Delegation of Responsibilities

Four Functions of Management

University of Phoenix

Abstract

The four essential components to management are planning, organizing, motivating and leading. In order to be an effective manager, we must learn how to be proficient in these areas as well as building relationships. When we continually learn and hone our skills, we will increase our success in being a strong leader. Looking at these functions individually gives us the opportunity to digest each area without feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the responsibility.

Four Functions of Management

Managers are called to fulfill many roles throughout their careers. Among these roles are planning, organizing, leading and controlling. “Managers need a variety of skills to do these things well. Skills are specific abilities that result from knowledge, information, practice, and aptitude” (Bateman, Thomas, Snell, Scott 2004). Understanding these particular functions will help us be successful in all levels of management and provide us with a mechanism to utilize the teams we have within our organizations. I am hopeful that my learning through the studies, class discussions and learning teams will enhance these skills and enable me to be an effective manager now and in the future.

Planning

“Planning is specifying the goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals” (Bateman, Thomas, Snell, Scott 2004). In order to specify the goals to be achieved for any given project, we must understand the desired outcome. Knowing what we are trying to accomplish will help us through the planning stage. The planning stage is critical since the success of the project depends upon the plans that are put in place.

Once we have established the goal, we need to continue the planning process by outlining the scope of the work to be completed. It is necessary to be aware of our company’s current status with respect to finances and resources when setting our goal. We must also know what our goals are as an organization and what direction we wish to go. At times like this, we rely mainly on our strategic plan. The strategic planning process gives our organization the opportunity to look to the future and identify goals and gives us a guideline on when particular parts of the plan will be implemented. This is helpful to a team when planning since many times you already have an established deadline and the broad spectrum of what we hope to accomplish. Next, we need to assess the resources that will be needed to complete the task we have set for the team.

Organizing

Organizing is assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals (Bateman, Snell 2004). Organizing can be one of the most challenging functions of management since you are responsible to find the right people, defining responsibilities, ensuring the proper resources are available and creating a team atmosphere that will allow the experience to be successful. If the organization of a project is done correctly, the project will likely be much easier.

Our company has some unique challenges when working through the organization of a project. All of our people are Emergency Medical Technicians, many without any other exposure to business practices or formal training in business. This can diminish the pool of people to choose from for certain missions based on the needs discovered in the planning. This can also be a great asset since most of the projects we assemble teams for will directly affect their work in some way. Scheduling is also a big issue given the nature of our business. When we assemble a team, finding the personalities that mesh is not as big a problem since we are required to work as a team everyday. Our staff works with different team members everyday so they are familiar with the concept of adapting to new personalities. Many of our staff is also accustomed to getting along with each other regardless of the diversity of their beliefs.

Leading

Leading is stimulating people to be high performers (Bateman, Snell 2004). Without leaders, teams and companies will not be effective. Motivating people on any given project can be a complex task that demands