Functions of Management
Views
on the definition and scope of management include:
Henri Fayol (1841-1925) stated: "Management is to forecast and to
plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate and to control."
Fredmund Malik (1944-
) defines management as "The
transformation of resources into utility".
Management has been
described as a social process involving responsibility for economical and
effective planning & regulation of operation of an enterprise in the fulfilment
of given purposes. It is a dynamic process consisting of various elements and
activities. These activities are different from operative functions like
marketing, finance, purchase etc. Rather these activities are common to each
and every manger irrespective of his level or status.
For
theoretical purposes, it may be convenient to separate the function of
management but practically these functions are overlapping in nature i.e. they
are highly inseparable. Each function blends into the other & each affects
the performance of others.
1. Planning
It
is the basic function of management. It deals with chalking out a future course
of action & deciding in advance the most appropriate course of actions for
achievement of pre-determined goals.
§ Prepare
an effective business plan. It is essential to decide on the future course of
action to avoid confusions later on.
§ Plan
out how you intend to do things.
According to KOONTZ, “Planning is
deciding in advance - what to do, when to do & how to do. It bridges the
gap from where we are & where we want to be”.
A
plan is a future course of actions. It is an exercise in problem solving &
decision making. Planning is determination of courses of action to achieve
desired goals. Thus, planning is a systematic thinking about ways & means
for accomplishment of pre-determined goals. Planning is necessary to ensure
proper utilization of human & non-human resources. It is all pervasive, it
is an intellectual activity and it also helps in avoiding confusion,
uncertainties, risks, wastages etc.
2. Organizing
It
is the process of bringing together physical, financial and human resources and
developing productive relationship amongst them for achievement of
organizational goals.
§ Organizing
refers to the judicious use of resources to achieve the best out of the
employees.
§ Prepare
a monthly budget for smooth cash flow.
According to Henry Fayol, “To organize a
business is to provide it with everything useful or its functioning i.e. raw
material, tools, capital and personnel’s”.
To
organize a business involves determining & providing human and non-human
resources to the organizational structure. Organizing as a process involves:
· Identification of activities.
· Classification of grouping of activities.
· Assignment of duties.
· Delegation of authority and creation of
responsibility.
· Coordinating authority and responsibility
relationships.
Organizing
requires a formal structure of authority and the direction and flow of such
authority through which work subdivisions are defined, arranged and coordinated
so that each part relates to the other part in a united and coherent manner so
as to attain the prescribed objectives.
The function of organizing is concerned with:
1.
Identifying
the tasks that must be performed and grouping them whenever necessary
2.
Assigning
these tasks to the personnel while defining their authority
and responsibility.
3.
Delegating
this authority to these employees
4.
Establishing
a relationship between authority and responsibility
5.
Coordinating
these activities
3. Staffing
The
main purpose of staffing is to put right man on right job.
§ Poor
organization management leads to unhappy employees who eventually create
problems for themselves as well as the organization.
§ Recruit
the right talent for the organization.
According to Kootz & O’Donell,
“Managerial function of staffing involves manning the organization structure
through proper and effective selection; appraisal & development of
personnel to fill the roles designed in the structure”.
Staffing
involves:
·
Manpower
Planning (estimating
man power in terms of searching, choose the person and giving the right place).
·
Recruitment,
Selection & Placement.
·
Remuneration.
·
Promotions
& Transfer.
Staffing
is the function of hiring and retaining a suitable work-force for the
enterprise both at managerial as well as non-managerial levels. It involves
the process of
recruiting, training, developing, compensating and
evaluating employees and maintaining this workforce with proper incentives and
motivations. Since the human element is the most vital factor in the process of
management, it is important to recruit the right
personnel.
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. Hence, management must
understand, in addition to the technical and operational competence, the
sociological and psychological structure of the workforce.
4. Directing
It
is that part of managerial function which actuates the organizational methods
to work efficiently for achievement of organizational purposes. It is
considered life-spark of the enterprise which sets it in motion the action of
people because planning, organizing and staffing are the mere preparations for
doing the work.
