Functions of Management

This paper discusses the functions of management in detail and these functions have been discussed in regards with the managerial skills or functions performed by the employees of any government based organization, particularly army. Managerial functions should be performed by any successful manager to uphold the position of the organization in upward direction. The four functions which have been discussed are planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

Are four managerial functions important to be incorporated or observed by the managers working in any government organization, specifically army?

Planning

Business planning is a method by which an organization is able to find, describe and then refine the competitive advantages of a particular operation. This is done with an objective of achieving the goals of a particular operation. Business planning actually refines your business advantages and propels you in a direction which helps you meet your business goals. Schermerhorn 2007 indicated that, a business plan is a statement to how you would react to the constant changes of the business environment. While planning, you need to identify the objectives, identify inventory resources, and judge the business and environment wherein the operation would exist, make an analysis of your business performance, decide upon your actions, implement your strategies and evaluate your plan. Everyone who is involved in the process of operations is supposed to take part in the planning process. Nonetheless, the evaluation of the plan is done by the owners as well as the managers of the organization. Operational plans are short term in nature and they deal with the day to day as well as the yearly goals of the business. Financial plans help in assessing the financial operations of the company and they also evaluate the future financial requirements of the organization. Strategic planning focuses on long term goals of an organization. Planning is therefore an essential tool for ensuring that a business succeeds.

Organizing

Organizing is the ability to put together your plan in such a manner that they can be executed systematically. The consumer power has the ability to allow organizations to boycott, the legal or regulatory powers have the ability to allow organizations as well as individuals to win in the court of law, the power of demonstration have the ability to disrupt business as usual and finally the political or legislative power have the ability to allow individuals as well as organizations to win elections or get assignments passed through officials. The process of organizing is complicated and it involves planning. Organizing can be used for an individual and it can also be used for an organization, for a business, the analysis of tasks and jobs, job description, employee performance planning, time management, setting up comities for board of directors, committees in general and meeting can be included in this set up. Organizing is a skill which comes through experience and people who are involved in the process of organizing have the ability to lead an organization closer to its objectives. If the organization of a business is perfect, it would rise in terms of both financial as well as non-financial aspects. On the other hand, if the organizing skills of a business are weak, it would face difficulty in taking the nest step forwards.

Leading

Leadership is a process of social influence wherein an individual has the ability to support numerous other individuals to achieve a particular task. It is also the most relevant aspects of an organization (Bateman & Snell, 2009). Leadership is very difficult to define and hence, it is sub divided into several theories. Some of the prominent theories of leadership include the trait theory of leadership, the behavioral and style theories of leadership, the situational and contingency theories, and the functional theories of leadership and the transactional and transformational theories of leadership. Leading an organization is also dependent on the emotional quotient of an individual. In an organizational set up, you can have three kinds of leadership styles. The first is the authoritarian or autocratic leadership styles, the second is the participative or democratic leadership and the third is the free rein leaders. In a formal organization, the leaders are supposed to behave in an informal manner with the clients and superiors whereas in an informal organization, the leadership abilities of the leader are defined on the basis of a human characteristic. More and ore organizations have now started adopting this kind of leadership. Leadership in an organization can either be centralized or decentralized, broad or focused, morale oriented or decision oriented and derived from some authority or intrinsic in nature.

Controlling

It is also a chief supervisory function such as planning, staffing, organizing and directing. It is managerial function because it checks the basic errors and also helps the organization to take corrective measures so that the deviations from the standard procedures are limited to the bare minimum and the predestinated goals of the organization are met as promised. In a business, control is a continuous process, it is a managerial process, it is embedded in each level of the organizational hierarchy, it is forward looking, it is linked closely with the process of planning and it is an ideal tool for achieving the organizational goals. The control system is based on conditioning of the controller, the comparator, the activator and the sensor. In order to achieve perfect control, an organization needs to set up performance standards, measure the actual performance, compare actual performance with the standards, analyze deviations and correct deviations wherever necessary. In an organization, you can have an open or a closed loop control, machine or man control, organizational and operational control.

Conclusion

The essence of this paper is that, managerial skills are proved to be very helpful to uplift any organization, hence they should be obeyed and incorporated in any decision making process within the organization. In army, everything flows in a planned manner; this managerial skill is applied by the co- commander and other members. Organized and planned movements can be observed throughout the army organization and it can be observed easily that all employees of army live in a very controlled environment. From high level managers to lower level operative managers can been seen, observing the rules strictly, to ensure no unpleasant event take place.

References list

Bateman, T. & Snell, S. (2009). Management: Leading & collaborating in a competitive world. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Schermerhorn, J. (2007). Management. New York: Wiley.

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