Four Functions Of Management

A lot of people are unsure what management is really about. Most think their role is to direct people and sometimes that is needed, but the main role of a manager is to get people to become self-directed by utilizing the four functions of management. These four basic functions are planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Whether a manager is an old-fashioned autocratic manager or a diplomatic kind, the adherence to the functions of management is an essential blueprint for effective managing. Through these functions good managers get their team members to willingly do what they are supposed to as opposed to doing it only because the manager said so.

Planning is the first function and also one of the most common activities in management. Simply put, planning is setting the direction for something and then working to ensure that everything follows that direction. Planning involves inputs, processes, and outputs. Inputs include resources such as raw materials, money, technologies, and people. Inputs go through a process where they are moved along and coordinated and ultimately achieve the goals set for the system. Outputs are the tangible results produced by the processes, such as products or services for consumers(McNamara p.1). Whether the planning is applied to an organization, department, business, or project, it includes planners working backwards through the system. They start from the results (outputs) and work backwards to identify the processes needed to produce the results. Then they identify what inputs are needed to carry out the processes.

Organizing is establishing the internal organizational structure of the business. The focus is on division, coordination, and control of tasks and the flow of information within the organization. Managers distribute responsibility and authority to job holders in this function of management. One main focus of organizing is division of labor, which includes specialization, relative authority, departmentation, span of control, levels of management, coordination centers, formal communication channels, and decision responsibility(Belker p. 125). Within the organizing function comes delegation of authority. Delegation frees the manager to use his or her time on high priority activities, but does not free the manager from accountability. Departmentation is the grouping of jobs under the authority of a single manager for the purposes of planning, coordination, and control. The number of departments in an organization depends on the number of different jobs and the size and complexity of the business.

Good leadership, which is the next function of management, is necessary to hold an organization together. Leadership skills are basically the same no matter what type of group you are dealing with. Effective leaders lead from the front, only expecting things of people that they would be willing to do themselves if necessary. An underlying attitude of confidence should be seen in the manager, because the people working under you will also act with confidence as long as they feel like there is someone in charge that knows what is going on and knows what to do in every situation. There is a new management concept called emotional intelligence (EQ). Managers who have high levels of emotional intelligence seem to do much better in their leadership roles than the ones who do not. Having EQ means you can walk into a room and sense the mood, recognize the emotional states of others without them telling you, and knowing yourself and when you are becoming emotional and being able to control it(Belker p. 125). EQ is important to effective leadership because leadership is all about leading people.

The final function of management is controlling. This means taking a systematic approach to figuring out if you are doing what you wanted to be doing or not. It's the part of planning after you've decided what you wanted to be doing. Organizations