functions of management essay pdf

Four Functions of Management

Introduction, controlling.

Every organization, in spite of its enormity, has fully developed and implemented management concepts that enable smooth running of activities aimed at realising the projected vision, goals and objectives.

The functions of management break down into four areas that take care of strategic, tactical and operational pronouncements of an organization. Thus, management in an organization is a creative tool of solving problems through planning, organizing, leading and controlling. In essence, the functions of management solve a particular problem facing an organization.

Consequently, the results will provide an avenue of accomplishing the goals, objectives and mission of the organization. The functions of management in an organization is to provide a framework of focussing both short and long term views hence, foster it towards success.

Additionally, management as a decision-making process entails a premeditated vision, fixed goals, a crafted plan, all which if executed and implemented properly, will see an organization achieve its mission.

From in-house operations to industry, the functions of management serve to address issues affecting a certain organization for example, effective utilization of resources, appraisal of core competencies, evaluation of the present and prospect participants, and strategic control among others (Himanshu, 2009, p.1).

Nevertheless, the four function of management cannot bring success into an organization minus sound leadership from the mangers. In most cases, the manager’s style of leadership affects the operation of an organization, positively or negatively. Thus, good managers should exhibit certain traits and skills, which will enable an organization, achieve its mission, goals and objectives.

For example, an organization with highly skilled workers makes managers to be allowing, while an organization with less skilled workforce mandates the manager to take a closer look on production.

Thus, god managers are the ones who flex their style, train and inspire employees to work towards the realization of vision, goals and objectives. The paper will examine the four functions of management namely: planning, organizing, directing and controlling within an organization (Haridimos, 2004, pp. 289-301).

This is the first contrivance of the four function of an organization’s management process. Primarily, the success of an organization depends on the planning procedure. The planning procedure is the one that determines whether a manager is successful or not. Planning provides logical understanding on how to make decisions, which will drive an organization towards the path of attaining its objectives.

Good managers use a planning process to plan for expectations, and as a blueprint to predict quandaries, which might hinder an organization form achieving its objectives.

In addition, the planning process provides measures for prevaricating intricate issues and a framework of beating competition. Thus, planning is an essential tool of management in that it facilitates control, which is a valuable strategy in decision-making hence averting business ravage.

A good planned business example is GlaxoSmithKline. This is an international pharmaceutical company with a vision of providing superior healthcare services. Both the mangers and employees of this company commit themselves to excellence in line with its mission and vision statement.

The planning process of GlaxoSmithKline entails how to attain quality results, respecting others, and teamwork in order to achieve goals. Since the commencement of this plan, GlaxoSmithKline has grown into an international pharmaceutical company with branches all over the world and a healthcare leader (Bateman &Snell, 2007, p. 16).

Organizing helps managers to attain all objectives as delineated in the planning procedure. Primarily, organisation involves appointing of individuals to perform certain assignments, which are paramount in developing a uniform rationale of accomplishing goals.

Thus, this calls upon the manger to exercise personal traits and skills in order to choose competent subordinates who are capable of organising the valuable resources of the organisation to produce results.

A good organisation is the one characterised by management staffing, several trainings among employees, inflow of resources and a prolific workforce. Managers also ought to discuss the developed plans with the subordinates, and break the assignments into smaller segments manageable by one person. In so going, the organisation will have well-structured and manageable units working towards achieving objectives.

For example, the organisation of Microsoft presents one of the best business examples. Characterised by flexibility, changeability and new products, Microsoft has achieved its goals and objectives through its planning process and organisation. Moreover, the managers of Microsoft offers direction for staff that is paramount to personal success hence, organizational success.

Based on experience and personal traits, the managers use communication as a tool of solving any arising issues. In fact, Microsoft would not be a world leader in IT had it not been its exceptional organisation (Bretti, 2009, pp. 15-18).

The third function of management is direction or leading. This aspect of management helps managers to supervise the actions of the workforce and set the path of achieving goals and objectives of the company. Leading also promotes incentive, good communication, leadership and unit dynamics necessary in attaining goals and objectives.

Many people understand the role of leadership to an organisation as it is the one, which inspires actions in the direction of goals and objectives. Thus, good mangers are those who motivate employees to an eminent aspiration and assign them responsibilities as stated in the planning process. In addition, managers must also maintain a close contact with the employees in order to realise the vision, goals and objectives of the company.

For instance, managers at GlaxoSmithKline motivate employees to work towards achieving the goals and objectives of the corporation and surpass their market competitors. The managers have a daily contact with the staff either individually or as a team.

Thus, the management team plays an important role in the management process by unearthing innovative mechanisms, which solve problems that might hinder the process of achieving goals (Gomez, Luis, Balkin, & Robert, 2008, pp. 18-21).

The final stage of a management process is controlling, which involves the implementation of the developed plan. This process involves the establishment of recital standards pedestal to the company’s vision, goals and objectives. In addition, it engrosses evaluating and reporting of all actions within the company and gauging whether they lime with the goals and objectives.

A good control process within a management system is the one that eases the delegation of duties and holds each skilled worker responsible. For example, in GlaxoSmithKline, managers hold departmental meetings on a daily basis. Thus, they are in apposition to review the daily schedule, evaluate any emanating problem, and solve it before it becomes too late.

In GlaxoSmithKline, control sets the standards for performance of the workforce thus, mandating workers to work towards goals and objectives.

It also ensures that workers take and complete assignments within a given duration while following the laid guidelines. Otherwise, workers are liable for disciplinary measures should they fail to comply. In most cases, managers employ work performance evaluations as a form of control aimed at attaining the set goals (Blue, 2007, 135-136).

For any business to achieve its vision, goals and objectives, planning, organizing, leading and controlling are necessary. These four functions of management provide a framework of achieving the company’s objectives. Nevertheless, without guidance from the management team and individual contribution from employees, success is cannot be a reality.

Bateman, T. & Snell, S., 2007. Management: Leading and collaborating in a Competitive World. (7th ed.). New York: McGraw – Hill.

Blue, R., 2007. Functions of management. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 40(2), 135-136.

Bretti, A., 2009. Four Functions of management, Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics, 1(1), 15-18.

Gomez, M., Luis, R., Balkin, B. & Robert L., 2008. Management: People, Performance, Change . (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Haridimos, T., 2004. What is Management? An Outline of a Metatheory. British Journal of Management, 5(9), 289-301.

Himanshu, J. 2009. Functions of Management Web.

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• Ethical Issues in GlaxoSmithKline
• GlaxoSmithKline’s Leadership Management Framework
• GlaxoSmithKline’s Limit to Supply in Canada
• GlaxoSmithKline PLC Financial Statements
• The Exchange Rate Impacts on GlaxoSmithKline Company
• General Electric & GlaxoSmithKline
• GlaxoSmithKline: Impact of Production Chain
• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK): Company Analysis
• GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Financial Reporting
• GlaxoSmithKline: Moral Reasoning
• Should Voluntary Work Be Paid?
• The Three Steps in Business Re-Engineering Process
• Business Situation Analysis Models
• Smucker’s: Strategic Management
• Cause of Conflict in Organisation

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1 Introduction to Management

Learning Objectives

The purpose of this chapter is to:

1)  Give you a basic understanding of management and its importance

2)  Provide a foundation of the managerial functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling

Introduction to Management

Management is not a hard science.  Unlike chemistry or algebra where a right answer (often) exists, management is fluid, and subjective, and there are divergent perspectives on how to employ its principles.  But what exactly is management?  Most scholars have variations of the same definition that include a utilization of resources to achieve a goal.  Lussier (2021) defines a manager as “the individual responsible for achieving organizational objectives through efficient and effective utilization of resources” (p. 3).   The problem with this definition is that it implies that a manager has to be both efficient and effective, which eliminates the possibility of having a bad manager.  Each of us can probably contradict this definition by providing an example from our personal past.  However, this definition contains the basic elements of using resources to pursue goals.

