Functions of Management
Richard Russell
University of Phoenix
Functions of Management
Four functions of management must be present for a company to be successful. The functions that must be present are; planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Each function must be visible within the management structure for a company to run and operate smoothly.
Planning simply means identifying the goals and identifying what steps will be taken in order to achieve the set goals. (University of Phoenix, 2009) For a plan to put into motion, several factors must be accounted for. First of which is the facts of the current situation; what is going on within the company for a plan to be required. Second; forecasting what will occur within the company or group. Third; what resources will be necessary to achieve the set goals?
When I first started working for Sprint, a massive amount of issues had been reported by the sales reps. Obviously, our first goal was to resolve all the issues (IRIS tickets) opened by the reps. The first question asked is; is there a common theme for all the tickets? Second, was this an I.T. issue, reps not knowing the commission rules, or was it an internal issue with us analysts? Thirdly, are enough resources available to solve the problems? If the resources weren’t immediately available, could they be obtained? Once the questions were answered, a plan was set into motion to resolve the issues.
Organizing is putting together the resources required to achieve the goals. The resources include employees, financial, physical and any other resources that are needed. (University of Phoenix, 2009) Assigning job responsibilities, or roles, is a part of organizing. Flexibility and being less rigid are extremely important when assigning roles to the group. Strict role assignment can restrain effectiveness, strain motivational resources and diminish the ability to adapt to an ever-changing environment. (Conrad, 2008)...