The Functions of Management

The Functions of Management

Many scholars and managers have found that the analysis of management is facilitated by a useful and clear organization of knowledge. In studying management, therefore it is helpful to break it down into five managerial functions: planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling around which the knowledge that underlies those functions can be organized Thus, the concepts, principles, theory, and techniques of management are grouped into these five functions in this book.

This framework has been used and tested for many years. Although there are different ways of organizing managerial knowledge, most textbook authors today have adopted this or a similar framework even after experimenting at times with alternative ways of structuring knowledge.

Although the emphasis in this book is on managers' tasks in designing an internal environment for performance, it must never be overlooked that managers must operate in the external environment of an enterprise as well. Clearly, managers cannot perform their tasks well unless they understand, and are responsive to, the many elements of the external environment—economic, technological, social, political, and ethical factors that affect their areas of operations. Moreover many organizations now operate in different countries.