Compilation of answers on the functions of management. This article will guide you to learn about: 1. 10 Functions Of Management 2. 7 Functions Of Management 3. 4 Basic Functions Of Management 5. 8 Functions Of Management 6. Functions Of Management Planning.
Answer 1. Functions of Management:
Management in order to accomplish the organization’s goal will have to perform certain tasks. These tasks are the functions of Management, There is no uniformity regarding the functions of Management too. Different management experts have given different views regarding the functions of management.
Generally speaking, management consists of five important basic functions namely:
(1) Planning,
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(2) Organizing,
(3) Staffing,
(4) Directing, and
(5) Controlling,
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Henry Fayol identifies five functions, viz., planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling. Newman and summer recognize only four functions, namely- planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. Koontz and O’Donnel classify the functions into planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling.
The following discussion will briefly highlight the nature of these functions:
(1) Planning:
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Systematic planning helps in facing the uncertainties of future with certainty. It helps in making things happen in the expected way. Planning is looking ahead. It is preparing for the future. It involves outlining a future course of action.
It precedes all the other managerial functions. It involves deciding the objectives and formulating the policies and procedures to achieve them. Effective planning provides answers to questions like – What to do? How to do? Who is to do? Where to do? and When to do?
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It is performed at all levels of management. The plans developed by different managers may vary in respect of scope and importance. For example, plans made by top managers have a wider scope with a focus on the organization as a whole and normally cover a longer period. On the other hand, plans developed by middle and lower level managers relate to the divisions or departments and usually cover a short period.
(2) Organizing:
Organizations achieve objectives by using physical and human resources. Organizing creates a structure that facilitates the achievement of goals. The size and nature of the activities involved, the type of environment and the overall business strategy, influence the structure.
Organizing establishes harmonious relationship among the members of an organization. When people work in groups, everyone in the group should know what he is expected to achieve and with what resources. Thus, organizing involves establishing authority-responsibility relationships among the people.
Organizing involves:
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(i) Determination of activities required to achieve goals;
(ii) Grouping of these activities in to departments;
(iii) Assignment of activities to an individual or a group of people;
(iv) Delegation of authority to carry them out;
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(v) Defining of responsibility, and
(vi) Provision for coordination horizontally and vertically in the organization.
(3) Staffing:
Right man for the right job is the essence of staffing. It involves manning the various positions of the organization. It includes manpower planning, recruitment and selection of the right people, training and developing them, deciding financial compensation, appraising their performance periodically.
Generally, some processes of staffing are performed by personnel department only. For example recruitment and selection, training, fixation of salary, etc. Performance appraisal, on the other hand, may be done by all managers.
(4) Directing:
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Instructing, guiding, and inspiring human force in an organization in achievement of objectives is called directing. It basically involves directing or leading the activities of the people. The manager directs the activities of his subordinates by explaining what they have to do and by helping them perform it to the best of their ability. In the process, the manager performs the following three distinct tasks- Communication, Leadership and Motivation.
(5) Controlling:
Controlling is the process of checking or verifying the activities that have been performed against the predetermined standards. Planning and controlling are closely interrelated in that while plans specify the objectives to be achieved, control as a managerial function facilitates to know whether the actual performance is in conformity with the planned one. That is why planning and controlling are often described as the ‘Siamese’ twins of management.
It involves following elements:
(i) Establishing standards of performance;
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(ii) Measuring the actual performance:
(iii) Comparing the actual performance against the standard performance;
(iv) Detecting deviations, if any, in order to make corrections before it is too late; and
(v) Taking appropriate corrective measures.
Answer 2. 4 Basic Management Functions:
1. Planning and Decision Making:
Planning is the management of the organization’s future in an uncertain environment. It involves selecting missions and objectives and the actions to achieve them; it requires decision making. Decision making, a part of the planning process, involves selecting a course of action from a set of alternatives.
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Planning and decision making helps maintain managerial effectiveness by serving as guides for future activities. There are various types of plans, ranging from broad purposes and objectives to the most detailed actions to be taken. No real plan exists until a decision has been made. Before a decision is made, all that exists is a planning, study, an analysis, or a proposal; there is no real plan.
2. Organizing:
Once a manager has set goals and developed a workable plan, the next management function is to organize people and groups to carry out the plan. Specifically, organizing involves determining how activities and resources are to be grouped. Organizing is that part of managing that involves establishing an intentional structure of roles for people to fill in an organization. It is intentional to make sure that all the tasks necessary to accomplish goals are assigned to people who can do best.
3. Leading:
The third managerial function is leading. Some people consider leading to be both the most important and the most challenging of all managerial activities. Leading is the set of processes used to get people to work together to advance the interests of the organization. In other words, leading is the influencing of people so that they will contribute.
4. Controlling:
The final phase of the management process is controlling.
Control as a function of management:
(i) Encourage behaviors that are desirable
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(ii) Discourage undesirable ones
(iii) Ways of reacting to the goal-directedness control
As the organization moves toward its goals, managers must monitor progress to insure that the organization is performing in such a way as to reach its destination at the appointed time. In other words, controlling is the measuring and correcting of activities of subordinates to ensure that action proceeds according to plans. It measures performance against goals and plans, indicates deviations and put in motion actions to correct deviations.
Answer 3. Functions of Management:
“Management is the coordination of all the resources through the process of planning, organising, directing and controlling in order to attain stated objectives.”
“Management is principally the task of planning, coordinating, motivating and controlling the efforts of others towards specific objectives.”
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Management is considered a process because it involves a series of inter-related functions. The management process includes planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling functions.
Management as a process has the following implications:
1. Management as Social Process:
Management process involves interaction amongst people. Goals can be achieved only when relations between people are productive.
2. Management as Integrated Process:
Management process brings together human, physical and financial resources. Management process also integrates human efforts to maintain harmony amongst them.
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3. Management as Iterative Process:
All managerial functions are contained within each other for example, when a manager prepares plans, he is also laying down standards for control.
4. Management as Continuous Process:
Management involves continuous identifying and solving problems. It is performed again and again.
Management process is identified as a set of functions performed by managers to accomplish organisational goals, that is, management functions explain the process of management. Management functions provide structure to management service, theory and practice. The knowledge of management revolves around management functions. Functions mean activity and management functions mean activities performed by managers. There are two types of functions performed by managers.
Operative functions are the operations performed by managers. Four basic operative functions performed in any organisation are production, finance, personnel and sales. The nature of these functions varies from organisation to organisation. The functions discussed above are performed in a manufacturing organisation. In a trading organisation, these functions are buying and selling. In a banking organisation, these are lending and borrowing.
