation of the Asian Russian mentality, where such cases are not subject to public censure. Therefore, the use of organizational influence is effective with the parallel use of socio-psychological methods and the cultivation of corporate culture.

2. Administrative influences

Orders;

Orders;

Directions;

Instruction;

Instructions;

Target planning;

Labor rationing;

Work coordination;

Execution control.

Administrative influences are aimed at achieving set management goals, compliance with internal regulations or maintaining the enterprise management system within specified parameters through direct administrative regulation.

The most categorical form of administrative influence is an order. Failure to comply will entail an appropriate sanction (punishment). An order usually consists of 5 parts: a statement of the situation (event), measures to eliminate deficiencies or ensure administrative regulation, allocated resources for implementing the decision, deadlines for implementing the decision, control of execution.

3. Financial liability and penalties:

Responsibility for delay of work book;

Voluntary compensation for damage to the enterprise;

Deductions from wages;

Depreciation;

Full financial responsibility;

Collective financial responsibility.

4. Disciplinary liability and penalties:

Comment;

Rebuke;

Severe reprimand;

Demotion;

Dismissal.

5. Administrative responsibility:

Warnings;

Paid seizure of items;

Administrative arrest;

Correctional work.

Administrative management methods are a powerful lever for achieving set goals in cases where it is necessary to subordinate the team and direct it to solve specific management problems. The ideal condition for their effectiveness is a high level of management regulation and labor discipline, when management influences are implemented by lower levels of management without significant distortion. This is especially true in large multi-level management systems, which include large enterprises.

Recently, the role of administrative methods in enterprises has decreased. A number of contradictory processes in society also impede the use of administrative methods: this is the growth of unemployment and part-time employment in enterprises, significant inflation in recent years and untimely payment of wages, the development of barter transactions and low discipline in the supply of resources, the growth rate of prices for consumer goods exceeding the rate rising wages, loss of factory traditions and disruption of the usual way of life in the family.

The negative attitude of part of the director's corps to work in the new economic conditions, the lack of a clear enterprise development strategy, modern marketing and high corporate culture led to the emergence of negative methods of administrative influence on the team and a decrease in the overall effect of the use of administrative methods of influence on the team and a decrease in the overall effect of the use administrative methods.

It is possible to highlight the positive and negative impacts of administrative management tools.

Table 1.2. - Positive and negative impacts of administrative management methods

Positive methods of influence	Negative methods of influence
1. Increase in the level of management regulation (organizational impact) 1.1. Availability of a well-developed charter of the enterprise with free access to it for employees 1.2. Development of partnerships between administration and trade unions through a collective agreement 1.3. Development of clear internal labor regulations and work with personnel in accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation 1.4. Presence of a clear organization and staffing structures and their annual adjustment in connection with changes in production conditions 1.5. Development of clear regulations in departments regulating administrative and functional connections within the enterprise 1.6. the presence of clear job descriptions defining the employee’s functional characteristics and labor standards 1.7. Development of a contract system for organizing and remunerating labor and increasing the proportion of employees with contracts	1. Ineffective organizational influence on personnel: 1.1 Model charter of an enterprise, kept behind “seven seals” 1.2. Adoption of formal collective agreements (or lack thereof at the enterprise) and confrontation with trade unions 1.3. Using standard or outdated internal labor regulations, working with personnel in violation of the technical specifications and civil code 1.4. Absence or use of an outdated organizational structure, presence of “snowdrops” in the staffing table 1.5. Absence or use of outdated regulations on departments that do not meet production conditions 1.6. Lack of job descriptions, reliance on verbal instructions from management, use of outdated instructions 1.7. Absence or liquidation of a control system for organization and remuneration
2. Effective types of administrative influences: 2.1. Clear orders indicating the status of the issue, activities, resources, deadlines and those responsible 2.2. Clear orders of deputy directors indicating operational instructions 2.3. Clear verbal instructions from management at all levels of management 2.4. Application of a document execution control system at an enterprise	2. Ineffective types of administrative influences 2.1. Vague or contradictory orders stating the state of the issue and without clear measures 2.2. Vague or contradictory orders of deputy directors 2.3. Unclear and contradictory verbal instructions from management 2.4. Lack of a system for monitoring the execution of documents at the enterprise or its low efficiency
3. Balance between administrative methods of punishment and reward 3.1. Reducing staff turnover, analyzing the reasons for dismissal and developing measures to eliminate them 3.2. Dismissal of employees on the initiative of the administration only in case of gross violation of internal regulations 3.3. Exceptional and rare use of methods of disciplining employees (severe reprimand and reprimand) 3.4. Effective use of methods of administrative incentives for employees for achieved results (promotion, increase in wages, placement on an internship) 3.5. Using the Japanese rule: omissions are recorded, achievements are rewarded	3. Imbalance between administrative methods of punishment and reward 3.1. Increased staff turnover, lack of analysis of the reasons for dismissal 3.2. Indifferent attitude towards the dismissal of employees, reprisals against “undesirables”, etc. 3.3. Frequent and not always justified use of methods of punishing employees to ostracize others 3.4. Lack of connection between administrative rewards and the results achieved by the employee (reprimand and then promotion) 3.5. Lack of clear rules of punishment and reward

