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Four functions of management
Four functions of management
Company-wide strategic planning
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Functions of Management
Defining the four function of management is; planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Defining the functions is the easy part, explaining how each function is related to my organization is the hard part, because the company I work for lacks all of these functions.
This paper will contain the way may company implements the four functions. Also the way I wish my company was implementing the four functions.
The company I work for uses an ERP package named Syspro that is highly able to being a project by using the four functions but does not. I will explain why this program is not capable of implementing the functions, and what should be done about it.
Planning:
Planning – is the goal to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals. (Bateman, Snell, 2007)
Planning is never ending course of action. There may be sudden strategies where companies have to face. Sometimes they are uncontrollable. You can say that they are external factors that constantly affect a company both optimistically and pessimistically. Depending on the conditions, a company may have to alter its course of action in accomplishing certain goals. This kind of preparation, arrangement is known as strategic planning. In strategic planning, management analyzes inside and outside factors that may affect the company and so objectives and goals. Here they should have a study of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. For management to do this efficiently, it has to be very practical and ample. (buzzle.com, 2008)
Taking both of these definitions and breaking them down when it comes to the company I work for planning is not there. The actions taken are not planned in the company; they just sent the order over to production and let it start with out any planning. That is why there are problems. Some problems could be foreseen if there was planning.
My view on planning is when you take the order set up a team of employee’s that can do the job, set up the materials and makes sure that if there is any question they are answered. Watch the process of several products and make sure when they hit the end of the process they are up to the standards of quality. Check to see if the time given is going to be possible to finish the amount of the product being made, if not fix the problem by timing the product from start to finish and if needed put more people on the process.
As per Henry Mintzberg, former president of the Strategic Management Society, “strategy cannot be planned because planning is about analysis and strategy is about synthesis. Strategic planning involves a structure or framework, a set of procedures both formal and informal, and of course content. Beyond these basic elements, the underlying assumptions about strategic planning are that the future can be anticipated, forecasted, managed or even controlled, and that the best way to do so is to have a formal and integrated plan about it in place. The process of planning itself may turn out to be more important than the results, and that process requires both analysis and synthesis. Planning simply introduces a formal “discipline” for conducting long-term thinking about an institution, and for recognizing opportunities in and for minimizing risks from the external and internal environments.
[Alan - planning] Though just one part of the supply chain process, the sales and operation planning process for any industry is extremely important to its success. Planning for the future helps firms provide better customer service, reduces the costs of holding and transporting inventory, decrease the lead times for customers while maintaining a consistent customer lead time and helps the top management of the company have control over the business (Türkay). Overall, planning helps to provide the best value products for the customers and the best results for the
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.
Planning is the foundation of implementation and putting a process in place in the case of an emergency, evacuation or catastrophe. With planning, you become organized and equipped with the necessary tools to implement an emergency plan. Once the plan has been implemented, and you become organized and equipped by using the information in the plan, and utilizing all its resources, then there should be adequate training involved, and that the emergency plan in place is being followed thru and each individual has the skillset to adhere to and proceed in the case of an emergency. In order to keep the plan up-to-date, and the team/stakeholders organized and equipped and trained, there should be continual exercises with up-to-date information, scenarios, practices, policies and procedures within the exercise plan. There is always a place for improvement.
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...
This type of planning usually focuses on day to day activities of the company in order to make sure everything runs
The plan should have four elements: scope, resource deployment, competitive advantage and synergy. The scope is how big the company expects to go in its environment. Where does it want to be marketed and what products or services does it want to sell? The resource deployment is how much resources are available to the company to reach its goals. Distinctive competitive advantage, this is what the company knows and what it is best at. When a company excels at something they make a demand for it because it is known to be a great product. Synergy the final element this is when two things together equal more value than either of them do alone.
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.
“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).
Planning according to the class notes (Dr. Smith, Module 5) and Stojkovic et al (2008) is a general application of the notion of planned change. Planned change is made up of a number of behaviors intended to alter individuals, groups, and organization structure and practice (Stojkovic et al, 2008). Although there are several elements of a planned change four of them include innovation and accepting problems, overcoming organizational decision making routines, looking to the future, and continues commitment.
The first function of management is planning. Planning is a process that managers use to identify and involve goal setting and decide the best way to achieve the goal.(Bartol 2007) Planning connect the gap between where we do, where we intend to go. It predict the possible things to happen which would not otherwise happen (MSG 2012). There are several steps to the planning process, which are determine the goals of the organisation, evaluate the current position, consider possible future conditions, identify possible alternative actions and choose the best. Planning is the criteria thinking through goals and making decision to achieve the goal of the organisation’s objective, which requires a systematic way. Also objectives focus the managers how to achieve the final result as managers have to predict anything will happen, avoid the problem and fight back to competitors. An example of planning, which is the President Canon Inc Tsuneji Uchida and lead Canon Company become the no.1 in the global business (Canon.Inc 2011). Tsuneji Uchida has to understand what is the company objective and goal. First, make decision to protect the position and the aim of canon, improve the operation more diversity. Second, he creates the new design of camera and new technology, he plan to do these things to maximise profit.
The planning school of thought is a strategy that emphasizes the need for an organization to ensure that its business strategy is in alignment with the environment that it operates. In other words, an organization’s strategy must ‘fit’ the environment that it chooses
Fayol (1949, as cited in Mcnamara, 2009) have proposed “planning” as one of the four major functions on...
Planning can be used to help the organization map out a way to efficiently achieve their goals. The beginning of the planning process should include analyzing of the current situation. From this information the company can determine the goals and start to outline the steps that need to be taken to ensure that the goal will be met. Other planning activities that should be completed are determining the company’s objectives and were they want to be in the future. This will help them to choose their business objectives and strategies. In addition, the company should look at the resources that they have available and determine if they are sufficient to achieve the organizations goals.
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.