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Managerial functions, on the other hand, are universal in nature. Whatever be the nature of organisation, manufacturing or trading, they are performed for each operative function. Whichever operative function manager performs (product or finance), these functions are performed in all functional areas.
Different authors have different views on functions of management. According to George R. Terry, these are planning, organising, actuating and controlling. Luther Gulick explains these functions through the keyword — PODSCORB where P stands for Planning, O for Organising, D for Directing, S for Staffing, CO for Coordinating, R for Reporting, and B for Budgeting.
Though different views are held by different authors, basic functions performed by managers can be classified as follows:
1. Planning:
“Planning is selecting information and making assumptions regarding the future to formulate the activities necessary to achieve organisational objectives.” — Terry and Franklin
“Planning involves selecting missions and objectives and the actions to achieve them; it requires decision-making that is, choosing from among alternative future courses of action.” — Koontz and Weihrich
Planning is the first and basic function of management that involves determination of objectives and devising ways to achieve those objectives. It fills the gap between where we are and where we want to go. In the course of doing so, it answers the basic questions of what to do, when to do, how to do and who is to do a particular action.
It is required for both business and non-business organisations. In business organisations, it is required at all levels (top, middle and low), all sizes (large, medium and small) and all purposes (profit or non-profit). However, top managers spend more time on planning than lower-level managers. Lower-level managers generally implement plans framed by top managers, though they make plans for their own units.
Planning is, thus, an all pervasive, primary function of management that aims at determination and successful achievement of objectives. It is an intellectual process where managers use their mental and conceptual ability to analyse the organisational (external and internal) environment and optimally utilise resources to make various decisions. (Optimum refers to deriving maximum output out of minimum inputs).
Planning is future-oriented and done in advance to achieve a goal in future. It has to be carefully done so that future uncertainties do not fail the plans.
2. Organising:
“Organisation is the structure and process by which a co-operative group of human beings allocates its tasks among its members, identifies relationships, and integrates its activities towards common objectives.” — J.L. Massie
Organising means creating a structure of relationships and assigning work to people down the hierarchy along with authority and responsibility to achieve organizational goals. It is division of work into units, assignment of duties/work to each member, defining relationships with each other so that all members co-ordinate their work with the overall goals.
Organising is:
(a) Identification and classification of required objectives,
(b) Division of activities to achieve the objectives,
(c) Grouping of activities necessary to attain objectives,
(d) Assignment of each grouping to a manager with authority (delegation) necessary to supervise it, and
(e) Provisions for co-ordination horizontally (at the same or a similar organisational level) and vertically (for example, corporate headquarter, division and department) in the organisation structure.
3. Staffing:
Staffing means appointing people and placing them at the appropriate jobs. It identifies human resource (manpower) needs, fills the organisation structure with required number of people and keeps it filled with those people.
It is a managerial function of hiring people, placing them on jobs of their competence, training and developing them so that they perform their best at the respective jobs.
A properly conducted staffing function helps to lead and control organisational activities.
“The staffing function includes the process by which the right person is placed in the right organisational position.” — J.L. Massie
Placing the right person, with right knowledge, at the right place and the right time to perform organisational activities increases efficiency of the organisation.
Recruiting and selecting people with the best potential, training and compensating them develops future managers and promotes people to higher levels from within the organisation.
4. Directing:
Directing means activating. After plans are made, organisation structure is designed and people are appointed at various posts, managers direct, guide, motivate and lead the employees to positively contribute towards organisational goals. It is a function that deals with people. It brings plans into action by the process of motivation, communication, leadership, supervision and team building amongst people working in the organisation.
While planning and organising lay foundation of the organisation, directing initiates action on the part of workforce. People work to achieve organisational goals. Directing is “a managerial function that involves the responsibility of managers for communicating to others what their roles are in achieving the company plan.” — Pearce and Robinson
“Directing is telling people 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 is, thus, working with and through people and non-human resources to accomplish organisational goals. It is an on-going process of understanding the behaviour of people as individuals and groups and ensuring their participation in various organisational activities.
Motivation, leadership and communication are the basic components of directing.
Motivation is a force that drives a person to action. In the context of business, it means inspiring workers to perform tasks that lead to goal accomplishment. Subordinates follow managers’ orders and instructions, if they are able to willing to do so. Motivation creates willingness to perform tasks that lead to accomplishment of goals.
“Motivation may be defined as the state of individual’s perspective which represents the strength of his or her propensity to exert effort toward some particular behaviour.” — Gibson
The ability of people to influence the behaviour of others is known as leadership.
Leadership is “influence, that is, the art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of group goals.” — Koontz and Weihrich
Communication is exchange of ideas, messages and information between two or more persons, through a medium, in a manner that the sender and receiver understand the message in the common sense that is, they develop common understanding of the message.
“Communication is the art of developing and attaining understanding between people. It is the process of exchanging information and feelings between two or more people and it is essential to effective management.” — Terry and Franklin
5. Controlling:
“Controlling is determining what is being accomplished, that is, evaluating the performance and, if necessary applying corrective measures so that the performance takes place according to plans.”
It is a process of ensuring that objectives laid in the planning function are successfully achieved. It involves setting standards of performance, measuring actual performance, comparing it with planned performance, finding deviations between actual and planned standards and taking actions to remove deviations.
It is closely associated with planning. Monitoring actual performance ensures effective implementation of plans. Though more closely associated with planning, it is related to other managerial functions also. It ensures that organising, staffing and directing functions are effectively carried out.
It is a corrective device that prevents and corrects deviations in plans and is performed at every level (top, middle and low) of the organisation.
Though managerial functions are classified as five functions, they are not independent of each other. They are so closely related to each other that it is difficult to perform one without the other. Plans are made keeping in mind the organisation structure and ability of people to work according to plans. Organising distributes authority and responsibility according to planned activities, staffing appoints people who can best perform the planned activities, directing motivates, guides and leads people to achieve the planned targets and controlling ensures there are no deviations in actual performance as against planned performance.
All these functions are inter-related. They affect and are affected by other functions. Managers must, therefore, carry out these functions in a manner that best serves the interest of organisations to achieve the organisational goals.
i) These functions are performed by managers at all levels in all organisations — business and non-business. They are, thus, called pervasive functions of management.
ii) Though they are identified as separate functions of management, they are not independent of each other. They are contained within each other, that is, they are also dependent on each other. For instance, when a manager is performing staffing function, he is performing the planning, organising, directing and controlling functions within the staffing function. Similarly, when he is directing the activities of employees, he is also planning, organising and controlling the direction function.
iii) There is no sequential order in which these functions are performed. Though in a new organisation, planning precedes other managerial functions, in an already existing organisation, these functions are performed according to need of the organisation. One function may precede or succeed the other function. These functions are performed in a circular pattern where it cannot be identified as to which is the first managerial function.
