Functions of ManagementEssay Preview: Functions of ManagementReport this essayFunctions of ManagementVirtually everyone is aware of the infamous “dot-com” crash in early 2000. However, not everyone is as conscious of the telecom bust. According to the editorial of The Economist, The Great Telecoms Crash, “The telecoms bust is some ten times bigger than the dotcom crash: the rise and fall of telecoms may indeed qualify as the largest bubble in history.” Companies caught up in the telecommunications industry were forced to take huge debt write-offs and even resorted to fraudulent accounting tricks as displayed by WorldCom (Economist). Being involved in the manufacturing segment of the telecom market, I witnessed first hand the results of the crash, including massive layoffs, hostile corporate take-over, and enormous company debt. Many top managers and front-line supervisors were so consumed with demands, changes and challenges of the exponential growth of the telecom market that portions of the four functions of management were short-circuited , which are planning, organizing, leading and controlling.
The first function for managers at all levels is to engage in planning. Planning involves devising a scheme for attaining the goals of the organization. “Planning is setting goals and deciding on courses of action, developing rules and procedures, developing plans and forecasting” (Dessler 5). One method of how our company accomplishes this endeavor is defining the mission, which is the purpose of our organization. Planning involves setting goals, and our organization formulated the goals into a tree. This tree consisted of revenue growth, earnings before income taxes and appreciation (EBITA), productivity, free cash flow, and people.
The key matter in accomplishing the goals set forth in the planning process is configuring the work of the organization. Organizing is defined as gathering and arranging the necessary resources. These resources can be human, financial, physical, or informational to carry out the plan. Our company has organizational charts for each level and shows job titles, lines of authority and relationships between departments. One aspect of the organizing function that is apparent in our business is the production manager matching employee skill level with task requirements to maximize productivity.
The third significant task that a manager does is leading. The textbook by Bateman-Snell, Management: The New Competitive Landscape, simply defines leading as stimulating people to be high performers. A leader can be a manager, but a manager is not necessarily a leader. With years of being in the workforce, I have come to believe that a manager is not necessarily a leader. There have been several managers that were proficient at the administrative aspects, which are planning, organizing and controlling but lacked the interpersonal portion of the managers job. Recently, another corporation purchased our company, and with the looming transition approaching, there was anxiety concerning the restructuring and inevitable layoffs. However, the Chief Operations Officer (COO) gave a town hall presentation and afterward the anxieties were abated and employees were as enthused and confident as the COO that the
CFO was indeed a top talent. And, I was relieved to see that we made the transition and managed to remain successful. The first step, of course, was to find the right people of our talent:
The other steps were:
Step one of our development, which requires extensive background and skills, is development of a group of people and an organization/organization that has been through some transformation before. In order to be effective in these groups, we’re also working with others who we identify as great talent. This process can happen either for different talent groups or between the talent group that we identify with, and the group that we identify with in the future. Our focus with “leading” seems to be to recruit people who are the same people, whether that’s in high-school, high-school-prep, college. For more information, see the above slides.
Step three of our management is a “coach.” We refer to a chief in our job to work toward creating, maintaining, and strengthening those groups that make the team, that support and encourage the success of these leaders. For example, the CEO may be at a high-volume training to support the first class of highly skilled managers. The team that they oversee includes top employees who have been chosen to serve the organization through the hiring process. In other words, those who, with time and thought, have learned to manage the teams of high-volume and highly competent management, can excel in developing a high-performing group.
Here are three ways you can get a high-performance, highly-regarded, highly-trained, high-growth team;
Work with some experienced managers in the same group that you’ve been building—such as a board level in the same department. Some leaders are better at building the group’s organization, others can lead without having to invest any time or effort in the building group to get the most from each individual.
Make any group effort to build group support.
Most high-caliber leaders will make a positive contribution to your development and leadership. That means that even those leaders who can learn leadership without too much training. If you have a high-growth group and the high-performing members have a significant sense of appreciation and respect for the leader in the group, these members will learn to keep them coming up to you and motivate you to stick around. It’s possible that in the same group, the leader may find that a small, isolated organization that is willing to support people of high-performing qualities like high-performing individuals and quality work may be more receptive.
Make the organization a collaborative place. It makes sense that you want to start sharing knowledge and resources while still having a collaborative feel and vision. If someone is not on board with what you believe is the direction you want the company to go, you might want to let them know how your group feels or how they want your group to go. You can then discuss your group’s goals in a way that allows for cooperation between groups and helps achieve this.
Use your contacts and connections for leadership.
The key here—and this seems straightforward enough—is a clear understanding of the role of the role of the group. If someone in the organization is just starting out, the question will often be when this starts to become a “problem.” It’s okay to discuss it internally, or with different people to ensure that the group continues to grow. As you do this, you can ensure that the “problem” is being tackled as quickly and effectively as possible. (This often means that the person who you consider leader of your group