Management And Its Functions

1248 words - 5 pages

Management is the process of coordinating people and other resources to achieve the goals of the organization. One key characteristic is the ability to empower rather than order employees to do their jobs. Effective empowerment depends on the leader and the employees building mutual respect, trust, and commitment. Leadership also possesses the ability to communicate by fostering an ongoing dialogue rather than issuing mandates. Now the leadership and management are defined, we can move on to describe management in terms of its four functions. These functions are identified as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. How well managers perform these key functions determines whether a business is successful.Planning, in its simplest form, is establishing organizational goals and objectives and deciding how to accomplish them. It is the primary function, often referred as the "first" management function because all the management functions depend on planning. Managers engage in planning by determining where the firm should be going and how best to get there. Once goals and objectives have been set for the organization, managers must develop plans (or actions) for achieving them. A plan could be defined as an outline of the actions by which the organization intends to accomplish its goals and objectives. The company that I work for, 7-Eleven, I, as a manager, set a goal to sell as many products as possible to increase the sales. I have to ensure that the customer knows about the products we are selling. My number one target is the customer and the way to achieve is through my employees, who can provide the outstanding customer service and thus, the customer will come back.After goal setting and planning, the second major function of the management is organizing. Organizing is the grouping of resources and activities to accomplish effective and efficient results. From the reading, "Organizing activities include attracting people to the organization, specifying job responsibilities, grouping jobs into work unit, marshaling and allocating resources, and creating conditions so that people and things work together to achieve maximum success" (Bateman, 2004). Let's first consider the example of an inventor who creates a new product and goes into the market to sell it. Eventually, as business grows, he/she will find that he/she needs help. To begin with, he/she might hire a professional sales representative. Later, he/she might need to hire full-time sales staff, other people to assist with production, and an accountant. As he/she hires new personnel, he/she must decide what each person will do, and generally how that person can best take part in the organization's activities. The way I work toward the organizing for the benefits of my organization is by providing at least week training to my staff about the products we are selling and its prices, promoting products to the customers, and ways to deliver excellent customer service. After a week of training, I oversee the employee I have trained, what I call as "shadow shift," in which the trainee is evaluated for his/her performance. In addition, I hold weekly meeting with my employees for any questions, concerns, issues, and/or responsibilities. I delegate tasks to my personnel on daily basis and ensure that their obligations are understood clearly.The leading function is concerned with human resources within the organization. It is the process of influencing people to work toward a common goal as well as proving reasons for people to work in best interests of the organization. In other words, "It is directing, motivating, and communicating with employees, individually and in groups" (Bateman, 2004). Leading and motivating are critical activities for a growing company. Obviously, different people do things for different reasons - that is, they have different motivations. Some people are primarily interested in earning as much money as they can. Others may be spurred on by opportunities to get ahead in an organization. It is part of the manager's jobs to determine what factors motivate workers and to try to provide those incentives in ways that encourage effective performance. For me, directing and motivating the employees is the most important function for the success of the company. I always tell my employees, "Be happy, and keep customers happy." I believe that the communication is very important to keep the firm running smoothly; a good manager would always take care of his/her employees and make sure that they are appreciated for the hard work they put in. Therefore, I always encourage my personnel to talk over any issues or problems, if they have any, with me. Not only this, I always value them and make them realize that they are the most important component of the company and without them the company can not move ahead. This way, a good relationship and trust is built between me and the employees and hence, the employees stay happy. With this, it gives them motivation to work for the best interests of the company.Regardless of how hard managers try, sometimes business activities don't go as planned. Then, the fourth function, controlling, comes into play that evaluates and regulates ongoing activities to ensure that organizational goals are achieved. Reckon a rocket, for instance, launched to place a satellite. Do personnel simply fire the rocket and then check back in few days to find out whether the satellite is in place? Of course not. The rocket is constantly supervised, and its course is regulated and adjusted as needed to get the satellite to its destination. Thus, during this function, changes might be made to the plans in order to attain better success in the future. Therefore, the performance is compared and actions are taken according if necessary. Another example would be suppose that a specific firm establishes a goal of increasing its profit by, let's say, 15 percent in a year. To ensure that its goal is reached, management might monitor its profit on monthly basis. After three to four months, if its profits have increased by 4-5 percent, then management might assume that the plans are going according to the schedule. Then, probably no action will be taken. However, if the profit has only increased by 1-2 percent, then the firm might take some actions or make some amendments to the planning to get things back on track. I can relate controlling to my organization because when the target is not reached to sell as many products as possible, I lower the price on the materials to meet the demands of the customers. For instance, if there's a specific drink that is not selling as planned, I would try to sell it by promoting it for buying one sandwich and getting the drink free.A successful organization understands not only basic management functions, but also how to integrate these functions - planning, organizing, leading, and controlling - to improve revenues and profit and to win customer satisfaction needs. Each function tends to lead naturally to others; and if any one of the four functions is not conducted in effective manner, the company's performance might fail.ReferencesBateman, Thomas S. (2004). Management: The New Competitive Landscape, 6e. The McGaw-Hill Companies. Retrieved on August 10, 2004 from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary/content/eReader.h

More like Paper On Management And Its Functions

Integration And Transfer Of HR Functions Using HRIS (84 - 86) - Human Resource Management - Case Study

602 words - 3 pages ... and was willing to make it happen. Also, with his background knowledge in a large company and in customer service and performance management he would make a good champion for the cause. Although some might regard him as inexperienced because of his age, he was able to induce change and was seen as a visionary at his former company. 2. They've built such different database systems because both divisions level of IT literacy are on two different ...