Economic instruments are ways of implementing control actions on personnel based on the use of economic laws and categories. In the Soviet period, centralized planning, economic accounting, and wages were considered economic methods; there was a narrow interpretation of the role and place of economic methods, which limited the range of decisions made and regulatory levers at the enterprise level. Economic methods should be based on commodity-money relations in a market economy, which necessitates a new theoretical justification for the role of economic instruments.

Classification of economic management tools:

1. Planned management:

Free enterprise;

Economic Development Plan;

Order portfolio;

Performance criterion;

Final results.

Planned economic management is the main law of the functioning of any enterprise (organization) that has clearly developed goals and a strategy for achieving them. In a market economy, the manifestation of economic methods has a different character than in an administrative economy. Thus, instead of centralized planning, it is argued that the enterprise is a free commodity producer, which acts on the market as an equal partner of other enterprises in the social cooperation of labor.

2. Remuneration:

Official salary for employees;

Tariff rate for workers;

Additional salary;

Remuneration;

Remuneration is the main motive for work activity and a monetary measure of the cost of labor; provides a connection between the results of labor, its process, reflects the quantity and complexity of labor of workers of various qualifications. By setting official salaries for employees and tariff rates for workers, the management of the enterprise determines the standard cost of labor, taking into account the average labor costs for its standard duration.

The head of an enterprise, with the help of the five listed components of remuneration, can regulate the material interest of workers with economically possible costs of production under the heading “wages”, apply various systems of remuneration - piecework or time-based, form the material and spiritual needs of workers and ensure the growth of their standard of living.

3. Workforce:

Labor market;

Demand (need);

Availability (number);

Labor cost;

Standard of living.

Labor is the main element of any labor process, ensuring the processing of objects of labor using means of labor into the final product. This is always the main value of any enterprise or organization.

4. Market pricing:

Price;

Cost price;

Market pricing is a regulator of commodity-money relations and an important economic tool in measuring expenses and income, prices and production costs.

5.Securities:

Bonds;

Bills of exchange;

Credit cards;

Dividends.

The head of an enterprise can use the securities mechanism to achieve economic interests, increase the well-being of employees and form corporate relationships.

6. Tax system:

For the wage fund;

Income tax;

Income tax;

The tax system is an important economic mechanism for replenishing the state treasury by collecting taxes from enterprises and citizens. It is set by the state, exists outside the enterprise, has a direct impact on the staff, but always leaves room for maneuver for the manager, even in the conditions of the fiscal taxation system.

7. Forms of ownership:

State;

Municipal;

Public;

Intelligent.

Forms of ownership are an important economic category that determines the nature of relationships within an enterprise.

8. Reproduction phases:

Production;

Distribution;

Consumption.

The phases of social reproduction form the basis of commodity-money relations between people in the process of production, exchange, distribution and consumption of goods.

Economic methods act as various ways for managers to influence staff to achieve their goals and are manifested in good product quality and high profits. If economic laws are used incorrectly, ignored or neglected, one can expect negative results (losses, overstocking, non-payments, strikes).

Positive and negative impacts of economic instruments can be distinguished.

