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Management ( Phase -I & II) General Management

MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

Planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling.

Fayol distinguishes between the principles and elements of management. Principles are the
rules and guidelines, while elements are the functions of management. He has grouped the
elements into five managerial functions — planning, organizing, commanding,
coordinating, and controlling. His classification is widely accepted.

Luther Gullick used the acronym POSD CORE—letters of the acronym indicate different
management functions, namely, planning (P), organizing (O), staffing (S), directing (D),
coordinating (CO), reporting (R), and budgeting (B). Reporting is a part of the control
function. Budgeting represents both planning and controlling. Newman and Summer also
classified management processes into the functions of organizing, planning, leading, and
controlling.

The most useful method of classifying managerial functions is to group them around the
components of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. The above
functions of management are common to all business enterprises as well as to
organizations of other fields, but the manner in which these are carried out will not be the
same in different organizations.

All these functions constitute the job of a manager, and the relative importance of each of
them varies from time to time. Thus, tight economic conditions may force a firm to lay more
emphasis on control for the time being, while a growing concern may have to devote more
time to organizational problems. Another way of describing the functions of management is
to consider it as a process. As a process, management refers to a series of inter-related
functions, that is, planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, controlling, and
coordinating.

Planning:

Planning means deciding in advance on what, how, and when something is to be done. It
involves projecting the future course of action for the business as a whole and also for the
different sections within it. Planning is thus, the preparatory step for actions and helps in
bridging the gap between the present and the future.

Since planning is essentially choosing, it is dependent upon the availability of alternatives.

It is through this process of choosing that decision making can obviously be seen as an
important aspect of planning. Thus, planning is an intellectual process and signifies the use
of a rational approach to finding solutions to problems.
In a more concrete sense, the process comprises determination or laying down of
objectives, policies, procedures, rules, programmes, budgets, and strategies. Management
planning might be for a short period and/or for the long run. For improved efficiency and
better results, short-range plans should be properly coordinated with long-range plans.
Planning is a fundamental function of management and all other functions of management
are greatly influenced by the planning process. The increasing interest evinced in planning
amply manifests the importance of planning in businesses.

Very often, the planning process is erroneously described as the prerogative of the top
management. But the fact is that planning permeates all levels in an organization and all
managers, irrespective of their position in the management hierarchy, must plan within the
limits of their authority and the decisions of their seniors.

Organizing:

Organizing is the next function of management. Organizing involves break-ing a plan into
activities, grouping those activities, and allocating resources to them. This is done by
structuring the functions and duties to be performed by a group of people for the purpose
of attaining the objective of the enterprise. Functions and activities of the enterprise
depend upon the objectives to be accomplished and are directed towards fulfilment of such
objectives. This necessitates the establishment of activity-authority relationships in the
enterprise.

More specifically, organization as a function of management involves the following steps:

Determination of activities of the enterprise, keeping in view its objectives

Classification of such activities into convenient groups
Assignment of these groups of activities to individuals
Delegation of authority and fixing of responsibility for carrying out such assigned
duties
Coordination of these activity-authority relationships throughout the organization

Thus, division of work among people and coordination of their efforts to achieve specific
objectives are the fundamental aspects of organization. Problems related to organizing
arise only when group efforts are involved. Similarly, an organization is always intended to
achieve objectives and as such, it is a means to an end and never an end in itself. Therefore,
for better results, organizations should be based upon practical prudence and sound
application of organizational principles.

Staffing:

Organization, as a function of management, helps the executives to establish positions and

lay down their functional relations to each other. However, it is through staffing function
that different positions in the organizational structure are manned. The staffing process,
therefore, provides the organization with adequate, competent, and qualified personnel at
all levels.

Since successful performance by individuals largely determines the success of the structure,
it is imperative that the management pays adequate attention to various aspects of the
staffing function. It implies that managers should properly assess the manpower
requirements of the organization, consistent with the qualifications required for proper
and efficient discharge of duties on the existing and possible jobs in the organization, laying
down of suitable selection and placement procedures, developing employee skills through
training and appraisal schemes, and devising suitable schemes of compensation.