An early management scholar, Mary P. Follett characterized management as “the art of getting things done through the efforts of other people” (Graham, 1995).   This definition implies both pursuing goals (getting things done) and utilizing resources (predominantly through people).  However, this too is missing an element, that of the organizational context.  An important consideration for understanding management is that the term organization simply refers to “a collection of people working together to achieve a common purpose” (Shermerhorn, 2013, p. 11).  This means an organization could be anything from your high school volleyball team to church or a corporation.  Including the term “organization” in the definition leaves open the possibility that management can be practiced in each of these settings, and broadens our use of the term management.  A comprehensive definition for management then, would be the pursuit of organizational goals through the use of organizational resources (Bateman & Snell, 2013).  Pursuit implies a chance of failure and organizational gives us a context.  This begs the question – how can we become effective at the pursuit of goals, or become more efficient in our use of organizational resources?  Being good at management requires an immense focus on both of these ends, and we can achieve this through the process of the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling functions of management.   These functions serve as the basis for the rest of the textbook because they are the essential tools we use to manage organizations.  Most of the context and examples for this book focus on the corporate use of management.  However, you should meet the concepts where you are in your professional or academic career – apply the principles to the context of your life, master the four functions for what you are doing now so that you can scale them to much bigger managerial endeavors later.

Management is not New

A broad understanding of management as resource utilization focused on a goal gives us a wide scope of situations and contexts in which to practice it.  For example, the Crow Indians employed a complex strategy to harvest an entire herd of buffalo by driving them off a cliff.  To funnel the herd to the lane leading up to the cliff they used a decoy (a hunter donned in a buffalo calf robe imitating a lost calf), incense to smoke them towards the lane, or rock piles to guide them to the lane (Nathan, 2018).  If we apply the basic principles of management in this context we can see these hunters used resources (rocks, incense, knowledge and tradition) to pursue a goal (procurement of food, tools, and clothing the bison afforded them).

At its core, this imperial supply chain used the same approach to achieve success th at a teenager might use in a playing video games.  If he rallys his friends after school in a game of Call of Duty to defeat their online opponents, he might also be considered a manager.  He uses his experience and knowledge of gameplay as well as weaponry within the game to pursue his goal of competitive domination.

These examples demonstrate that management is multifarious, and not at all a recent phenomenon.    Yet, when we hear the term management , most of us probably conjure an image something like that of a corporate vice president implementing a marketing strategy to meet quarterly sales goals.  The irony is that the corporate manager is utilizing the same tools as those of the native hunter, Spanish fleet admiral, and sophomore gamer.   Management is both universal and ubiquitous in that we all use variations of its elements.

The Four Functions of Management

The management process by which we pursue goals includes planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.  These are “ the how ” a manager pursues organizational goals, and are universally known as the four functions of management.  They stem from the work of a French mining administrator, Henri Fayol, who first identified management as a practice that could be improved through the use of five functions – planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling.  Since he published his work in 1916, we have decided that leading people through motivation and incentivization works much better than telling them what to do (e.g. commanding and coordinating).  We use the term leading instead of these practices.  Chapter 2 on the history of management will provide some insights regarding this change.  Nonetheless, he gave us a place from which to start.

Even if you have never stepped foot in a corporate office, or held the title of manager at your local Dairy Queen, you have no less used the functions of management in your personal pursuits.  A relevant example would be the process by which you manage your personal budget.

Reflection:  Are you already a manager?

Think about your personal or family budget for a moment, and answer the following questions:

1) Do you have your budget written down somewhere, or in an excel spreadsheet?

2) What are your financial goals?

3) How much do you put in savings, charity, and monthly expenses?

4) Where does your money come from (a job, your parents, a hobby, your spouse)?

5) If you have a budget shortfall during the month, what do you do?

6) How do you keep track of expenses to ensure your bank account remains in the black?

If you answered yes to question #1, then you are already engaged in the management function of planning.  You know where your money is being spent.  The same holds true for your financial goals.  If you want to leave college debt free, save for a down payment on a house, or go on an unforgettable spring break trip, you have defined your organizational objective!  Where you put your money is a function of how you manage your resources.  This organizing function is presumably in line with your financial goals.  For example, if you want to save for a down payment, you need to actually allocate your resources (income) to a savings account.  Moreover, where your money comes from is also the source of your organizational resources.   A budget shortfall might require you to employ the leading function of management.  The essence of leading is motivating other people to align with your plan.  What do you do if you need to pay bills, but don’t have the money?  Perhaps you ask your parents for a loan (need to sell this idea to them), or you might need to negotiate with a co-worker to let you take on extra shifts (show them what’s in it for them in return), or it might be the reality that you need to sell something to make ends meet by selling something (in which case selling requires you to inspire someone else to see value in what you are selling).   Leading might also entail convincing someone else in your circle to get on board with your gameplan (like a spouse, or sibling).  Finally, keeping track of your expenses to ensure solvency and pace with your goals is the core of the controlling function.  Do you keep receipts and check them against your online account expenses?  Do you update your spreadsheet after your bill automatically debits from your account?  Do you get an email notifying you have a low balance and are in risk of overdraft charges?  Each of these methods are ways to monitor your progress and decide if you need to make a change (short term or long term).

If you reflect on this example of your personal budget, or you worked to achieve a personal or team goal, you will likely conclude that you are already a manager.  This wide application of managerial thinking means that if you can master its principles on your personal scale, you can then amplify its use when you need to use it on a large scale.  Get good at leading your class project, organizing your club fundraiser, or helping your team win a conference championship, and you will later be able to magnify the scale to lead a marketing department, or corporate merger, and even diplomatic negotiations as a prime minister.

Mastering the four functions will allow you to apply the function of planning on a more complex stage such as evaluating the internal and external environments of your organization.  Using this analysis you can create an effective game plan to formulate a sustainable competitive advantage.  Developing an organizing skillset will allow you to propose a structure for your team that incorporates cross functional members and ways of thinking.  It will allow you to identify and recommend resources needed to pursue your plan.  Honing your leading skillset will afford you the capability to motivate your organizational stakeholders to partake in your strategy, and force you to consider the ethical implications of your actions.   Finally, implementing effective controlling allows you to check progress towards your goals and to recommend changes if you need to get on track.

