2

Management Functions

David P. Zgarrick

A
bout the Author: Dr. Zgarrick is John R. Ellis Distinguished Chair of the De-
partment of Pharmacy Practice and Professor of Pharmacy Administration at Drake
University’s College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences. Dr. Zgarrick received a B.S. de-
gree in pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin and an M.S. and Ph.D. in pharmaceutical
administration from The Ohio State University. He has practice experience in both independent
and chain community pharmacy settings. Dr. Zgarrick teaches courses in pharmacy operations
management, business planning for professional services, and drug literature evaluation. His
research interests are in pharmacist compensation and workforce issues, professional service
development, and the use of evidence-based medicine by pharmacists.

■ LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this chapter, students should be able to

1. Define the terms management and manager. Describe how concepts in manage-
ment figure into our everyday lives.
2. Compare and contrast management and leadership.
3. Compare and contrast classical views of management with modern views.
4. Describe the management process within the contexts of what managers do, re-
sources they manage, and levels at which managers perform their roles.
5. Integrate modern views of management with the management process.
6. Apply the management process to all personal and professional activities.

■ SC E NA R IO
Krista Connelly is a second-year pharmacy student. Like most second-year students, she de-
scribes her life as “incredibly stressed out.” A typical day consists of getting up at 6 a.m., getting

19
Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click here for terms of use.
20 W H Y S T U D Y M A N A G E M E N T I N P H A R M A C Y S C H O O L ?

dressed and running out the door by 7 a.m., and driving my exam schedule,” said Krista. “I don’t see how being
to school to get to her first class by 8 a.m. (making sure a manager can help me do the things I want to as a
to avoid the accident on the expressway that she heard pharmacist.”
about on her way out the door). While at school, she
finds time to squeeze in cups of coffee and snack bars ■ C H A P T E R QU E S T IO N S
between the lectures, labs, and workshops that usually
last until at least 4 p.m. She also makes a point to go to 1. Why is it that all pharmacists should be considered
the library to prepare upcoming assignments, as well managers regardless of their titles or positions?
as to meet with her professors to review how she did 2. Why should pharmacy students study manage-
on her exams. ment?
After class today, Krista has an Academy of Stu- 3. What is the difference between management and
dents of Pharmacy (ASP) meeting. Krista is the vice leadership?
president of her chapter. As vice president, she is in 4. How does management affect every aspect of our
charge of working with all the committee chairs. In the daily lives?
past few weeks she has had to help the new professional 5. Will the same approach to management be effective
service chairperson develop a brown bag seminar, talk for all types of situations encountered by pharma-
her fund-raising chairperson out of quitting, and write cists?
a report on each committee’s activities for the chapter
Web site. While she really enjoys her leadership role in ■ W H AT I S MA NAG E M E NT ?
ASP, she finds some of the people she works with to be
frustrating and wonders how she can motivate them to For many people, a distinct set of images comes to
do a better job. mind when they hear the word management. First and
After her meeting, Krista drives to a fast-food foremost, they think of a person (or possibly a group
restaurant to grab a quick dinner on her way to her of people) who is “the boss” to whom they report at
part-time pharmacy technician job. If she’s not work- work. While some people view their relationships with
ing, she’ll head to a friend’s house to study for an up- management as positive, many of us have had expe-
coming exam. She usually gets back to her apartment riences where this has not been the case. This is why
by 10 p.m. and mentally prepares for what she needs when you ask people what they think of management,
to do in the next few days. She might catch a little bit they often provide negative views and experiences. Ask
of TV before heading to bed by midnight. pharmacy students what they think about entering ca-
On weekends, Krista catches up on what one reers in pharmacy management, and you’ll likely get
might call “activities of daily living.” She’ll do her laun- answers similar to those provided by Krista Connelly
dry, pay her bills, surf the Internet, call her parents and and her friends in the scenario.
friends back home, and get together with her friends Perhaps it may be better to start by looking a bit
on Saturday night. When Krista and her friends (most more closely at the term management. The stem of the
of whom are also pharmacy students) go out, they’ll word is manage, which according to Webster’s Dictio-
often talk about their plans after they graduate from nary is a verb meaning “to control the movement or
pharmacy school. They talk about how exciting it will behavior of, to lead or direct, or to succeed in accom-
be to counsel patients, work with other health care pro- plishing” (Allee, 1990). Think about how this defini-
fessionals, and finally start making those high salaries tion applies to your daily life. Have you ever controlled
they have heard so much about. None of them says the movement or behavior of someone or something
that they want to be pharmacy managers. “The phar- (even if it was just yourself )? Have you ever succeeded
macy manager at my store is always on my case about in accomplishing a task (even if it was just getting to
coming in late or having to arrange my hours around an examination on time)?
 Management Functions 21

