What does management involve




















From this perspective, Henri Fayol — considers management to consist of six functions: forecasting, planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. He was one of the most influential contributors to modern concepts of management.

Some people, however, find this definition useful but far too narrow. More realistically, however, every organization must manage its work, people, processes, technology, etc. In the for-profit environment, management is tasked primarily with meeting the needs of a range of stakeholders.

This typically involves making a profit for the shareholders , creating valued products at a reasonable cost for customers , and providing rewarding employment opportunities for employees.

Nonprofit management has the added importance of attracting and retaining donors. Some organizations have experimented with other methods such as employee-voting models of selecting or reviewing managers, but this occurs only very rarely. In the public sector of countries that are representative democracies, voters elect politicians to public office. Such politicians hire managers and administrators. Several historical shifts in management have occurred throughout the ages.

Towards the end of the 20th century, business management came to consist of six separate branches, namely:. Management organizes by creating patterns of relationships among workers, optimizing use of resources to accomplish business objectives. Define the organizing function within a business framework, specifically the generation of structure and authority. The organizing function creates the pattern of relationships among workers and makes optimal use of resources to enable the accomplishment of business plans and objectives.

The organizing function typically follows the planning stage. Specific organizing duties involve the assignment of tasks, the grouping of tasks into departments, and the assignment of authority and allocation of resources across the organization.

The management process : The management process involves tasks and goals of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. Structure is the framework in which the organization defines how tasks are divided, resources are deployed, and departments are coordinated. It is a set of formal tasks assigned to individuals and departments. Structure is also the design of systems to ensure effective coordination of employees across departments.

Accountability means that those with authority and responsibility must report and justify task outcomes to those above them in the chain of command. Through delegation, managers transfer authority and responsibility to their subordinates.

Organizations today tend to encourage delegation from the highest to lowest possible levels. Managers may find delegation difficult, since control over the task assigned and eventual outcome is relinquished.

Micromanagement reduces efficiency and limits autonomy, thus limiting the adaptability of a given organization. Effective chains of command must allow for flexibility and efficient delegation.

As each structure will create a different organizational approach to operations, it is critical to consider how the selection of a structure will affect the business process.

Enabling creativity and minimizing control often comes at the cost of speed and efficiency, and vice versa. Management control can be defined as a systematic effort to compare performance to predetermined standards and address deficiencies.

Management control can be defined as a systematic effort by business management to compare performance to predetermined standards, plans, or objectives in order to determine whether performance is in line with these standards.

It is also used to determine if any remedial action is required to ensure that human and other corporate resources are being used in the most effective and efficient way possible to achieve corporate objectives. The degree to which they interact depends on the nature of the operating system and its objectives.

Adherents to the process approach have altered and elaborated on Fayol's original functions, usually in an attempt to incorporate behaviorist philosophies. Management theorists commonly recognize five management functions: planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. The five process management functions are linked together by communication and decision-making activities common to all of them.

Planning is the development of specific strategies designed to achieve organizational goals. Forward-looking managers use planning to develop strategies, policies, and methods for achieving company objectives. Moreover, managers who rely on planning can anticipate problems before they even arise and therefore can implement solutions quickly.

In addition, planning serves as the foundation for the other management functions—organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling—by providing direction for a company; and increases a company's potential for success in accomplishing its goals. Planning occurs at all three management levels: top, middle, and line. As indicated earlier, top managers are charged with making long-term plans that define the mission and policies of the organization while lower level managers implement them.

In the planning process, top-level managers concentrate on the questions of what and how much. Middle managers implement mission and policy objectives, usually by focusing on the where and when. Finally, line managers effect the specific plans of the middle managers by addressing the pressing questions of who and how.

For example, top executives at a nail factory may decide that the company should become the most productive, highest-quality, largest-volume producer in the world. Middle managers in the production division may decide that accomplishment of this goal requires that over the next 12 months they cut costs by 20 percent, decrease flaws to.

Likewise, managers in the marketing department may decide that they need to increase sales by 80 percent during the next year. Finally, line managers would have to figure out how to achieve those goals and who would do the actual work. They might increase bonuses for salespeople who boosted volume, for instance, or lower profit margins and prices to increase sales.

Or, production line managers might implement a new quality management program and increase investments in cost-saving automation. Another way of viewing the planning process in an organization is by categorizing planning activities as strategic top management , tactical middle , or operational bottom.

The overall process usually entails at least six steps: setting goals, analyzing the external and internal environment to identify problems and opportunities, identifying and evaluating alternatives, choosing a plan, implementing the program, and controlling and judging the results of the implementation. Different stages of the process should ideally overlap management hierarchies, thus fostering organizational unity and informed planning. In addition to the stages of the planning process and hierarchical responsibilities, most planning activities and responsibilities can be categorized, according to Corporate Planning: An Executive Viewpoint, into one of four planning roles: 1 resource allocation, 2 environmental adaptation, 3 internal coordination, 4 and organizational strategic awareness.

Resource allocation entails decisions related to the distribution of funds, expertise, labor, and equipment. For instance, a chief executive officer CEO might decide to not pay shareholder dividends as a way to increase funds for new product development. Or, a production line manager may elect to shift laborers from one product line to another to better match fluctuating output requirements.

Environmental adaptation planning activities are those that serve to improve the company's relationship to its external environment, including such influences as governments, suppliers, customers, and public opinion. These activities address problems and opportunities that arise from such external factors.

