THE UTILITY OF MANAGING BY OBJECTIVES

By Joash Nyagwachi
The Management Process: Theory and Practice

July 24th, 2014
Dr James R. Farmer, PHD

Cities in the United States have enthusiastically embraced the idea of Managing By Objectives (MBO). George Odiorne defined MBO as a process or system designed for supervisory managers in which a manager and his or her subordinate sit down and jointly set specific objectives to be accomplished within a set time frame and for which the subordinate is then held directly responsible.
MBO urged that the planning process, traditionally done by a handful of high-level managers, should be delegated to all members of the organization. The plan, when it finally emerged, would then have the commitment of all of them. As the plan is implemented, MBO demands that the organization monitor a range of performance measures, designed to help it stay on the right path towards its objectives. No matter what form the MBO approach takes in a given organization, it is essentially a process that helps to direct managers’ attention toward results; force members of the organization to commit themselves to specific achievement, and facilitate their thinking in terms of their organization’s future needs and the setting of objectives to meet those needs.
MBO is important to urban leaders and aims at increasing organizational performance by aligning goals and subordinate objectives throughout the organization. Management by objectives is achieved through self-control, the tool of effectiveness. The MBO is important to the present day manager in the following ways;
First, the manager gains greater commitment and desire to contribute from subordinates by allowing them to feel that the objectives they are working toward were not just handed to them but are really theirs because they played a part in formulating them. This gives subordinates a better sense of where they fit in the organization by making clear how the subordinates’