According to Tootelian and Gaedeke (1993), man- that all managers also have leadership skills, they do
agement is “a process which brings together resources not necessarily go hand in hand.
and unites them in such a way that, collectively, they
achieve goals or objectives in the most efficient man- ■ C L A SS IC A L A N D M O D E R N
ner possible.” Contrary to what many people believe, V I EW S O F MA NAG E M E NT
management is a process, which is simply a method of
doing something. Processes are used to perform simple While management and managers have been with us
everyday tasks (e.g., swinging a golf club or driving to since humans have had tasks to perform and goals to
school) as well as more complex activities (e.g., hiring accomplish (e.g., gathering food or finding shelter),
a pharmacy technician or dosing an aminoglycoside the study of management as a scientific and academic
drug). People perform processes because they want to curriculum is relatively new. Before the industrial rev-
achieve a goal or objective. Goals and objectives can olution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
be personal (e.g., a low golf score or getting to school most people lived and worked alone or in small groups.
on time) or professional (e.g., a smoothly operating While people at that time still had goals and objectives
pharmacy or high-quality patient care). Because pro- that needed to be accomplished efficiently, there was
cesses require resources, and resources are scarce (they little formal study of the best ways to do so. The advent
are not present in unlimited supply), it is important of the industrial revolution brought together groups of
that resources be used in such a way as to achieve goals hundreds and thousands of people who shared a com-
and objectives in the most efficient manner possible. mon objective. In order to get large groups of people to
While one could achieve one’s goal of getting to school work together effectively, industrialists and academics
on time by driving 90 miles an hour, one also could established hierarchies and systems that allowed large
argue that this would not be the most efficient use of industrial organizations to accomplish their goals (es-
the driver’s resources, especially if there is a sharp turn pecially those related to growth and profitability).
ahead or a police officer waiting around the corner. Around the turn of the twentieth century, an
Managers are simply people who perform man- American industrialist and a French engineer began to
agement activities. While people whom we think of publish observations in what would become known as
as “the boss” and those with administrative appoint- the classical, or administrative, school of management
ments within an organization certainly are managers, thought. F. W. Taylor, an executive with Bethlehem
the fact is that anyone who has a task to accomplish or a Steel, published The Principles of Scientific Management
goal to achieve is a manager as well. Pharmacy students in 1911. He was among the first to espouse applying
and pharmacists who say that they do not want to be scientific principles to management of the workplace.
managers may not desire the authority and responsi- Henri Fayol, a French mining engineer and corporate
bilities of having an administrative position, but there executive, published Administration Industrielle et
is no getting around their need to use resources effi- Generale in 1916. Both Taylor and Fayol argued that all
ciently to perform the tasks related to their jobs. Thus organizations, regardless of size or objective, had to per-
all pharmacists, regardless of their job responsibilities form a standard set of functions to operate efficiently.
or position, should view themselves as managers. Fayol’s five management functions (i.e., forecasting
Another term that is used commonly when think- and planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating,
ing about management is leadership. While some peo- and controlling) became widely accepted throughout
ple use the terms interchangeably to describe charac- the industrialized world. Both Fayol’s five management
teristics that are expected of people who are “in charge” functions and 14 principles for organizational design
of organizations, leadership is a distinctly different skill (Table 2-1) are still used by managers today. For
from management. Leadership involves the ability to example, while in the scenario Krista Connelly has
inspire or direct others. While it certainly is desirable the responsibility for working with her ASP chapter’s
22 W H Y S T U D Y M A N A G E M E N T I N P H A R M A C Y S C H O O L ?

