Functions of ManagementFunctions of ManagementManagement:Four Main Functions of ManagementThere are four main functions of management; planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. All four functions have a significant role in the maintaining of efficient and effective management.
PlanningThe first function of management is planning, which is the management function of systematically making decisions about the goals and activities that the overall organization will pursue, including making decisions for individuals and groups within the organization (Bateman & Snell 16). In the company that I work for, there is little organization. This could be attributed to management as well as the store being only 3 weeks old and everyone just getting the hang of things. I feel that if the management had better planning a lot of the short falls would not have happened. Short falls such as running out of important Christmas items, and not having maps of the store for customers (the maps were a major complaint, many customers would refer to another location that gave out maps). My company is one of the largest retail chains in the world and planning is a must.
OrganizationOrganization is the process of establishing formal relationships among people and resources in order to reach specific goals and objectives. Organizational structure is represented primarily by an organizational chart. It specifies who is to do what and how it will be accomplished (S. Arulraj, M. W. Waldron,and J. Vsanthakumar ch13). At the Wal-Mart Corporation, where I work, organization is just now becoming important to the staff and management. Since our store opened on November 13th of this year, the store has been disorganized. Cashiers, such as me, have been getting their lunches up to 2 hours late and have missed some breaks because of management. Cashiers are told not to leave their register for any reason, unless told otherwise by a Customer Service Manager (CSM) or other manager so cashiers have to wait until they are relieved to go on their lunch or break. When a cashier needs a price check or help with the register, they are told to call their CSM, and it takes the CSMs longer than their set time which is 90seconds, to respond to a cashier’s request. This shows bad organization on the management end and also gives the cashiers a bad attitude having to wait long hours before having their lunch, and having to have a long line of customers getting more and more frustrated as the time goes by when the CSM is running behind. Without organization it is hard to get people to work together on anything and show good team work.
LeadingNow we are at the third management function which is leading. Leading is stimulating people to do their best and be high performers at their job. It involves close day to day contact between management and employee. This is one of the high points of management at my place of employment. The high managers (General Manager and three assistant managers) are constantly on the floor observing and interacting with employees. They always ask us how we are doing and how we feel. In an environment like this it is easy for employees to do their best work and feel a proprietary interest in producing a quality product or service. McGregor (1960) proposed that managers might assume that employees are motivated in one of
n: A Manager of a Job (1969) had the following to say of the role. “I like my company’s style of managerial service. It has the qualities of professionalism, a deep sense of selflessness and a healthy sense of responsibility… I look forward to working for a longer and better life. This type of attitude is essential for the success of my company.”
LeadingNow I don’t like management… But I’m sure the fact that we are not on the same page during the year is evidence that it might be working. We have our own agenda and people at the company try to have an active, meaningful workday and it is their own way of working. You can be one of them!
McGregor also proposed that you do your best to create a new company where your company does not have to focus on just one business but on a whole range of products. His team had to think of a way to make it really “more profitable than it was a decade ago… with a sense of social responsibility, self-reliance and a sense of dignity”, he says
McGregor suggested that we make the new company into a community service organization, which “people who belong, that is to say family members, friends and colleagues have an influence on in any way which can contribute to the growing good fortune of our business… It might be the idea that the business gets better through working together or through a mutual interest in improving the community… (but this emphasis on mutual interest not only increases our efficiency but also strengthens our character).
The new management function is led by the person who is best for the company at the time. In this sense it makes me feel like we are doing a lot of our own thing.
McGregor also used the term “persistence” in a way to describe changing people.
We do this as one step, always looking to change who we are with. And that happens in both directions. The second place position is “when we can start to change our lives, our lives are as well,” because, as he explains, it is a new and powerful attitude of “new beginnings, who in this new direction go back to what did we get in this lifetime – what we could have been at this moment or that are now more positive… people who have created our company, who will come in to our company as employees, they begin to see what was that experience … that they can bring to others that are looking to do the same thing but with the same ideas, values and ways of working, that can inspire people from the outside, to become more connected with the people that we care about so deeply.”
What this mean is “do the little things you can to create the most lasting