Table 1.3. Positive and negative impacts of economic management tools

Positive Impacts	Negative Impacts
1. Increase in wages 1.1. Indexation of wages taking into account inflation and increasing production volumes 1.2. Development of forms of additional wages, taking into account working conditions and qualifications 1.3. Distribution of remuneration for the final result according to the KTU directly in departments 1.4. Availability of a clear regulation on staff remuneration	1.Freeze of wages 1.1.Fixed wages at the minimum level in the industry 1.2. Payment of additional wages according to the minimum Labor Code 1.3. Centralized distribution of remuneration by the directorate distribution 1.4. Lack of clear provisions on staff remuneration
2. Development of a bonus system from profits 2.1. Bonuses for staff from profits as a percentage of official salary 2.2. Distribution of bonuses from profits based on the final results of the departments’ activities and within the team itself 2.3. Development of financial assistance payments from profits, taking into account the employee’s personality and various situations 2.4. Availability of a clear bonus provision	2. Elimination of the bonus system from profit 2.1. Occasional bonuses for personnel from the wage fund without reference to profit 2.2. Centralized distribution of bonuses in proportion to official salaries 2.3. Termination of payments of financial assistance or its provision only in emergency circumstances 2.4. No bonus provision
3. Development of social and medical care 3.1. Creation of a non-state pension fund or additional payment of pensions at the expense of the enterprise 3.2. Insurance of employees at the expense of the enterprise 3.3. Providing employees with free or partially paid branded clothing and footwear, food, and transportation	3. Ignoring social and medical security 3.1. Using only state pension provision 3.2. Elimination or lack of insurance for employees at the expense of the enterprise 3.3. Elimination or lack of provision of branded clothing, food and transportation

Economic and socio-psychological tools are of an indirect nature of managerial influence. It is impossible to count on the automatic action of these methods and it is difficult to determine the strength of their impact on the final result. Economic methods provide material incentives for teams and individual workers; they are based on the use of an economic mechanism. Socio-psychological management methods are based on the use of a social mechanism (a system of relationships in a team, social needs).

Socio-psychological tools are ways of implementing managerial influences on personnel, based on the use of laws of psychology and sociology. The objects of influence of these methods are groups of people and individuals. According to the scale and methods of influence, these methods can be divided into 2 main groups: sociological methods aimed at groups of people and their interactions in the production process (the external world of man); psychological, which specifically influence the personality of a particular person (the inner world of a person).

This division is quite arbitrary; in modern social production, a person always acts not in an isolated world, but in a group of people with different psychology. However, effective management of human resources, consisting of a collection of highly developed individuals, requires knowledge of both sociological and psychological tools.

Sociological methods play an important role in personnel management; they make it possible to establish the purpose and place of employees in the team, identify leaders and provide their support, connect people’s motivation with the final results of production, ensure effective communications and conflict resolution in the team.

The importance of sociological management methods allows the team leader to objectively carry out social planning, regulate the socio-psychological climate, ensure effective communications and maintain a good corporate culture.

Psychological methods play a very important role in working with personnel, are aimed at a specific personality of a worker or employee and, as a rule, are strictly personalized and individual. Their main feature is an appeal to the inner world of a person, his personality, intellect, feelings, images and behavior in order to direct the internal potential of a person to solve specific problems of the enterprise.

Every leader wants the organization entrusted or owned by him to carry out all the tasks that lead to prosperity and success. As you know, no matter how equipped an enterprise is, no matter what modern technologies are used, almost all work results depend on the staff - on real people.

A competent manager will always maintain a balance between the interests of employees and his own, beneficial to the enterprise. Therefore, knowledge of what personnel management methods are, how to use them correctly and how to benefit from them will be useful for a manager at any level.

Human resource management – ​​what is it?

In everything, including corporations and small firms, a system is needed. It becomes the core of the organization, streamlines its functioning, and helps each employee understand their role, responsibilities and priorities.

Human resource management also needs a system. Methods that help a top manager successfully manage a team, directing it in the right direction and stimulating it to work more efficiently, are methods of personnel management.

What are the methods?

The managerial experience of various organizations, accumulated over decades, allows us not only to identify the main methods that help regulate the work of the team, but also to apply certain technologies, thanks to which the enterprise will be truly effective.

Human resource management methodology usually involves dividing employee incentive tools into three groups:

• economic;
• socio-psychological;
• administrative methods.

By skillfully using the team incentive system and distributing functions in production, the manager will achieve all his goals much faster and more successfully than without the use of these technologies.