This also highlights that these functions cannot be ranked in the order of importance. They are equally important depending upon which function is required to be performed when.
Answer 4. Functions of Management:
Management is the process of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling the efforts of organisation members in utilising all resources to achieve organizational goals, objectives and mission. Management is a process as it operates the activities systematically.
Functions of management include planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling.
Function 1. Planning:
Planning consists of the activities involved in choosing courses of action to achieve organisational objectives. It is deciding in advance what to do, when to do, how to do and who will do it, in order to achieve these objectives. Both long-term and short-term plans are necessary to achieve goals.
It is necessary for the management to adopt certain assumptions or premises with regard to external factors that serve as a background for the planning function. Some companies have adopted the practice of contingency planning in view of growing difficulty of predicting future environmental conditions. Planning is a part of the activities of all managers.
Function 2. Organising:
Organising involves the grouping of jobs into a framework for coordination and direction. Formal organisations may be portrayed by use of an organisation chart. Careful structuring of an organisation is beneficial in terms of clarifying lines of command and eliminating gaps and overlaps. However, extremely detailed organisation structures may be dysfunctional.
Once job content is determined, jobs and activities must be grouped to devise an overall structure. Decisions affecting organisational structure involve values and goals for both enterprises and individuals.
Organisations are structured based on product, function, geography, customer and project. The matrix structure has evolved as a result of complex environments, markets and technology. It combines both functions and projects. Organisational culture reflects not only social values and expectations, but also the unique set of values, beliefs and behaviours that characterise each organisation.
Function 3. Staffing:
Staffing is planning, organising, directing and controlling of procurement, development, compensation, integration and maintenance of people for the purpose of contributing to individual, organisational and social goals. Thus, building an effective organisational team requires planning and control of human resources.
This process requires the performance of the functions like job analysis, human resources planning, recruitment, selection, induction, placement, training, executive development, wage and salary administration, leadership, teamwork, motivation, grievance procedure, disciplinary procedure etc.
Once the employee is employed, his development needs are identified through performance appraisal. Once these needs are identified, the employee will be trained/developed with the application of on-the-job and off-the-job methods. Staffing function is also known as human resource management.
Function 4. Directing:
The next logical function after completing planning, organising and staffing is the execution of plan. The important function of management at any level is directing the people by motivating, commanding, leading and activating them. The willing and effective cooperation of employees for the attainment of organisational goals is possible through direction.
Tapping the maximum potentialities of the people is possible through motivation and command. Thus, direction is an important managerial function in securing employee’s contribution. Coordination deals with the task of blending efforts in order to ensure successful attainment of organisational objectives.
Function 5. Controlling:
After planning, organising, staffing and directing the various activities, the performance is to be verified in order to know whether the activities are performed in conformity with the plans and objectives or not. Controlling also involves checking, verifying and comparing of actual performance with the plans, identification of deviations, if any and correcting of identified deviations. Thus actions and operations are adjusted to predetermined plans and standards through control.
The purpose of control is to ensure the effective operation of an organisation by focusing on all resources — human, material, finance and machines. Financial control is attained through a number of means viz., financial statements interpreted through ratio analysis and budgets.
Answer 5. Functions of Management:
Managers are known by the work they do, the functions they perform. According to the functional approach, originated by Henry Fayola, in every organization managers perform certain basic functions in order to achieve results.
These functions maybe broadly classified into five categories:
1. Planning,
2. Organizing,
3. Staffing,
4. Leading and
5. Controlling.
Managers perform these functions within the limits established by the external environment and must consider the interests of such diverse groups as government, employees, unions, customers, shareholders, competitors and the public. A brief discussion of the five basic functions is presented here.
1. Planning:
Planning is the process of making decisions about the future. It is the process of determining enterprise objectives and selecting future courses of actions necessary for their accomplishment. Planning can also be referred to as the process of deciding in advance what is to be done, when and where it is to be done, how it is to be done and by whom it is to be done.
Planning provides direction to enterprise activities. It helps managers cope with change and enables them to measure progress toward the objectives so that corrective action can be taken if the pace of progress is not satisfactory. Planning is a fundamental function of management and all other functions of management are influenced by the planning process.
2. Organizing:
Organizing is concerned with the arrangement of an organization’s resources, i.e., people, materials, technology and finance, in order to achieve enterprise objectives. It involves decisions about the division of work, allocation of authority and responsibility and the coordination of tasks. The function increases in importance as a firm grows.
A structure is created to cope with problems created by growth. Through this formal structure, the various work activities are defined, classified, arranged and coordinated. Thus, organizing refers to certain dynamic aspects- What tasks are to be done? Who is to do them? How the tasks are to be grouped? Who is to report to whom? Where the decisions have to be made?
3. Staffing:
A manager’s greatest responsibility is to select, direct, develop and evaluate the people of the organization. People are the source of all productive effort in organizations and, hence, need to be nurtured carefully. Staffing is the function of employing suitable persons for the enterprise.
It may be defined as an activity where people are recruited, selected, trained, developed, motivated and compensated for manning the various positions. It includes not only the movement of individuals into an organization, but also their movement through (promotion, job rotation, transfer) and out (termination, retirement) of the organization. Staffing involves selection of the right man for the right job.
It has four important elements:
i. Recruitment may be defined as the process of attracting the maximum number of applications for a particular job
ii. Selection is the process of screening the candidates and choosing the best ones out of them
iii. Training involves imparting the necessary knowledge and skills required for the performance of a particular job
iv. Compensation is the price paid to the workers for the services rendered to the organization
4. Leading and Influencing:
Leading is stimulating people to become high performers. It includes motivating and communicating with employees, individually and in groups. Influencing may be defined as guiding the activities of organization members in appropriate directions. An appropriate direction is any direction that helps the organization move toward goal attainment.
The ultimate purpose of influencing is to enhance productivity. The leading and influencing function typically had a number of different labels and is being studied under various heads over the years.
Let’s look into these closely:
i. Direction and Supervision the function of guiding and supervising the activities of the subordinates is known as directing. According to Dale, direction is telling people what to do and seeing that they do it to the best of their ability.
