Functions of Management

Functions of Management

Management in some form or another is an integral part of living and is essential wherever human efforts are to be undertaken to achieve desired objectives. The basic ingredients of management are always at play, whether we manage our lives or business. Management is a set of principles relating to the functions of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling, and the applications of these principles in harnessing physical, financial, human and informational resources efficiently and effectively to achieve organizational goals.

Management is essential for organized life and necessary to run all types of organizations. Managing life means getting things done to achieve life’s objectives and managing an organization means getting tings done with and through other people to achieve its objectives.

There are basically five primary functions of management. These are:

1. Planning
2. Organizing
3. Staffing
4. Directing
5. Controlling

The controlling function comprises co-ordination, reporting and budgeting, and hence the controlling function can be broken into these three separate functions. Based upon these seven functions, Luther Guelick coined the word POSDCORB, which generally represents the initials of these seven functions i.e. P stands for Planning, O for Organizing, S for Staffing, D for Directing, Co for Co-ordination, R for reporting & B for Budgeting.

But, Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling are widely recognized functions of management.

Planning

Planning is future oriented and determines an organization’s direction. It is a rational and systematic way of making decisions today that will affect the future of the company. It is a kind of organized foresight as well as corrective hindsight. It involves the predicting of the future as well as attempting to control the events. It involves the ability to foresee the effects of current actions in the long run in the future.

Peter Drucker has defined planning as follows:

“Planning is the continuous process of making present entrepreneurial decisions systematically and with best possible knowledge of their futurity, organizing systematically the efforts needed to carry out these decisions and measuring the results of these decisions against the expectations through organized and systematic feedback”.

An effective planning program incorporates the effect of both external as well as internal factors. The external factors are shortages of resources; both capital and material, general economic trend as far as interest rates and inflation are concerned, dynamic technological advancements, increased governmental regulation regarding community interests, unstable international political environments, etc.

The internal factors that affect planning are limited growth opportunities due to saturation requiring diversification, changing patterns of work force, more complex organizational structures, decentralization etc

Organizing

Organizing requires a formal structure of authority and the direction and flow of such authority through which work subdivisions are defined, arranged and co-ordinated so that each part
relates to the other part in a united and coherent manner so as to attain the prescribed objectives.

According to Henry Fayol, “To organize a business is to provide it with everything useful or its functioning i.e. raw material, tools, capital and personnel’s”.

Thus the function of organizing involves the determination of activities that need to be done in order to reach the company goals, assigning these activities to the proper personnel, and delegating the necessary authority to carry out these activities in a co-ordinated and cohesive manner. It follows, therefore, that the function of organizing is concerned with:

1. Identifying the tasks that must be performed and grouping them whenever necessary
2. Assigning these tasks to the personnel while defining their authority and responsibility.
3. Delegating this authority to these employees
4. Establishing a relationship between authority and responsibility
5. Coordinating these activities

Staffing

Staffing is the function of hiring and retaining a suitable work-force for the enterprise both at managerial as well as non-managerial levels. It involves the process of recruiting, training, developing, compensating and evaluating employees, and maintaining this workforce with proper incentives and motivations. Since the human element is the most vital factor in the process of management, it is important to recruit the right personnel.

According to Kootz & O’Donell, “Managerial function of staffing involves manning the organization structure through proper and effective selection, appraisal & development of personnel to fill the roles designed in the structure”.

This function is even more critically important since people differ in their intelligence, knowledge, skills, experience, physical condition, age and attitudes, and this complicates the function. Hence, management must understand, in addition to the technical and operational competence, the sociological and psychological structure of the workforce.

Directing

The directing function is concerned with leadership, communication, motivation and supervision so that the employees perform their activities in the most efficient manner possible, in order to achieve the desired goals.

The leadership element involves issuing of instructions and guiding the subordinates about procedures and methods.

The communication must be open both ways so that the information can be passed on to the subordinates and the feedback received from them.

Motivation is very important, since highly motivated people show excellent performance with less direction from superiors.

Supervising subordinates would lead to continuous progress reports as well as assure the superiors that the directions are being properly carried out.