Planning is the systematic process of making decisions about goals and activities the organization will pursue (Bateman & Snell, 2013).  To make a decision about the direction of an organization, the planning phase must begin with analyzing the environment.  Without a solid understanding of the context, the manager would have no basis to provide future direction.  The context gives a manager a point of reference for improvement, opportunity, and learning from past mistakes.  For this reason, the planning function should begin with analysis.  This analysis should consider both the internal factors such as culture, values, and performance of team members as well as the external factors such as competitive environment, legal regulations, economy, technology, social values, and demographics.

The second component of planning is to use this analysis of the environment to build goals, activities, and objectives.  For a major organization this might be the vision and mission statement of the organization.  For a smaller organization this could be a year end, or season end goal.  Some consider planning that point in your day or month that you step away from your desk, and think about the direction of your organization.  This requires you to reflect on your organization’s past, and determine how that impacts the direction going forward.

            Organizing is the process of assembling and assigning the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals (Bateman & Snell, 2013).   The core of the organizing function is leveraging the resources to align with the determined goals.  Organizing human resources means first of all attracting a labor force that can help you pursue your goal.  Within the organization, managing the human element means assigning tasks, delegating authority, determining a structure and hierarchy.  Organizing the financial resources equates to making sure your capital is being utilized to meet goals.  If an organization decides they want to have a best-in-class customer service team, they better being willing to spend the money to attract people with the disposition towards serving others, and spend money on training, or a retreat to teach the agents the skillsets they need.  Marshalling physical resources focuses on the effectiveness of where you place and how you use physical assets.  An executive chef might re-arrange a kitchen to improve process flow, food quality, or mitigate safety risks for example.  Informational resources implies a leveraging and disseminating the organization’s knowledge in meaningful ways to achieve goals.  Connecting employees to how they contribute to the financial bottom line is a way of leveraging informational resources, as is using your company’s proprietary algorithm to predict stock prices or develop new products.

Leading is stimulating high performance by members of the organization (Bateman and Snell, 2013).  This function is getting members of the organization on board with your plan.

Normally, this means connecting with direct reports or teammates on a personal level.  Understanding what drives individuals within the team allows a manager to design strategies around motivating, incentivizing, mobilizing, and arousing a desire to contribute.

Imagine for a minute, that you analyzed the conditions of the organization, you determined a game plan to pursue and even directed resources to step in that direction.  You have successfully implemented the planning and organizing functions.  In this scenario, however, you did not give consideration to how your team or organization would be involved.  Do they agree with your direction?  Did they have input in the process?  Do they feel valued as a team member?  Do they understand their role in a successful outcome?   All of these questions are answered by the degree to which a manager is engaged in the leading function.

Having personal conversations, designing a bonus structure, or giving a rousing speech might all be considered leading the organization.

Controlling

Control is installing processes to guide the team towards goals and monitoring performance towards goals and making changes to the plan as needed (Batemen & Snell, 2013).  Control does not always mean limited what the organization can do by having a hand in everything.  We might call this micro-managing, which is control in its extreme form.  Healthy control processes involve putting systems in place to make sure your organization is on track to meet the goals you established in the planning process.  Planning sets standards to compare against, and the control process is the dashboard that tells whether or not you are meeting the standard.  For example, a grocery store might set a goal of reducing shrink (that’s product lost to shoplifting, damage).  They decide that they want to reduce their shrink loss by 50%.  To achieve this plan, they will have to dedicate resources (more employees to monitor, rearrange loading dock).  You already recognize that step as the organizing function.  We then incentivize our employees by designing a bonus structure – i.e. if we collectively meet the goal, each employee shares in the savings.  If we stop there, we would have no way of knowing if we met the goal.  The control process solves this for us.  The last step in the grocery store manager’s managerial approach is to have each department head report their shrink loss at the end of the shift, and aggregate those in an excel spreadsheet.  In this way, the manager can see if the rearrangement of the loading dock has reduced the number of damaged canned goods that was happening under the old arrangement.  The manager can make changes if they see that shrink is not improving even after hiring a greeter at the entrance.

Monitoring performance is the first step in control.  After see the progress towards goals, the next step is to make changes.  In this way, the control process always leads a manager back to the planning phase of management.  There are only two outcomes to the control process.  You are making progress towards your goal, or you are digressing in your performance.  If you reach your goal, you will need to set new goals, which is the planning function.  If you are not progressing towards your goal, you need to analyze the environment and determine why not.  In this way the management functions are related and highly dependent upon each other, especially control and planning.

            To illustrate the application of the four functions of manager, consider the various contexts in Figure 1.1.   Under the personal budget, an engaged couple has decided to save for a house after getting married.  The softball coach must determine how to win a conference championship, and the corporate manager is working on a strategy to improve waning sales figures.

Figure 1.1 – The Functions of Management Applied

On the Importance of Studying Management

The purpose of this textbook is to provide you with firstly, a broad exploration of what management is – its elements and origins.  Secondly, the purpose of this textbook is to provide you with a managerial framework you can utilize to practice management at any level of complexity.  This framework emphasizes the four basic functions – planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.  Most management textbooks include a wide variety of academic terms and concepts that take focus away from these four functions.  Other textbooks will inundate the reader with descriptions of heuristics, focus on layers of management, or extraneous terms like the Shamrock organization that do not advance a practical understanding of management.  We have designed this textbook with the four functions of management at the forefront because these elements are so critical to the foundation of everything you will do in the managerial context.  This textbook provides a history of management and a chapter on ethics, but then focuses exclusively on the functions of management as the subject matter.  At the completion of this textbook, you should be able to understand, recognize, and apply these four functions of management.

The four functions of management (plan, organize, lead, and control) serve as the foundation for everything else you will study in your business education.  Mastering these tools at the most basic level, as well as the more sophisticated levels in classes you will take later, will best prepare you as a business professional (Dolechek et al, 2019).

Figure 1.2 – Management as the Foundation

Upon completion of a management principles course, you will progress towards the applications of the four functions of management in the upper level courses.  For this reason, management principles serves as a pre-requisite for most other management courses.   In marketing principles you will develop an understanding of how to analyze external conditions, and a course in information systems will help you design ways to collect more information to analyze.  This is the core of the planning function.  In human resources and organizational behavior, you will learn the dynamics of your ever-important resource of human labor, the organizing function.  In business ethics and applied management skills you work on understanding what drives people, and by association how to lead them based on that understanding.  Grasping business law and production operations will give you a deeper understanding of how to monitor progress (to meet legal compliance and to test production quality for example).  The entire discipline of accounting is a managerial function of control.  Constructing financial statements is done for the sole purpose of determining the performance of you organization so that you can make future decisions.  The capstone course of a business program is the business strategy class.  In this course, students are given an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the four functions by including all of the functional areas of business in their decision making.

A Whale of an Example

You are the city manager of a coastal Oregon city.  On a quiet, rainy Tuesday, you walk into your office and put the coffee on.  As you take your first sip, your administrative assistant forwards you a phone call from the parks and rec manager.  “We’ve got a problem down here on the beach.  The tide just left a dead humpback whale on our beach.”  What do you do?  What. Do. You. Do??   Now, there are several options to dealing with the dead whale.  Consider the following questions:

• 1) What is your strategy for dealing with this problem? ( Plan )
• 2) What resources do you need to follow your strategy? ( Organize )
• 3) What stakeholders do you need to get on-board? ( Lead )
• 4) What steps can you take to make sure your plan is proceeding as you planned it? ( Contro l)

There are a handful of strategies we might naturally gravitate towards.  The feasibility of each strategy depends on how well you employ the functions of management.

