The Four Functions of Management and How it Relates to My Organization
In today’s corporate world a manager to be affective must be able to incorporate the four functions of management (planning, organizing, leading, and controlling) into his or her management techniques. Managers who fail to implement the four functions have a greater chance of being unsuccessful in accomplishing the primary outcome for the project or task. Thus, generating an inferior product.
DEFINING THE FOUR FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT
“Planning: is specifying the goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals” (Bateman & Snell, 2004, p. 16).
“Organizing: is assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals” (Bateman & Snell, 2004, p. 17).
“Leading: is stimulating people to be high performers. It is directing, motivating, and communicating with employees, individually and in groups. Leading involves close day-to-day contact with people, helping to guide and inspire them toward achieving team and organizational goals” (Bateman & Snell, 2004, p. 17).
“Controlling: monitors progress and implements necessary changes where needed. Monitoring is an essential aspect of control” (Bateman & Snell, 2004, p. 18).
As you can see after defining the four functions of management that they prove to be a vital component for a manager and for the success of his or her team or organization in achieving the goals set forth in a particular project. In my company (NUS Consulting Group), I am an Energy Consultant and each function is important for us as well. Each day in my organization, we generate recommendations in the form of a report detailing how our clients can reduce their overall costs in electricity, gas, water, sewer, and any other commodity they wish my company to audit and analyze.
However, in some cases we need to develop strategies for them to improve their efficiency, improve their machinery, install backup generation, etc. In these scenarios, a team is developed with the consultant being the project manager or point man. Therefore, these projects require the four functions to be followed so we can develop the best possible solution. The first function used is “Planning”, which allows us to outline a strategy catering to the specific needs of our client. The “Planning” function also gives us a time table on how long the project will take to complete, who needs to be involved, and how we expect to accomplish each goal.
Planning is an essential but potentially complex managerial function. The main objective of planning is to ensure that the organization is both effective and efficient in its activities and that it achieves its goals.
Four Management functions are planning: determined goals and policies and procedures, Organizing: est. structure to carry out plans, Staffing, Directing: human resources, Controlling: appraisals, quality control.
Emotions of a leader are so important in this aspect of leadership. It is through emotions that the leader will be categorized as ‘toxic’ or ‘not toxic.’ It is with no doubt that true leaders will appeal to emotions and as the same time know how to cope with their own emotions and how to perceive or control the emotions of a group. The major fundamental task of a leader is to inspire positive feelings in those he leads. In whichever situation followers always turn their attention to leaders, they expect his reaction towards that particular situation which will act as emotional guideline. The way a leader responds to a situation will give the followers a way of interpreting that event which in turn will make them react emotionally. If a leaders panics, gets annoyed or angry, these emotions will spread to the followers. On the contrary if he shows confidence and optimism to the same situation, his emotions will also be “infectious” (Maxwell, 2002).
What are the functions of management? This paper will define the four basic principles of management. They are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. I work for FMC Technologies in Airport Services. FMC is a service provider for Continental Airlines. FMC provides facility maintenance in all areas of Bush Intercontinental Airport. I will explain how these functions relate to my company.
Try to think about the four functions as a process where each step builds on the others. Managers must first plan, then organize according to that plan, lead others to work towards the plan, and finally evaluate the effectiveness of the plan. These four functions must be performed properly and, when done well, become the reason for organizational success.
There are several steps in the process of a basic planning structure. They are situational analysis, alternatives, evaluation, selection, implementation, and monitor and control. Situational analysis is the internal and external reviewing of past events, current conditions, and attempts to forecast future trends. Which is also known to be a SWOT analysis. Followed by an alternative in which management selects alternative targets and actions to achieve goals. Evaluation is the process in which the decision-maker evaluates the advantages, disadvantages, and potential effects of each alternative. Next in selection, the planner has to decide which goals and plans are appropriate and feasible, thereafter, the managers implement the plans designed to achieve the organizational goal. Finally, monitoring and controlling, an essential part of the process, since planning is an ongoing, repetitive process, managers need to monitor the progress and then controlling, in case a action is initiated incorrectly or when situations change.
181, the four functions of management). “Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are the heart of management.”
We will first start by looking at the planning aspect of management. Our book indicates that planning is the process of setting goals for the company, by looking at both internal and external environments, deciding which goals are the most important and need to be accomplished now, deciding what the company’s strategy will be to reach said goals, and allotting the resources needed to pursue these goals (Dr. Michael Reilly, 2011).
Managers have five major functions to perform, namely planning, staffing, organizing, controlling, and coordinating. These roles or functions of the management separate management from other roles such as marketing and accounting among others. The lessons that I have currently learned will help me in becoming a manager who will be capable of making various decisions that will have an impact on the whole firm. Additionally, the area where I have much interest in is the function of controlling in management.
No organization operates perfectly. If all business environments were perfect, organizational management would have little or no relevance. To have a productive working environment there are critical success factors that must be adhered to for optimal results. The initial stage is to identify the task at hand. This will help determine how resources (employees) will be used for their strengths and commissioned to contribute for the betterment of the organization. A managing director will emerge and identify the key deliverables, provide a vision, manage workflow, and delegate accordingly. The next step is to set up a schedule for completing tasks. A schedule provides a structured framework within which progress can be measured. Planning is more like contingency planning because it is a series of interventions that look to improve overall effectiveness and employee well-being.
Functional managers need to have good decision making skills in order to weight the positives and negatives of each choice. According
Management is accomplished through four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. According to Bateman-Snell, planning is the management function of systematically making decisions about the goals and activities that an individual, a group, a work unit, or the overall organization will pursue in the future. Organizing is the management function of assembling and coordinating human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals. Leading is the management function that involves the manager’s efforts to stimulate high performance by employees. Controlling is the management function of monitoring progress and making needed changes. The four functions of management, in a day care facility, the four functions of management are applied and utilized.
Planning provides the fundamental basis of an effective and efficient organisation. Planning plays a crucial role in any organisation and underpins the inner working’s of a business. It provides ‘an invaluable framework’ (Mokwa, 1987) and basis for action which facilitates for goals to be achieved and ultimately guide an organisation towards success. The positive implications that planning can have eon a business are varied, numerous and far reaching. There are a range of process and components involved with planning which all must be used synergistically by managers in order for an organisation to successfully reach there goals. The benefits of planning range from: increased employee motivation as a consequence of clear vision, to the extensive benefits of enhanced resource allocation and the consequent increase in resource efficiency derived from well organised logistics. Despite this, business can still be successful with limited planning or adopting a form of ‘informal planning’, yet it cannot be disputed that adopting formal planning techniques will allow an organisation to operate more effectively, in an organised manner and ultimately function at a higher level allowing it to excel, succeed and prosper in the highly competitive modern-day business environment.
function, managers need to analyse how activities and resources are to be grouped and carry out plans successfully (Bartol 2007). A manager have to understand their ability to manage the lower level employee which is the most valuable of the company as they are the key of output and implement in the planning. Then manager will coordinate the jobs between authority and responsibility that is to define the role position of them (MSG 2012).
As Schermerhorn states in Management planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are the tools needed by managers to accomplish performance goals. It is crucial that managers be able to recognize and act upon problems or opportunities as they arise. Planning is perhaps the cornerstone of the four processes. All good processes were at some point given great detail so as to anticipate possible problems and solutions to those problems. When the Honda Motor Company decided it needed to refine its inventory they didn't just jump at the first idea that was proposed; they first set their objectives and discussed ways to meet those objectives. After giving careful consideration to processes and the streamlining of those processes human error rose as the top need for change. Sounds simple you might respond; in reality it is much more complicated.