Acquiring physical and human assets and suitably placing them on jobs will not suffice; what is more important is that the people must be directed towards organizational goals. Supervision is seeing the subordinates do their work and do it as directed. It also involves overseeing employees at work.
ii. Leadership- Leadership is the process of influencing the actions of a person or a group to attain desired objectives. A manager has to get the work done with and through people. The success of an organization depends upon the quality of leadership shown by its managers.
iii. Motivation- Motivation is the work a manager performs to inspire, encourage and impel people to take required action. It is the process of stimulating people to take the desired courses of action. In order to motivate employees, a manager must provide a congenial working atmosphere coupled with attractive incentives.
iv. Communication- Communication is the transfer of information and understanding from one person to another. It is a way of reaching others with ideas, facts, and thoughts. Significantly, communication always involves two people: a sender and a receiver. Effective communication is important in organizations because managers can accomplish very little without it.
5. Controlling:
The objective of controlling is to ensure that actions contribute to goal accomplishment. It helps in keeping the organizational activities on the right path and aligned with plans and goals. In controlling, performances are observed, measured and compared with what had been planned.
If the measured performance is found wanting, the manager must find the reasons for the same and take corrective actions. If the performance is found to be adequate, some planning decisions must be made, altering the original plans. If the controlling function is to be effective, it must be preceded by proper planning.
Thus, controlling includes four things:
(i) Setting standards of performance;
(ii) Measuring actual performance;
(iii) Comparing actual performance against the standard; and
(iv) Taking corrective actions to ensure goal accomplishment.
Answer 6. Functions of Management:
There are five basic and fundamental functions of management that signifies a systematic structure describing the processes, roles and responsibilities for operating a productive organisation.
1. Planning:
Planning involves selecting missions and objectives as well as identifying supporting actions to achieve them. This requires decision-making or choosing the course of action from or among alternatives. Planning is like a roadmap of activities to be performed by and through relevant human and physical resources. It is the starting point, which connects other managerial tools like organising, staffing, leading and finally controlling.
2. Organising:
Organising is the managerial tool undertaken for implementing all plans identified for a business. It involves developing an organisational structure that defines the roles of people to fill in an organisation. It ensures that all tasks necessary to accomplish goals (identified during the planning stage) are assigned among people who are best suited.
3. Staffing:
Based on the organisational structure, staffing involves filling vacant positions and retaining those positions so that tasks are accomplished effectively and efficiently. Staffing thus involves identifying workforce requirements, inventorying the people available, recruiting, selecting, placing promotion, appraising, planning the careers, compensation and training of existing and potential candidates.
4. Directing:
Directing is influencing and motivating people so that they will contribute to the organisational goals. The act of directing or direction is the essence of all operations in an organisation that involves leading human and physical resources together through motivation; collaboration; coordination; and delegation. Directing deals with tackling problems arising from people’s desires, attitudes and behaviour as individuals. It deals with factors which influence motivation and employee morale through coordination, supervision and leadership.
5. Controlling:
Controlling is the final managerial function that measures and corrects individual and organisational performance to ensure that all business activities conform to the predetermined plans. It involves measuring performance against goals and plans, showing where deviations from standards exist and helping to correct deviations from standards.
Answer 7. Functions of Management:
The following comprehensive classification of managerial functions is given below:
(1) Planning
(2) Organizing
(3) Staffing
(4) Directing
(5) Coordinating
(6) Controlling.
(1) Planning:
Planning is the most basic and primary function of management. It helps in determining the course of action to be followed for achieving various organizational objectives. It involves deciding in advance what to do, when to do, where to do it, How to do it and who is to do it and how the results are to evaluated. Other functions of management such as organizing staffing, Directing, Coordinating and controlling are also under taken after planning.
The process of planning consists of – (a) Determination of objectives (b) Forecasting and choice of a course of action, (c) Formulation of policies, programmes, Budgets, schedules, etc., to achieve the objectives and (d) laying down of procedures and standards of performance. Planning may be long- term or short-term. It is a pervasive function and managers at all levels have to prepare plans. It is also a continuous process.
Nature of Planning:
1. It is Result – Oriented / goal oriented.
2. Planning is an intellectual or Rational process
3. It is a primary Function of management.
4. Planning is all pervasive.
5. Planning is forward-looking.
6. Planning is a perpetual process.
7. Planning is an integrated process.
8. Planning involves choice.
9. Planning is directed towards efficiency.
10. It establishes Co-ordination between various parts of the organization.
11. Planning process should be an adoptive to the changing business environment
(2) Organizing:
The second function of management is organizing the process of organizing is very essential for accomplishing the objectives of the enterprises. It involves – (a) the establishment of an organization structure through determination and grouping the activities (b) the assignment of activities to the specific departments and individual (c) defining role and establishing relationships (d) the delegation of authority to carry out the responsibility and provision of co-ordination of men and work.
Nature of Organization:
It has the following features:
1. It is the backbone of management.
2. It is goal oriented.
3. It is a frame work of duties and responsibilities.
4. It is a group of persons working together i.e., it requires two or more persons to form.
5. It is a system of division of work to get specialization.
6. There should be well defined authoritative structure i.e., relationship between various positions.
7. Every organization has its own channels of communication.
8. There should be a co-ordination between various activities and parts of the organization.
9. Every organization has some rules and regulations for orderly functioning of people.
(3) Staffing:
Staffing is the process of filling all positions in the organization with adequate and qualified personnel. So it is concerned with human resources of an organization. Every manager in an organization has to perform the staffing function in one form or the other, in order to get things done through others.
Thus, staffing consists of the following- (i) Manpower planning, i.e., assessing manpower requirement in terms of quantity and quality, (ii) Recruitment, selection and training; (iii) Placement of man power; (iv) Development, promotion, transfer and appraisal; (v) Determination of employee remuneration.
Nature of Staffing:
From the above discussion, the following features of staffing can be revealed:
1. It is very important function of management which is concerned with the appointment of different people in the organization.
2. This function ensures that right persons are appointed at the right job so that an organization can run efficiently and smoothly.
3. It is the extension function of human resource management.
4. Staffing is a universal and continuous function.
5. It is a dynamic and goal oriented function.
6. This function deals with most important resource of organization i.e., people who are very important to convert the raw material into finished products.
7. It is attached to the personnel department in the organization.
(4) Directing:
It is also an important function of management. It is concerned with carrying out the desired plans. In this process, a manager takes active steps to ensure that the employees accomplish their tasks according to the established Plans. It is, therefore, the life sparks of an organization.
The main activities involved in direction are:
(a) Leadership
(b) Communication
(c) Motivation and
(d) Supervision.
