The Modern Manager and Fayol's Managerial Functions

This essay explores the work of a modern manager and further analyses it to understand its relevance with Fayol’s managerial functions. The significance of the economic and technological conditions in the organisation’s general environment upon his work is also subsequently discussed. On top of that, a comprehensive evaluation and comparison between various school of thoughts on the discussed topics will also be presented, fully supported with evidence.A manager is defined as someone who coordinates and overlooks the work of other people so that organisational goals can be accomplished (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, and Coulter ,2012). Due to the consistently evolving nature of the economy, a clear guideline for a manager’s work ceases to exist. Each manager performs different tasks according to their work. Nevertheless, modern management practice generally revolves around the paradigm of Henry Fayol’s key managerial functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling despite experiencing various trajectories throughout the years. This notion is supported by Carroll and Gillen (1987), who affirmed that classical functions still represent the most useful way of conceptualizing the manager’s job.

Mr. A, who was the manager interviewed, is a top level manager . He currently holds the position of Managing Director in Company ABC, which is a medium-sized organisation in the fasteners retail industry. Company ABC is a well-known supplier of fasteners and hardware to automotive, construction and manufacturing industries. According to Robbins., et al.(2012), top managers are responsible for making organisation-wide decisions and establishing various goals and plans that affect the whole organisation. Indeed ,as the Managing...

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