Controlling

The function of control consists of those activities that are undertaken to ensure that the events do not deviate from the per-arranged plans. The activities consist of establishing standards for work performance, measuring performance and comparing it to these set standards and taking corrective actions as and when needed, to correct any deviations.

According to Koontz & O’Donell, “Controlling is the measurement & correction of performance activities of subordinates in order to make sure that the enterprise objectives and plans desired to obtain them as being accomplished”.

The controlling function involves:

a. Establishment of standard performance.

b. Measurement of actual performance.

c. Measuring actual performance with the pre-determined standard and finding out the deviations.

d. Taking corrective action.

All these five functions of management are closely interrelated. However, these functions are highly indistinguishable and virtually unrecognizable on the job. It is necessary, though, to put each function separately into focus and deal with it.

Or ,

Management, as defined by Mary Parker Follett,

"The art of getting things done through people."

Management refers to the activities, and often the group of people, involved in the five general functions:

1. Planning
2. Organizing
3. Staffing 
4. Directing
5. Controlling 

PLANNING:

It is the ongoing process of developing the business's mission and objectives and determining how they will be accomplished. Planning includes both the broadcast view of the organization, e.g. it's mission, and the narrowest, e.g. a tactic for accomplishing a specific goal.  

ORGANIZING:

Organizing is an essential function of management. It is the process of accumulating resources from different sources in order to work according to the plans laid out by the management.

STAFFING:

It is function in which qualified people are appointed to different posts relating to their skills and strengths. The activities included in this function are recruiting, hiring, training, evaluating and compensating.

DIRECTING:

Directing is a function that comes after staffing of the organization, it is the function in which the management is supposed to lead, direct to a specific goal and motivate the employees for the achievement of any objective, big or small.

CONTROLLING:

It is a function in which the performance of the organization is measured and then evaluated after which the standard observed is determined to be either good or bad, which then in turn leads to taking preventive and corrective measures.

SID-SARFRAZ | STUDENT

Management

Management is the process of reaching organizational goals by working with and through people and other organizational resources. 

Management has the following 3 characteristics:

1. It is a process or series of continuing and related activities.
2. It involves and concentrates on reaching organizational goals.
3. It reaches these goals by working with and through people and other organizational resources.

Functions of Management:-

1. Planning
2. Organizing
3. Staffing
4. Leading
5. Controlling

PLANNING

Planning refers to what is to be done, how it is to be done and when it is to be done.

Planning involves choosing tasks that must be performed to attain organizational goals, outlining how the tasks must be performed, and indicating when they should be performed.

Four steps in Planning are as follows:-

• Objective
• Method
• Timing
• Strategy

Planning is supposed to be done at each and every level of an organization by each and every employee. It is basically forecasting the future course of action. It bridges gap between present and future, planning our vision and mission.

Planning includes:-

• Designing procedures
• Policies
• Rules
• Programmes
• Budgets

Planning can be short run or long run, but it is mostly for both, simultaneously. Short term plans are made to benefit long terms plans.

This is the core function of management because it is the foundation of the other four areas.  Planning involves mapping out exactly how to achieve a specific goal.  As a manager, he or she will need to map out detailed actions;  what to do, when to do it and how it should be done.  Think of it as bridging a gap for where we currently are and where we want to be.  For example, if the company’s goal is to earn profit, the manager needs to determine the steps necessary to achieve that goal.  This can include spending more on advertising, hiring more experienced employees, cutting costs, or improving the products being sold.

Planning is always an going process.  There will be times when external factors will affect the company both positively and negatively.  This in turn may alter the original planning process in reaching certain goals.  This is known as strategic planning.  Depending on the exact scope of an organization, the strategic planning process can look ahead as far as ten years or more.  The findings are usually collected in a strategic planning document.

ORGANIZING

Organizing is accumulating physical, human and monetary resources. This assembling would depend on the objective set by an organization.

Organizing can be thought of as assigning the tasks developed in the planning stages, to various individuals or groups within the organization. Organizing is to create a mechanism to put plans into action.

