Management Functions
Effective, efficient managers are valuable resources to any organization. They help to keep productivity high, cost low, enforce rules and regulations, provide structure, and solve problems. Managers do not have time to show their selves worthy now days since there are so many talented managers without jobs (Gaster & Gaster, 2006). Successful managers use planning, organizing, leadership, and control skills to run thriving companies. Managers handle unexpected situations every day by knowing how to use the four management functions, planning, organizing, leading, and control, they will be better informed to handle each situation.
"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" (Bateman & Snell, 2007, p.16). Planning is important for managers to use. Planning help to give companies goals and adjectives that companies can strive to achieve. Planning helps to show employees where a company is headed, why a company wants to achieve the goals, how the company want to achieve the goals, and who will be responsible for each part. Planning reduces confusion within companies, between employees, and managers. Planning also helps companies to become more productive, because employees and managers know what the company’s plans are.
Planning was used in my last job for scheduling of employees, or when the boss planned to be out of town. The employees had a calendar on the wall to let us know when deliveries or repairs where to be done. She wanted employees to know what to expect each day. This helped to reduce confusions, help all employees to understand what was going to take place, and helped teamwork between employees.
“Organizing is the management function of assembling and coordinating human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals” (Bateman & Snell, 2007, p.17). Organizing helps companies to achieve high productivity. By organizing, each aspect of a company, employees are able to find things quicker, employees are able to increase productivity, and there is not confusion about where things are kept. Organizations within companies has huge rewards for employees by reducing frustration, employees spending more time doing their task, less time is wasted looking for missing information or finding what is need to do their jobs. Organizing a company is not an easy task, but an organized company shows the employees, stockholders, and managers how efficient the company is and striving to succeed.
“Plans in and of themselves are not especially useful; however, the planning process is invaluable.” At a glance when I first was reading this statement, I personally felt this was the most insane quote I have ever heard in my life, but as I sit down and really think it over I can see it not being too farfetched and actually holding its own weight in this life. Although I can see that statement being true, I still feel that there are a lot of positive and important aspects that come along with planning.
Organization is the function of assembling and coordinating human, financial, physical, informational and other resources needed to achieve goals. Without this function, my business would have folded in the first week. I have midlevel managers to gather together my employees, and discuss the plans for the week. Specific shoe styles must be displayed and organized in a certain order. Information must be disseminated to our marketing team so they know who we are targeting and what steps to take to increase our visibility and productivity. Organizing is not something just one person can do alone. For this function to work, it will take the entire team to pull together for us to triumphant.
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.
Planning aims to reduce uncertainty. It does this by forcing managers to look ahead, anticipate change, consider the impact of change and develop appropriate responses. (Robbins 2012) Through attempted monitoring of conditions in a changing environment, one is able to respond quicker to new information and new circumstances, thereby becoming more flexible. In addition, having the environment under constant observation enables managers to analyse how the organisation will differentiate itself from its competitors, therefore facilitating more chan...
Planning – Employees must plan the use of their time and resources. There are many ‘tools’ available to help with this from simple daily ‘To Do’ lists to more long-term Action Plans or Development Plans. (These will be explained in more detail later).
Planning is a way to respond to the changes occurring in the environment around a person systematically. Planning is an approach towards the problem solving rationally. It can be taken as a remedial tool for creating change in the current situation in systematic and efficient way.
“Organizing: is assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals” (Bateman & Snell, 2004, p. 17).
In order to achieve the goals of the organisation, managers have to set goals and developed a workable plan to complete the goals. Organising is one of the processes to organise people, activities and other resource in a logical way (Davidson 2009). Through the organising
Planning and organizing is another vital quality needed for managers. If manager can do effective planning he can really contribute in the long term progress and development of his organization. Proper planning helps in useful and efficient use of the existing resources of the organization. After planning if you are not able to organize the things, this can really worsen your planning.
An organisation is a deliberate arrangement of team consisting different personal identities to accomplish some specific goals and managers are the ones who hold the responsibility of mastering and placing them together to strive for that purpose (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, and Coulter, 2008). Robbins et al. (2008) have stated that managers are people who coordinate and oversee the work activities of others so that the goal is accomplished effectively and efficiently. Managers usually possess qualities such as having strong communication skills, flexibility, imagination, enthusiasm, problem solving skills, and of course the desire to be a great leader (Phdinmanagement.org, 2014). The structure of management conducted by a manager is often influenced by the four functions introduced by Henri Fayol (planning, organising, leading, controlling); how Henry Mintzberg’s management roles play in the organisation and also the three essentials management skills proposed by Robert L. Katz (Robbins et al., 2008).
Management is not just about making decisions, watching over employees, and bossing others around. Good management results in satisfied customers, who provide better customer service. In order for new managers to be successful, they need to have good communication, human skills, and the ability to motivate others. The ability to do these skills effectively makes a big difference to a manager and the company’s overall success. Companies depend on managers to fulfill their skills and knowledge to help their company excel.
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.
Organizing: Manager must organized the human resources to get the corporate jobs done through delegation, empowerment, training, team work, leadership, system creation and other crucial business aspects.
Management is vital for any organisations regardless of the size and the types of the organisations. In general, management is defined as “the application of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling functions in the most efficient manner possible to accomplish meaningful organizational objectives.” (John M. Ivancevish and Thomas N. Duening, 2007)
Carrefour planning makes a manager realize what he actually wants to achieve. He cannot direct his subordinates to the right direction if proper planning is not made. A manager cannot be confident, clear and concise enough on how to achieve their goals without having a well-defined plan. Planning will help him realize whether his course of action for achieving goals is right or not.