Functions of Management

Department of Economics and Management of Machine Production Enterprise

Course Paper

«Functions of Management»

St. Petersburg 2009

Research and analysis of functions of management is urgent problem indeed. Management combines characteristics of science and art. In the first place management means direction of people, therefore it is impossible to formalize it. But we can mark out some functions of management. So accurate compliance with management functions allows your organization with the best profit and efficiency. In this work you can find description of each management function and some advices to improve them.

- to decide how much functions management has;

- to review all functions of management;

- to discuss the main ways of improving functions of management;

The books and articles of the following authors constitute the theoretical basis for this work: Bernard L. Erven, Henri Fayol, James Higgins, Jayashree Pakhare and others. They discussed different theoretical and practical problems of the matter of this course paper.

In this paper, I attempt to clarify the interdependence of management functions. To do so, I first present all functions then described each one in details.

The structure of this course paper is as follows. The first part reviews all management functions. Part 2-5 dwells on each function of management. The final part summarizes the whole work.

Planning is unending course of action. There may be sudden strategies where companies have to face. Sometimes they are uncontrollable. You can say that they are external factors that constantly affect a company both optimistically and pessimistically. Depending on the conditions, a company may have to alter its course of action in accomplishing certain goals. This kind of preparation, arrangement is known as strategic planning. In strategic planning, management analyzes inside and outside factors that may affect the company and so objectives and goals. Here they should have a study of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. For management to do this efficiently, it has to be very practical and ample.

The second function of the management is getting prepared, getting organized. Management must organize all its resources well before in hand to put into practice the course of action to decide that has been planned in the base function. Through this process, management will now determine the inside directorial configuration; establish and maintain relationships, and also assign required resources.

Planning is concerned with the future impact of today's decisions. It is the fundamental function of management from which the other four stem. The need for planning is often apparent after the fact. However, planning is easy to postpone in the short-run. Postponement of planning especially plagues labor oriented, hands on managers.

The order from general to specific is: vision-mission-objectives-goals. The key terms are defined as follows:

- Vision is nonspecific directional and motivational guidance for the entire organization. Top managers normally provide a vision for the business. It is the most emotional of the four levels in the hierarchy of purposes.

- Mission is an organization's reason for being. It is concerned with scope of the business and what distinguishes this business from similar businesses. Mission reflects the culture and values of top management.

- Objectives refine the mission and address key issues within the organization such as market standing, innovation, productivity, physical and financial resources, profitability, management and worker performance and efficiency. They are expected to be general, observable, challenging, and untimed.

- Goals are specific statements of anticipated results that further define the organization's objectives. They are expected to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Rewarding, and Timed.

Development of tactics is a fifth level of planning. Tactics, the most specific and narrow plans, describe who, what, when, where and how activities will take place to accomplish a goal.

1. Where are we now?

2. Where do we want to be?

3. How do we get there?

«The «where are we now?» question is answered through the first three steps of the strategy formulation process: (1) perform internal and external environmental analyses, (2) review vision, mission and objectives, and (3) determine SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. SWOT analysis requires managers to be honest, self-disciplined and thorough. Going on to strategy choices without a comprehensive SWOT analysis is risky.» [1]

Strengths and weaknesses come from the internal environment of the firm. Strengths can be exploited, built upon and made key to accomplishment of mission and objectives. Strengths reflect past accomplishments in production, financial, marketing and human resource management. Weaknesses are internal characteristics that have the potential to limit accomplishment of mission and objectives. Weaknesses may be so important that they need to be addressed before any further strategic planning steps are taken.

Opportunities and threats are uncontrollable by management because they are external to the firm. Opportunities provide the firm the possibility of a major improvement. Threats may stand in the way of a firm reaching its mission and objectives.

Each organization has an organizational structure. By action and/or inaction, managers structure businesses. Ideally, in developing an organizational structure and distributing authority, managers' decisions reflect the mission, objectives, goals and tactics that grew out of the planning function. Specifically, they decide:

1. Division of labor

2. Delegation of authority

3. Departmentation

4. Span of control

5. Coordination

Management must make these decisions in any organization that has more than two people. Small may not be simple.

