Functions Of Management

In today s business world managers follow certain rules that help them be better at their job and also contribute to the success of the business. The functions of management are established to help managers see the business operations with more clarity and understanding. This report will look at the four functions planning, organizing, directing and controlling. It will also look at hoe top-level managers apply these functions as well as first-level managers and it will also look at the theories of Mintzberg and Kotter.

In business managers are divided into three parts: top-level, middle managers and first-level managers. Each level of management uses the four functions of management to do their job better. Firstly we will look at how top-level managers apply these functions. Top-level managers are the ones who establish the company s objectives, policy and strategy; making long-term goals, job titles include CEO s, president and vice-presidents. The first function examined is planning. Planning is setting the objectives for the company and deciding how to reach and achieve the goals set. When setting up the plans they should be reasonable and achieveable. Top-level managers are always thinking long-term so during the planning stage they are thinking where they want to see the company in a long-term basis. They are setting objectives for say a 4-5 year span instead of monthly quote. The second function of management is organizing. Organizing involves arranging tasks, people, and other resources to accomplish the work. Top-level managers after coming up with the plan need to organize it to get it started in order to achieve the goals. They arrange certain jobs to ensure that the plan is off to a good start and they assign lower level managers to supervise those branches. The third function is directing (leading as in the textbook). Directing involves motivating the people to achieve a higher performance output from the people involved in your plan. Top-level managers should not isolate themselves from the workforce or even the lower-level managers. They should visit the work site and interact with employees. Communication is a plays a huge role in being a successful manager. By interacting and communicating the subordinates do not feel as if they are just workers, the manager should let them know that they are an important asset to the company. Finally the fourth function is controlling. This includes monitoring work performance, comparing results to goals and taking decisive action if needed. Top-level after receiving reports or even talking to the lower-level managers of how the operations are doing should make decisions on how they can improve the situation or if everything is ok they should think of how to motivate the employees to stay consistent. By examining the goals that were set earlier and comparing results of the plan so far and the managers see that they are not on pace they should brainstorm on how to prevent a possible breakdown of the plan. They might decide to downsize if operations are too expensive, might even consider changing the objectives to a little more achievable reach and extend the time to implement the plan. Here we get a basic idea of what the four functions of managements are and how top-level mangers apply them to their job.