Direction
is that inert-personnel aspect of management which deals directly with
influencing, guiding, supervising, motivating sub-ordinate for the achievement
of organizational goals.
Direction
has following elements:
·
Supervision
Supervision
- implies overseeing the work of subordinates by their
superiors. It is the act of watching & directing work & workers.
Motivation
- means inspiring, stimulating or encouraging the sub-ordinates
with zeal to work. Positive, negative, monetary, non-monetary incentives may be
used for this purpose.
Leadership
- may be defined as a process by which manager guides and
influences the work of subordinates in desired direction.
Communications
- is the process of passing information, experience, opinion
etc from one person to another. It is a bridge of understanding.
The
directing function is concerned with leadership, communication, motivation,
and supervision so that the employees perform their activities in the most
efficient manner possible, in order to achieve the desired goals.
The leadership element
involves issuing of instructions and guiding the subordinates about procedures
and methods.
The communication must
be open both ways so that the information can be passed on to the subordinates
and the feedback received from them.
Motivation is
very important since highly motivated people show excellent performance with
less direction from superiors.
Supervising subordinates
would lead to continuous progress reports as well as assure the superiors that
the directions are being properly carried out.
5. Controlling
It
implies measurement of accomplishment against the standards and correction of deviation
if any to ensure achievement of organizational goals. The purpose of
controlling is to ensure that everything occurs in conformities with the
standards.
§ The
superiors must be aware of what is happening around them.
§ Hierarchies
should be well defined for an effective management.
§ The
reporting bosses must review the performance and progress of their subordinates
and guide them whenever required.
An
efficient system of control helps to predict deviations before they actually
occur. According to Theo Haimann, “Controlling is the process of
checking whether or not proper progress is being made towards the objectives
and goals and acting if necessary, to correct any deviation”.
According to Koontz & O’Donell
“Controlling is the measurement & correction of performance activities of
subordinates in order to make sure that the enterprise objectives and plans
desired to obtain them as being accomplished”.
Therefore,
controlling has following steps:
1.
Establishment of standard performance.
2.
Measurement of actual performance.
3.
Comparison of actual performance with the standards and finding out deviation
if any.
4.
Corrective action.
All
these five functions of
management are closely interrelated. However,
these functions are highly indistinguishable and virtually unrecognizable on
the job. It is necessary, though, to put each function separately into focus
and deal with it.
Coordination
According to
Brech –
‘Coordination
is balancing and keeping together the team by ensuring suitable allocation of
tasks to the various members and seeing that the tasks are performed with
the harmony among the members themselves. ‘
According to Mooney and Reelay, “Co-ordination is
orderly arrangement of group efforts to provide unity of action in the pursuit
of common goals”.
According to Charles Worth, “Co-ordination is the
integration of several parts into an orderly hole to achieve the purpose of
understanding”.
According to Mary Parker
Follett – ‘The first test of
a business administration should be whether
you have a business with all its parts so coordinated, so moving together
in their closely knit and adjusting activities, so linking, inter-locking,
inter-relating, that they make a working unit that is not congenic of separate pieces, but a functional whole or
integrated unit.
A manager can be compared to an orchestra
conductor since both of them have to create rhythm and unity in the activities
of group members.
Co-ordination is an integral element or
ingredient of all the managerial functions as discussed below: -
1. Co-ordination through Planning - Planning
facilitates co-ordination by integrating the various plans through mutual
discussion, exchange of ideas. e.g. - co-ordination between finance budget and
purchases budget.
2. Co-ordination through Organizing -
In fact when a manager groups and assigns various activities to subordinates,
and when he creates department’s co-ordination uppermost in his mind.
3. Co-ordination through Staffing - A
manager should bear in mind that the right no. of personnel in various
positions with right type of education and skills are taken which will ensure
right men on the right job.
