Business Administration

Business organizations produce goods or services. Though there are vast differences in the functioning and approaches of these organizations, they all strive to achieve certain objectives. It must also be noted that organizations cannot achieve the objectives effortlessly. They are achieved through systematic effort. This whole process is called business administration.

The most important objective that has to be implemented when talking about business administration is the production and supply of goods and services needed by the community. To realize this objective of maintaining a continuous supply of goods and services of a specific type for meeting the needs of the community, a business firm makes use of the four basic resources: Men, materials, money and management.

With the aid of money or capital, the management makes use of human resources as well as physical resources: materials to convert ideas into achievements. Given money, people, and materials, it is the quality of management that determines how well and how far will a firm succeed in its work. Management is the critical factor in business operations that is responsible for the utilization of the resources through proper planning, direction and supervision.

It is the function of those responsible for the management of a firm to lay down objectives and policies for the firm, plan its operations, organize the resources and allocate duties among the staff, issue directions and guide and co-ordinate their work and then check on the operations to make sure that these contribute to the realization of objectives. The operations of a firm are generally subdivided as production, finance, marketing, personnel, research and development. Generally, the functioning of an enterprise is conditioned by the availability of finance.