Management Functions

Management has several different aspects to it however; one of the most important aspects of management is control. According to T.S. Bateman and S.A. Snell. (2004), the definition of management is "the process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals". Looking into management in detail would bring out the four functions of management: leading organizing, planning, and controlling. These four functions are not as applicable to the upper management at as they are to the middle and first line management of the MIS Department for which I work for.

was a family owned business and was recently acquired by "The Dover Corporation." Before the purchase of our company, the executives and directors ran the show and ran it Dover's way. There has been no structure, no planning for the future, and no use of the four functions of management. The Dover Corporation, by buying us has forced management to re-think and re-structure the way things are done. The planning, organizing, leading and controlling of this company, at least for now is being overseen by The Dover Corp. in an effort to train all levels of management to help the company remain competitive in the mobile printing business.

Organizing is defined as "assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals" by T.S. Bateman an S.A. Snell. (2004). At this aspect is incredibly important. Being in a specialized area as mobile printing, the managers are required to hire employees that either have some experience or can learn quickly. Managers also need to organize the departments so that the diversity will compliment the company and benefit the interests of the customers, and since the acquisition, stockholders. When hiring the new personnel for the department the managers are also required to define the job specifications as well as creating the department handbook which describes, in detail, each position within the department.

Planning is defined as "specifying the goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals" by T.S. Bateman and S.A. Snell (2004). It is important to remember, however, that the manager also needs to plan to avoid issues that may arise. At, the managers are responsible for creating goals that will motivate the workers in his or her department as well as avoid issues that arise at any time. The managers set various types of goals for themselves, his or her department as a whole, and for each individual worker within his or her departments. The MIS manager has set the goal of how many tasks or work tickets are completed on an average day or work on project planning for longer tasks that will take more time. The manager has also set the goal for the year and what objectives need to be completed from one review to another.

Leading is defined as "stimulating people to be high performers" by T.S. Bateman and S.A. Snell (2004). This would entail management to bring out the highest level of performance from the workers below them with the least cost. At the manager of each department oversees the employees and motivates them to effectively manage their tasks in a timely manner. It is important