Table 2-1. Classical Management Theory (Fayol)

Fayol’s 5 management functions:

1. Forecast and plan
2. Organize
3. Command
4. Coordinate
5. Control
Fayol’s 14 principles for organizational design and effective administration:
t
Specialization/division of labor. People should perform tasks specific to their skills. No one person should
be expected to perform all the skills needed to run an organization.
t
Authority with corresponding responsibility. People with responsibility also have sufficient authority within
an organization to ensure that a task is performed.
t
Discipline. People should follow rules, with consequences for not following rules.
t
Unity of command. The organization has an administrator who is recognized as having the ultimate
authority (e.g., CEO or president).
t
Unity of direction. The organization has a sense of direction or vision that is recognized by all members
(e.g., mission statement).
t
Subordination of individual interest to general interest. The goals of the organization supercede the goals
of any individuals within the organization.
t
Remuneration of staff. Employees should be paid appropriately given the market for their skills and their
level of responsibility.
t
Centralization. Performing similar tasks at a single location is more effective than performing these tasks
at multiple locations.
t
Scalar chain/line of authority. Each employee has one, and only one, direct supervisor.
t
Order. Tasks should be performed in a systematic fashion.
t
Equity. Supervisors should treat employees with a sense of fairness.
t
Stability of tenure. Benefits should go to employees who have stayed with an organization longer.
t
Initiative. Organizations and employees are more effective when they are proactive, not reactive.
t
Esprit de corps. Teamwork, harmony.

committee chairs, she cannot be effective in her ability higher levels of education (almost always men) gen-
to carry out her responsibilities unless her position erally were given administrative positions. They were
provides her with authority that is recognized by the expected to supervise large numbers of less educated
committee chairs. Chapter 8 provides more informa- production-line employees. In this hierarchy, the role
tion on Fayol’s principles of organizational design. of administrators generally was to command and con-
Much of Taylor’s and Fayol’s work was developed trol their employees, and the role of workers was to
based on the workplace conditions of the eighteenth, carry out the tasks at hand without question.
nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. The great in- On the other hand, the workforce and workplace
dustries of those times focused primarily on the mass of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries
production of tangible goods. Very few people were ed- have evolved into something quite different. According
ucated beyond grammar school. The few people with to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (2007), more than
 Management Functions 23

five times the number of people are involved in the Individual

provision of services than in the production of tangible Interpersonal
Organizational
goods. Today’s workforce is much better educated and
more highly skilled than workers had been in the past. Plan
In many cases, today’s administrators have less formal
education and fewer technical skills than the people Organize
they are supervising.
These trends have led many to question the rel- Lead
evance of classical management theories in today’s
rapidly changing world. Walk down the “Business” Control
aisle of practically any bookstore and you’ll find liter-
Money People Time Materials Info
ally hundreds of books written by management “gurus”
such as Covey, Drucker, Peters, and many others es- Figure 2-1. The management process.
pousing modern management techniques and offering
“hands on” advice about how to deal with day-to-day to get them done), all managers (which means all of
workplace issues. Researchers apply scientific methods us!) perform each of these activities every day, whether
to the study of management and publish their results in we are thinking of them or not.
scholarly journals, similar to what we see in pharmacy The first of these four activities is planning. Plan-
and medicine. These books and research studies make ning is predetermining a course of action based on one’s
important contributions to management science, given goals and objectives. Managers must consider many
the continued need to use scarce resources to achieve factors when planning, including their internal and ex-
goals and objectives in an ever-changing business cli- ternal environments. The chief pharmacist at a com-
mate. However, as will be discussed below, classical munity pharmacy or the director of a hospital phar-
management theory still has a place in today’s pharma- macy will develop plans to predetermine which drug
cies, as well as in our personal lives. products he wishes to carry or what professional ser-
vices he might offer. Some pharmacists will even go so
■ T H E MA NAG E M E NT far as to develop formal strategic and business plans for
P RO C E SS their pharmacies (see Chapters 5, 6, and 24 through
27). On the other hand, planning can also be very infor-
Figure 2-1 describes one way in which Fayol’s man- mal. Anyone who goes to work or school in the morn-
agement functions can be adapted to describe what ing develops a plan for how they will get there (i.e.,
managers do in today’s world. There are three dimen- What time do I need to arrive? What form of trans-
sions of management: (1) activities that managers per- portation should I take? What route should I follow?).
form, (2) resources that managers need, and (3) levels The next management activity is organizing. Or-
at which managers make decisions. Every action taken ganizing is the arrangement and relationship of activ-
by a manager involves at least one aspect of each of the ities and resources necessary for the effective accom-
three dimensions. plishment of a goal or objective. Once a pharmacist
has decided which drug products or services she should
Management Activities offer, she needs to ask herself what resources she needs
Fayol’s five management functions have been adapted to provide them, how she will go about obtaining these
to describe four activities that all managers perform. resources, and then determine when she will need to ob-
While managers who hold administrative positions in tain them. Once the person going to work or school has
their organizations may have formal ways of perform- a plan, he needs to think about what else he may need
ing these activities (and are evaluated on their ability to do to accomplish his goal (e.g., check the weather
24 W H Y S T U D Y M A N A G E M E N T I N P H A R M A C Y S C H O O L ?