Economic methods

As you know, one of the most powerful incentives to work is money. A competent manager can use tools to reward responsible employees and punish those who do not perform their functions properly.

Economic methods of personnel management are so effective thanks to:

• competent management of business activities;
• thoughtful calculation;
• monetary reward system.

The most effective technologies of economic influence are economic calculations, bonuses or one-time benefits related to the position of a particular employee, deductions and fines, as well as an appeal to purchase securities of the company or its partner.

• Economic calculation

It assumes a competent system of financing and distribution of funds related to production itself. If employees are interested in the results of their work, for example, in receiving good revenue or increasing sales volume, they will try to perform their functions better.

The tools that the head of the enterprise uses are the transition of the unit to self-sufficiency, a self-financing system, and the development of economic standards. The opportunity for a department of the organization to gain greater independence and its own incentive fund also help specialists achieve their goals.

• Monetary incentives

This is one of the most effective ways to bring indicators to the desired figure, raise the level of work of the team and win them over. Salaries, bonuses for efficiency, various types of bonuses, compensation related to overtime, work at odd hours or performing duties in addition to one’s own are excellent tools that will help take the organization to a new level.

• Restrictions and deductions from salary

The Labor Code of our country also provides for such methods of stimulating working capacity. Here the opposite effect is triggered, thanks to which each person in the team begins to perform their work functions as efficiently as possible. An unearned advance or vacation paid by the enterprise upon dismissal of an employee before the end of the current year gives the manager such powers. The fine system also allows you to plan in advance your working time or the technologies that the employee uses to avoid being punished with rubles.

• Benefits and privileges

Each company has its own bonus system. Sometimes additional money is given once a year, sometimes on holidays or monthly. Benefits or material assistance related to a particular situation in the employee’s family (the birth of a child, a wedding, the death of a close relative) allow you to feel the caring attitude of management and work more responsibly. In many self-respecting organizations, it is possible to negotiate with third-party companies about cheaper, for example, treatment or vacation. Sometimes a company fully or partially pays employees for a visit to the dentist or a swimming pool subscription, a trip to the sea or fuel for a car. Demonstrating concern for the team, the top manager supports the responsible and caring attitude of each individual employee to his work.

• Investments

The system for an employee to purchase the organization’s securities makes him personally or some group of employees dependent on the results of his own work. In addition, the awareness of one’s involvement in the ownership of a company or plant and participation in making a profit forces one to perform one’s functions as responsibly and accurately as possible.

Administrative and legal methods

Everyone knows that no system can work without a strict hierarchy and discipline in the team. A self-respecting manager initially sets things up in such a way that every employee understands: for disobeying a direct order, poor performance, or any interference in the activities of the entire corporation, he can be punished. There are several options for action, including administrative penalties.

• Organizational Impact

The internal regulations of the organization regulate how an employee should look and behave, and most importantly, what responsibilities and functions he has. This also includes the staffing schedule, violation of which may result in administrative measures against the employee.

• Administrative influence

It is provided by orders, instructions and instructions that allow the employee to clearly understand his main functions and methods of performing duties. Everyone’s actions in accordance with the organization’s official documents become more transparent and effectively integrate into the overall course of work.

• Disciplinary action

They include groups such as reprimand, reprimand or dismissal. They help you see what disruptions to schedules, technology, or work practices can lead to. Every person has a sense of self-esteem that is hurt by such documents, not to mention the fact that they will affect their career in the future.

• Material recovery

For damage caused to the farm or the work of an organization, an employee may be punished with a ruble.

Sometimes not only production technologies or team work are violated, but also the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Then administrative measures take precedence over those provided for by the law of the country.

Social-psychological methods

Any modern organization cannot perform its functions relying only on the material or disciplinary side of influencing the team. Social and psychological technologies are no less important than internal administrative measures. They touch the basic feelings and emotions of people, and therefore are no less effective.

Social and psychological methods are often aimed at the individual rather than the group as a whole. They affirm her importance and dignity, helping her feel most comfortable among the staff.

Good leadership is a must:

• will form divisions, focusing not only on the production functions performed by employees, but also on their psychological compatibility;
• will take care of a favorable psychological climate within the team;
• will help cope with conflicts;
• will provide an increase in the level of intelligence, knowledge, qualifications in order to strive for a model of professional advancement.