Nature of Direction:
The following are the main characteristics of Direction:
1. It is an important function of management.
2. It is an executive function and extends from top to the bottom.
3. Direction has wide Dimensions i.e., it includes communication, supervision and motivation also.
4. It establishes a direct contact with the people.
5. It is a continuous activity.
6. It is a pervasive function.
7. Directing serves as a connecting link between preparatory functions (Planning, organizing and Staffing) and controlling. It provides the material for comparison with the plans.
8. Direction converts plans into performance.
9. Directing is the interpersonal aspect of managing by which subordinates are led to understand and contribute effectively and efficiently to the attainment of enterprise objectives.
10. Direction initiates at the top level in the organization and follows to bottom through the hierarchy. It emphasizes that sub-ordinate is to be directed by his own superior only.
Extension functions of direction are as follows:
(a) Leadership:
Leadership is the ability to build up confidence and zeal among people and to create an urge in them, to be led. He has to issue orders and instructions and guide and counsel his sub-ordinates in their work with a view to improve their performance. To become a successful leader, a manager must possess the qualities such as foresight, initiative, self-confidence, integrity etc.
Nature of Leadership:
The Nature of the leadership may also be studies as follows:
(i) Basically leadership is a quality present in individual. It may be inborn or developed by the individual,
(ii) The individual who process this quality has to show it through his behavior, character and way of commanding,
(iii) Leadership is a function of management is used to motivated the people by way of guiding them,
(iv) Quality and function of leadership is performed by establishing relationship between the persons and the leader. Unless such a relationship exists the leader may not be successful in influencing people to act in a certain direction,
(v) Influence the people
(vi) The main function of leadership is to guide the sub-ordinates in problem areas and in performance of their duties,
(vii) Leaders direct the people towards organizational goals for their achievement,
(viii) Above all leadership is one of the important functions of management required for accomplishment of organizational goals smoothly,
(ix) Leader and leadership cannot exist without followers,
(x) The way of leading the people depends mainly upon the situation. In some situations the leader has to pacify the followers while in some situations the leader is supposed to represent them.
(b) Communication:
Communication is an important aspect of the process of management. No manager can be successful without communicating effectively with his superiors, peers, sub-ordinates and outsiders. It is through the process of communication that the managerial functions become effective. Indeed, managers are able to carry out all their functions only by interacting and communicating with others. Hence, it is nervous system of an organization. It is a two-way process as it involves both information and understanding.
It may be oral, written, and gestural. It is said to be formal when it follows the formal channels provided in the organization structure. It flows downward from a superior to sub-ordinates and upward from sub-ordinates to superior. Hence, it is essential at all levels of management for making decision and planning. It has been rightly said that good managers are good communicators and poor managers are poor communicators.
Nature of Communication:
The following is the nature of communication:
(i) It is a co-operative process involving two parties, one who transmits called communicator and one who receives the message called communicate.
(ii) It is conveyed through various media.
(iii) It lasts as long as the other person understand the idea what of what is being communicated or being received.
(iv) It is a continuous process.
(v) It aims at achieving the objectives of organisation by creating right type of responses.
(vi) It provides for understanding between persons and thus makes a bridge of meaning between people.
(vii) It is a pervasive function means vital to all managerial functions.
(c) Motivation:
The term motivation is derived from the word ‘MOTIVE’ which means a need. It is psychological process of creating urge among the sub-ordinates to do certain things. The importance of motivation can be realized from the fact that performance of a worker depends upon his ability and the motivation.
A manager has to provide personal incentive to the sub-ordinates to motivate. So, a sound motivational system must be productive, competitive, comprehensive and flexible and it must consider the psychological, social, safety, ego and economic needs of the workers. So motivation is a very important function of management.
Nature of Motivation:
The nature of motivation is:
(i) Motivation is a personal and internal feeling.
(ii) Motivation produces goal-directed behaviour.
(iii) Motivation is a continuous process.
(iv) Motivation is complex.
(v) Motivation is system oriented.
(vi) A person cannot be partly motivated as a he is a self-contained and inseparable unit and hence total individual should be motivated.
(vii) Motivation can be either positive or negative.
(viii) Motivation is different from job satisfaction.
(d) Supervision:
It is another important element of directing function of management. Supervision refers to the job of overseeing sub-ordinates at work to ensure maximum utilization of resources. Though supervision is performed at all levels of management, the major responsibility for supervision lies with the first line of management. Sound organizational setup, effective delegation, human approach, effective communication and management by exception make supervision effective.
(5) Co-Ordinating:
It is one of the most important functions of management. It is essential to channelize the activities of various individuals in the organization for the achievement of common goals. It creates a team spirit and helps in achieving goals through collective efforts. It is the orderly arrangement of group effort to provide unity of action in the achieving of common objective.
It can be classified under two categories- (i) vertical co-ordination i.e., co-ordination between different levels of management and horizontal co-ordination i.e., between department of the same level of authority, (ii) internal co-ordination i.e., co-ordination between different sections of the same concern and external co-ordination i.e., co-ordination required with persons outside the organization.
Nature of Co-Ordination:
A good co-ordination should possess the following features:
1. It is not distinct function but the very essence of management.
2. It is the basic responsibility of management.
3. It must be voluntary i.e., based on reciprocal co-ordination of members.
4. It must be timely and result oriented.
5. It must be vertical and horizontal both.
6. It should continuous and based on direct contacts.
7. It must be motivating and corrective as well.
8. It must be internal as well as external both.
9. It is required in group effort.
10. It is a system concept in the sense that it regards an organization as a system of cooperative effort.
(6) Controlling:
Controlling is the process of ensuring that the organization is moving in the desired direction and that progress is being made towards the achievement of goals.
The process of controlling involves the following steps:
(a) Establishing standards for measuring work performance;
(b) Measurement of actual performance and comparing it with the standards;
(c) Finding variances between the two and the reasons therefore; and
(d) Taking corrective action for correcting deviations so as to ensure attainment of objectives.
Characteristics of Control:
Control is a tool which keeps the manager informed as the activities for which he is responsible and it assures him that his plans and policies are carried out according to schedule.
The nature of control function will be clearly understood from the following characteristics:
1. Control is a Continuing Activity:
It is a continuing activity as long as an organization exists. A manager can be successful if he controls men and circumstances around him on regular basis. He should review the operations according to continuous changes in business circumstances. Therefore, it is an ongoing and dynamic function of management.
2. Control is Forward Looking:
Control aims at future, because one can control future events and not the past. It is concerned with checking the current performance and providing guidelines for the future. It prevents deviations from occurring by anticipating their occurrence and taking suitable action beforehand.
