MANAGEMENT

MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS

Henri Fayol's classic management functions are known today as planning, organising, leading and controlling.
Planning is determining organisational goals and a means for achieving them.
Organising is deciding where decisions will be made, who will do what jobs and tasks and who will work for whom.
Leading is inspiring and motivating employees to work hard to achieve organisational goals.
Controlling is monitoring progress toward goal achievement and taking corrective action when needed.
Studies show that performing management functions well leads to better managerial performance.

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There are four different kinds of managers.
Top managers are responsible for creating a context for change, developing attitudes of commitment and ownership, creating a positive organisational culture through words and actions and monitoring their company's business environments.
Middle managers are responsible for planning and allocating resources, coordinating and linking groups and departments, monitoring and managing the performance of subunits and implementing the changes or strategies generated by top managers.
First-line managers are responsible for managing the performance of non-managerial employees, teaching their workers how to do their jobs and making detailed schedules and operating plans based on middle management's intermediate-range plans.
Team leaders are responsible for facilitating team performance, managing external relationships and facilitating internal team relationships.

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Managers perform interpersonal, informational and decisional roles in their jobs.
In fulfilling the interpersonal role, managers act as figureheads by performing ceremonial duties, as leaders by motivating and encouraging workers and as liasons by dealing with people outside their units.
In performing their informational role, managers act as monitors by scanning their environment for information, as disseminators by sharing information with others in the company and as spokespeople by sharing information with people outside their departments or companies.
In fulfilling decisional roles, managers act as entrepeneurs by adapting their units to incremental change, as disturbance handlers by responding to larger problems that demand immediate action, as resource allocators by deciding resource recipients and amounts, and as negotiators by bargaining with others about schedules, projects, goals, outcomes and resources.

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Why does management matter?
Well-managed companies are competitive because their workforces are smarter, better trained, more motivated and more committed.
Furthermore, companies that practise good management consistently have greater sales revenues, profits and stock market performance than companies that don't.
Finally, good management matters because good management leads to satisfied employees, who, in turn, provide better servicde to customers.
Because employees tend to treat customers the same way that managers treat them, good management can improve customer satisfaction.

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