For example, gas station company managers that choose to attach point-of-sale credit card machines to their pumps are reacting to a public demand for convenience. Similarly, a CEO of a coal mining company might have to plan to reduce toxic emissions in an effort to satisfy government regulators or to appease public sentiment.

Internal coordination planning activities are those that respond to internal influences. They coordinate internal strengths and weaknesses in an effort to maximize profitability in the case of for-profit companies. Finally, planning activities categorized as organizational strategic awareness strategies create systematic management development systems that allow an organization to evaluate the effects of past plans.

In order to be effective, plans and goals developed and executed at any level will generally exhibit basic characteristics. The plans should be specific and measurable, for example, meaning that they will have definite goals that can be measured against definite results. Plans should also be time-oriented, or should be devised with deadlines for accomplishing parts of the entire goal and a final deadline for completion.

Plans should also be attainable. Insufficient resources or impossible goals can thwart motivation and result in underperformance. Finally, plans should be mutually supportive, meaning that plans made in or for one part of an organization should complement other plans and objectives. Organizing is the second major managerial function. It is the process of structuring a company's resources—its personnel and materials—in a way that will allow it to achieve its objectives.

Specifically, organizing entails a fundamental three-step process: developing tasks, labor units, and positions. First of all, managers must determine the exact actions that have to be taken to implement plans and achieve objectives.

Second, they must divide personnel into teams with areas of responsibility. Third, managers must delegate authority and responsibility to individuals and establish decision-making relationships. Once management accomplishes the first step, it can take a number of different routes to organize teams and delegate authority.

Most organizations are arranged by either function or division. The most common approach to organizing teams and delegating authority in organizations is by function. Under the functional approach, activities are broken down into primary business functions, such as finance, operations, and marketing. Within each major functional group are numerous subfunctions.

In the marketing division, for example, might be the sales and promotions departments. The functional approach results in a comparatively efficient division of labor and an authority hierarchy that is easy for workers to understand.

It may lead, however, to internal rivalries between departments or myopia because different divisions are not aware of the goals and actions of other parts of the company. In addition to functions, many companies are organized by division. There are several different divisional approaches to structuring teams and delegating power to managers. For example, some companies take a product line approach, whereby the company is broken down into different product or service groups.

For instance, an appliance producer may break its organization down into dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, and vacuum cleaners. Other companies might use a customer approach—industrial products, consumer products, government products, etc. The advantage of both approaches is that they allow managers and the entire company to be focused on the product or customer rather than on support functions, such as marketing.

This organizational approach may result, however, in an inefficient division of labor i. Another common means of organizing a company by divisions is the geographic approach, whereby activities or groups are divided by region. For instance, a multinational bank may have three major divisions: North America, Asia, and Europe. Those divisions, then, might be divided into sub-regions, such as northeast, south, and west. The geographic approach is often used by companies that specialize in marketing, finance, or some other major business function and operate in a number of different geographic areas.

It allows flexibility in relation to different laws, exchange rates, and cultures, and fosters a responsiveness to local markets not attainable under other divisional approaches.

The chief drawback of geographic organizations is that they can be relatively expensive to maintain. A less conventional and increasingly popular approach to structuring organizations is known as the matrix system. In essence, a matrix system creates both functional and divisional groups to form multidisciplinary, integrated teams that combine staff and line authority. The main advantage of the matrix is that it reduces myopia in an organization, fosters cooperation, and promotes a free flow of information.

But the matrix approach may also create an ambiguous power structure and may have limitations for many types of companies. In addition to the basic structure, management authority and responsibility will also be dictated by the level of centralization in a company.

In general, companies with more centralized management will be figuratively tall, meaning that power flows down through a chain of command. Decisions are made by a few people and handed down to the masses. In contrast, decentralized, or flat, organizations push management authority down. In flat organizations, many managers and subordinates are empowered to independently make decisions within their area of expertise in the company.

Because of the trend toward flatter organizations during the s and s, traditional middle levels of management have become obsolete in many companies. Effectively, all workers become managers to some degree in the flattest organizations. Company reviews. Find salaries. Upload your resume. Sign in. Career Development. What is management? Five basic operations of a manager.

Setting objectives Organizing Motivating the team Devising systems of measurement Developing people. Setting objectives.

Motivating the team. Devising systems of measurement. Developing people. Management concepts. Control: Employees of an organization need to understand the goals that they are aiming for as well as the measurement that will be used to determine whether they have been successful. Different staff members in a company have different roles that entail separate levels of responsibility. A manager must have control over what the members do, how they do it and how to measure their progress. Control over these factors helps a manager reach success.

Planning: The best managers know that planning is critical before the implementation of any strategy, but it is also an ongoing activity. Planning does not end when implementation begins. Planning should include selecting objectives as well as implementing them.

Staffing: Staffing is an underappreciated but crucial function of management. Managers need to ensure that they have the right people for the job, but they also need to pay attention to issues like organizing workplace policies. The company needs to retain the best talent by providing incentives such as benefits, paid time off and a thorough training program.

Management styles. Persuasive management style. Democratic management style. Laissez-faire management.

This last stage provides information to be used in ongoing planning efforts, and thus the cycle starts over again. The four functions are highly interdependent, with managers often performing more than one of them at a time and each of them many times over the course of a normal workday.

The four management functions can help managers increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is using the least possible amount of resources to get work done, whereas effectiveness is the ability to produce a desired result. Managers need to be both efficient and effective in order to achieve organizational goals. For example in , Delta , one of the most efficient network U. No other airline came close to operating this efficiently except Southwest , which flew seats that produced There are many ways that airlines can manage to produce higher revenue per seat-mile.



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