Functions of Management – Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling

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Functions of Management - Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling
Functions of Management

Success and failure of every organization are measured by its ability to attain its objectives and mission. Every organization has a predetermined set of objectives to achieve. If they can achieve those assigned objectives, they are considered to be successful otherwise they are considered failures. 

Besides this, these success and failure rates of organizations are measured in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness. Where efficiency implies how best the management has utilized the available resources to achieve those mission and objectives and the extent of achieving those organizational objectives. While management is said to be effective when they can attain those set objectives.

Functions of management are an effective way of achieving organizational goals and objectives. It can be categorized into mainly four basic functions:

  • Planning
  • Organizing
  • Leading
  • Controlling

Planning forms the base of the management functions. It is the first step towards achieving the organizational goal footlocker homeview. Therefore, it involves a lot of managerial thinking. It requires a lot of brainstorming, assessing the present situation of the organization and determining the correct move towards their pre-set goal. So this stage involves assessing the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities of the organization (SWOT analysis).

Besides this, there are various external factors like political, social, economic, demographic, etc which affect the functioning of an organization in some way or the other. So, while planning every organization, we must take into account these opportunities and other favoring factors and encash them to attain those set objectives.

This helps in determining and implementing the corrective course of action to attain organizational goals. However, sometimes the prevailing situations may not be the same. Change is constant. So, during that time, planning must also change accordingly. Hence, planning must be a flexible process and not rigid.

Planning is a futuristic process and so it must be always goal and objective oriented. It is a continuous process. That is, even after achieving set objectives and goals, another set of higher goals and objectives are set up for another financial year. This goes on. So, depending upon the organizational objectives and other governing factors, both micro and macro factors, they are broken into short term and long term goals. This in return, requires forming and implementing short term as well as long term plans to accomplish the final objective.

Planning has numerous benefits and hence its importance should be ignored by any management. It not only helps in assisting and achieving the organizational objectives clear and specific but it also reduces the chances of uncertainty. This, in turn, encourages the decision-making process, increases the efficiency of coordination and hence teamwork. All this ultimately leads to the organization’s growth and profitability.

All through; the thought process involved in planning is the same in all organizations, but the strategies adopted in achieving those goals and objectives, vary from one set up to others. It’s entirely based upon the assigned organizational objectives and the other micro and macro factors.

Organizing is the process of bringing together all the available resources like financial, manpower resources, technical skills, and support, raw materials, machines, etc within the organization structure and utilizing them in the best way to achieve the objective. This implies that organizing steps involve determining, providing and utilizing all the resources needed to accomplish the organizational objective. The entire focus is on running the business smoothly without any hindrance such that the ultimate aim is achieved. So, it involves –

  • Organizing the various resources of an organization
  • Identifying activities to achieve organizational objectives
  • Dividing and grouping the different tasks.
  • Identifying different role
  • Choosing correct people for a correct job and assigning duties to them
  • Delegation of authority
  • Developing coordination and sense of authority, responsibility amongst them
  • Proper flow of information across both the lines of hierarchy —horizontal as well as upward and downward line.

Thus, going by its literal meaning, organizing means getting organized. In this step, management takes into account; all the various internal divisions, departments, staff, and all the related information. Based on planning, they assign and establish the best way to handle the tasks to achieve the objective. During this process, management opts for developing cordial relationships amongst the employees, develop a sense of authority, responsibility, strong communication, etc. Depending upon the work required there is a division of work amongst the various departments and hence the employees.

Therefore, organizing helps in defining the job of its staff members, facilitates coordination, develops a sense of job satisfaction, reduces the communication gap, and provides authority and power.

Leading or directing is the third function of management, the best game Pubg pc. As the meaning goes, leading is a way of motivating and influencing the employees to perform their work. The basic function of this step is to inspire the employees to work. This helps in increasing the work efficiency of the employees.

This step, not only contributes to achieving organizational goals and objectives but it also helps the employees in attaining their personal goals. So, the growth and achievement of employees in return help in attaining the organizational growth. Therefore, it’s very essential to motivate employees to perform.

The main objective in this stage is to utilize the maximum efficiency of human power to fulfill the overall organizational goal and objective. So, managers need to understand their employee’s work attitude, behavior, problems, etc and deal with them accordingly by providing the necessary support.

Management must adopt and follow management tools like motivation, strong and effective communication, etc to handle and encourage their employees.

Besides this, it’s also important to maintain a very healthy and cordial relationship amongst the employees as well as between the supervisor and its staff. This helps in providing, healthy and happy working conditions. This in return contributes towards increasing productivity and hence organization’s growth.

Controlling is the last and final function of management. The basic function of controlling is to ensure that the path taken to achieve the organizational objective is an incorrect line. This helps in examining the performance, following it up, comparing with the planned action, knowing the loopholes and taking corrective actions respectively. Therefore, controlling involves –

  • Setting a standard performance, based on objective
  • Measurement of actual performance
  • Frequently comparing the standard and actual performance to find out the deviations
  • Evaluating the deviations
  • Taking corrective action by the deviation found.

Controlling is a continuous process and hence performance is evaluated and monitored regularly to take corrective action then and there itself. It is generally categorized into preventive control and corrective control. Preventive control is the one where undesired performances are prevented from occurring. While corrective control is the one where corrective actions are taken when deviations occur.

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