Four Functions of Management:
All Are Needed
Effective management is like any other activity, you need to concentrate on perfecting the fundamentals before you can be considered a true professional. Much like a professional baseball player spends years perfecting his throwing, catching, and hitting of a baseball – a manager must perfect his/her use of the four functions of management. The four functions (planning, organizing, leading, and controlling) are by no means easy to master, but study of the intricacies of each, along with either a good role-model or a mentor to assist along the way can help a young manager excel to the upper levels.
Planning
“Planning is specifying the goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals.” (Bateman and Snell, 2007, pg. 16) Planning can be broken down into three levels, which coincide with the management level they are normally utilized by.
Strategic planning is done by the top level of an organization and is low in detail and normally has long-term goal(s) in mind. Further, strategic management can be broken down into six major components: “(1) establishment of a mission, vision, and goals; (2) analysis of external opportunities and threats; (3) analysis of internal strengths and weaknesses; (4) SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis and strategy formulations; (5) Strategy implementation; and (6) strategic control.” (Bateman and Snell, 2007, pg. 126)
“Tactical planning translates broad strategic goals and plans into specific goals and plans that are relevant to a definite portion of the organization…” (Bateman and Snell, 2007, pg. 123) This planning is usually accomplished by mid-level manag ...