Typically, when communicating with staff, technologies such as praise, persuasion, suggestion, involvement, prohibition, censure, compliment, coercion, demand, hint, request, advice are used.

A competent manager, using various methods to help staff perform their functions, achieves well-functioning, clear, successful work for each group of subordinates and his company as a whole.

Calendar. The idea of ​​adapting a household calendar for office work arose in the century before last and materialized in perfect form in the form of a desk calendar in 1870. One page of the calendar was allocated for each day, where the date, day of the week, month and year were indicated, and later national and religious holidays were added , birthdays of great people. The presence of free space made it possible to make the necessary notes: negotiations, meetings, expenses, meetings, events. For almost a century, the desk calendar has been the main tool of officials and managers. However, with the development of radio and television, its role as an operational informant began to decline, and stationary placement on the desktop was a clear inconvenience for traveling salesmen, brokers, agents, brokers. Therefore, the result of improving the desk calendar was the diary and weekly planner.

Diary is a loose-leaf calendar in the form of a convenient notepad of various formats (A4, A5 and A6) with a durable cover. The diary could be taken with you on business trips and to meetings, put in a briefcase or briefcase. The safety of information was already higher than that of a tear-off calendar, and it could be archived by year. It turned out to be even more convenient for the manager weekly, in which it was possible to plan the working week and day, control the implementation of recorded activities, analyze the time spent (since an hourly breakdown of the working day appeared), and more quickly search for information that was grouped by 52 weeks rather than 365 days. In the 1980s Weekly calendars have almost replaced desk calendars and have become so widespread that they have become an element of the business style of an enterprise.

"Organizer" (from the English organizer). The design idea of ​​combining a calendar, notepad and telephone book in one convenient tool successfully materialized in the form of an “organizer” (1921). Indeed, these three essential tools for a manager should always be at hand. Subsequent improvement of the instrument was carried out by changing the format, design, paper quality and external decoration. There are many modifications of organizers of imported and domestic production. The “organizers” of A4 and A5 format turned out to be the most convenient, as they allowed making notes on sheets of standard format and storing the instrument in a briefcase or handbag. Of great practical importance was the use of a removable ring mechanism in the organizers instead of a conventional binder or tear-off pad. This made it possible to reuse reference data (addresses of companies, telephone numbers, standards) and easily replace them if necessary. A logical addition to the “organizer” was the inclusion of a microcalculator in its structure in the 1980s. Subsequently, even modifications of “organizers” appeared, where a large microcalculator was the main “highlight” for an accountant, financier and economist.

"Time Manager" (TM). The instrument was created in 1975 by an enterprising couple from Denmark. They managed to materialize the main idea of ​​targeted planning of personal results based on a standard classifier of functions (“key tasks”) and technology for solving global events (“elephant tasks”). The time manager has become a third-generation tool and a flagship for achieving final results, in contrast to the routine recording of events on the calendar. It allows the manager to clearly control and manage his time based on his goals, to connect together “what” and “when” you want to do. A time manager creates a unified technological base for making and executing decisions (goals, functions, tasks, operations) based on a flexible calendar (plans for the year, month, week, day).

Electronic notebook. The development of electronic technology did not leave management personnel unattended and led to the creation of a universal electronic “organizer”. Electronic notebooks (EPPs) were designed in Japan. They appeared in the 1980s. and immediately gained recognition among a wide range of people (businessmen, managers, traveling salesmen, engineers, students, tourists) mainly due to the multi-purpose use of EZK and small size. Currently, different EZK models from various manufacturing companies are offered for sale on the Russian market. The proposed models differ quite significantly in characteristics, so it is impossible to say unequivocally which EZK company is preferable. It all depends on the practical significance of the capabilities of each model.

Computer systems for labor management . They became widespread in the early 1980s. with the rapid development of personal computers, when they became an integral part of the office and home. The idea of ​​adapting a personal computer as a tool for the personal effectiveness of a manager, programmer and specialist of any profile received a “second wind” when the main ideas of TM were incorporated into the software: target planning, key tasks, a flexible calendar, problem-oriented forms. Among the most famous, computer-based software TM “Key to Results” should be noted IBM And Macintosh And "Lotus" on the base IBM.

