The Four Functions of Management

This paper will define the four basic functions of management; planning, organizing, leading, and controlling and describe how they can be applied to the workplace. Many people would say that management has more functions than just the four mentioned above. In the early twentieth century Henri Fayol identified five elements of administrative management: planning, organizing, coordinating, commanding, and

controlling. It wasn't until 1973 in the book Professional Management, Louis Allen identified functions into four basic functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. It is these four that will be discussed in this paper which are ultimately the most important ones. To better understand what these four functions mean, it is important to know what management is and then break the four functions down into subcategories. According to Bateman and Snell(2009) management is the process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals. People might ask how can this be done successfully. The simplest answer is the application of these four important functions.

Planning is specifying the goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals. Planning activities include analyzing current situations, anticipating the future, determining objectives, deciding in what types of activities the company will engage, choosing corporate and business strategies, and determining the resources needed to achieve the organization’s goals. In laments terms, planning is deciding ultimately what the goals of the company or business are going to be and deciding beforehand what are the correct courses of actions that need to be taken to successfully achieve a positive outcome that the company or business can benefit from. When planning a person must take time to consider any current situations or external influences and decide what activities the company is going to participate in. This...