The function of organizing contains following characteristics:-

• Structuring the functions
• Structuring duties
• Establishing authority - subordinate relationships

Steps of Organization function:-

1. Determination of activities of the enterprise in the line of its objectives
2. Dividing the activities into appropriate groups
3. Assignment of these activities to individuals
4. Delegation of authority
5. Fixing responsibilities
6. Co-ordination of these activities and authority relation

In short, Organization is all about division of work amongst individuals and co-ordination of their efforts to achieve the objective set by the organization.

Immediately after planning, the manager needs to organize the team according to plan.  This involves organizing all of the company’s resources to implement a course of action and determining the organizational structure of the group.  And in order to do this correctly, management will need to evaluate the different divisions of departments and the staff to figure out the best way to accomplish the tasks needed to reach their goals.

This function is also known to be the backbone of management.  Without organization, a company will have no structure and their day-to-day operation of business will most likely collapse.  If management is disorganized, it can trickle down to the employees because they will lose confidence in their leaders.

STAFFING

For achieving an objective, the company needs to appoint individuals for various positions in order to complete that objective.

The purpose of staffing is to control all recruitment and personnel needs of the organization.  After management decides what needs they have, they may decide to hire more employees in a certain department.  It is also responsible for training and development, promotions, transfers, and firing.  A lot of times management and the human recourse department will work together because their roles are similar in this case.

The importance of this function has grown lately, mostly because of the increasing size of businesses and the advancement of technology.  A good example of this is the IT department.  The size of the IT department in a company ten years ago is nothing compared to what it is now because of the dependence we have on computers and servers.  Without the staffing function, a business will certainly fail because there will not be an experienced, sufficient amount of employees within each department.

LEADING/DIRECTING

The manager in this function, is supposed to direct or lead appointed individuals and explain them how is their appointed jobs to be done.

Supervision, motivation, leadership, and communication are all involved in the directing function.  Management needs to be able to oversee and influence the behavior of the staff and achieve the company’s goals, whether that means assisting or motivating them.  When morale is high within a company, it usually has a significant impact on job performance and efficiency.  Incentive programs and rewards are a great way for a business to keep its employees happy and motivated.

However, the most important aspect of directing is having good communication.  This means building positive interpersonal relationships, effective problem solving and evaluating one another.  Most directing takes place in in meetings and other meeting sessions with the department leaders to ensure that everyone is on the same page.  Poor communication will lead to poor execution in an organization.

The essential steps in this function are as follows:-

• Issuing orders and instructions
• Guiding and counselling
• Supervision

CONTROLLING

In this function the manager is supposed to explain the job essentials to the individuals and guide them in achieving their goals.

Controlling involves:-

• Measurement of accomplishment against standards
• Analyzing reasons and devitions
• Responsibility Fixation
• Taking corrective measures

The last function of management deals with monitoring the company’s progress and ensuring that all of the other functions are operating efficiently.  Since this is the last stage, there are bound to be some irregularities and complexity within the organization.  This in turn can lead to certain situations and problems arising that are disrupting the company’s goals. Given is the stage where all the final data is gathered, it is the management’s job to take corrective action, even where there is the slightest deviance between actual and predictable results.

Controlling is the following roles played by the manager:-

1. Gather information that measures performance
2. Compare present performance to pre-established performance norms.
3. Determine the next action plan and modifications for meeting the desired performance parameters.

SCIENCESOLVE | STUDENT

There are identified 5 key functions of management: planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, controlling. Each function influences the other 4, affecting, more or less, the intended level of performance.

The planning function determines the methods and paths that need to be followed to achieve the established goals. The planning function also allocates the needed human and material resources to reach the targeted goals.

The organizing function can be seen as a process that consists of the following phases: identification of actions that must be performed to achieve the desired goals, organization of these actions in classes, creations of authorities and responsibilities with respect to the identified activities, and establishment of relationships between the identified classes of activities.

Staffing function consists of the following sub-functions: recruitment, placement, training, development, remuneration, performance analysis, and promotions.

Coordinating function acts with the help of the following key-tools: communication, motivation, supervision, and leadership.

The controlling function ensures the proper corrections, if necessary, to achieve the targeted goals. This function passes through the following 4 phases: foundation of the targeted performance indicators, measurement of the actual indicators, comparisons between the actual and targeted indicators, and restorative actions, if needed.