Delegation of authority

Delegation can be considered one of the most important problems in management and at the same time one of the most difficult and relevant. This is a way of distributing tasks (work) among the organization’s employees, the implementation of which is necessary to achieve the organization’s goals. In small organizations related to the sphere of small business, the entrepreneur can lead himself, performing almost all the basic management functions and making the necessary decisions. However, as the activities of the organization expand and the scale of the organization grows, the manager is forced to delegate some of his tasks to his subordinates, since the time, knowledge and experience of any manager are limited and sole leadership becomes impossible or extremely ineffective. It is the ability to get work done by others that is the meaning of management, and the ability to delegate turns a person into a manager. If a manager delegates certain tasks to an employee, he must provide him with the resources necessary for this, therefore, along with the tasks, the manager is forced to delegate the corresponding amount of authority.

Authority - this is the right to manage resources and determine the actions of employees of the organization. Delegation involves the transfer of tasks and powers from higher levels of management to lower ones. In practice, the process of delegation is two-way: it involves both the transfer and acceptance of powers, which requires taking into account not only the will and desire of the manager, but also the possibility and consent of the subordinate, since if the subordinate does not accept authority from the manager, then delegation does not occur. To achieve effective organization of interaction, the manager must delegate to the employee sufficient authority to perform all tasks related to his position. This simple rule, called the principle of compliance in management, is, unfortunately, often violated in practice, and the employee is assigned tasks that he is unable to perform, since they forgot to delegate the appropriate powers to him. The necessary competence and functional responsibilities must also be delegated along with the work task.

Modern scientific concepts share delegation of responsibility And delegation of power, rights . Responsibility - This is the employee’s obligation to carry out the tasks delegated to him and be responsible for the results of his work. Power - the actual opportunity to use the organization's resources and take action or something that a person can actually do.

According to the nature of powers, it is customary to distinguish two basic types of organizational authority : linear And hardware . Line authority - the main type of authority that appeared simultaneously with the emergence of hierarchical organizations. They mean the right of direct personal command, issuing orders and instructions, making decisions on all issues arising in the team subordinate to the leader. Linear authority underlies the formation of the organizational structure. Emergence hardware powers caused by the increasing complexity of organizations and managerial work, its division and specialization of management. As a result of this specialization, a management apparatus was formed, the main purpose of which is to assist line managers in making and implementing decisions.

Delegation technology includes the following: selection of an employee, instruction, stimulation of work, observation and prevention of errors, assistance if necessary, control, joint assessment of the progress of achieving the goal and the result obtained, obtaining information for continuous improvement of the work process.

Delegation is advisable in the following situations: 1. A subordinate can do this work better than a manager. 2. Heavy workload does not allow you to deal with this problem yourself. 3. Delegation as a method of preparing promising employees for the personnel reserve. 4. It is necessary to free up time for more important problems. 5. Studying the team by identifying business qualities, entrusting the solution of certain tasks. 6. The need to leave the workplace for an extended period of time. In any of the above situations, delegation must be carried out taking into account the specifics of the particular case.

Effective business management in a modern global, open economy is impossible without active information consumption. There is so much information that it is impossible to do without some special devices, programs, algorithms and techniques for its collection, processing, analysis, storage and distribution. We combine such tools whose task is to achieve a useful effect when “influencing” the information necessary for management into a separate group of “information management tools” (hereinafter - tools).

After we figured out what they are - tools- what they are and why they are needed, let us turn to the issue of their classification. It allows you not only to better understand what management information tools there are, but also to compare them, if necessary, based on their distinctive features.

How many problems do we solve?

Tool It can be assessed quite simply from the point of view of the target functions that it implements. Alone tools allow solving fairly narrow specialized problems, while others are suitable for solving a wide range of problems from various subject areas based on some general (standard) approach.

According to functional and target coverage, management information tools can be divided into:

1. specialized- effective for solving specific complex and labor-intensive, but algorithmically well-formulated problems;
2. universal- effective for solving general type problems without specialized algorithms and rules, but with a set of some general techniques, devices, tips, rules that are used in a combination selected by the user;
3. complex- effective for solving interrelated problems of different levels of complexity and detail, but united by one semantic, resource or procedural base.

It is no coincidence that the definition of each of the groups uses the word “effective” rather than, say, “intended” or “designed.” The user has the right to use any tool for different purposes, but the effect it gets will be appropriate. It is difficult to expect a significant effect from the use of a universal tool where a complex one is needed. Thus, using a spreadsheet editor for accounting will be completely unproductive.
More often tool can clearly be attributed to one of these groups. The primary criterion is the number of tasks implemented with its help.