Tow the whale back to sea – A crane, tug boat, and tow cable are needed.  Who might you need to include in this gameplan?  The coast guard might need to be involved to discuss any pertinent regulations.  A marine captain that can tell you about tides so that you can time your extraction, and insights about currents to indicate how far out you need to haul the whale once its buoyant.  Should you allow a marine biologist to provide advice on what sort of ecological impact this might have (like bring in unwanted sharks or seals).  How can you be sure the tow cable has enough tinsel strength to haul a bloated whale on a high friction surface like wet sand?   Does the crane have the capacity to move the carcass into position to be hauled?  If the whale is decaying, will the tow cable just pull through the rotten flesh?

Cut the whale up, haul it to the dump –  You will need a forklift, semi-truck, and chainsaw.  The first consideration here would be the logistics of pursuing this strategy.  You will need to find a truck with the towing capacity to haul large chunks of the carcass off the beach.  Can you ensure the weight of a loaded semi would not sink into the wet sand?  How much does a semi-loaded with a whale carcass weight?  You may also need to contact the county roads manager to determine if there are any bridges between the beach and the dump that have weight restrictions.   What sort of protective equipment would you need for the men slicing through the whale with chainsaws?  There are a few control processes that need to be put in place for this strategy to work.

Celebrate the whale – The objective of the city manager is to “deal with” the dead whale.  For most, this would mean remove it somehow.  For others, this might be a chance to celebrate the occasion, and establishing the experience in the culture and history of the town.  To celebrate the whale, the city manager can hold a competition like car dealers do to promote their cars – have contestants place their hand on the whale and the last person to withstand touching the grotesque, slimy, and malodorous creature, somehow wins a major prize.  This would require a sponsor to donate a prize (a car, a vacation) and the town can celebrate the occasion annually.  If the goal is to appease the community from the existence of the whale and its stench, celebration is one strategy to pursue that end.  You would need to include a biologist to determine if leaving the whale to decay after the festival would attract scavengers, and a water chemist to determine if a decaying whale creates toxicity problems for beach goers.

Blow it up! – The kid in most of us choose this option.  Definitely.  You might need to check with state officials to see what the protocols are on this approach.  The biggest question would be how much dynamite do you need to blow up a whale, or blow it into the ocean?  In Oregon, one stakeholder group you might contact is a mining company or the Oregon national guard.  Both of those groups have a lot of experience calculating explosive requirements.   What are the safety protocols you need in place to make sure that no one is injured?  Where will you be able to source enough explosives to achieve this goal?

Use of the four functions

Each of these scenarios contain some far-fetched elements.  But asking the right questions is paramount to turning any of these into a feasible strategy.  You first need to decide a path, then determine your resources before getting stakeholder groups on board.  For a high-risk situation like most of these solutions call for, you need to put control mechanisms in place to mitigate your risks.  If you type “Oregon’s exploding whale” you can see what has become the most-watching news broadcast of all time.  It shows you what happens when a city manager does not successfully navigate the situation using all four functions of management.

Critical Thinking Questions

How are the four functions of management related?

Which is the most important function of management?

Choose a historical event prior to the year 2000.  Analyze the leader’s use of the four functions of management during that event.

How to Answer the Critical Thinking Questions

For each of these answers you should provide three elements.

• General Answer.  Give a general response to what the question is asking, or make your argument to what the question is asking.
• Outside Resource.  Provide a quotation from a source outside of this textbook.  This can be an academic article, news story, or popular press.  This should be something that supports your argument.  Use the sandwich technique explained below and cite your source in APA in text and then a list of full text citations at the end of the homework assignment of all three sources used.
• Personal Story.  Provide a personal story that illustrates the point as well.  This should be a personal experience you had, and not a hypothetical.  Talk about a time from your personal, professional, family, or school life.   Use the sandwich technique for this as well, which is explained below.

Use the sandwich technique:

For the outside resource and the personal story you should use the sandwich technique.  Good writing is not just about how to include these materials, but about how to make them flow into what you are saying and really support your argument.  The sandwich technique allows us to do that.  It goes like this:

Step 1:  Provide a sentence that sets up your outside resource by answering who, what, when, or where this source is referring to.

Step 2:  Provide the quoted material or story.

Step 3:  Tell the reader why this is relevant to the argument you are making.

EXAMPLE :  Let me provide an example of homework expectations using the type of question you might see in a critical thinking question at the end of the chapter.  Each of the answers you provide should be this thorough.

Question:  Explain why it is important to study management.

Management is important to study because it serves as the foundation for all other areas of business.  The four functions can be used in other business areas such as accounting, marketing, operations management and human resources.   All of the areas of business need people who know how to make a plan and allocate resources.  All of the areas of business need people who know how to motivate others, and to make sure they are on track for their organization’s goals.   For this reason, improving our mastery of management will make us more effective at whichever role we are in.   A good example of this foundation comes from research conducted on accounting firms in Romania.  Wang and Huynh (2014) found that accounting managers who embraced both managerial best practices and had the technical skills needed for accounting improved the organizational outcomes of their firms.  These findings suggest that business professionals need managerial skills to supplement the day-to-day roles they have.

As I reflect on management as a foundational discipline, I remember how my high school baseball coach approached our team after a losing season.  We were not a good team because we did not have fundamentals of how to grip a baseball, how to stand in the batter’s box, or how to field a ground ball.   That next year, he taught us all of these fundamentals and we won a lot of games.  It seems to me that learning fundamentals of management can have the same impact.  Being able to execute the four functions of management allows us to get better at how we approach marketing a new product, or improving operations processes.

Wang, D., & Huynh, Q. (2014). Linkages among corporate governance, management accounting practice and organizational performance: Evidence from a Southeast Asian country. Romanian Economic and Business Review, 9(1), 63-81.

Chapter References

Aho O.W., Lloyd R.A. (2019) The Origins of Robust Supply Chain Management and Logistics in the Caribbean: Spanish Silver and Gold in the New World (1492–1700). In:

Bowden B., McMurray A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Management History . Palgrave Macmillan: London, UK.

Bateman, T., & Snell, S. (2013).  M: Management (3rd ed) .  McGraw Hill / Irwin: New York, NY

Dolechek, R., Lippert, T., Vengrouskie, E. F., & Lloyd, R. A. (2019).  Solving a whale of a problem: Introducing the four functions of management in a management principles course .  International Forum of Teaching Studies, 15 (2), 29-35.

Fayol, H. (1949).  General and Industrial Management . Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd:  London, U.K.

Graham, P. (1995).  Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management.  Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA.

Lussier, R. (2021).  Management Fundamentals: Concepts, Applications, Skill Development.  (9th Ed).   Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

Nathan, R. (2018). The Grapevine Creek Buffalo Jump Complex: Interdisciplinary Research on the Crow Reservation, Montana (Doctor of Anthropology, dissertation).  Indiana University.

Shermerhorn, J. (2013).  Management (12th Ed) . Wiley and Sons: Hoboken, NJ

The Four Functions of Management Copyright © 2020 by Dr. Robert Lloyd and Dr. Wayne Aho is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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1.12: Primary Functions of Management

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Learning Outcomes

• Explain the primary functions of management.
• Differentiate between the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling functions of management.

