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Management has been described as a social process involving
responsibility for economical and effective planning &
regulation of operation of an enterprise in the fulfillment 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.
Management is creative problem solving. This creative problem
solving is accomplished through four functions of management:
planning, organizing, leading and controlling. The intended
result is the use of an organization's resources in a way that
accomplishes its mission and objectives. In Management Excel, this standard definition is modified to
align more closely with our teaching objectives and to
communicate more clearly the content of the organizing
function. Organizing is divided into organizing and staffing so
that the importance of staffing in small businesses receives
emphasis along side organizing. In the management literature,
directing and leading are used interchangeably
Different experts have classified functions of management.
According to George & Jerry, “There are four fundamental
functions of management i.e. planning, organizing, actuating
and controlling”. According to Henry Fayol, “To manage is to
forecast and plan, to organize, to command, & to control”.
Whereas Luther Gullick has given a keyword ’POSDCORB’
where P stands for Planning, O for Organizing, S for Staffing,
D for Directing, Co for Co-ordination, R for reporting & B for
Budgeting. But the most widely accepted are functions of
management given by KOONTZ and O’DONNEL i.e. Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling.
- 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. 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 a also helps in avoiding confusion, uncertainties, risks, w  - Planning is decision making process.
- It is making decisions on future course of actions.
- Planning involves taking decisions on vision, mission,
- values, objectives, strategies and policies of an
- organization.
- Planning is done for immediate, short term, medium
- term and long term periods.
- It is a guideline for execution/implementation.
- It is a measure to check the effectiveness and efficiency
- of an organization.
- ORGANISING
It is the process of bringing together physical, financial and human resources and developing productive relationship amongst them for achievement of organizational goals. 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.  - Identification of activities.
- Classification of grouping of activities.
- Assignment of duties.
- Delegation of authority and creation of responsibility.
- Coordinating authority and responsibility relationships.
- Organizing involves determination and grouping of the activities.
- Designing organization structures and departmentation based on this grouping.
- Defining the roles and responsibilities of the departments and of the job positions within these departments.
- Defining relationships between departments and job positions.
- Defining authorities for departments and job positions.
- STAFFING
It is the function of manning the organization structure and keeping it manned. Staffing has assumed greater importance in the recent years due to advancement of technology, increase in size of business, complexity of human behavior etc. The main purpose o staffing is to put right man on right job i.e. square pegs in square holes and round pegs in round holes. 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 un the structure”. Staffing involves MANPOWER PLANNING
- Recruitment, selection & placement.
- Training & development.
- Remuneration.
- Performance appraisal.
- Promotions & transfer.
- It includes manpower or human resource planning.
- Staffing involves recruitment, selection, induction and positioning the people in the organization.
- Decisions on remuneration packages are part of staffing.
- Training, retraining, development, mentoring and counseling are important aspects of staffing.
- It also includes performance appraisals and designing and administering the motivational packages.
- 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
- Motivation
- Leadership
- Communication
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. - It is one of the most important functions of management to translate company's plans into execution.
- It includes providing leadership to people so that they work willingly and enthusiastically.
- Directing people involves motivating them all the time to enthuse them to give their best.
- Communicating companies plans throughout the organization is an important directing activity.
- It also means coordinating various people and their activities.
- Directing aims at achieving the best not just out of an individual but achieving the best through the groups or teams of people through team building efforts.
- 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. 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
- Establishment of standard performance.
- Measurement of actual performance.
- Comparison of actual performance with the standards and finding out deviation if any.
- Corrective action
- It includes verifying the actual execution against the plans to ensure that execution is being done in accordance with the plans.
- It measures actual performance against the plans.
- It sets standards or norms of performance.
- It measures the effective and efficiency of execution against these standards and the plans.
- It periodically reviews, evaluates and monitors the performance.
- If the gaps are found between execution levels and the plans, controlling function involves suitable corrective actions to expedite the execution to match up with the plans or in certain circumstances deciding to make modifications in the plans.
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pranky
Uses / Importance / Advantages - Micro Economics