This Research Paper Is On The History Of The European Union And The Various Aspects And Functions Regarding It, As Well As Its Potential Impact And Influental Power On Global Economics

1944 words - 8 pages ... History of the European UnionAbstractThe history of the European Union has grown out of the ashes of World War II. In an effort that seeks to unify the smaller countries in the region into a much larger, united Europe, is now seeing many of their goals accomplished. Over the last fifty years, the formulation of regulatory bodies overseen by representatives from each member state and its new euro-currency, the European Union is quickly becoming ...

Stress Management And Its Way To Prevent. HD 101 - Antelope Valley College - Essay

536 words - 3 pages Free ... Stress management Year after year college students report stress being the number one issues in their academic achievement. Money is the most stressful to adults aged 19-31, and the second most among college students. Millennia’s aged 18-33 are reported some of the highest levels of stress in the United States. WHAT IS STRESS? Stress is caused by different situations, for example; picture yourself having to give a speech in front of your class ...

Assignment On The Four Functions Of Management

1072 words - 5 pages ... . These functions provide a useful way of classifying information about management.The base function is to Plan, which is the foundation of management. It is the base upon which the all the areas of management should be built. Planning is the ongoing process of developing the business' mission and objectives and determining how they will be accomplished. Planning includes both the broadest view of the organization, for example, its mission, and ...

Paper On The Four Functions Of Management

838 words - 4 pages ... organizational structure of the organization." (2) "Management must organize all its resources before they are put into practice." (1) Through the organizing process management will determine the internal functions, establish and maintain relationships, and provide the necessary resources. This process also allows for the distribution of authority and responsibilities. Because of the current economic environment planning has become a significant ...

Essay On The Four Functions Of Management

1338 words - 6 pages ... Week One Individual Paper PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 1 Running Head: Week One Individual PaperThe Four Functions Of ManagementSanjeet Kaur SinghManagement 330University of PhoenixAbstractThe four functions of management, planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, are very essential in building strong organizations and even stronger more effective teams. Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are the functions of management. These ...

Internal/external Factors

616 words - 3 pages ... Wal-Mart is an extremely successful organization that has achieved its goals of becoming one of the top retail stores in the world. In order to reach the top, managers have to plan, organize, lead, and control each component possible in order for the company to be successful. Internal and external factors can impact the four functions of management within a company. Management's responsibility is to take the four factors into consideration to ...

Explain How The Managerial Ideas Of Taylor And Fayol Differ From Mayo. Assess The Relevance Of Classical Management Theorists To The Management Of Contemporary Organisations

1002 words - 5 pages ... management, focusing on the individual, rather than the team and aimed to improve efficiency through production-line time studies, breaking each job down into its components and designing the quickest and best methods of performing each component. He also encouraged employers to reward productivity. Employees did the physical labour, managers did the planning and organising. According to Taylor, employees were motivated by money. From Taylor's ...

Management Planning Paper

1083 words - 5 pages ... strategic plan for winning with ideas. These are excerpts from Fast Company, which conducted the interview. The writer will demonstrate how their plans to win with ideas correlates to organizational planning and planning functions of management. The writer will also try to, at best find correlation in legal issues, ethics, and corporate social responsibility. The lesson here is to strategically win with new ideas.There are three key points for ...

Genrays Human Resources Information System - Project Management

2389 words - 10 pages ... implementation of the new system. Description: GenRays Company has decided to implement a new and centralized system of human resource information management, including the payroll. The company wants to reduce its cost and the company has made several changes in that direction. Management of the company has given the responsibility to the executive management team. They have decided to create a plan that will be implemented next year. However, they need to ...

Control Mechanisms

926 words - 4 pages Free ... to fit a specific organization. Management must determine the most appropriate control mechanisms for their company.Breeden HomesBreeden Homes has developed a failsafe plan for controlling the functions of its management. We keep track of every process with different types of spreadsheets, reports, and statements which either prove the organization is working well or show where things need help so management can correct it quickly. Each operation ...

Human Resource Management VS Organisational Change

5213 words - 21 pages ... 1.0 IntroductionThis literature review aims to aid our understanding of the correlation between human resource management (HRM) and organisational change (OC). We look into four key areas such as: integrating HRM and OC; theories of strategic HRM; HRM's supportive vs. strategic role - should HR professionals maintain its traditional supportive role or adopt strategic roles; and lastly, how HR professionals manage resistance to change.We ...

Policies And Governance In Sport - Southern Miss/ Sport Management - Essay

1050 words - 5 pages ... emphasis in sports management. 5. The organization is NOT publicly held. They are the fundraising leg of the Athletic Foundation and functions as a separate entity and registered 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) charitable organization. 6. As a donor, you have an impact on each Student-Athlete at Southern Miss by helping to provide a quality education and an opportunity to represent the Golden Eagles at the highest level. The organization builds the foundation for ...

Measuring Service Quality And What Is Service Quality. Points About Service Quality Gaps, Importnace Of Service Quality Management And Recommendations

616 words - 3 pages ... the necessary measurement to manage the augmented service offering.2. The nature of services and service consumption and its management marketing consequences. The effects of process consumption which characterizes services and the content and scope of management marketing can be described in a service marketing triangle.3. The roles of major players, players include employee, employer, costumers, government, supplier and other concerned member ...

The Management

707 words - 3 pages ... enterprises, conducted by the English statesman Sir Thomas More (1478-1535). Management consists of the interlocking functions of creating corporate policy and organizing, planning, controlling, and directing an organization's resources in order to achieve the objectives of that policy.2.The directors and managers who have the power and responsibility to make decisions and oversee an enterprise.The size of management can range from one person in a ...