and traffic reports, get gas in his car, drop his kids off
with a child care provider, etc.).
The next step is the leading or directing step. This
Plan
step combines Fayol’s command and coordinate steps
to provide a better description of what managers actu-
ally do in today’s world. Leading or directing involves
bringing about purposeful action toward some desired Control Organize
outcome. It can take the form of actually doing some-
thing yourself (the person going to work or school just
needs to get up and go) or working with others to lead
them to where you want your organization to be. A Lead
pharmacist eventually may offer the goods and services
described in her plans, but almost certainly she will Figure 2-2. Management activities cycle.
need to work with a number of other people within her
organization to accomplish this task. In the scenario, Management activities should be performed in
Krista Connelly, in her role has vice president of her order, starting with the planning step. They are also
ASP chapter, is responsible for seeing that the chapter’s meant to be cyclic, meaning that what a manager learns
committees work effectively to accomplish their ob- in the control and evaluation step should be incorpo-
jectives. Working with others often requires leadership rated into the planning step the next time she needs
skills, which will be discussed in Chapter 14. to accomplish that objective (Fig. 2-2). For example,
The fourth step is the control or evaluation step. if a pharmacy student receives a score on an examina-
Control or evaluation involves reviewing the progress tion that did not meet his goal, he should use what he
that has been made toward the objectives that were set learned in the evaluation step (e.g., what questions he
out in the plan. This step involves not only determin- got wrong, time spent studying, etc.) to help him plan
ing what actually happened but also why it happened. for the next examination.
Performing quality-control checks to help ensure that
patients are receiving the desired medication in the Resources That Are Managed
appropriate manner is a very important function of Regardless of their level or position within an organiza-
a pharmacy practice. Pharmacists can also ask them- tion, managers must use resources to achieve their goals
selves if the goods and services they offered met their and objectives. Keep in mind that resources are scarce,
goals. These goals can be from the perspective of their meaning that they are not available in unlimited supply.
patients (e.g., Did the goods and services result in high- Both organizations and individuals must use resources
quality patient care or improved clinical outcomes?), efficiently to achieve their goals and objectives.
as well as from other perspectives (e.g., Did the ser- The first resource that many managers think of is
vice improve the pharmacist’s job satisfaction? Did it money. Customers generally provide money to phar-
improve the profitability of the pharmacy or organiza- macies and pharmacists in exchange for goods and ser-
tion?). The person going to work or school not only vices. Employers generally pay their employees money
should ask himself if he arrived on time but should in exchange for the services they provide to the organi-
also know why he did or did not (e.g., the traffic acci- zation. Managing money is important to any organi-
dent on the expressway, hitting the snooze button that zation or individual, and several chapters of this book
third time before getting up, etc.). Chapters 9 and 28 are dedicated to explaining how pharmacies and phar-
review some of the methods that pharmacists use to macists manage money and use economic informa-
help ensure the quality of their operations and reduce tion to make decisions (see Chapters 15 through 19).
the occurrence of medication errors. Money in and of itself can be an important yardstick for
 Management Functions 25