We have defined management as a process to achieve organizational goals. A process is a set of activities that are ongoing and interrelated. Ongoing means that the activities are not done in a linear, step-by-step fashion where responsibility is passed from one activity to the next. Instead, the activities are continued as new activities are started. Interrelated means that the results of each activity influence the other activities and tasks. It is the responsibility of management to see that essential activities are done efficiently (in the best possible way) and effectively (to achieve the desired result).

Effective management involves four primary functions and related skill sets: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Although there’s a logical sequence to the functions, in practice the four functions are often performed in a dynamic manner.

For example, a manager would need to develop or reference a departmental or organizational plan prior to executing on it just as you would reference a map prior to embarking on a road trip. The proverb “if you fail to prepare you are preparing to fail” underscores the importance of this function. However, just as when road or airport closures or other factors might cause you to change your original route, unanticipated internal or external factors might cause a manager to revisit and revise the original plan, requiring a change in the other functions and associated tasks. Thus, achieving organizational goals—arriving at your intended destination—requires ongoing management of the process and an understanding of the interrelationship of the four functions.

As Figure 1 illustrates, a factor that impacts leading, for example, will have implications for controlling, planning and organizing. In summary, it is a management responsibility to ensure that unanticipated changes are factored in to the process and the integrity of the process is maintained.

Planning means defining performance goals for the organization and determining what actions and resources are needed to achieve the goals. Through planning, management defines what the future of the organization should be and how to get there. Strategic plans are long-term and affect the entire organization. A strategic plan bridges the gap between what an organization is and what it will become. Tactical plans translate strategic plans into specific actions that need to be implemented by departments throughout the organization. The tactical plan defines what has to be done, who will do it, and the resources needed to do it.

For instance, recall the example used at the beginning of this module. It described how ThyssenKrupp AG decided to become an elevator manufacturing and servicing company because of increased competition from Chinese steel. The management of the company set a goal of deriving the majority of its revenue from elevator-related activities. To do this, the management team made plans to create partnerships or take over existing elevator companies. The team devised plans to develop new human resources and to acquire other material resources. The company also had to divest existing steel-related resources to raise capital for the new initiative. This example is a long-term strategic plan that will take years to complete and require many changes along the way. But it starts by defining a goal and a preliminary path to achieve it.

Once plans are made, decisions must be made about how to best implement the plans. The organizing function involves deciding how the organization will be structured (by departments, matrix teams, job responsibilities, etc.). Organizing involves assigning authority and responsibility to various departments, allocating resources across the organization, and defining how the activities of groups and individuals will be coordinated.

In the case of ThyssenKrupp AG, the management had to determine how to support two very different sets of activities in order to achieve its long-term goal. Management needed to continue steel production activities to provide continuity of funds as the emphasis gradually shifted to elevator production. It also had to develop new skills and resources to build the company’s elevator capabilities. A new organizational structure was needed that could support both business activities as one was downsized and the other built up.

Nearly everything that is accomplished in an organization is done by people. The best planning and organizing will not be effective if the people in the organization are not willing to support the plan. Leaders use knowledge, character, and charisma to generate enthusiasm and inspire effort to achieve goals. Managers must also lead by communicating goals throughout the organization, by building commitment to a common vision, by creating shared values and culture, and by encouraging high performance. Managers can use the power of reward and punishment to make people support plans and goals. Leaders inspire people to support plans, creating belief and commitment. Leadership and management skills are not the same, but they can and do appear in the most effective people.

It is very difficult to motivate people when plans involve radical change, particularly if they include downsizing and layoffs. Many people are naturally resistant to change. When the change means loss of jobs or status, people will be very resistant. At ThyssenKrupp, the labor unions vehemently opposed the shift from steel production to elevator manufacturing. Although the people involved in the new business functions were excited by the plans, people involved with steel production felt abandoned and demotivated. Management would have been wise to get union support for its vision of the company’s new future.

Controlling

There is a well-known military saying that says no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. This implies that planning is necessary for making preparations, but when it’s time to implement the plan, everything will not go as planned. Unexpected things will happen. Observing and responding to what actually happens is called controlling. Controlling is the process of monitoring activities, measuring performance, comparing results to objectives, and making modifications and corrections when needed. This is often described as a feedback loop , as shown in the illustration of a product design feedback loop.

Controlling may be the most important of the four management functions. It provides the information that keeps the corporate goal on track. By controlling their organizations, managers keep informed of what is happening; what is working and what isn’t; and what needs to be continued, improved, or changed. ThyssenKrupp had little experience in elevator manufacturing when it was making plans. It was developing new products and processes and entering new markets. The management knew it could not anticipate all the difficulties it would encounter. Close monitoring as the plan progressed allowed the company to make changes and state-of-the-art innovations that have resulted in a very successful transition.

Watch the following video for an overview of the management process and a simple example of how the management functions work together.

You can view the transcript for “The Management Process.mp4” here (opens in new window) .

Practice Questions

https://assessments.lumenlearning.co...essments/12140

https://assessments.lumenlearning.co...essments/12141

Who Directs Each Function?

Although these functions have been introduced in a particular order, it should be apparent that the different activities happen at the same time in any one organization. The control function ensures that new plans must be created. Leaders often step up as needed when a crisis or unexpected bump demands immediate action. All managers perform all of these functions at different times, although a manager’s position or level in the organization will affect how much of his or her time is spent planning as opposed to leading or to controlling.

Contributors and Attributions

• Primary Functions of Management. Authored by : John and Lynn Bruton. Published by Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Image: Key Functions of the Management Process. Authored by : John and Lynn Bruton. Published by Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Image: The key functions of management . Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Business Feedback Loop. Authored by : Tomwsulcer. Located at : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Business_Feedback_Loop_PNG_version.png . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
• The Management Process. Authored by : Jeff Short. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ir70kcHf-w . License : All Rights Reserved . License Terms : Standard YouTube License

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Essay on the Functions of Management

Read this essay to learn about the functions of management. After reading this essay you will learn about:- 1. Planning 2. Organising 3. Staffing 4. Directing 5. Controlling 6. Coordinating.

Essay # 1. Planning :

Planning is the process of establishing goals and suitable courses of action for achieving those goals. Planning involves setting the ‘right’ goals and then choosing the ‘right’ means for attaining those goals, Planning is necessary to ensure proper utilisation of resources (i.e., men, materials, machines, time and money) to achieve the objectives of the enterprise.

In planning, manager searches for the alternative courses open to him, and then selects from these alter­natives to determine general and specific objectives and detailed means for achieving them.

Planning is a mental process requiring the use of intellectual facilities imagination, fore­sight, sound judgment etc. to decide in advance as to what is to be done, how and where it is to be done, who will do it and how the results are to be evaluated. In other words, planning is the process of thinking before doing.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Planning is performed by the managers at all levels. The managers at the top level spend more time on planning as compared to those at lower levels. The managers at low level are supposed to follow the policies, programmes and procedures laid down by higher level managers.

