Management has been described as the art of getting things done through other people. Henry Fayol, who is considered as the father of management described management in his 1916 book titled "Administration Industrielle et Generale" as the process of planning, organising, leading and controlling of business activities in order to achieve the business’ mission, goals and objectives. The objectives could be maximising shareholder profits or wealth, survival, being a good corporate citizen or increasing market share. His definition of management is still relevant now as it was in 1916.
Discussion of Planning, Organising, Leading and Controlling Functions of Management
Planning involves both the process of strategic thinking and formulating plans and actions required to ensure the business survives or remains competitive. Planning is the bridge between where the organisation is now and where it wants to be in future.
Organising involves the recruitment of resources such as finance, labour and machinery and ensuring these resources are utilised effectually to underpin the achievement of business goals. Organising also involves putting the organisation’s infrastructure in place such as organisational charts and reporting framework, training staff and co-ordinating organisational effort so that business goals and objectives are achieved.
One of the leadership functions of management is the figurehead role they play in setting objectives and ensuring that business goals and objectives are implemented and auctioned. The leadership functions also include directing, commanding, motivating staff and communicating all the relevant information that is required by staff to ensure they can discharge their tasks fully.
Control is the process of monitoring the actual performance against the set plans and taking the necessary remedial actions when variations occur. As part of control function the managers should understand the reasons why the objectives have not been achieved for example; Is it because the bar was set too high or is it because of some uncontrollable forces beyond the business’ control or it is because the business’ execution is weak. The managers must adjust plans if the reasons for failing to achieve the goals are either due to unachievable objectives being set or if factors beyond the organisation’s control resulted in this failure. Remedial actions need to be taken if failure is due to weakness in execution of the plan.
Efficiency and Effectiveness
Peter Drucker added to Fayol's definition by arguing that managers must be both effective and efficient if goals and objectives are to be achieved. Effectiveness is doing the right things such as increasing market share, developing and introducing new products, entering new markets or retiring from old and tired markets or products if these are no longer profitable. Efficiency is doing things right and this involves using few resources to generate maximum outputs or outcomes. Efficiency is the same as productivity.
It is important to note that efficiency is different from effectiveness. An efficient business can still get into financial troubles if it is not effective because it may be concentrating on the wrong things. An organisation that is efficient at producing what the market does not require will soon be out of business even though it is being efficient as far as production is concerned. It is better to be effective than to be efficient. In the long run a business can only be competitive if it is both effective and efficient.
An Alternative view of Management Functions
R. N. Anthony proposed an alternative view of management which classified the roles of management as strategic, tactical and operational roles. The senior management play a strategic role by formulating long term strategies and objectives such as defining where the business would be in 10 years.
Middle managers formulate tactical objectives which are short to medium objectives. The overall aim of tactical objectives is to ensure that the strategic objectives are achieved. On a day to day basis some junior managers perform operational tasks or routine tasks in order to achieve the tactical goals in the medium term and strategic objectives in the long term.
References and Bibliography
Henry Fayol. 1916. Administration Industrielle et Generale
Anthony, R. N. 1964. Framework for analysis. Management Services (March-April): 18-24.
Munya Mtetwa - Munya is an ACCA and IFA qualified accountant with over ten years financial management and accounting experience acquired in a plethora of ...
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