Functions of Management

Functions of Management 2

Before I moved to San Diego, I was a boy’s head basketball coach at a middle school in Connecticut. I was the coach at the school for three years. I have learned many new tricks and ways to deal with problems along the journey. Mastering the four functions of management which include planning, organizing, leading and controlling is a necessity to be a successful coach and to have a successful team.

Planning as defined in “Management: The New Competitive Landscape” states that planning is “specifying goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals”(Bateman, Snell, 2004). Each year developing and following goals was very important to our team as a whole. I knew the last team I coached at the school was going to be a powerhouse so we set our goals high, which were to win the two tournaments we played in, have fun and learn the fundamentals of the game. Before the start of every basketball season I had a good idea of who was coming back for the team from last year and who the newcomers would be. Since I was able to anticipate who my key players were going to be I had to build the best possible offense and defense which would be suitable for the players I had on my team. Throughout the season I knew teams were going to play us all different ways. For example, if the team we were going to play the next day was going to play us man to man then we would practice breaking a man to man defense. For the most part, the next day we were well prepared and fared well against the competition because of careful and appropriate planning.

Functions of Management 3

Organizing is the second function of management and is defined as assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals (Bateman, Snell, 2004). Throughout my tenure as the basketball coach, I treated my players to a soda every time they took a charge on defense because many players do not know how to do this. To give the younger players an incentive to practice more and play harder, I developed a way to have more people come to our games. I purchased 5 pizzas and the first 40 or so students to come to the game received a free slice of pizza. In order for my team to be successful, every player needed to know what their function was while they were out on the floor. For example, the function of the point guard may have been to get the center the ball and the centers function was to put the ball in the basket. Another reason we had success was because I assigned team managers who would have assignments such as working the score clock, filling water and cleaning up at the end of practice and games. Having the managers was vital because they took pressure off the players by allowing them to only have to worry about playing and nothing more.

The most important function of a coach is having the ability to lead. Leading is stimulating players to become high performers and overachievers (Bateman, Snell,