measuring the success of an organization or an individ- While the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
ual. However, most managers value money for its abil- were known as the time of the industrial revolution,
ity to allow them to obtain additional resources that the twenty-first century certainly will be known as the
are necessary to achieve other goals and objectives. information age. The advent of the computer and the
Another resource that is very important to man- Internet in the late twentieth century has resulted in
agers is people. In pharmacy practice, there is very an explosion of information that is literally at most
little that any one person can accomplish on his or people’s fingertips. This already has had a tremendous
her own, regardless of the practice setting. Pharmacists impact on pharmacy practice, providing pharmacists
must work with other employees in their pharmacies, with information about drugs and patients that they
other health care professionals, and especially the pa- did not have only a few years ago. While it is not certain
tients and customers they serve. Given the importance what implications this will have for pharmacy practice
of this topic, an entire section of this book (Chapters 8 in the future, it is certain that information manage-
through 14) is dedicated to the management of people. ment is becoming an important job for pharmacists.
How many times have you heard someone say, Chapter 8 provides an overview of technologies that
“I’d have got that done if I’d have had more time”? Of pharmacists use to manage information, as well as in-
all the resources managers have at their disposal, time sights into what role information management may
can be the most limiting. After all, there are only 24 have in the future of pharmacy practice.
hours in a day! Time management is essential for to-
day’s busy pharmacist, as well as for most other people. Levels of Management
In the scenario, Krista Connelly is a great example of When managers perform management activities, they
a pharmacy student who could benefit from time and can do so at a number of levels with a variety of dif-
stress management. Chapters 13 and 14 are dedicated ferent purposes in mind. While some people think of
to time management, stress management, and organi- management activities as only occurring at a corporate
zational skills that can help you to get the most out of or organizational level, management activities occur
this precious resource. much more frequently at lower levels.
When many people think of pharmacy, they still There is not a person reading this book who has
think of a pharmacist standing behind a counter com- not performed self-management activities. Just the fact
pounding drug products and dispensing prescriptions. that you are a pharmacy student or pharmacist attests to
While pharmacy practice continues to evolve from a the fact that you have performed a number of activities
product to a patient orientation, managing material re- on your own just to get to this point. Self-management
sources is still a very important function in a pharmacy. is the most frequently occurring level of management, if
Community pharmacies filled 3.4 billion prescriptions for no other reason than that practically every decision
in 2005, an increase of almost 70 percent over the past we make every day (both professional and personal)
decade (NACDS, 2006). The costs of these drug prod- requires self-management. For example, pharmacists
ucts, as well as the costs of the equipment and supplies must prioritize and manage their time efficiently so
necessary to dispense them safely and efficiently to pa- that they can accomplish the wide variety of tasks, from
tients, continues to rise in all practice settings. Just as ensuring that every prescription is dispensed accurately
people need to assess their needs and supplies of ma- to making sure that they have time to counsel their
terial goods (e.g., food, clothing, household supplies, patients.
etc.) before going on a shopping trip, pharmacies need Next to self-management, the most frequent level
to make the same assessments before purchasing drug on which managers find themselves performing is the
products, equipment, and supplies. Chapters 7, 22, interpersonal level. Interpersonal management occurs
and 23 are all designed to help readers learn more about between the manager and one other person. In a phar-
managing material resources. macy, this might involve a pharmacist counseling a
26 W H Y S T U D Y M A N A G E M E N T I N P H A R M A C Y S C H O O L ?

