MANAGEMENT – Concept and Functions
MANAGEMENT:
Definition:
“Management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which
individuals working together in a group to accomplish the selected aims”.
Business management requires the utilization of the
entity’s resources in the most efficient manner possible. Business
management comprises organizing, planning, leading, staffing or controlling and
directing a business effort for the purpose of accomplishing the entity’s
listed goals.
FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT:
Scientist Fayol
described the functions of management as PODSCORB i.e.
P: Planning
O: Organizing
D: Directing
S: Scheduling
CO: Controlling
R: Reporting
B:
Budgeting
But the most widely accepted are functions of
management given by KOONTZ and O’DONNEL i.e. Planning, Organizing,
Staffing, Directing and Controlling as shown in Fig 1.
1. Planning:
“It
is the process of selecting the objectives and determining the course of action
required to achieve these objectives”.
Planning
is a detailed programme regarding future courses of action. It is rightly said
“Well plan is half done”.
Management by Objectives
(MBO): “Objectives are end results towards which the activities
are carried out in a business.”
Management By Objectives
defined
as a process where as the performance, goals and objectives set by subordinates
in collaboration with his superior”.
MBO
Process:
1.
Define organization goal
2.
Defining employee objective and
organization objective
3.
Continuous monitoring of performance and
progress.
4.
Performance, evaluation and review
5.
Providing Feedback
6.
Reporting and reviewing.
Essentials
of MBO: (SMART)
ü Objective
should be specific.
ü Measurable
ü Appropriate
ü Realistic
ü Time
bound
ü Revised
periodically for particular changes.
Steps
in Planning:
Advantages
of Planning:
ü Effective
planning and control
ü Development
of other plans i.e. policy, budget.
ü Co-ordination
in a business can be achieved.
ü It
increases people’s commitment.
ü Reveals
organization deficiency.
ü It
provides motivation.
ü It
is useful for performance evaluation.
Limitations
of Planning:
ü Time
consuming and expensive in nature.
ü Less
applicable in routine job.
ü Absence
of fully commitment in management level.
ü It
is difficult to make comparative rating of individual because each individual’s
goals are different from others.
Plan: “Plan
of an organization is the synthesis of various forecast i.e. annual, long-term,
short term, special etc.”
Types
of Plans:
1. Single
use plans
2.
Standing plans.
1. Single use plans:
These plans with specific objectives and used only once. Once achieve, it is
dissolved.
Ex.: Budget, Programme
2.
Standing
Plans: These plans are designed for situation that recurs to
justify a standardized approach”. They are used more than once for repetitive
problems. These are further classified as policy, procedure, method and Rule.
2. Organizing:
“It
is a process of identifying and grouping of activities required to attain the
objectives”.
Importance
of Organization:
Organization plays important role in all phases on
man’s life i.e. hospital, school, office, factories. Knowledge of organization
helps manager to work effectively.
It imparts certain skills in human such as technical,
motivational, conflict, human skills. It is useful to study the human behavior.
It is important to know the three
different functions of organization.
a.
Authority: “Authority is power given to a
person to get work from his subordinates.”
b.
Responsibility: “Responsibility is amount
of work form a man by his superior.”
c. Accountability:
It clearly means that employee is accountable to superior authority for his
performance. The authority and power should match with the responsibility and
accountability.
Steps
in Organizing:
1. Identification
of Activities: To built effective organization manager must identify the series
of activities to achieve the desired activities.
2. Grouping
Activities: The activities are grouped together in various departments. It is
further classified on the basis of section of department.
3. Assigning Activities:
The person or manpower that carries out these activities are to be identified.
4. Delegation of Authority: To carry out any activity
one should have sufficient enough authority. At the same time creation of
responsibility to perform duties satisfactorily.
3. Staffing:
“Staffing is the managerial function of hiring,
training and developing the required personnel to fill the various positions in
the organizations.
In simple world it is also defined as a
process which ensures that placing the right kind of people at right place in
right time to achieve the objective of the company.
The main aim is to employ, deploy and monitoring
competent staff to perform managerial activities. Staffing is a continuous
activity
throughout the life of an organization due to the transfers and promotions that
take place.
The basis of staffing function is efficient
management of personnel’s. The process of staffing person includes series of
steps i.e. recruitment, selection, placement, induction, training and
development, performance appraisal, career management, remuneration.
4. Directing:
“It
is the process of instructing, guiding and inspiring subordinates to accomplish
the business objectives”.
Directing is required
at all levels of organization. Directing function is related to subordinates
and therefore it is related to human factor. Direction function helps in
converting plans into performance.
Direction has following elements:
1. Supervision:
Implies overseeing the work of subordinates by their superiors.
2. Motivation: It
means inspiring, stimulating or encouraging the sub-ordinates with confidence
to work.
3. Leadership: It is
a process by which manager guides and influences the work of subordinates in desired
direction.
4. Communication: It is the process of passing information,
experience, opinion etc from one person to another.
5. Controlling:
“It
is a measurement and correction of performance standards and corrective action
to accomplish the company’s objectives”.
Controlling is an end function and
is made in conformities with plans. Controlling is a pervasive function
which means it is performed by managers at all levels and in all type of
concerns. Controlling is forward
looking so that follow-up can be made whenever required. Controlling requires taking reviewable methods;
changes have to be made wherever possible.
Following are the sub functions of controlling.
1) Determination
of objectives or standards
2) Measurement
of actual performance
3) Comparison
of actual performance with standards set
4) Determination of difference between the two and reasons for the same
5) Taking corrective actions so that standards set are attained.
Reference Video:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDul7uf7pcbM_kWCEaA9WvA