Objectives of Planning:

The important objectives of planning are:

1. Planning helps in effective forecasting.

2. Planning provides certainty in the activities.

3. Planning provides performance standards.

4. Planning gives a specific duration to the organisation.

5. Planning helps the organisation to establish relationship with the environment and minimize risk and insecurity.

6. Planning provides economy in the management.

7. Planning is helpful in preparing budgets.

8. Planning is directed towards the efficiency.

Steps in Planning :

Following steps are taken by the planning manager for the purpose of planning:

1. Recognition of the need for planning.

2. Establishing objectives.

3. Building the premises for planning. Forecast is based on the inferences drawn from the known facts and figures. The forecasts are used for formulating plans for future.

4. Identifying alternative courses of action.

5. Evaluating alternatives courses.

6. Selecting a best course of action.

Nature of Planning :

1. Planning is an intellectual process.

2. Planning is goal oriented.

3. Planning is a primary function of management.

4. Planning spreads to all managerial activities.

5. Planning is directed towards efficiency.

Principles of Effective Planning :

An effective plan must conform to the following principles:

1. Principles of limitations:

As limitations stand in the way of attainment of goals. Plan­ners are required to recognize these limitations and confine their search for alterna­tives which can overcome these limitations.

2. Commitment Principle:

The commitment principle implies that long range planning for future decisions. These decisions are commitment, normally of funds, direction of action or reputation.

3. Flexibility Principle:

Flexibility means ability to change a plan without undue costs, to keep moving towards a goal, even if changes are there in environment or there is a failure of plan. The more the flexibility can be built into plans, the less the danger of losses incurred by unexpected events.

4. Principle of Navigational Changes:

The planners, like a navigator must continuously check his course and redraw plan to meet desired goals.

5. Principle of Open System Approach:

Manager must consider interactions of economi­cal, technical, social, political and other elements of enterprise with their total envi­ronment.

6. SWOT Principle:

While planning one should know strengths, weaknesses, opportuni­ties, and threats (SWOT). These factors should be analysed in the light of the market, competitions, customer’s requirements etc.

Advantages of Planning :

1. Planning gives direction.

2. Planning helps to offset changes and uncertainty.

3. Planning helps in economic operation.

4. Planning focuses attention on important activities in order to fulfill its objectives.

5. Planning helps in controlling.

6. Planning helps in growth.

Strategic Planning :

Strategy is a unified, comprehensive and integrated plan that relates to strategic advan­tages of the firm to the challenges of the environment and that is designed to ensure the basic objective of the enterprise are achieved through proper execution by the organisation.

Strategic management allows firms to anticipate changing conditions. It provides clear ob­jectives and direction for employees. The firms which perform strategic management are more effective.

In business, strategy management is accepted as the discipline of the managing re­sources to achieve long term objectives, and includes long-range planning. Fundamental strength of a company depends upon the development of strategic success potential.

Strategic planning includes setting objectives, information analysis about key problems, characteristics of the organisation, and internal strengths linked with external opportunities, taking decisions on strategies and formulating a plan.

Strategic planning establishes long term goals. The detailed methods for achieving these goals are related to current environmental conditions. Strategic planning looks three to five years ahead. It charts a definite course based on strong indicators of what the business environ­ment will face in those years. Indicators include census demographic statistics, economic indi­cators, government policies, and technological advances.

They reveal strong trends regarding changes in lifestyles, and the economic and political climates. Some of these trends are poten­tial opportunities, some potential threats, and some are both. Thus we can use our resources more effectively and conduct our business more successfully, despite changes in the environ­ment.

Strategic planning process consists of following steps:

1. Analyse the environment to identify new opportunities for existing and new products and services. Environment includes political, social, economic, technological and internal environment.

2. Identify company strengths and weaknesses.

3. Identify opportunities and risks.

4. Define product scope.

5. Define the competitive edge.

6. Establish objectives and measures of performance.

7. Determine deployment of resources.

Essay # 2. Organising :

Organising is that part of managing that involves establishing an intentional structure of role for people to fill in an organisation. Intentional means to assign the tasks, to accomplish the goals, and to the people who can do their best.

Organising involves the following:

(a) Identification and classification of required activities,

(b) Grouping of activities necessary to attain objectives,

(c) Assignment of each group to a manager with the authority necessary for its supervi­sion, and

(d) Making provision for coordination horizontally and vertically in the organisation struc­ture.

Organising is providing everything essential for proper functioning and combining the hu­man power with other resources to give desired output.

Organisation is a large group of persons united to achieve any task. Organisational struc­ture deals with the overall organisational arrangement in an enterprise.

Organisation is concerned with the building, developing and maintaining a structure of the working relationship in order to accomplish the objectives of the enterprise.

Organisation structure means the systematic arrangement of the people working for the organisation, their positions, and the relationships between positions. The structure provides an appropriate authority and responsibility relationships.

The organisation structure varies with the organisation and the functions to be performed and depends upon the goals and objec­tives established the resources availability, the communications, and the working relation­ships of the individuals, motivational and other factors.

Principles of Organisation :

Principles of organisation assist in arriving at the final structure of an organisation.

Major common principles of organisation are:

1. Consideration of Objectives:

Objectives decide the functions to be performed in the organisation and have direct bearing on the organisation structure.

2. Span of Control:

Span of control is a number of subordinates which are directly under their supervisors. This number should be reasonable, as too small number will lead to non-utilisation of full time and energy of the superior while large number will lead to difficulty in exercising control. An ideal number is 4, and at the lowest level 12 to 16. Thus a manager may have 4 deputy managers, and a foreman may have 16 workers.

3. Delegation:

Delegation is a process, a manager follows in dividing the work assigned to him so that he can perform that part which only he, because of his unique organisational place­ment, can perform effectively and so that he can get others to help him with that remains.

Guidelines for Delegation:

(i) Establish the goals,

(ii) Define the Authority and Responsibility,

(iii) Motivate the subordinates,

(iv) Provide proper check and control,

(v) Chain of command – It has been felt that for efficient working, employee should re­ceive the orders only from his superior boss. If he has more bosses, work may suffer and it creates discipline problem difficult,

(vi) Specialisation,

(vii) Balance stability and flexibility,

(viii) Discipline, and 

(ix) Unity of command – This means that employees should get orders and instructions from one boss only.

Division of Labour:

It means division of work into different parts or processes which are performed by one group of workers according to their ability and aptitude. A good example of division of labour is found in mass scale production factory, where workers are classified according to the nature of work performed by them e.g., electrician, welder, blacksmith, carpenter etc.

In this system every worker specialises in a particular type of work, therefore it improves the efficiency, and results in economy.

Guidelines for Good Organisation :

Efficiency of an enterprise depends on the organisational structure.

A good organisation should have the following:

(i) Allotment of work.

(ii) Grant of necessary authority.

(iii) Flexibility to permit slight alternatives and expansions whenever needed.

(iv) Distribution of work in different departments.

(v) Coordination among different departments.

(vi) Able to avoid wastage of labour, money and materials.

Types of Organisation :

According to different methods of distribution of authorities and responsibilities, the organisational structures are of the following types:

1. Line or Scalar Organisation:

In this type of organisation, also known as departmental or military type of organisation, the flow of authority moves from top to bottom in vertical lines.

