"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

Alvin Toffler

About the author

Kevin Griffiths has over 30 years experience in developing new and emerging organizations in both the commercial and 'Not-for-profit' sector. He lives in Ireland and travels extensively. He has a MSc in International Management from the University of Liverpool.

Other books by Kevin Griffiths

Management of Eco-tourism and its Perception:

A Case Study of Belize

Is Management Art or Science?

Management is seen as a fundamental part of human social environment and modern organization. To define management as an art or science it is necessary to recognize the basic instinct and structure of human organization.  Chi-Kuo Mao (n.d) “A human organization exists as a process of creative advancement in which the organization ceaselessly defines itself and sustains itself.” The managers access to various managerial theories requires an element of instinctive response to accommodate the motivational needs of the individual. By employing instinctive human understanding to guide the manager towards a more effective way of achieving organizational goals, we could say that the act of reading or understanding of the person or situation is an art. Art meaning creative interaction with fellow human beings and the science as the structural process of implementation towards the organizational goal.

To reason that management is both art and science we should look at the role played by both in achieving the goals of the organisation. If the science part of management is the structured, planed and defined part of the organizations strategy we should remember that theories change. In the paper "Managing Complex Organizations: Complexity Thinking and Science and Art Management" Richardson (2008)  quotes Maxwell  "Any scientific theory, however well it has been verified empirically, will always have infinitely many rival theories that fit the available evidence just as well but that make different predictions, in an arbitrary way, for yet unobserved phenomena. (Maxwell, 2000) Therefore it becomes necessary to adapt to the changing environment and theoretical approaches.

To apply the element of art to the process it would be reasonable to say that it is the act of relaying the vision of the strategy, by the manager, that motivates people. The CEO, the Entrepreneur, for example holds an artistic responsibility to interpret and communicate his or her vision in a manner that can be related to by  all organizational members?

It could be reasonable to assume that the art element discussed here is in fact the art of leadership. If this is the case then it would be natural to assume that good management involves strong leadership and creative communication of scientific concepts.

Using art as an explanation for the inspirational element and science as the delivery mechanism  makes sense in terms of the understanding of the managerial processes. Encapsulating both instinctive human interaction and by employing strategies that are based on known theories, and there effectiveness, we can apply a reasonable assumption that making people more effective through imparting vision is art and the way in which they achieve that vision is by a route of structured theory, the science.

Extract from International Management "Getting your head out of the managerial cloud" 

It is the understanding and perceptions of the tourist and tourism service providers towards 'Ecotourism' that will facilitate the continuation of the successful expansion of this market sector. 

This book has identified areas of harmonization between service users and service providers, it also establishes areas for further development in order to sustain effective  management of the sectors promotion and development.

Contributing to the development of the communities plays a high priority for tourists when listing their expectations from 'Ecotourism'. Involvement with communities and assisting them to develop sustainable social enterprises on the back of 'Ecotourism' is a good way to promote and illustrate the advantages of participating in 'Ecotourism' vacations, experiences and activities. This added value in the current environmentally sensitive market will help re-enforce expectations and perceptions of 'Ecotourism'

This book will help all of those who see that ecotourism as a way of developing their business.

© Copyright Kevin Griffiths, 2012. All rights reserved. Reproduction, adaptation, or translation without permission is prohibited except as allowed under the International copyright laws. All the text, graphics, design, content, and other works are the copyrighted works of Kevin Griffiths

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