3. Control is All Pervasive Function:
Control is essential at all levels of organization. It is a follow-up action to the other management function. Every manager performs the control function irrespective of his rank and nature of job.
4. Control Process is Universal:
Control process consist of the same elements irrespective the type of organization or function to be control. It is the responsibility of every manager to regulate on going activity and to keep the operations focused towards goal attainment.
5. Control Allows the Organization to Cope with Uncertainty:
Control helps in regulating the uncertain events of the organization. It anticipates any shift in task and preferences of consumers and directs the organization to modify its process in order to meet the contingencies of the futures.
6. Control is People Oriented:
The approach of managerial control is people oriented. It is a people who achieved control or who distort planned results. Subjective attitudes of people are more important for the success of control than objective figures about performance.
7. Control is in Influence Process:
Control seeks to structure events and to condition behaviour. It is designed to curb undesirable trends and to share the pattern of future events. It induces people to conform to certain norms and standards.
Some other Subsidiary Functions:
1. Decision-Making:
One of the most important functions of a manager is to take decisions in the organization. Success or failure of an organization mainly depends upon the quality of decision that the managers take at all levels. Each managerial decision, whether it is concerned with planning, organizing, staffing or directing is concerned with the process of decision-making.
It is because of its perverseness of Decision-Making that professor Herbert Simons has said the process of managing as a process of decision-making. As per his opinion a post of position cannot be said to be managerial until and unless the right of Decision-Making is attached to it.
A decision is a course of action which is consciously chosen from among a set of alternatives to achieve a desired result. It means decision comes in picture when various alternatives are present. Hence, in organization an execute forms a conclusion by developing various course of actions in a given situation. It is a made to achieve goals in the organization. To decide means to cut off on to come to a conclusion. It is also a mental process.
Whether the problem is large or small in the organization, it is usually the manager who has to comfort it and decide what action to take. So, the quality of managers’ decisions is the Yardstick of their effectiveness and value to the organization. This indicates that managers must necessarily develop decision making skills.
According to D.E. McFarland, “A decision is an act of choice – wherein an executive forms a conclusion about what must not be done in a given situation. A decision represents a course of behavior chosen from a number of possible alternatives”.
Characteristics of Decision-Making:
The process of decision-making has the following characteristics:
i. It is a process of intellectual activity.
ii. It is basically a process of choice making.
iii. Decision-making is a goal-oriented process.
iv. It is a dynamic process.
v. It is related to the environment.
vi. It is a continuous on ongoing process.
vii. Decision-making implies freedom to the decision-maker regarding the final choice.
2. Innovation:
This is very important in the competitive age. This relates to research and development. This is very important to move with modern techniques and up to date demand. It leads to modernization and leads to meet not only ISI but also ISO standards.
3. Representation:
Ernest Dale has regarded representation also as a separate function of management. According to him, a manager has to represent his organization to outsiders, financial institutions, government and others. He has to keep good relations with these agencies with a view to attaining the organizational objectives. However, this function falls under organizing and directing functions of management.
4. Reporting:
Luther Gulick has suggested reporting as a separate function of management. The process of giving information to the management/shareholders is considered as reporting. The reports are regularly sent to various levels of management for judging the effectiveness of different responsibility centres. These reports also become a base for taking corrective actions. However, it may not be appropriate to consider reporting as a separate function. Because it is very much a part of controlling function of management.
5. Budgeting:
Luther Gulick has also given budgeting as a separate function of management. A budget is a future plan represented in a numerical form. It is preparing various budgeted figures for the organization for the future period. Then comparing the actual results with the budgeted and taking corrective action in future so as to achieve the optimum results. Now-a-days this has become a very important function of management but it is only a technique of planning and controlling.
Characteristics of Budget:
i. A budget should be based on past figures.
ii. A budget is flexible so that it is modified according to the requirements of the situation.
iii. The persons at various levels should be involved in preparing a budget.
iv. A budget should be a specific statement.
v. There should be an active involvement of top management while preparing a budget.
6. Forecasting:
Lyndall Urwick regards this function as a separate function of management. According to him, this involves to some extent in every business decision. The management has to forecast while preparing plans for the future. According to Henry Fayol the entire plan is made of a series of separate plans called forecasts. It provides a logical basis for preparing the plans. However, it will be proper to cover forecasting under planning function of management.
The above list of management functions is also not conclusive. The world is very dynamic and changing. It imposes new problem. Hence, the management has to accept these changes. One thing more, all of the above-discussed functions are inter-related. No one function can be performed without involving the others.
Answer 8. Management Functions:
The functional approach to management is a time-tested device and it also fits into the systems approach to management. Henri Fayol – the father of principles of management has written that to manage is – (i) to forecast and plan, (ii) to organise, (iii) to command, (iv) to co-ordinate and (v) to control.
Thus, Fayol has classified management functions into five categories:
Further Luther Gullick has classified Management functions under seven categories. He has coined the word – “PODSCORB” to describe the functions of management.
The words in detail speak the following functions:
1. P = Planning
2. 0 = Organising
3. D = Directing
4. S = Staffing
5. Co = Co-ordinating
6. R = Reporting and
7. B = Budgeting
1. Planning:
What is planning? Planning is the process of deciding in advance, what is tp be done, who is to do it, how it is to be done and when it is to be done”.
Peter Drucker has defined planning as follows – “planning is the continuous process of making present entrepreneurial decisions systematically and with best possible knowledge of their futurity, organizing systematically the efforts needed to carry out these decisions and measuring the results of these decisions against the expectations through organised and systematic feedback.”
Therefore, planning is a mental process requiring the use of intellectual faculties, foresight and sound judgment. It is the determination of a course of action to achieve the desired results.
Further, it is the selecting and relating of facts and the making and using the assumptions regarding the future in the visualisation of formation of proposed activities believed necessary to achieve desired results”.
It involves deciding in advance the systematic thinking about the ways and the means for the accomplishment of pre-determined objectives or goals. Goals or objectives have to be clarified first before taking any other decision. Goals provide the basis for looking into the future and for evaluating the performance with the pre-determined standards.
Planning bridges the gap between – where we are and where we want to go. It is a prerequisite of doing anything systematic, planning is necessary for any business activity otherwise it will be done in a haphazard manner.
Proper planning is a must to ensure proper utilisation of human and non-human resources to achieve the desired goals. It has to be done at all levels of management. Since planning involves taking important decisions, top management devotes more time on planning as compared to lower level management.
