Management Functions
Management plays a vital role in any business or organized activity. Management is composed of a team of managers who have charge of the organization at all levels. Their duties include making sure company objectives are met and seeing that the business operates efficiently. Regardless of the specific job, most managers perform four basic functions. These management functions are planning, organizing, directing and controlling.
Planning involves determining overall company objectives and deciding how these goals can best be achieved.
Organizing is the process of putting the plan into action. This involves allocating resources, especially human resources, so that the overall objectives can be attained. Staffing, choosing the right person for the right job, may also be included as part of the organizing function.
Third is the day-to day direction and supervision of employees. In directing, managers guide, teach, and motivate workers so that they reach their potential abilities and at the same time achieve the company goals that were established in the planning process. Effective direction, or supervision, by managers requires ongoing communication with employees.
In the last management function, controlling, managers evaluate how well company objectives are being met. If major problems exist and goals are not being achieved, then changes need to be made in the company’s organizational or managerial structure. In making changes, managers might have to go back and replan, reorganize and redirect.
Managerial job in organizations fall into three categories: top management, middle and first-line management.
Top management usually consists of the organization’s most important manager– the chief executive officer or president– and his and her immediate subordinates. Top management is responsible for the overall management of the organization. It establishes organizational or companywide objectives or goals and operating policies; and it directs the company in relationships with its environment.
The planning function for top-level management consists of developing the major purpose of the organization, the global objectives for organizational accomplishment, and the major policy statements for implementation by middle and first-line managers.
Organizing at this level is viewed as developing the overall structure of the organization to support the accomplishment of the plans and then acquiring the resources for the company.
The staffing function at the top level is concerned with policy development in the areas of equal employment opportunity and employee development. In addition, top management is concerned with acquiring talent to fill upper-management positions.
The emphasis in directing is on companywide management philosophy and on cultivating an organizational climate for the best employee performance.
The controlling function at this level emphasizes overall company performance relative to company objectives.
Middle managers are all managers below the rank of vice-president but above the supervisory level. These middle managers may be titled regional managers or group managers.
Regardless of the title, the major point is that their subordinates are other managers. They are responsible for implementing top management policies.
Middle level management’s primary job is to develop implementation strategies for the broad concepts developed by top management. Middle managers focus on how to do it with new products or new customers or new territories.
Organizing at the middle level is the making of specific adjustments in the organization structure and the allocation of the resources acquired by top management.
Staffing focuses on the policy implementation in the areas of equal employment opportunity and employee development programs.
Directing is viewed as providing leadership and support for lower level management.
Controlling is concerned with monitoring the results of plans for specific products, regions, and sub-units and making the indicated adjustment to achieve organizational objectives.
First line managers or supervisors, those at the operating level, are the lowest level of management. Their subordinates are non-management workers– the group on which management depends for the execution of their plans.
First line management is concerned with only its immediate responsibilities. For the first-line manager, planning involves scheduling employees, deciding what work will be done first, and developing procedures to achieve the goals.
Organizing may consist of delegating authority or deciding that work done by one group of people should be done by another team.
Staffing at this level consists of requesting a new employee, hiring that employee, and then training the person to perform the job.
Directing includes communicating and providing leadership both to the work group and to all employees individually.
Controlling focuses on having the manager’s work group meet its production, sales, or quality objectives.
So, managers at every level perform the same functions. They differ in the time spent on each function and depth of their involvement with each function.