Target Organization

The Four Functions of Management

David Stevens

University of Phoenix

June 20, 2011

Among every organization there are managers that have to supervise other employees. They do this in order to make sure that the work is being done. There are four ways that a manager can use to ensure that every job is being done and being done on time. There are four functions that a manager needs to know and be able to do in order to be very successful. These are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

The first one is called planning. Managers use planning to determine the goals for the day, week, month, and year. They also use planning to understand the current situations, anticipate the future, and to decide what resources that are needed to achieve those goals of the team.

In the past they use what is known as the top down approach. This is where top executives would set plans for the business and then they would rely on the managers to execute their plans. These were very successful but it would limit the managers to do the job a certain way and not able to think outside the box. Now managers use the help and ideas of others like stakeholders and suppliers. This is done to maintain and to capture a competitive advantages in the business.

The next functions that managers use is organizing. Organizing is the way we put together human, finance, physical, information, and other resources to achieve the goals. One way would be attracting other people to your company. Another way is to prepare a specific job responsibility. They can also group jobs into work units and create conditions where people and conditions are at the maximum to be successful.

In the past managers use to do everything by organizing a chart and having personnel department do all the program, paper work, and administrative parts of the goals. Now and in the future managers will use different forms and view their employees much more valuable resource....