patient about a medication or training a technician on Health care organizations such as hospitals and
how to adjudicate a claim with a third-party payer. Our pharmacies present a number of managerial challenges
personal lives are full of interpersonal relationships, in- to administrators. Unlike the workers of Taylor’s and
cluding those with our parents, siblings, spouse, chil- Fayol’s day, most health care workers are highly edu-
dren, friends, and significant others. cated and skilled professionals. Trends toward special-
The level of management that occurs less fre- ization among health care professionals often create
quently is organizational management. This involves situations where staff-level health care workers have
actions that affect groups of people. We frequently more knowledge and expertise of their particular area
think of this occurring at work, especially when a phar- than their administrators. As you can imagine, admin-
macist needs to develop a policy or make a decision that istrators of health care professionals who attempt to use
may affect many people at the pharmacy. High-level their authority to command and control these employ-
administrators in large organizations (e.g., pharmacy ees may find this not to be an effective way to achieve
chains, hospitals, etc.) often make decisions that affect organizational goals and objectives.
everyone within the organization. Keep in mind that Modern views of management suggest that man-
people who hold administrative positions are not the agers must adapt their management activities to their
only ones who perform organizational management. workers. These functions generally occur in addition
Anyone who has ever had to make an “executive de- to the classical management functions. According to
cision” among a group of classmates who are studying Nelson and Economy (2003), today’s manager also
for an examination or deciding where to go for lunch needs to
can relate to the kinds of organizational-level decisions
that business leaders make every day. t Energize. Today’s managers need to have a vision of
what they want to create and the energy to make
■ I NT E G R AT I N G M O D E R N it happen. When you think of good managers with
A N D C L A SS IC A L V I EW S O F whom you have worked in the past, they are probably
MA NAG E M E NT not the kind of people who just want to keep doing
the same thing every day for the rest of their lives.
Much of what was first described by Taylor and Fayol They generally have ideas about what they would
at the beginning of the twentieth century is still applied like to see their organizations become in the future
today by managers at all levels of administration in all and the energy to attract others who want to join
types of organizations. However, much has changed in in. They are always trying to make the best of what
both pharmacy practice and the workplace over that often can be stressful situations, especially when the
time, and management science has exploded to keep level of resources available may be less than they de-
up with those changes. sire. In pharmacy today, good managers are often
One hundred years ago, the relationship between pharmacists who want to see the profession move
an administrator and a worker was very hierarchical. forward by developing new professional services and
The authority of the administrator generally went un- opportunities to provide pharmaceutical care. Their
questioned, and workers simply did what they were energy and enthusiasm generally attract motivated
told. In today’s workplace, there is much more of a part- pharmacists and other personnel who share their vi-
nership between administrators and workers. While sion and want to work with them. These managers
administrators are still responsible for achieving or- also seem to find the resources they need to carry
ganizational goals and objectives, workers generally out their vision or make the most of what they al-
expect to have input as to how goals and objectives ready have. Not only does the power of energy and
will be accomplished and also expect to share in the enthusiasm work for pharmacists, but it also benefits
rewards when those goals are accomplished. pharmacy students as well. Do you think that Krista
 Management Functions 27

Connelly would be as an effective leader if she did a good job, as well as helping them to learn when
not have a high level of energy and enthusiasm for things are not going so well. Even pharmacy students
ASP’s goals and objectives? like Krista Connelly know that a few kind words to
t Empower. If you are a highly educated and skilled her committee chairpersons will help her ASP chap-
health professional, the last thing you probably want ter in the long run.
is to have an administrator questioning your deci- In providing support, managers must also be
sions and telling you how you should do your job. mindful to balance the needs and resources of their
In today’s environment, managers should empower organizations with what their employees need. As
their employees to do what needs to be done. In much as a manager may wish to give a valued em-
many ways, today’s manager is very much like the ployee a big raise, the manager must also consider
coach of a team. Coaches develop a game plan; se- how much money is available for a raise and other
lect players; provide them with training, resources, potential uses of his financial resources.
and advice; and then step back and let the players t Communicate. In today’s information-laden environ-
execute the game plan. Good coaches empower their ment, communication between managers and em-
players to carry out their game plan. Managers who ployees is more important than ever. While man-
empower their employees provide them with train- agers can energize, empower, and support their
ing, resources, and advice and then let the employ- employees, if they cannot communicate their mes-
ees get the job done. Krista Connelly can empower sages, they will not be effective, and their organiza-
her ASP committee chairpersons by providing them tions will suffer. The cornerstone of communications
with goals, resources, and advice and then letting in any environment is trust. If employees feel that
them get to work. they can bring up any question or concern to a man-
This is not to say that managers do not need to ager, they probably will be much more receptive to
supervise their employees. Managers are still respon- what the manager has to say.
sible for seeing that their organizations’ goals are met, One major challenge for managers and employ-
which may mean having to intervene with workers. ees today is the vast number of ways in which they
Just as coaches need to provide resources and advice can communicate with each other. Communication
to their players during a game, and occasionally re- that used to take place between managers and em-
place a player who is not executing the game plan, ployees in person now can take place over the tele-
managers need to provide resources, advice, and oc- phone, via voice mail, or even by means of text mes-
casionally discipline to see that their organizations’ saging and e-mail. While these additional methods
goals are met. can make it easier for managers and employees to
t Support. After a manager has empowered her em- communicate with each other, care must be taken in
ployees to do their jobs, she should not just leave using these methods. As you can imagine, not every
them on their own, especially when things start to method of communication is appropriate for every
go wrong. Today, good managers need to be coaches, type of message (e.g., disciplining or firing an em-
collaborators, and sometimes even cheerleaders for ployee in a text message on a cell phone is not a good
their employees. Providing support for employees idea).
does not mean that managers should be willing to
do their employees’ work or always agree with the
decisions their employees make on the job. It does ■ W H Y S HO U L D I S T U DY
mean that managers need to provide their employees MA NAG E M E NT ?
with the training, resources, and authority needed to
do their jobs. Managers also need to be good coaches, After reading the first two chapters of this book, you
letting their employees know when they have done still may be asking yourself, “Why should I study
28 W H Y S T U D Y M A N A G E M E N T I N P H A R M A C Y S C H O O L ?

