Functions of Management

2009-01-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

Author: Shyam Bhatawdekar (eminent management guru, successful business leader, highly sought after management consultant and well-known author)

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(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Management

It includes:

Management of business and profit making private and government run organizations.
Management of non-profit making organizations.
Management of trusts, societies, associations, charitable organizations.
Management of governmental organizations.
Management of NGOs.
Management of educational organizations e.g. universities, colleges, schools.
Management of day care units.
Management of hospitals and other health care organizations.
Management of sports related organizations and clubs.
Management of religious organizations.

Management for any organization is a function of organizing and channeling the people together to accomplish desired goals.

In common understanding, management is also referred to the body or group of persons who perform the various functions of management.

Mary Parker Follett was the first to define management as the art of getting things done through people.

Hierarchical Levels of Management

Top management (including the members of the board of directors of the company- responsible for strategic management).
Senior management (or upper management; normally, the heads of various departments- responsible for operations management).
Middle management (responsible for operational management).
Junior or lower management (they include supervisors, team leaders or, foreman etc- responsible for transaction control)

Functions of Management or Management Functions

Management consists of the functions given below. It is based on Henri Fayol's thinking on the functions of management.

Planning: generating plans of action for immediate, short term, medium term and long term periods.
Organizing: organizing the resources, particularly human resources, in the best possible manner.
Staffing: positioning right people right jobs at right time.
Directing (includes leading, motivating, communicating and coordinating): Communicate and coordinate with people to lead and enthuse them to work effectively together to achieve the plans of the organization.
Controlling (includes review and monitoring): evaluating the progress against the plans and making corrections either in plans or in execution.

Each of these functions is explained in some detail below.

1. Planning

Planning is decision making process.
It is making decisions on future course of actions.
Planning involves taking decisions on vision, mission, values, objectives, strategies and policies of an organization.
Planning is done for immediate, short term, medium term and long term periods.
It is a guideline for execution/implementation.
It is a measure to check the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization.

2. Organizing

Organizing involves determination and grouping of the activities.
Designing organization structures and departmentation based on this grouping.
Defining the roles and responsibilities of the departments and of the job positions within these departments.
Defining relationships between departments and job positions.
Defining authorities for departments and job positions.

3. Staffing

It includes manpower or human resource planning.
Staffing involves recruitment, selection, induction and positioning the people in the organization.
Decisions on remuneration packages are part of staffing.
Training, retraining, development, mentoring and counseling are important aspects of staffing.
It also includes performance appraisals and designing and administering the motivational packages.

4. Directing

It is one of the most important functions of management to translate company's plans into execution.
It includes providing leadership to people so that they work willingly and enthusiastically.
Directing people involves motivating them all the time to enthuse them to give their best.
Communicating companies plans throughout the organization is an important directing activity.
It also means coordinating various people and their activities.
Directing aims at achieving the best not just out of an individual but achieving the best through the groups or teams of people through team building efforts.

5. Controlling

It includes verifying the actual execution against the plans to ensure that execution is being done in accordance with the plans.
It measures actual performance against the plans.
It sets standards or norms of performance.
It measures the effective and efficiency of execution against these standards and the plans.
It periodically reviews, evaluates and monitors the performance.
If the gaps are found between execution levels and the plans, controlling function involves suitable corrective actions to expedite the execution to match up with the plans or in certain circumstances deciding to make modifications in the plans.

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