The Four Functions of Management

The Four Functions of Management

Every company and organization, regardless of size implements its own management concepts in an effort to run smoothly while attaining the vision, goals and objectives that it has set forth. There is a lot that goes into effective management, as management is all about working together with people and other recourses to achieve organizational goals. Keeping up with the organizational goals can be a challenge, which is why managers of organizations and companies use the four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

Planning

The foundation function of management is planning. Planning sets the framework for the other functions as it includes identifying goals, determining objectives, establishes methods, pinpointing resources, and verifies strategies. There are more to that list depending upon the company, but that is the basis of planning. Planning is an ongoing process because there will be uncontrollable external factors that will have a positive or negative effect on the organization or company which in turn will lead the company to adjust their plans, course of actions and possible goals.

Organizing

The second function of management is organizing. Organizing is allocating and configuring resources to accomplish the preferred goals and objectives established during the planning processes. This process includes organizing activities and staff, attracting people to the company, allocating job responsibilities and grouping jobs if needed, allocating resources and improving work conditions if needed so things can work together fluently to achieve success.

Leading

The third aspect of management function is leading. Leading is establishing direction and influencing people to follow the direction that was established. There are several ways in which people can lead, that is by motivation, communication, building trust, guiding, inspiring, and empowering those which you would like to follow the chosen direction. While these are all ways to help influence people into following the direction that has been established the best way to lead individuals is to lead by example.

Controlling

The last aspect of management function is controlling. While the other three functions of management are important, controlling is the one that will be able to guarantee success by adjusting resources and processes to achieve the goals and objectives in an efficient way. In order to accomplish this, one must monitor everything; this ensures that when something does go wrong, the manager can implement things a bit differently to help attain maximum efficiency.

These four functions of management all intertwine within one another and the outcome can be very rewarding at times when things are going as planned, however they can also turn sour if things