4. Co-ordination through Directing - The
purpose of giving orders, instructions & guidance to the subordinates is
served only when there is a harmony between superiors & subordinates.
5. Co-ordination through Controlling - Manager
ensures that there should be co-ordination between actual performance &
standard performance to achieve organizational goals.
Some important features of coordination:
·
It is relevant for group efforts and not for individual efforts.
Coordination involves an orderly pattern of group efforts. In the case of
individual efforts, since the performance of the individual does not affect the
functioning of others, the need for coordination does not arise.
·
It is a continuous and dynamic process. Continuous because it is
achieved through the performance of different functions. Also, it is dynamic
since functions can change according to the stage of work.
·
Most organizations have some sort of coordination in place. However,
the management can always make special efforts to improve it.
·
Coordination emphasizes the unity of efforts. This involves fixing
the time and manner in which the various functions are performed in the
organization. This allows individuals to integrate with the overall process.
·
A higher degree of coordination happens when the degree of integration
in the performance of various functions increases.
·
It is the responsibility of every manager in the organization. In fact,
this is integral to the role of a manager because he synchronizes the efforts of his subordinates with
others.
Decision Making
According
to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary the term decision making means - the process of deciding about something
important, especially in a group of people or in an organization.
Trewatha
& Newport defines decision making process as follows: “Decision-making
involves the selection of a course of action from among two or more possible
alternatives in order to arrive at a solution for a given problem”.
Decision-making is the selection based on
some criteria from two or more possible alternatives.” George R.Terry
A decision can be defined as a course of
action consciously chosen from available alternatives for the purpose of
desired result J.L. Massie
A decision is an act of choice, wherein
an executive form a conclusion about what must be done in a given situation. A
decision represents a course of behaviour chosen from a number of possible
alternatives. D.E. Mc. Farland
Following elements can be derived from the above-mentioned
definitions:
1. Decision–making is a
selection process and is concerned with selecting the best type of alternative.
2. The decision taken is aimed at
achieving the organisational goals.
3. It is concerned with the detailed
study of the available alternatives for finding the best possible alternative.
4. Decision making is a mental process.
It is the outline of constant thoughtful consideration.
The following important features of managerial
decisions:
1. Rational Thinking:
It is invariably based on rational
thinking. Since the human brain with its ability to learn, remember and relate
many complex factors, makes the rationality possible.
2. Process:
It is the process followed by
deliberations and reasoning.
3. Selective:
It is selective, i.e. it is the choice of
the best course among alternatives. In other words, decision involves selection
of the best course from among the available alternative courses that are
identified by the decision-maker.
4. Purposive:
It is usually purposive i.e. it relates
to the end. The solution to a problem provides an effective means to the
desired goal or end.
5. Positive:
Although every decision is usually
positive sometimes certain decisions may be negative and may just be a decision
not to decide. For instance, the manufacturers of VOX Wagan car once decided
not to change the model (body style) and size of the car although the other
rival enterprise (i.e., the Ford Corporation) was planning to introduce a new
model every year, in the USA.
That a negative decision and is equally
important was stressed by Chester I. Bernard-one of the pioneers in Management
Thought-who observed, “The fine art of executive decision consists in not
deciding questions that are not now pertinent, in not deciding prematurely, in
not making decisions that cannot be made effective, and in not making decisions
that other should make.”
6. Commitment:
Every decision is based on the concept of
commitment. In other words, the Management is committed to every decision it
takes for two reasons- viz.,
(i) it promotes the stability of the
concern and
(ii) every decision taken becomes a part
of the expectations of the people involved in the organisation.
Decisions are usually so much
inter-related to the organisational life of an enterprise that any change in
one area of activity may change the other areas too. As such, the Manager is
committed to decisions not only from the time that they are taken but upto
their successfully implementation.
7. Evaluation:
Decision-making involves evaluation in
two ways, viz.,
(i) the executive must evaluate the
alternatives, and
(ii) he should evaluate the results of
the decisions taken by him.
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