Organizational structure is particularly important in family businesses where each family member has three hats (multiple roles): family, business and personal. Confusion among these hats complicates organizational structure decisions.

Division of labor is captured in an organization chart, a pictorial representation of an organization's formal structure. An organization chart is concerned with relationships among tasks and the authority to do the tasks. Eight kinds of relationships can be captured in an organization chart:

1. The division/specialization of labor

2. Relative authority

3. Departmentation

4. Span of control

5. The levels of management

6. Coordination centers

7. Formal communication channels

8. Decision responsibility

To improve organizing managers should listen to the opinion of Bernard L. Erven. «Organization charts have important weaknesses that should be of concern to managers developing and using them:

1. They may imply a formality that doesn't exist.

2. They may be inconsistent with reality.

3. Their usual top down perspective often minimizes the role of customers, front-line managers and employees without management responsibilities.

4. They fail to capture the informal structure and informal communication.

5. They often imply that a pyramidal structure is the best or only way to organize.

6. They fail to address the potential power and authority of staff positions compared with line positions.» [1]

Delegation of Authority

Authority is legitimized power. Power is the ability to influence others. Delegation is distribution of authority. Delegation frees the manager from the tyranny of urgency. Delegation frees the manager to use his or her time on high priority activities. Note that delegation of authority does not free the manager from accountability for the actions and decisions of subordinates.

Delegation of authority is guided by several key principles and concepts:

Directing is influencing people's behavior through motivation, communication, group dynamics, leadership and discipline. The purpose of directing is to channel the behavior of all personnel to accomplish the organization's mission and objectives while simultaneously helping them accomplish their own career objectives.

Selection, training, evaluation and discipline cannot guarantee a high level of employee performance. Motivation, the inner force that directs employee behavior, also plays an important role. Highly motivated people perform better than unmotivated people. Motivation covers up ability and skill deficiencies in employees. Such truisms about motivation leave employers wanting to be surrounded by highly motivated people but unequipped to motivate their employees. Employers and supervisors want easily applied motivation models but such models are unavailable.

The process starts with a sender who has a message for a receiver. Two or more people are always involved in communication. The sender has the responsibility for the message.

The sender's message travels to the receiver through one or more channels chosen by the sender. The channels may be verbal or nonverbal. They may involve only one of the senses, hearing for example, or they may involve all five of the senses: hearing, sight, touch, smell, and taste. Nonverbal communication, popularly referred to as body language, relies primarily on seeing rather than hearing.

The sending of a message by an appropriate channel to a receiver appears to have completed the communication process or at least the sender's responsibility. Not so! After sending the message, the sender becomes a receiver and the receiver becomes a sender through the process of feedback. Feedback is the receiver's response to the attempt by the sender to send the message. Feedback is the key to determination by the sender of whether or not the message has been received in the intended form. Feedback involves choice of channel by the receiver of the original message. The channel for feedback may be quite different from the original channel chosen by the sender. A puzzled look may be the feedback to what the sender considered a perfectly clear oral instruction.

Problems with any one of the components of the communication model can become a barrier to communication. These barriers suggest opportunities for improving communication.

1. Muddled messages

2. Stereotyping

3. Wrong channel

4. Language

5. Lack of feedback

6. Poor listening skills

7. Interruptions

8. Physical distractions

The following general guidelines may help communication. This is a part of the third goal.

1. Have a positive attitude about communication. Defensiveness interferes with communication.

2. Work at improving communication skills. It takes knowledge and work. The communication model and discussion of barriers to communication provide the necessary knowledge.

3. Include communication as a skill evaluated along with all the other skills in each person's job description.

4. Make communication goal oriented. Relational goals come first and pave the way for other goals.

5. Approach communication as a creative process rather than simply part of the chore of working with people. Experiment with communication alternatives.

