Management and its Functions

Essay by na101 May 2007

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Management is the process of coordinating people and other resources to achieve the goals of the organization. One key characteristic is the ability to empower rather than order employees to do their jobs. Effective empowerment depends on the leader and the employees building mutual respect, trust, and commitment. Leadership also possesses the ability to communicate by fostering an ongoing dialogue rather than issuing mandates. Now the leadership and management are defined, we can move on to describe management in terms of its four functions. These functions are identified as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. How well managers perform these key functions determines whether a business is successful.

Planning, in its simplest form, is establishing organizational goals and objectives and deciding how to accomplish them. It is the primary function, often referred as the "first" management function because all the management functions depend on planning. Managers engage in planning by determining where the firm should be going and how best to get there.

Once goals and objectives have been set for the organization, managers must develop plans (or actions) for achieving them. A plan could be defined as an outline of the actions by which the organization intends to accomplish its goals and objectives. The company that I work for, 7-Eleven, I, as a manager, set a goal to sell as many products as possible to increase the sales. I have to ensure that the customer knows about the products we are selling. My number one target is the customer and the way to achieve is through my employees, who can provide the outstanding customer service and thus, the customer will come back.

After goal setting and planning, the second major function of the management is organizing. Organizing is the grouping of resources and activities to accomplish effective and efficient results.