management?” You may think that being a good man- all, they are living pharmacy practice management on
ager just involves using your common sense and apply- a daily basis! The information provided in this book
ing the Golden Rule (act toward others as you would should help to provide pharmacists with the skills they
have others act toward you). After all, you probably will need to better meet the challenges they face every
have done a good job managing yourself up to this day. In addition, the last four chapters of this book
point without taking a management course or reading (Chapters 31 through 34) describe how pharmacists in
a management textbook. Can managing a pharmacy a variety of practice settings apply management skills
practice be that much different? on a daily basis.
While there is certainly a role for applying self-
management skills, most pharmacy managers agree
■ QU E S T IO N S F O R F U RT H E R
that managing a pharmacy practice successfully re-
D I SC U SS IO N
quires a unique set of skills. Some of these skills can be
quite technical [e.g., financial management (see Chap- Listed below are three scenarios that represent how
ters 15 through 19) and marketing (see Chapters 20 pharmacists use the management process on a daily
through 23)], requiring a knowledge base that goes be- basis. For each scenario, please describe (1) the level of
yond what many pharmacists bring to their practices. management being performed, (2) the type of manage-
These skills should be studied just as one would study ment activity being performed, and (3) the resources
medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, or therapeutics. that the pharmacist needs to perform this activity.
Something else to keep in mind is that in today’s
workplace, what might be common sense to you may Scenario 1: Sabin Patel, R.Ph., is trying to decide what
not make sense at all to the other people you encounter. form of education (nontraditional Pharm.D., cer-
Pharmacists today work with employees, other health tificate program, continuing education) would best
professionals, and especially patients who come from a allow her to maintain her practice skills.
wide variety of racial, ethnic, cultural, and educational Scenario 2: Doug Danforth, Pharm.D., is training a
backgrounds. People from diverse backgrounds bring technician regarding information that needs to be
with them an incredible amount of insight and expe- collected during an initial patient interview.
rience. Pharmacists who do not take this into account Scenario 3: Casey Kulpinski, Pharm.D., is reviewing
when working with diverse groups of people may find her pharmacy’s financial statements to determine if
themselves frustrated and not able to achieve their goals her diabetes care center met her chain’s financial
and objectives effectively. goals.
In this book we make an effort to present material
that is relevant to both pharmacy students and phar-
macists. Pharmacy students who use this book will find REFERENCES
that many of the scenarios that start each chapter are
directed toward experiences to which they can relate. Allee JG (ed). 1990. Webster’s Dictionary. Baltimore: Otten-
There may be some of you right now who think that heimer Publishers.
your life has a lot in common with Krista Connelly’s. National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS). 2006.
We anticipate that this is the case. The information The Chain Pharmacy Industry Profile: 2006. Alexandria,
provided in each chapter not only will help students VA: National Association of Chain Drug Stores.
Nelson B, Economy P. 2003. Managing for Dummies, 2d ed.
to better deal with management issues they are cur-
New York: Wiley.
rently experiencing but will also help to prepare them Tootelian DH, Gaedeke RM. 1993. Essentials of Pharmacy
for what to expect in the future as pharmacists. Management. St Louis: Mosby.
Pharmacists who use this book often have a good U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2007. www.bls.gov/news.
idea of why they need to have management skills. After release/empsit.nr0.htm; accessed on April 11, 2007.