Good afternoon. My name is Meghan Wood and the main topic of our discussion today is the managerial concept and functions. I will provide a detailed summary of the primary functions of a manager and I believe that by the end, each one of us will have the necessary information about what is required to be an effective manager.
It is essential to start by defining the term management, and even though it has different meanings to different people, I would define it as the art of having the knowledge of what needs to be done and ensuring that it is done in the best way possible to achieve a common goal. More so, managing an organization is a task that requires one to diligently apply the principles of management. Management involves activities such as planning and controlling the vital resources within an entity and the main aim is to achieve its objectives. Also, managing an organization comes with other responsibilities such as making decisions and resolving arising issues to foster the effectiveness of its activities. Having understood the concept of management I will now dwell on the primary functions of management which include the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Understanding the concepts will help you understand what we would do as managers to become effective in our line of duty.
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Planning is the first function of management and it is a step where the manager creates a detailed action plan aiming at the organizational goals. Let us take the example of a manager whose goal is to increase the profits of his organization in December. First, he ought to map out the necessary steps he and the sales representatives should take to enhance the number of sales. They might choose to increase the advertising in a particular location or contact previous customers to find out if they may need additional services or products. Notably, the steps must be organized in a logical pattern for the manager and the sales team to follow effectively. Most importantly, planning is a process and may be highly specialized to suit the organizational, division, team, and departmental goals.
The other function of management is organizing, and this requires that a manager determines how the resources will be distributed and how the team should be organized to suit the plan. The manager goes further to identify the different roles in a given task and delegate the correct amount of human resources to carry out the plan. Besides, she will assign authority, and provide the necessary direction and this will ensure that the teams will provide pleasing results as far as the plan is concerned.
The third function of management is to lead. Leading primarily entails influencing the employees in an organization for a specific reason. Notably, this is the most important but challenging of all the functions of management. We all must understand that leading requires a manager to influence the organizational members to put efforts towards achieving the interests of an organization. Therefore, it also requires creating a positive attitude towards the tasks assigned and the goals of the organization. Also, this function of management will aid to serve the important objectives of an organization which include effectiveness and efficiency.
The last but critical function of management is controlling. This management function primarily involves the monitoring and evaluation of activities. Precisely, to control is to closely monitor the progress of an organization towards the goal fulfillment and it fosters the achievements that an organization has set. Controlling comprises of activities such as measuring the performance and making comparisons with the existing standards, finding out the deviations and correcting them.
In conclusion, understanding the concept and function of management is what sets the pace for managers of organization to effectively meet the set of objectives they have for their firms. Failure to utilize the four functions of management as a guide may see an organization struggle in aspects of the firm such as lack of effectiveness and productivity from the human resources. Again, the managers ought to uses these functions to adjust the aspects of management that are not effective hence affecting the productivity of their firms. I believe that the information I have shared will help use become good managers in the professional field. Thank you for your attentive listening.