The lower level managers have to follow the policies, programmes and procedures laid down by the top management. Process of planning include – (i) determination of objectives, (ii) forecasting, (iii) search of alternatives, (iv) evaluation of alternatives, (v) selection of plan and (vi) developing of sub- plans such as policies, strategies, procedures, budgets etc.
2. Organising:
What is organisation? – Organisation is the process of establishing relationships among the members of the enterprise. The relationships are created in terms of authority and responsibility. Each member in the organisation is assigned a specific responsibility or duty to perform and is granted the corresponding authority to perform his duty.
In other words – organisation involves determining activities needed to fulfill the objectives, grouping these activities into manageable units or departments and assigning such groups of activities to managers. Organising provides a framework of management or a mechanism for purposive, integrated and co-operative action by many people, in a joint effort to implement any plan.
Thus, “Organisation involves identification and grouping the activities to be performed and dividing them among the individuals and creating authority and responsibility, relationships among them.”
The process of organisation involves the following steps:
(i) Determination of objectives,
(ii) Division of activities,
(iii) Fitting individuals into jobs,
(iv) Developing relationships in terms of authorities and responsibilities.
According to Fayol – ‘To organise a business is to provide it with everything useful to its functioning, raw materials, tools, capital and personnel.” Further, organising is an important managerial activity by which management brings together the manpower and material resources for the achievement of objectives of the enterprise.
Thus, management has to provide with material resources like money, materials, machines and equipment to do their jobs well.
3. Staffing:
What is staffing? Staffing means – “Manning the organisational structure through proper and effective selection, appraisal and development of personnel to fill the roles designed into the structure.” The staffing function involves – (i) recruitment, (ii) selection, (iii) training, and (iv) development and appraisal of personnel.
The Board of Directors of a company undertakes – staffing function by selecting, helping, developing and appraising the chief executive who in turn performs these functions in relation to the heads of various divisions or departments of the enterprises. The Departmental Heads also select, train and appraise, their assistance and so on. The First Line Managers or Supervisors also perform the staffing function when they participate in selecting, training and appraising their sub-ordinates.
Thus, it can be said that staffing is a ‘Pervasive function’ of management like other functions of management. The staffing function has gained greater importance because of rapid advancement of technology, increasing size of organisations and complicated behaviour of human beings.
This function is even more critically important since people differ in their intelligence, knowledge, skills, experience, physical condition, age and attitudes, and this complicates the function. Therefore, management must understand, in addition to the technical and operational competence, the sociological and psychological structure of the workforce.
4. Directing:
What is Directing? According to Drucker – “Directing is that part of the management process which actuates the organisational members to work efficiently and effectively for the attainment of organisational objectives. It constitutes the life-spark of the enterprise, which like electric power, sets it into motion.”
Direction is the inter-personal aspect of management which deals directly with influencing, guiding, supervising and motivating the sub-ordinates for the accomplishment of pre-determined objectives. A manager, can plan and organise, but no tangible results can be achieved until he implements the proposed course of action. This needs directing or actuating which literally means moving into action.
Directing involves communicating and providing leadership to the sub-ordinates and motivating them to contribute to the best of their capability for the achievement of organisational objectives.
According to Joseph Massie – “Directing concerns the total manner in which a manager influences the actions of sub-ordinates. It is the final action of a Manager in getting others to act after all preparations have been completed.”
It consists of three sub-functions:
(a) Communication
(b) Leadership
(c) Motivation
(a) Communication:
Communication is an indispensable part of any management. No organisation can think of its existence without communication. It is a managerial skill based on human behaviour. It helps in getting the employees involved in the activities of the enterprise in its efforts to attain success. It is the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another.
A manager has always to tell the sub-ordinates – (i) what to do, (ii) how to do it, and (iii) when to do it. He has to create and understanding in their minds in regard to these things.
A manager to be successful must develop an effective system of communication so that he may issue instructions, receive the reactions of the sub-ordinates and guide and motivate them. It is an inter-exchange of thought and information. Communication thus is a (i) two way traffic, (ii) continuous process, (iii) short- period process, and (iv) process of conveying messages etc., by adopting numerous media of communication.
(b) Leadership:
Leadership represents an abstract quality in a man. A leader may or may not be a business executive but a business executive must be a leader. The executive must have that quality so that he may be able to inspire confidence in those who are working for the organisation of which he is in charge. He has no alternative but to provide an inspiring leadership. According to Koontz and O’Donnell “Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce sub-ordinates or followers to work with confidence and zeal.”
It is the process by which a manager guides and influences the work of his subordinates. It is the quality of behaviour of a manager whereby he guides his subordinates and their activities in the desired direction.
The concept of leadership, lies in the creation of followers. In this, thinkers have asserted that “Leaders are born not made.” Anothor group of thinkers assert that “Leadership can be acquired.” This assertion of some of the thinkers have given rise to the concept that “Leaders are both born and made”.
It is this school of thinking which has led to a thought that if one has a leadership quality he can use it to his best of abilities and can succeed in his mission. But those who do not have can develop the qualities to a greater extent by shear indulgence and hard work and use the same to better advantage through experience if they are given a chance to lead.
A manager, as an effective leader should consult his sub-ordinates while starting any line of action to ensure their voluntary co-operation. He should also build up confidence and zeal to work among the sub-ordinates.
(c) Motivation:
Motivation is nothing but an act of inducement. It is inspiring the sub-ordinates with a zeal to do work for the accomplishment of organisatonal objectives. In the words of Michel J. Jucious motivation “is the act of stimulating someone or oneself to get a desired course of action, to push the right button to get the desired action.”
It is a process. It attempted to influence others to work so as to gain reward and accomplish a given task. It is the motive, the needs, drives, desires and aspirations and the attainment of objectives which inspire the working force to do their best. This inspiration is caused by the action of motivation.
It is the – (i) Productivity, (ii) Competition, (iii) Comprehensiveness, and (iv) Flexibility which form the elements, that is the requisites of a sound system of motivation.
A successful manager makes appropriate use of motivation to actuate the sub-ordinates – “to work harmoniously towards the achievement of organisational goals.
5. Controlling:
Controlling consists of these activities which are undertaken to ensure that the events do not deviate from the pre-arranged plans. The activities consist of establishing standards for work-performance, measuring performance and comparing it to these set standards and taking corrective actions as and when needed, to correct any deviations.
According to Haimann – “Control is the process of checking to determine whether or not proper progress is being made towards the objectives and goals and acting, if necessary to correct any deviation.”