What operations do we perform?

Information management tools (especially those implemented using software products), regardless of the number of tasks being solved, always simultaneously offer several opportunities to carry out various operations with information. Since it is precisely information tools, then this is an important classifying characteristic.
Having compiled an extended list of operations in which information plays the main role at the input and/or output, it becomes clear that a number tools allows you to perform only a limited number of them, while others tools quite widely and fully provide the opportunity to operate with information flows.

A sequential list of operations for working with information that the tool can implement is as follows:

• selection of information sources– identification and criterial selection of one-time and regular sources of information (data, information);
• collection of information– organizing and obtaining information from selected sources with simultaneous input filtering;
• processing of primary information– obtaining secondary (calculated, aggregated, compressed) information;
• processing of secondary information– obtaining easy-to-use information based on the results of primary and secondary processing;
• structuring and classification of information– a special way of processing information at different levels for its ordering, indexing, etc.;
• information quality check– control, selection and transformation of information taking into account the assessment of its quality level;
• generation of analytical information– obtaining an expert level of information based on special methods of processing it with the formulation of conclusions and hypotheses;
• selection of information presented– selection of information in a complex for its dissemination among the target audience;
• visualization (representation) information– giving information a special form that is convenient, understandable and effective for the target audience;
• Spread of information– organization and implementation of the transfer of information to the target audience, including transfer of information to an acceptable medium and bringing information to the consumer.

Based on the provisions laid down in tool ability to successfully support the execution of certain operations, it can be classified as one of the following types.

According to the primary implementation of operations for working with information, information management tools are divided into groups:

• private instruments- allow you to perform separate (or separate) operations on working with information;
• procedural tools- allow you to perform and maintain a sequential (or fragmented) set of individual operations within the framework of solving one problem;
• full tools- allow you to organize, implement and support the full cycle of operations within the framework of solving a specific problem.

This classification correlates with the functional-target division into groups from the previous section. But if in that case the main characteristic is “the number of specific tasks to be solved,” then in the latter case the main characteristic is “the quantity and quality of operations for working with information that are available when solving each individual problem.”
For example, a spreadsheet editor is universal decision - according to functional-target classification and private instrument - according to operational classification.

A note on the spreadsheet editor

In the examples given in this publication, it should be assumed that the considered tools assessed from the point of view of their direct, unfinished functionality. A well-known spreadsheet editor can be easily transformed from a general-purpose tool into a specialized one with the help of programming. But everyone tool has its limits and, sometimes, a programmable spreadsheet editor cannot even help with macros, functions and entire classes when solving special problems.

What information are we working with?

If universal tools, most often, allow you to work with any information, then specialized and complex ones are usually developed to work with information from a specific subject area. Obviously, the more universal tool, the more subject areas and tasks it covers and the more in-depth it allows you to work with them. But sometimes only universal ones tools allow you to combine tasks from seemingly previously incompatible subject areas.
Since tools are being considered management, then the target subject areas are most often: accounting and reporting, economic and market analytics, logistics, marketing and consumer behavior, turnover, project management, personnel management and corporate interaction, financial flows, resources and the like.

Based on the scope of subject areas that the tool allows you to solve, it can be classified into one of the following groups:

• target tools- designed to solve a specific problem from a specific subject area;
• standard tools- are intended to solve several specific related problems from a specific subject area or one relatively typical problem from several subject areas;
• system tools- designed to solve various types of problems from one or several subject areas.

What's included?

Let's not forget that the view of an information management tool is somewhat broader than that of a simple program or management automation system. Simplified tool can be imagined as a certain technique embodied in a program, adapted for practical use.
An automated system (application) is a direct implementation of a technique, but not the technique itself. And if management forgets about this and shifts the emphasis in the choice tools only towards the “code”, then problems will not take long to appear.

A little explanation

Let’s compare: an automated system “accounting program” and an information management tool “accounting”.
In the first case - a specific application.
In the second case - in addition to the program, it is obvious that there is a formalized accounting methodology.
It will look very strange if you try to use an “accounting program” in business without knowing and applying the “accounting” methodology.
But there is tools, which have less obvious and not legally regulated methods. For example, CRM. So why does a business allow itself to purchase such management automation software products without actively understanding and applying the techniques embedded in them (standards, regulations, technologies, templates, methodologies, algorithms).

