Functions of Management

Functions of Management

Despite the many changes that business has experienced through out the ages, the functions of a manager; planning, organizing, leading, and controlling have not changed. Without these essential primary functions, managers can not be successful managers. The following paragraphs will detail the definition of each function, as well as explain how they relate to the writer’s own organization.

To have a successful business, a manager must plan strategic general and specific goals that are suited to the business’ aspirations. Along with having excellent planning skills, a manager must also be able to recognize the priorities that are of interest to their organization in order to ‘deliver strategic value’. “Value” in terms of planning is considered to describe the “monetary amount associated with how well a job, task, good, or services meets users’ needs. Those users might be business owners and customers, employees, society and even nations. The better you meet those needs (in terms of quality, speed, efficiency, and so on), the more value you deliver” (Bateman & Snell, 2009, P.19). To deliver strategic value, a manager must be able to have excellent planning skills, which involves the ability to think critically. Planning takes the manager through a thinking process that analyses any given situation in order to develop steps to address the situation, as well as developing goals and the steps that need to be taken to reach them. However, planning cannot fully be implemented or delivered if the manager has no organization skills.

According to Bateman and Snell (2009, p. 20), "organization is defined as assembling and coordinating the human, financial, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals.” In the past, organization was implemented by creating an organizational chart that established reporting relationships, department responsibilities, and administered plans and programs as well as paperwork....