2. Functional Organisation:

In this type, specialised people are employed under the production superintendent and everybody is supposed to give his functionalised advice to all other foreman and workers. Every specialised boss will go to individual worker for his related function.

3. Line and Staff Organisation:

In a firm of large size, managers cannot give full atten­tion to every function of management, they cannot give time to think and plan. They are busy with routine tasks. Hence ‘some staff is deputed to do their work of investigation, research, recording, planning and advising the managers.

Thus line maintains the discipline and stabil­ity, and staff provides expertise and helps to improve the overall efficiency. In other words, staffs are ‘thinkers’ while lines are ‘doers’. A staff man usually controls one function of which he is an expert.

Effectiveness in Organising :

1. Plan properly,

2. Clarify relationships,

3. Proper authority delegation,

4. Avoid confusion of lines of authority and lines of information,

5. Sufficient flexibility,

6. Avoid conflict by clear instructions, and 

7. Promoting an appropriate organisation culture.

Difference between Administration, Management and Organisation :

Dr. W.R. Spriegel has distinguished the three words, administration, management and organisation as under:

“Administration” predetermines the specific goals and lays down the broad areas within which these goals are to be attained. Thus administration is a determinative function. While the Management is an executive function, which is mainly concerned with carrying out the broad policies laid down by the administration. Organisation is the machinery through which the coordination is established between administration and management.

Thus we may conclude in simple words that:

“Administration chalks out the general policies while management work for bringing these policies into effect. Organisation is the mechanism which helps by management in bringing these policies into effect laid by administration”.

Essay # 3. Staffing :

Staffing, now-a-days also termed as ‘human resource management’, is defined as filling, and keeping filled, positions in the organisation structure. Thus staffing function comprises, the activities essential to manage and keep manned the positions created by the organisation structure. Staffing function involves recruiting, selecting, placing, promoting, appraising, car­rier planning, training, compensating etc. so that they can accomplish their tasks effectively and efficiently.

Some persons feel that staffing is not a separate function of management. They argue that it is a part of organising since it involves manning the positions created by organisation process. Some authors view it as a part of direction, as staffing activities are closely related to leader­ship, communication and motivation.

Essay # 4. Directing :

Directing is the inter-personnel aspect of managing by which subordinates are led to under­stand and contribute effectively and efficiently to attainment of enterprise objectives.

Directing is a dynamic function of management because it infuses life into organisation. Directing can also be defined as a function which includes all those activities which are designed to encourage subordinates to work effectively both in short and long run.

Directing is telling people that what to do and seeing that they do it to the best of their ability. It includes making assignments, corresponding procedures, seeing that mistakes are corrected, providing on-the-job instructions and, of course, issuing orders.

Directing process involves:

a. Leadership.

b. Communication.

c. Motivation.

d. Supervision.

Principles of Direction :

(i) Harmony of objectives.

(ii) Unity of command.

(iii) Direct supervision.

(iv) Effective communication.

(v) Effective leadership.

a. Leadership :

Weber said that in a leader oriented organisation there are followers and a leader to whom the followers allow some special strength or powers. When followers lose confidence in the leader then his leadership position can fall. He is the manager of the organisation.

Leader makes decisions and centralizes delegation of authority. Personal devotion and obedience to the leader is necessary, while qualification, professional competency or training etc., is of less con­sideration. Working depends on the decisions of the leader and his wishes are taken as com­mands.

To be clearer a leader’s role in an organisation can be compared with the role of an electron entering an atom. An electron with low energy will generally be absorbed without substantially changing the atom. In the same way, a low energy ‘leader’ will have small effect on the organisation and a high energy leader will be largely beneficial to the organisation.

Leadership of Dynamic Organisation :

The managers perform the important functions of creating, planning, organising, motivat­ing, communicating and controlling the organisations. These show the manager’s job. Still there are few more additional functions that do not fit nearly into the six managerial functions men­tioned above. The additional functions are very critical to the success or failure of enterprise.

These functions of a leader may be:

1. Arbitrating.

2. Suggesting.

3. Supplying objectives.

4. Catalyzing.

5. Providing security.

6. Representing.

7. Inspiring.

8. Praising.

1. Arbitrating:

A leader has to make several decisions to set the organisation moving. Generally other members sometimes may disagree even on the best decision of the leader. So an effective leader should be able to resolve the conflict or disagreement by arbitrating.

2. Suggesting:

Suggesting allows the subordinate to maintain his dignity and sense of participation more than if he is given a direct order. In the long run, the power of suggestions is a powerful tool in the manager’s hand. Suggestions should often be given by a leader. The leader may say, “I think it will be best done in this way”.

3. Supplying Objectives:

A manager frames and then defines the organisational objec­tives to their members. These objectives will allow members to work together collectively. The leader must, therefore, see that the organisation is always supplied with suitable objectives.

4. Catalyzing:

Some force is essentially needed to begin or accelerate movement. A leader can provide this force. When he provides this force, he is acting like a catalyst. In this way, leader initiates the subordinates to work.

5. Providing Security:

In organisations, personal security is an important factor. A leader can develop large measures of security by developing a positive optimistic attitude.

6. Representing:

A leader is said to be the symbol of the organisation. He is the represen­tative of his organisation. He has to speak on behalf of the organisation stating the organisations position on matters with which it is concerned.

Whenever a leader makes contact with outsid­ers, they think of the entire organisation in terms of the impression of the leader. If the impres­sion of the leader is favourable, they may think high of the entire organisation. On the other hand, if the leader leaves a poor impression, the reputation of the entire organisation will suffer.

7. Inspiring:

If the leader lets workers know that the work they are doing is worthwhile and important, then certain workers will atleast do them more efficiently. Thus they can be more inspired to achieve organisational goals, and will enthusiastically accept organisational objectives and work more effectively.

8. Praising:

Praising is necessary for the good and hard work done. It increases the inter­est in work and sincerity at heart. Leader should satisfy these needs by sincere praise. Workers need to know that they are important and their good work is praised. It is to note that empty flattering will fail, while a sincere pat on the back for good job done will make a person pleased and help him to become involved with his job.

b. Communication :

It is the process of conveying information so that thoughts or opinions are interchanged. It is two way media for transmitting ideas, plans, commands, reports and suggestions that influ­ence attitudes towards the organisation objectives.

A good communication can play important role in motivating people and stimulating them to put extra effort. Success of the leader and the organisation depends upon adequacy of communication. Communication determines the qual­ity and climate of human relationships.

Communication Flow :

There are three basic directions in which communications can be sent within an organisation:

(i) Downward Communication.

(ii) Upward Communication, and

(iii) Crosswise Communication.

(i) Downward Communication:

This type of flow begins from superior to subordinates. It is closely associated with the exercise of authority generally concerned with the introduction of new decisions, the clarification and interpretation of previous decisions and requests from higher officers for some specific information.

(ii) Upward Communication:

In this, information moves from subordinates to superior officers. It is associated with the response to order from officers and requests from subordinates for higher level decisions on operating problems. Also flowing upwards are opinions, attitudes, ideas, suggestions, complaints, grievances and rumours etc.

(iii) Crosswise Communication:

This type of communication is found between individu­als working at the same level and less than one officer, when advice related to organisational activity is sought from fellow workers.

