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THE IMPORTANCE OF THEORY TO A MANAGER

Over the past few decades, the uses of theory has become something essentials, because it
can be the guidelines for everyone in order to make important decisions. A study found that theory
can be defined as a statement of relations among concepts within a set of boundary assumptions
and constraints (Haugh, 2012). According to Littlejohn (2011), theory is a unified, or coherent,
body of propositions that provide a philosophically consistence picture of a subject and it can be
any organized set of concepts, explanations, and principles that depicts some aspect of human
experience. Littlejohn & Foss (2011) stress that theories are an abstraction, it can reduce
experience to a set of categories and as a result, always leaving something out. However, there is
a study that a theory cannot be applied at will because everyone has different environment and
different situation. Thus, before using a theory, we need to ensure that, the theory used is
convenient with the current situation and environment. As mentioned before, the adoption of
theory has its own significance, it is compulsory for managers to use the theory as a guideline for
them in managing the organization. A study found that the adoption of the theory has its own
importance in helping managers in managing the organization (Lee & Greenley, 2008). There are
four importance of a theory to a manager that will be discussed, such as it can help the manager in
making a decision for the organization, help to become more competent, serve as a guideline to a
manager and organizing management style.

Manager plays an important role by making a decision in the, it is a central aspect of

management in all kinds of organization and can be referred as a process in which a problem is
defined (Melé, 2010). A manager should be able to choose the right decision to achieve the goal
of the organization. In this situation, manager can adopt contingency theory in making a decision.
According to Carlisle (1976), contingency theory is a study of variables in management and this
theory can help manager analyze a situation and a variable that will be chosen in making the
decision. Thus, the important of adopting contingency theory is the decisions made by the manager
are based on current circumstances rather than following the method one size fits all. For example,
a manager should identify present situation first before making a decision, regarding economic
condition, competitors, stakeholder, demographic and anything that can contribute in decision
making. All these factors should be considered before making any decision because any single
mistake in making a decision will result in a bad consequence.

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Next, in order to be a good manager, one should be able to become more competent. Thus,
the implementation of theory in daily work will improve the efficiency of a manager in handling
the organization. A study found that the manager is the person who is expected to be efficient and
effective on the employees in reaching the targets, by assuming the responsibility of one or more
management functions (Divlevi & Ergun, 2015). The efficiency of a manager is important to
achieve the organization’s goal and motivate others employees. In order to become more efficient,
a manager should adopt a few theory in organizing the organization. The adoption of theory will
help the manager in decision making, how to manage problem and others. For example, the
adoption of communication theory will help the manager on how to communicate efficiently to
the subordinate. Thus, the manager can deliver a message to the subordinate efficiently without
any problem.

The other importance of theory for a manager is it can be a guideline on how to be a good
leader. According to Sharma & Jain (2013), leadership is a process whereby an individual
influence a group of individuals to achieve a common goal and leaders will carry out this process
by applying their leadership knowledge and skills. It is essentials for every manager to become a
good leader because it can help the manager to be trusted, inspired and to be respected by others.
Other than that, people want to be guided by leaders they respect and who have a clear sense of
direction. Thus, in order to be a good leader the manager can use Bass’ theory of leadership as a
guideline that consists three basic ways on how to become a good leader. The theory will explain
about personality traits that will lead people naturally into leadership roles and an important event
that causes a person to rise to the occasion (Sharma & Jain, 2013). Through this theory, the
manager will be able to be a good leader to the subordinates.

Lastly, the importance of a theory of a manager is to assist manager whether to use a

controlling style of leadership, people-centered leadership or both. Thus there is the theory that
can assist manager to choose the management style which is Theory X and Theory Y. According
to McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, the assumption of theory X is managers believe that
employees dislike their work, avoid responsibility and need constant direction. Meanwhile, Theory
Y is that the employees are naturally determined, self-motivates to complete their tasks and take
responsibility (Kopelman, Prottas, & Falk, 2010). Theory X managers think that team members
need to be prompted, rewarded or punished constantly to ensure that they will do their job and

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Theory Y managers have a positive opinion regarding their people, and they use a decentralized
or participative management style (Shetna, 2017). So, from McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y,
a manager can choose either want to use a controlling style of leadership, people-centered
leadership or both. It is importance for the manager to use this kind of theory in choosing the
management style.

In a nutshell, the theory is a statement of relations among concepts within a set of boundary
assumptions and constraints. It is a unified, or coherent, body of propositions that provide a
philosophically consistence picture of a subject and it can be any organized set of concepts,
explanations, and principles that depicts some aspect of human experience. However, there are a
few benefits that a manager can gain in adopting the theory. For instance theory help manager in
making a decision for the organization, help to become more competent, serve as a guideline to a
manager and organizing management style. The importance of adopting the theory helping the
manager in organizing the organization, hence improve the efficiency of the organization in order
to achieve goals.

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References
Divlevi, M. S., & Ergun, E. (2015). Manager Effectiveness and Efficiency: The Effect of Skills on
Different Level Management. The LABPAD Conference Proceedings, 1-11.

Haugh, H. (2012). The importance of theory in social enterprise research . Social Enterprise
Journal, 7-15.

Kopelman, R. E., Prottas, D. J., & Falk, D. W. (2010). Construct validation of a Theory X/Y
behavior scale. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 120-135.

Lee, N., & Greenley, G. (2008). The Primacy of Theory. European Journal of Marketing, 873-
878.

Littlejohn, S. W., & Foss, A. K. (2011). Theories of Human Communication (10th ed.). Illinois:
Waveland Press.

Melé, D. (2010). Practical wisdom in managerial decision making. Journal of Management

Development, 637-645.

Sharma, M. K., & Jain, S. (2013). Leadership Management: Principles, Models and Theories.
Global Journal of Management and Business Studies, 309-318.

Shetna, J. (2017, August 30). Educba. Retrieved from Educba We site:

https://www.educba.com/how-to-apply-management-theories-at-workplace/