Functions of management
Managers coordinate people and resources to reach goals. Their work is often summarised in four functions: planning, organising, leading, and controlling.
What managers do
Management is the process of achieving organisational goals by working with and through people and other resources. Henri Fayol, a French engineer writing in 1916, identified management functions that are often summarised today as planning, organising, leading, and controlling.
Planning
Planning sets goals and decides how to achieve them. Strategic plans set long-term direction (often three to five years), tactical plans translate strategy into specific actions for departments, and operational plans cover day-to-day work. Contingency plans prepare for things going wrong.
Mission, vision, and SMART goals
A mission statement describes an organisation's purpose; a vision statement describes what it hopes to become. Goals are most useful when SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. 'Increase online sales by 15% by December' is SMART; 'do better online' is not.
Organising
Organising arranges people and resources to carry out plans: dividing work into jobs, grouping jobs into departments, assigning authority, and coordinating activities. An organisation chart shows reporting relationships.
Leading
Leading involves motivating, communicating with, and guiding people. Effective leaders build trust, set clear expectations, give feedback, and create an environment where people want to contribute. Leadership is discussed in more depth in a later lesson.
Controlling
Controlling monitors performance and takes corrective action: setting standards, measuring results, comparing them with standards, and acting on gaps. Key performance indicators (KPIs), budgets, and quality checks are control tools. Controlling feeds back into planning.
Levels and skills of managers
Top managers (such as CEOs) set strategy; middle managers turn strategy into plans for their units; first-line managers supervise daily work. Robert Katz identified three key skills: technical skills (most important for first-line managers), human skills (important at all levels), and conceptual skills (most important for top managers).
Worked example
A café owner plans to increase lunchtime sales by 20% in three months (planning). She reorganises staff shifts so two people work the lunch rush (organising), explains the goal and trains staff on faster service (leading), and tracks daily lunch sales against targets, adjusting the menu when a new sandwich sells poorly (controlling).
Key takeaways
Management achieves goals through people and resources. The four functions are planning, organising, leading, and controlling, building on Fayol. Plans can be strategic, tactical, operational, or contingency. Mission and vision statements give direction; SMART goals make plans measurable. Organising structures work; leading motivates; controlling measures and corrects. Top, middle, and first-line managers need different mixes of technical, human, and conceptual skills.
Flashcard
Achieving goals through people and resources
Check your understanding
A manager compares monthly sales with targets and adjusts plans when results fall short. Which function is this?