In the information management tool, we will highlight three components:

• methodology- the theoretical basis for influencing information (its changes or measurements), embedded in the tool and based on a number of basic premises (hypotheses) about achieving the required beneficial effect for the purposes of managing the organizational structure;
• program- an algorithm for influencing information, implemented in a format for easy use by the user (through the UI - user interface) or in automated processes (through the API - application programming interface) based on the results of routine implementation of which the required beneficial effect is achieved;
• practice- the practical part of using a tool to influence information, which forms the optimal way to use it separately or together with other information or other tools to achieve the required beneficial effect.

Methodology is the knowledge necessary for proper application tool. A program is the ability to effectively obtain the required result in a consistent and controlled manner. And practice is the best application experience tool and integrating it into business processes (including some training issues).
Talk about full-fledged quality instrument, in the absence of one of its specified components, it is possible quite conditionally. But if tool effective (i.e. applied with results in practice), then to one degree or another all the components are present in it - the question remains to what extent they are formalized and understood by the business (performers, managers).

Based on how clearly one or another of its components is present in the instrument, we will make the following classification:

• instrument theory- this is a tool in which only a methodology is present, but it is not implemented in the program and in practice (a kind of theory about the possibilities of influencing information);
• application practice- this is a tool in which there is only an understanding of a certain practical impact on information for which there is no theoretical assessment and, especially, no implementation in the form of an appropriate program (successful application practice is a good starting point for developing a tool);
• simple program- this is a tool in which some poorly formulated methodology is implemented in a program format, not properly confirmed in practice;
• unprepared instrument- this is a tool in which a formalized methodology is implemented in the form of a program, but without understanding the essence and method of its effective application in practice;
• external tool- this is a tool in which the formalized methodology is confirmed and understandable in practical application, but for which a program has not been developed that allows it to be used extensively and effectively;
• single action tool- this is a tool in which a program with a certain practical application is implemented, but for which the methodology (theoretical basis) is not clear and obvious;
• quality tool- this is a tool that contains a well-developed methodology, a convenient program has been developed, and the practice of its application has been determined.

And what is the conclusion?

The classifications of information management tools discussed above in this publication can be supplemented with several more secondary ones:
- classification of tools by information media(information flows, analog media, documents, etc.),
- classification by types of information processed(digital data, audio, texts, video streams, etc.),
- classification according to the technical and information technology means used(distributed network, cloud technologies, the use of encryption, digital structuring of information, types of data indexing, etc.),
- classification according to the volume of information processed(file data arrays, medium data streams, big data, etc.),
- classification according to the complexity of implemented software algorithms(simple algorithms verifiable by recalculation, branched algorithms, complex multi-parameter algorithms, adaptive algorithms, etc.).

The list goes on, expanding the area of ​​attention and delving into details. However, the main classifications (which are discussed in detail) make it possible to understand what you should first pay attention to when comparing one tools with others.

A comprehensive comparative assessment of information management tools can be carried out using the following special matrix:

On the working field of the matrix, you can indicate the position of specific tools (two or more), which will allow you to understand what class of tools each one belongs to and how they relate to each other.

In this case, it is convenient to indicate the position of the tools using symbols

Here is an example of a comparative assessment of several instruments on a similar matrix:

It is clearly seen that the “D” tool allows you to solve problems in a larger number of subject areas than the “B” tool. And tool “A”, having better “operational” qualities, is slightly inferior to tool “D”, but at the same time has poor practice of application.
Next to the designation of the instrument, you can indicate the cost of its acquisition and ownership. This will, in a certain sense, help in making an affordable decision on choosing a tool.
The final choice is up to the business - which tool to adopt and how much to pay for it.
But understanding the essence makes it easier to consciously choose the right one tool, which is suitable for a specific business and allows you to solve truly important problems of organizational management based on the use of up-to-date information.

Information management tools are different and allow you to solve various problems. Choosing the right tool for a specific task is one of the important competencies of any professional, which in a management system can form an equally important competitive advantage for the business as a whole. And the correct choice of a tool to solve a current problem depends on the ability to evaluate its key characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, features and limitations in application.