6. Accept the reality of miscommunication. The best communicators fail to have perfect communication.

Communication is at the heart of many interpersonal problems in family businesses. Understanding the communication process and then working at improvement provide managers a recipe for becoming more effective communicators. Knowing the common barriers to communication is the first step to minimizing their impact. Managers can reflect on how they are doing and use the ideas presented in this paper. When taking stock of how well you are doing as a manager and family member, first ask yourself and others how well you are doing as a communicator.

High quality farm worker performance requires implementation of carefully made tactical plans. Deviations from the plans by employees results in standards not being met and goals not being accomplished. Managers must deal with employees' deviation from rules, procedures and expected behaviors. Employees coming late to work, not following safety procedures when working alone, not properly cleaning equipment in their rush to get home, and using wrong or wrong amounts of medication are examples of unacceptable behavior that should be addressed rather than ignored. A cautionary note is in order. Employers can easily confuse discipline problems with selection, training and communication problems. This discussion of discipline applies to those cases in which the employee can reasonably be expected to perform or behave according to established standards, norms or rules, i.e., they have been carefully selected, well trained and are regularly evaluated.

A disciplined person exhibits the self-control, dedication and orderly conduct consistent with successful performance of job responsibilities. This discipline may come through self-discipline, co-workers or the supervisor/employer. Self-discipline is best and most likely to come from well selected, trained, and motivated people who regularly have feedback on their performance.

Keeping punishment consistent with the severity of an offense challenges all labor managers. Being thirty minutes tardy for work the fourth time in two weeks has to be handled differently from being thirty minutes tardy for the first time in two years. Theft of tools has to be handled differently than tardiness for work. Progressive discipline provides a formal structure within which errant employees can be handled. In progressive discipline, the severity of punishment increases in relation to the seriousness of the offense or the number of times an offense is repeated. Typical levels in progressive discipline are: informal talk and counseling, oral warning or reprimand, written warning, disciplinary layoff and discharge.

The control process is cyclical which means it is never finished. Controlling leads to identification of new problems that in turn need to be addressed through establishment of performance standards, measuring performance etc.

Employees often view controlling negatively. By its very nature, controlling often leads to management expecting employee behavior to change. No matter how positive the changes may be for the organization, employees may still view them negatively.

Control is both anticipatory and retrospective. The process anticipates problems and takes preventive action. With corrective action, the process also follows up on problems.

Managers can use one or a combination of three control strategies or styles: market, bureaucracy and clan. Each serves a different purpose. External forces make up market control. Without external forces to bring about needed control, managers can turn to internal bureaucratic or clan control. The first relies primarily on budgets and rules. The second relies on employees wanting to satisfy their social needs through feeling a valued part of the business.

Self-control, sometimes called adhocracy control, is complementary to market, bureaucratic and clan control. By training and encouraging individuals to take initiative in addressing problems on their own, there can be a resulting sense of individual empowerment. This empowerment plays out as self-control. The self-control then benefits the organization and increases the sense of worth to the business in the individual.

Effective control systems have the following characteristics:

1. Control at all levels in the business

2. Acceptability to those who will enforce decisions

3. Flexibility

4. Accuracy

5. Timeliness

6. Cost effectiveness

7. Understandability

8. Balance between objectivity and subjectivity

9. Coordinated with planning, organizing and leading

Managers expect people in an organization to change their behavior in response to control. However, employee resistance can easily make control efforts dysfunctional. The following behaviors demonstrate means by which the manager's control efforts can be frustrated:

In addition, in the paper you can find general rules to improve communication, which is the part of directing, and organizing.

1. Bernard L. Erven (2003). The Five Functions of Management: The Foundation of ManagementExcel. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from: http://extension.osu.edu/~mgtexcel/Function.html

2. Henri Fayol (1916). Model: Five functions of management. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from: http://www.provenmodels.com/3

3. James Higgins, The Management Challenge, Second edition, Macmillan, 1994.

4. Jayashree Pakhare (25.09.2007). Management Concepts - The Four Functions of Management. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/management-concepts-the-four-functions-of-management.html

5. Unknown author (2009). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Management. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management#Basic_functions_of_management