Objectives and Importance of Management: Why Every Organisation Needs It

Objectives and Importance of Management: Why Every Organisation Needs It

Why does an organisation need management at all? Couldn't a group of skilled, motivated people simply "figure it out" as they go? In theory, perhaps — but in practice, without a deliberate process of setting and pursuing objectives, effort scatters, resources get wasted, and goals drift. This is exactly why NCERT Class 11 Business Studies devotes a full section of Chapter 1 to the objectives management pursues and the reasons it has become indispensable to every kind of organisation, from a large corporation to a neighbourhood school.

The Three Categories of Management Objectives

Management does not chase a single goal. It has to reconcile the often-competing interests of shareholders, employees, customers, and society at large. NCERT groups these into three broad categories.

1. Organisational Objectives

These relate to the survival, profitability, and growth of the enterprise itself — the core economic reasons any business exists.

• Survival: The most basic objective of any organisation is simply to continue existing. To survive, a business must earn enough revenue to cover its costs.
• Profit: Survival alone is not enough. Profit gives the organisation the incentive and the financial cushion to keep operating, and it covers the risks inherent in running a business.
• Growth: To remain competitive over the long run, an organisation must exploit its growth potential — measured through indicators like rising sales volume, an expanding workforce, a wider product range, or increased capital investment.

2. Social Objectives

As part of the wider society it operates in, every organisation — business or non-business — carries a social obligation. This includes adopting environmentally responsible production methods, creating employment for underprivileged sections of society, and providing amenities like schools or healthcare for the community.

A well-known example is a large agribusiness's rural digital initiative that used a direct marketing channel to connect small, often illiterate farmers in remote villages to real-time market information — cutting out layers of costly intermediaries and giving farmers a stronger hand in price discovery. It is frequently cited as a model of a business fulfilling its corporate social responsibility while still running a profitable operation.

3. Personnel (or Personal) Objectives

Organisations are made up of individuals with different personalities, backgrounds, and needs — financial needs like competitive salaries, social needs like peer recognition, and higher-order needs like personal growth. Management's task is to reconcile these individual goals with the organisation's broader objectives so that people stay motivated and the workplace functions harmoniously.

Why Management Is So Important

Having understood what management aims for, it is worth examining why it has become such a critical function in every type of organisation.

Management Helps Achieve Group Goals

Management exists not for its own sake but to give a common direction to individual efforts. A manager's core task is to unify diverse activities so they collectively serve the organisation's overall goal — something that rarely happens by accident in a group of any real size.

Management Increases Efficiency

By planning, organising, staffing, directing, and controlling more effectively, a manager reduces costs and raises productivity. This is the difference between an organisation that does more with the same resources and one that simply does more spending.

Management Creates a Dynamic Organisation

Every organisation operates inside a constantly shifting environment. People naturally resist change, since it usually means leaving a familiar, secure routine for something newer and more demanding. Good management helps employees adapt, keeping the organisation competitive rather than left behind.

Management Helps Achieve Personal Objectives

Through motivation and leadership, a manager helps individual team members pursue their own goals — career growth, recognition, skill development — while still contributing to the organisation's broader mission. This alignment builds team spirit, cooperation, and long-term commitment.

Management Helps in the Development of Society

Because an organisation serves multiple stakeholder groups at once, good management indirectly benefits society as a whole. It provides quality products and services, creates jobs, adopts newer technology for the public good, and drives overall growth and development.

A frequently cited real-world illustration comes from a major American industrial conglomerate whose market capitalisation grew roughly fortyfold over the course of a single, widely studied leadership tenure — a result commonly credited to a management philosophy built around creating a clear vision, focusing on strategic priorities, welcoming ideas from every level of the organisation, and leading by example.

Objectives and Importance Are Two Sides of the Same Coin

It helps to think of objectives as the destination management is working toward, and importance as the reason the journey matters in the first place. An organisation without clear objectives has no direction; an organisation that ignores the importance of skilled management has no reliable way of reaching wherever it is headed. Together, these two ideas explain why management has become one of the most studied and most in-demand skills in the modern economy — and why board exams and entrance tests like CUET consistently test students on both.

Related Reading on ChampionsPrep

• Link back to "What Is Management? Meaning, Definition and Characteristics" for readers who need the foundational concept first.
• Link to "Management as an Art, Science and Profession" to explore how these objectives are pursued in practice.
• Link to "Coordination: The Essence of Management" when discussing how personal and organisational objectives are reconciled.
• Link to "Functions of Management" for the process managers use to actually pursue these objectives.

Practice What You've Learned

Objectives and importance are common sources of short-answer and case-based exam questions. ChampionsPrep's AI-powered practice platform lets CBSE and Maharashtra Board Class 11 and 12 Commerce students drill chapter-specific questions for just ₹10 a session — with dedicated prep tracks for CUET, IPMAT, JIPMAT, NPAT, and SET too. Head to https://app.championsprep.in and start reinforcing this chapter now.

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