Koontz O’Donnell and Weihrich have defined controlling – “as the measurement and correction of the performance of activities of sub-ordinates in order to make sure that enterprise objectives and the plans devised to attain them are being accomplished.”
Thus, controlling involves the following elements:
(a) Determination of standards.
(b) Measuring performances of the established standards.
(c) Company of performance with the standards.
(d) Taking corrective steps against deviations of performances from standards.
Control is very much related to planning. Planning must be followed by control; if it is to be successful. But in a running concern planning and control move together because planning seeks to set consistent, integrated and articulated goals while control seeks to compel events to conform to plans. The most notable features of the process of control is that it is forward looking. A manager cannot control the past but can avoid mistakes in future by taking actions in the light of past experiences.
Answer 9. Functions of Management:
In studying management, therefore, it is helpful to break it down into five managerial functions – Planning, Organising, Staffing, Leading and Controlling – around which can be organised the knowledge that underlies those functions. Thus, the concepts, principles, theories and techniques of management are grouped into these functions.
Although the emphasis is on manager’s tasks that pertain to designing an internal environment for performance within an organisation, it must never be overlooked that managers must operate in the external environment of enterprise as well.
Managers cannot perform their tasks well unless they have an understanding of and are responsive to, the many elements of the external environment, economic, technological, social, political and ethical factors that affect their areas of operations.
Various functions of management are as follows:
1. Forecasting:
i. Forecasting is necessary preliminary to planning.
ii. Forecasting estimates the future work or what should be done in future. It may be as regard sales or production or any other aspect of business activity.
iii. Forecasting begins with sales forecasting and is followed by product forecast and forecasts for costs, finance, purchase, profit or loss etc.
2. Planning:
i. Planning all aspects of production, selling etc. are essential in order to minimize intangibles.
ii. Planning is a process by which a manager anticipates the future and discovers alternative courses of action open to him.
iii. Planning is a rational, economic and systematic way of making decisions today which will affect the future. E.g. what will be done in future, who will do it and where it will be done.
iv. Every managerial act is inexorably intervened with planning.
v. Without proper planning the activities of an enterprise may become confused and ineffective.
vi. Prior planning is essential for utilizing the available facilities to the best of advantage.
3. Organising:
i. Organising is the process by which the structure and allocation of jobs is determined.
ii. Organising involves determining activities required to achieve the established company objectives, grouping these activities on a logical basis for handling by subordinates and finally assigning persons to the Job designed. In carrying out the above, the manager will delegate necessary authority to his subordinates and they, in turn, will take the necessary responsibility.
iii. Organising means organising people, material, jobs, time etc. and establishing a framework in which responsibilities are defined and authorities are laid down.
4. Staffing:
i. Staffing is the process by which managers select, train, promote and retire their subordinates.
ii. Staffing involves the developing and placing of qualified people in the various jobs in the organization.
iii. Staffing is a continuous process. The aim is to have appropriate persons to move into vacated positions or positions newly created in the enterprise.
5. Directing:
i. Directing is the process by which actual performance of subordinates is guided towards common goals of the enterprise.
ii. Directing involves motivating, guiding and supervising subordinates towards company objectives.
iii. Directing thus includes-
(a) Giving instructions to subordinates.
(b) Supervising the subordinates to do the work.
(c) Supervising the subordinates to make certain that the work done by them is as per the plans established.
iv. Directing involves functions such as-
(a) Leadership
(b) Communication
(c) Motivation
(d) Supervision
(a) Leadership:
i. Leadership is the equality of the behaviour of the persons (managers) whereby they inspire confidence and trust in their subordinates, get maximum cooperation from them, and guide their activities in organised effort.
ii. Leadership is more than personal ability and skill.
(b) Communication:
i. Communication is the process by which ideas are transmitted, received and understood by others for the purpose of effecting desired results.
ii. Communication may be verbal or written orders, reports, instructions etc.
iii. A manager communicates to his subordinates as to what they should do.
iv. An ineffective communication leads to confusion, misunderstanding, dissatisfaction and sometimes even strikes.
(c) Motivation:
i. Motivation means inspiring the subordinates to do a work or to achieve company objectives effectively and efficiently.
(d) Supervision:
Supervision is necessary in order to ensure-
i. That the work is going on as per the plan established, and
ii. That the workers are doing as they were directed to do.
6. Coordinating:
i. Coordinating means achieving harmony of individual effort towards the accomplishment of company objectives.
In other words the harmonising of all the company assets and employees into a coherent whole is known as coordination.
ii. Ineffective coordination between different function of a business enterprise can ruin the enterprise.
iii. Coordination involves making plans that coordinate the activities of subordinates, regulate their activities on the job and regulate their communications.
iv. Informal relationships within an organisation also facilitates coordination between workers.
7. Controlling:
i. Controlling is the process that measures current performance and guides it towards some predetermined goal.
ii. Controlling involves-
(i) The monitoring of programme activities to make sure that end objectives are being met.
(ii) The initiation of corrective action as required to overcome problems if any, hindering the accomplishment of objectives.
iii. Checks and examinations are required on a periodic basis to ensure that the things are processing as per plans established.
iv. Controlling is necessary to ensure that orders are not misunderstood, rules are not violated and objectives have not been unknowingly shifted. Control means control of persons and other things.
v. Controlling is a continuous process which measures the progress of operations, verifies their conformity with the predetermined plan and take corrective action if required.
vi. As explained above, controlling process-
a. Sets Standards
b. Measures job performance
c. Takes corrective action if required
8. Decision Making:
i. Decision making is the process by which a course of action is consciously chosen from available alternatives for the purpose of achieving desired results.
ii. An outstanding quality of a successful manager is his ability to make sound and logical decisions.
iii. Management decisions range from establishing consumer operational development needs to the selection of a preferred system design configuration to many other aspects of a business enterprise.
Managerial Functions at Different Organizational Levels:
Basic distinction is made between managers, executives, administrators and supervisors. A given situation may differ considerably among various levels in an organisation or various types of enterprises. Similarly, the scope of authority may vary and the type of problems dealt with may be considerably different.
Furthermore, the person in a managerial role may be directing people in the sales, engineering or finance department. But the fact remains that, as managers, all obtain results by establishing an environment for effective group endeavor.
All managers carry out managerial functions but the time spent for each function may differ.
The figure below shows an approximation of the relative time spent for each function, although top- level managers in modern corporations probably spend more time in leading than the researchers found.
Top Level managers spend more time on planning and organising than do lower-level managers. Leading, on the other hand, takes a great deal of time for first-line supervisors. Time spent on controlling varies only slightly for managers at various levels.