Management vs Operations: Difference and Comparison

A company, firm, or corporation is a legal entity of an association of people, both natural and legal and defined as a commercial business; it may or may not be established on the mere motive of earning profits.

Each one of the departments is assigned a set of roles and responsibilities by which each employee must abide.

Management and operations are two joint functional departments of every company.

The former is concerned with the general administration of the respective company, and the latter revolves around day-to-day activities or routine activities required to produce goods or services of the company. 

Key Takeaways

1. Management involves planning, organizing, directing, and controlling resources to achieve goals and objectives efficiently and effectively.
2. Operations encompass the day-to-day activities and processes involved in producing goods or delivering services, focusing on efficiency, productivity, and quality.
3. Management is responsible for overall strategic decision-making and resource allocation, while operations execute the plans and processes necessary for an organization’s functioning.

Management vs Operations

The difference between management and operations is in their meaning; the former is the administration of or the process of managing, whereas the latter is the method or schedule by which the production or manufacturing of goods and services occurs.

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Comparison Table

Parameter of Comparison	Management	Operations
Meaning	Process of dealing with or controlling things and people in the proper manner.	Whereas Operation is the process of producing the respective company’s products or services.
Concerned with	Only concerned with controlling and directing functions of the company.	It is chiefly concerned with planning, organizing, controlling, and directing.
Main area	It does not stick to one department but applies to the entire company.	On the other hand, operations are the day-to-day activities or routines regarding production.
Examples	Management of finances of the company, or the acknowledgement of the rules and regulations by the employees or human resources of the company.	It is related to activities like the product’s packaging, material movement of material or any equipment.
Universal concept	Management is a universal concept which means it can be applied everywhere, irrespective of the department, level, or even place.	On the other hand, Operations are confined only to production and manufacturing.

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What is Management?

Management is the art of controlling and directing things and people.

It is found in every functional area irrespective of the company’s department; it is outside the business world, like in a house; a mother commonly manages everything related to her home and family members.

A house, school, or any university needs to manage its people, students, employees, or team; similarly, a company needs to do the same to reach or fulfil its objectives.

The following are the features of management:

1. Management is associated with group efforts.
2. It is purposeful and universal.
3. Control is accomplished only through the efforts of employees.
4. It is goal-oriented.
5. Control ensures better working conditions.
6. It is intangible as well as indispensable.
7. It is universal, which means it can be applied to every department, every level, and even outside a company or firm.

 

What are Operations?

The operational function of the company or operations is the management of procedures or processes in a company or an organization regarding the manufacturing of goods and services.

Along with the procedure, it also involves raw materials, equipment, labour, and everything related to operations.

The following are the characteristics of operations:

1. It ensures effectiveness and coordination.
2. It ensures flexibility.
3. It evaluates to check if the workings are going as per the plan or not.
4. It is goal-oriented.
5. It ensures productivity
6. It analyzes the workings of production.
7. It focuses on efficiency.
8. Operation’s aims are always measurable.
9. It has a fast speed of execution, which makes it practical to a large extent.
10. It consists of structural and organizational flexibility.
11. Unlike management, operations are restricted to just production, which makes it concentrate on display, which cuts down many other time-consuming tasks which might have lowered production effectiveness.

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Main Differences Between Management and Operations

1. Management is all the activities undertaken to achieve goals by continuous planning, directing, and controlling. On the other hand, an operation is the management of production-related activities.
2. The main aim of management is to reach the company’s goal effectively and efficiently, whereas operations aim to reduce costs and save time for the company or a firm.
3. On the one hand, the management is applied to every functional department, in other words, the entire company. On the other hand, operations are related only to production activities.
4. In management, there is a specific role assigned to each manager of each department, like operations manager, accounting manager, sales manager, and quality control manager, whereas, in the case of operation, there are only two key positions that are offered, such as chief operating officer, and operations manager.
5. Management is the act of directing or conducting, whereas operations are the act of producing or operating.

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References

1. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443579710171217/full/html
2. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/WR021i012p01797
3. https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-02297985.html