Types of Communication :

There are usually two means for sending communication:

(ii) Written.

Oral instructions may be given to the individuals when they are face to face or can be communicated through the telephone or messengers.

(ii) Written:

It means sending the messages, instructions, orders or information in writing. Written communication carries more authority and leaves a record.

In any organisation both types of communication are employed. If an individual has diffi­culty in hearing, there is an increased chance that he will misunderstand or even fail to hear some of the verbal communications. Students of foreign countries are required to be better acquainted with the language in which the course work is being presented. In such cases writ­ten instructions may be given.

Factors for Effective Communication :

The following are the guiding principles of effective communication:

(a) Clarity:

The message must be simple and very clear so that the recipient can under­stand it fully.

(b) Consistency:

It means that message should be consistent with one another and with known objective of the organisation.

(c) Adequacy:

The purpose of communication is to transmit optimum flow of informa­tion. It should also be noted that not all information need be communicated. Some officers think that, if subordinates are informed about everything, they can be highly motivated and, therefore, they sent very heavy downward flow of information but it is found that with such a heavy information recipients become confused.

(d) Timing and Timeliness:

The different individuals should receive a particular mes­sage at the same time, and proper time should be allowed for the action to be taken on the message.

(e) Distribution:

A communication from top to bottom should pass through every stage of the line of authority. It is also seen that sometimes information do not reach to the right person. It must be born in mind that who is to be told is as important as what is to be told.

(f) Balance between Adaptability and Uniformity:

The smooth working of any organisation also depends upon uniformity. Yet adaptability should be resorted to when different situations and individuals are involved. Orders and reports should be transmitted through a system that provides opportunity for adoption to specific situa­tions.

(g) Interest and Acceptance:

The purpose of communication is to secure positive re­sponse. Therefore, the receiver of message must be capable and interested in accept­ing the message. Downward communication is more effective, if moral is high and upward communication gets through when the higher officer is a good listener.

c. Motivation and Morale :

Motivation :

All administrative actions are of no use if the workers are not willing to contribute efforts toward the completion of the assigned task. By any way each worker must desire to do his duties effectively. Motivation is the means of increasing this desire among the individuals. Motivation is a powerful tool in the hands of managers for getting work done.

Each individual has variety of desires and belief that shape his reactions. It is the task of manager to arrange the total work situation and group attitudes in such a way so that each of his subordinates find greater satisfaction in carrying out his duties. In fact, every worker should have a positive desire to do the work effectively and efficiently.

In building such an attitude in his sub-ordinate, a manager should consider a variety of measures such as higher financial income, social status and respect, attractive work, security, opportunity, personal power and influence, treatment as in individual person, voice in own affairs and fair supervision etc. Some of these measures provide general background of co­operative efforts while others can be related directly to performance of particular instructions.

In fact leadership and motivation go together. Managers must motivate every employee so that they can act with enthusiasm and vigour.

The word ‘motivation’ has been derived from the word’ ‘motive’ which means any idea, need or emotion that prompts a man into action. Generally, different motives operate at different times among different people and influence their behaviour. The management is expected to try to understand the motives of individuals which cause different types of behaviour.

Motivation can be defined as “the complex of forces starting and keeping a person at work in an organisation. Motivation is something that moves the person to action, and continues him in the course of action already initiated”. According to Dalton E. Mc Farland, “Motivation refers to the way in which urges, drives, desires, aspirations, and strivings or needs direct control or ex­plain the behaviour of human beings”.

The role of motivation is to develop and intensify the desire in every member of the organisation to work effectively and efficiently in his position. Motivation is a continuous pro­cess that produces goal directed behaviour.

It means the prevailing mood or spirit which is conducive to willing and dependable perfor­mance of task. This mood is a large measure of the degree of faith for the ultimate success of group effort. Morale presumably determines the extent of co-operation in achievement of goal leading in exceptional cases necessarily synonymous with relation, cheerfulness or what is some­times called good fellowship. Good morale means much more being in a good mood.

In increasing efficiency, good motivation and morale are essentially required.

d. Supervision :

Supervising and over-seeing his subordinates is an important part of direction function of every manager. Supervision means observing the subordinates at work, to see that they are working according to plans and policies of the organisation and keeping the time schedule, and to help them in solving their work problems.

The lowest level managers have as their primary duty to supervise workers in basic opera­tions. Therefore the managers at the lowest level are known as supervisors. They are directly in touch with their operative employees or the workers. In a plant or factory, supervisors may be called as foreman, gangman, chargeman, or a section officer.

Functions of a Supervisor :

(i) Planning the work.

(ii) Issuing orders.

(iii) Providing guidance or leadership.

(iv) Controlling output.

(v) Controlling schedule.

(vi) Motivate.

(vii) Maintaining records.

(viii) Liaison between management and workers.

Requisites of Effective Supervision :

1. Technical and Managerial knowledge.

2. Position and Authority.

3. Knowledge of rules and regulations.

4. Skill in leading.

5. Human orientation.

6. Issuing clear instructions.

Essay # 5. Controlling :

Controlling function of management can be defined as:

1. Controlling is a continuous process of measuring actual results in relation to those planned.

2. Controlling is that managerial activity whereby the manager compare actual perfor­mance against the planned one, find out the deviation, and take corrective actions.

3. Controlling is a process which sets standards, measures job performance, and takes corrective action, if required.

Control Process :

The control process in all the situations have following steps:

(i) Establishment of standards.

(ii) Measurement of performance.

(iii) Comparing the activity with the standards.

(iv) Remedial action.

Control Aids :

(i) Budget.

(ii) Managerial statistics.

(iii) Special reports.

(iv) Break-even point.

(v) Cost accounts.

(vi) Internal audit.

(vii) Personal observations.

(viii) Standing rules and orders, policies and procedures.

(ix) Modern technique like, PERT, improved M.I.S., electronic devices etc.

Techniques of Management Control :

(i) Budget and Budgetary control .

(ii) Cost control and cost accounting.

(iii) Inventory control. 

(iv) Quality control.

(v) Network techniques. 

(vi) Production control.

(vii) Special reports.

(viii) Management by objectives.

(ix) Management by exception. 

Essay # 6. Coordinating :

Coordination means achieving harmony of individual effort towards the accomplishment of company objectives. Coordination implies joint efforts, and as such it may be described as the orderly arrangement of group efforts to provide unity of action in pursuit of a common purpose.

Coordination can also be defined as the orderly synchronisation of efforts of the subordinates to provide the proper quantity, timing and quality of execution so that their unified efforts lead to the common purpose of the enterprise.

Objectives of Coordination :

Following objectives are sought through coordination’s:

(i) Reconciliation of goals.

(ii) Total accomplishment.

(iii) Economy and efficiency.

(iv) Good personnel relations.

(v) Helps in keeping high morale of employees.

Techniques of Effective Coordination :

1. Clearly defined goals.

2. Clear lines of authority and responsibility.

3. Precise and comprehensive programmes and policies.

4. Cooperation.

5. Effective communication.

6. Effective leadership and supervision.

Related Articles:

• Essay on Co-Ordination in an Organisation | Functions | Management
• Essay on Direction in an Organisation | Functions | Management
• 5 Primary Functions of Management

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