Staffing is a continuous function. A new enterprise employs people to fill up staff positions
in the organization. In an established concern, the deaths/ retirements of employees and
the frequent changes in the objectives and the organization itself make staffing a
continuous function of management.

Directing:

Mere planning, organizing, and staffing are not sufficient to set the tasks in motion.
Management has well-coordinated plans, properly established duty- authority relations,
and able personnel, yet it is through the function of direction that the manager is able to
make the employees accomplish their tasks by making them integrate their individual
efforts with the interest and objectives of the enterprise.

It calls for properly motivating, communicating with, and leading the subordinates.
Motivation induces and inspires the employees to perform better, while through good
leadership, a manager is able to make his subordinates work with zeal and confidence.

Directing the subordinates embraces three essential activities:

Issuing orders and instructions

Guiding and counseling the subordinates in their work with a view to improve their
performance
Supervising the work of subordinates to ensure that it conforms to orders and
instructions issued
Controlling:

While directing, the manager explains to his subordinates the work expected of each of
them and also helps them perform their respective jobs to the best of their abilities so that
the enterprise objectives can be achieved. But even then, there is no guarantees that work
will always proceed according to plan. It is this possibility of actions deviating from plans
that calls for constant monitoring of actual performance so that appropriate steps may be
taken to make them conform to plans. Thus, the controlling task of management involves
compelling the events to conform to plans.

The important steps to be initiated in this direction are as follows:

Measurement of accomplishments against pre-determined standards and recording of

deviations
Analysing and probing the reasons for such deviations
Fixing of responsibility in terms of persons responsible for negative deviations
Correction of employee performance so that group goals are achieved through
effective implementation of plans devised to attain them.

Control is thus closely related to the planning aspect of the job of a manager. But it should
not be viewed merely as a post-mortem of past achievements and performances. In fact, a
good control system should suggest corrective measures so that negative deviations may
not recur in the future. The principle of feedback when incorporated in the control system
can be of great use in this direction.
Coordinating:

Coordination, as a separate function of management, has been advocated by many

authorities including Henri Fayol. However, coordination, being all pervasive and
encompassing every function of management, is considered to be more an important
managerial essence than a separate management function. Poor coordination is attributed
to failure in performance of all the above-listed management functions.

Coordination deals with harmonizing work relations and efforts at all levels for achieving
some common purpose. It may be described as unifying and achieving harmony among
individual efforts for the purpose of accomplishing group goals. The whole idea of
coordination is to adjust, reconcile, and synchronize individual efforts so that group efforts
become more effective and help to achieve some common objectives.

Sometimes coordination is confused with cooperation and it is considered, though

erroneously, that if there is cooperation, coordination will automatically follow. Though
cooperation helps to achieve coordination, it is by no means the sole factor that ensures the
achievement of coordination. One can take the example of a cricket match.

Without coordinated efforts on the part of the players, it is difficult for the team to win a
match. Coordination is not spontaneous. Differences in approach, understanding, timing,
interest, or efforts have to be reconciled with while synchronizing individual efforts. While
managing, a manager coordinates the work of his or her subordinates.

For better results the following guidelines are suggested:

Coordination should be viewed as the responsibility of every manager right from the
bottom to the top, and he or she must ensure that every individual should know the
dominant goals of the enterprise and also how his or her job contributes towards
accomplishing the objectives of the department.

Even when a supervisor is able to accomplish the objectives of the department, he or she
should be made to realize that the department’s achievement is nothing unless combined
with the achievements of the other units and contributes to attaining the dominant
objectives of the organization. Thus, every manager should understand and appreciate the
hierarchy of objectives.

Individual efforts are more easily synchronized if coordination is achieved in the

early stages of planning and policy making. Thus, where production and marketing
policies are at cross-purposes, coordination between the two groups of activities will
be a serious problem.
Coordination is better achieved through the understanding of interpersonal, and
horizontal rather than vertical relationships of people in the organization or by issue
of orders for coordination.
Another essential requirement is good communication. As a result of constant changes
in the business environment, plans and policies are frequently revised and
compromises and adjustments are made. If the required information is not
communicated well in time, unifying individual efforts made in order to accomplish
the goals of the enterprise become difficult.
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