Management and business administration is one of the most complex and eclectic majors. It prepares students for governing public and private sector organizations. This requires a wide range of competencies and skills in such disparate areas as ethics, human resources, team dynamics, finance, strategy, supply chain, sales, project management, leadership, operations, customer service, accounting, budgeting, globalization, etc. That’s why your management essay can be on any topic in these fields or at their intersection, depending on the particular course you are writing it for. Likewise, the particular requirements for every essay about management issues depend on the course guidelines and assignment details provided by your instructor.
That said, there are some good practices advised for any academic piece of writing in management. In this post, we give you these general recommendations along with some ideas and topics for management essay examples.
Good Practices for Writing a Management Essay
As with any utterance, either spoken or written, you should always start with the rhetorical situation. Before working on your essay, ask yourself, “Why do I write my paper? Who are my readers? What do I want to communicate?” This rule of thumb is especially relevant for such practical and applied fields as management. Here is what will help you to write effectively in this domain:
- Be concrete
- Be current
- Be concise
- Be active
- Be professional
The conclusion you draw in your writing and the solutions you propose must directly influence the business your essay deals with. Make sure that solutions are practical, efficient, and can be implemented in reality. For example, if you propose installing new equipment, specify its benefits, costs, and where the funding should be obtained for such renovation.
If you need to come up with a topic, make sure you choose something relevant to the business and up-to-date. For example, a recent event or an ongoing issue in your community that has business implications. Find your inspiration in global and domestic news stories, local press, or personal observations and interviews with business owners and customers.
Business writing used in reports, case studies, and strategies is short, clear, and to the point. It is goal-oriented and aims to communicate information as accurately and efficiently as possible, so the readers can respond immediately and act on this new evidence. That’s why you should use shorter sentences, unambiguous expressions, and simpler terms.
The style you use to write management papers differs from the objective academic writing that dispassionately distances itself from the subject. In other disciplines, you suggest hypotheses with a certain vagueness of intellectual humility and reasonable doubt. In management, your words must be active, positive, and confident. Think “We must adopt this policy to prevent redundancy” instead of “One way of preventing redundancy could be adopting the policy described above.”
The tone of writing, albeit conversational and straightforward, should still retain a certain degree of formality. Refrain from jargon, slang, and emotionally charged words. The best solution for each particular essay would be to conform to the level of formality accepted as a standard in this industry and topic. For example, more formality is considered normal in the legal sphere than in human resources or customer relations. Understanding this topicality is essential to effectively communicating your message.
Topics for Management Essay: Examples and Ideas
Now, for the interesting part. What can you write your paper about? Here are some sample topics for an essay on management:
- The role of strategic planning in a company’s capacity for survival in a crisis
- Challenges of budgeting in times of uncertainty
- Good practices of inventory management for small businesses
- Types of employment separation and conditions required
- Main categories of employee rights and federal laws that protect them
- Main sections and structure of a sound business plan
- Barriers to manager’s effectiveness and ways to overcome them
- Non-material incentives and their role in employee motivation
- Which are the most essential qualities of a good manager?
- The relationship between types of power and leadership styles
- Management measures for business stability during a recession
- Suggest optimization for the logistics system of any company of your choice
- Best practices for managing negative customer feedback in social media spaces
- Types of corporate social responsibility and environmental management
- Essential skills and key responsibilities of a resource manager
- The role of employee training and development for the success of a business
- The primary role and responsibilities of an operations manager
- Main challenges of leading an organization’s sales team
- What is the critical competency of a project manager?
- Benchmarks for evaluating project’s performance
Practical Tips on Writing a Management Essay
Now, for some hands-on advice to make sure your essay will get you the best possible grade.
- Read the prompt carefully and answer the question asked
- Don’t procrastinate
- Use fresh data
- Have a clear structure
- Edit and proofread
You will be surprised to hear how many students don’t follow the essay prompt very well and hope to get away with not answering the question. This occurs for various reasons: student is in a hurry because they procrastinated until the last minute, they don’t understand the question, or they don’t have anything to say on the matter, so they try to steer the conversation to another topic (one they are more familiar with), etc. Whatever your reason is, an essay with no answer to the question will yield a low grade, so spare several minutes to carefully read and understand the prompt.
To prevent the sorry state of affairs described above, start your work as early as possible. A challenging topic, a large volume, or the significance of the outcome might all be daunting and paralyzing. Yet postponing your work on this essay will only hurt your chances. That is why the best advice anyone can give you is, “Just write!” Start by taking notes when you read something on this topic, brainstorm, and outline your thoughts. Put words on paper. No one expects perfection (or even coherency) from your first rough draft. As soon as you start, the fear of the blank page will go away.
As long as you don’t write on a historical topic, such as “Leaders of labor unions during the industrial revolution” or “Hiring practices in the 1970–80s,” you must use the most recent data you can find. If you base your assumptions on dated evidence, you must disclose this, acknowledge limitations, and explain why you still think these data might be appropriate to use. For example, a relevant survey was conducted in 2002, and no further studies have been done in this direction to date. It’s all evidence there is, which is suboptimal, yet better than nothing.
Your essay must have an introduction where you explain why this topic is relevant and deserves consideration. In the same section, you put your thesis statement forward – the idea you will attempt to prove right with your essay. The body should consist of several paragraphs (usually three or more). Each paragraph must present one idea or argument, explain it, and show how it relates to the main point given in the thesis statement. Finally, the introduction should suggest your solution to the problem, evaluate the potential of the topic for further discussion, and reiterate your thesis statement as proven in the view of all the presented evidence.
Last but not least, budget enough time to reread and improve your draft at least twice before handing it in, spacing out your editing sessions. The first time, edit for content: coherency, logic, arguments, and text flow. The second time, proofread for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and adherence to formatting indicated in the assignment sheet.
As you can see, all it takes is a bit of time and practice. If you experience difficulties at any stage of your essay writing project, turn to Paper Help for assistance. Our experts will suggest relevant topics, assist you with research, help you outline your essay, create a sample draft, edit and proofread your final copy before submission, and give tips on improving your writing.
