Management has been described as a
social process involving responsibility for economical and effective planning
& regulation of operation of an enterprise in the fulfillment of given purposes.Different
experts have classified functions of management.
According to George & Jerry, “There are
four fundamental functions of management i.e. planning, organizing, actuating
and controlling”.
According to Henry Fayol, “To manage is
to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, & to control”.
Whereas Luther Gullick has given a
keyword ‘POSDCORB’ where P stands for Planning, O for Organizing, S for
Staffing, D for Directing, Co for Co-ordination, R for reporting & B for
Budgeting.
KOONTZ and O’DONNEL i.e. Planning,
Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling.
1. Planning
Planning involves choosing tasks that
must be performed to attain organizational goals, outlining how the tasks must
be performed, and indicating when they should be performed. Planning activity
focuses on attaining goals. Managers outline exactly what organizations should
do to be successful. Planning is concerned with the success of the organization
in the short term as well as in the long term.
2. Organizing
It is the process of bringing together
physical, financial and human resources and developing productive relationship
amongst them for achievement of organizational goals. According to Henry Fayol,
“To organize a business is to provide it with everything useful or its
functioning i.e. raw material, tools, capital and personnel’s”. To organize a business
involves determining & providing human and non-human resources to the organizational
structure. Organizing as a process involves:
• Identification of activities.
• Classification of grouping of
activities.
• Assignment of duties.
• Delegation of authority and creation
of responsibility.
• Coordinating authority and
responsibility relationships.
3. Staffing
It is the function of manning the
organization structure and keeping it manned. Staffing has assumed greater
importance in the recent years due to advancement of technology, increase in
size of business, complexity of human behavior etc. The main purpose of staffing
is to put right man on right. According to Kootz & O’Donell, “Managerial
function of staffing involves manning the organization structure through proper
and effective selection, appraisal & development of personnel to fill the
roles designed un the structure”. Staffing involves:
• Manpower Planning (estimating man
power in terms of searching, choose the person and giving the right place).
• Recruitment, selection &
placement.
• Training & development.
• Remuneration.
• Performance appraisal.
• Promotions & transfer.
4. Directing
It is that part of managerial function
which actuates the organizational methods to work efficiently for achievement
of organizational purposes. It is considered life-spark of the enterprise which
sets it in motion the action of people because planning, organizing and staffing
are the mere preparations for doing the work. Direction is that inert-personnel
aspect of management which deals directly with influencing, guiding,
supervising, motivating sub-ordinate for the achievement of organizational
goals. Direction has following elements:
• Supervision
• Motivation
• Leadership
• Communication
(i) Supervision- implies
overseeing the work of subordinates by their superiors. It is the act of
watching & directing work & workers.
(ii) Motivation- means
inspiring, stimulating or encouraging the sub-ordinates with zeal to work.
Positive, negative, monetary, non-monetary incentives may be used for this purpose.
(iii) Leadership- may
be defined as a process by which manager guides and influences the work of
subordinates in desired direction.
(iv) Communications- is
the process of passing information, experience, opinion etc from one person to
another. It is a bridge of understanding.
5. Controlling
It implies measurement of accomplishment
against the standards and correction of deviation if any to ensure achievement
of organizational goals. The purpose of controlling is to ensure that
everything occurs in conformities with the standards. An efficient system of
control helps to predict deviations before they actually occur.
According to Theo Haimann, “Controlling
is the process of checking whether or not proper progress is being made towards
the objectives and goals and acting if necessary, to correct any deviation”.
According to Koontz & O’Donell “Controlling is the measurement &
correction of performance activities of subordinates, in order to make sure
that the enterprise objectives and plans desired to obtain them is accomplished”.
Therefore controlling has following steps:
(i) Establishment of standard performance.
(ii) Measurement of actual performance.
(iii) Comparison of actual performance
with the standards and finding out deviation if any.
(iv) Corrective action.
