1. What are the four functions of management? Define them. How do these function
ID: 403863 • Letter: 1
Question
1. What are the four functions of management? Define them. How do these functions relate to the goals of an organization? What is the relationship of efficiency and effectiveness to organizational performance?
2. Define the levels of management. Explain the amount of tie the three levels of managers spend in relation to the four functions of management.
3. Define and discuss: a) restructuring; b) outsourcing; c) empowerment; and d) self-managed team.
4. Define and discuss managerial skills in relation to the levels of management.
5. Define competitive advantage and discuss competitive advantage in terms of building blocks.
Explanation / Answer
1) The 4 basic management functions that make up the management process are described in the following sections:
PLANNING
ORGANIZING
INFLUENCING
CONTROLLING
PLANNING: Planning involves choosing tasks that must be performed to attain organizational goals, outlining how the tasks must be performed, and indicating when they should be performed.
Planning activity focuses on attaining goals. Managers outline exactly what organizations should do to be successful. Planning is concerned with the success of the organization in the short term as well as in the long term.
ORGANIZING:
Organizing can be thought of as assigning the tasks developed in the planning stages, to various individuals or groups within the organization. Organizing is to create a mechanism to put plans into action.
People within the organization are given work assignments that contribute to the company%u2019s goals. Tasks are organized so that the output of each individual contributes to the success of departments, which, in turn, contributes to the success of divisions, which ultimately contributes to the success of the organization.
INFLUENCING:
Influencing is also referred to as motivating,leading or directing.Influencing can be defined as guiding the activities of organization members in he direction that helps the organization move towards the fulfillment of the goals.
The purpose of influencing is to increase productivity. Human-oriented work situations usually generate higher levels of production over the long term than do task oriented work situations because people find the latter type distasteful.
CONTROLLING:
Controlling is the following roles played by the manager:
Gather information that measures performance
Compare present performance to pre established performance norms.
Determine the next action plan and modifications for meeting the desired performance parameters.
Controlling is an ongoing process.
Organizational Effectiveness
Organizational effectiveness has a very broad and often vague definition, so much so that most sources explain the concept by example rather than definition. Basically, the effectiveness of a business constitutes its ability to perform a function with optimal levels of input and output. Companies use organizational effectiveness to measure any number of things, from the relationship between employee performance and company profits to the correlation between manufacturing processes and production volume. No set parameters exist for organizational effectiveness and it follows no definitive mathematical formula -- each organization creates its own method of measuring effectiveness. Measuring effectiveness can help a small business without the ability to absorb ineffective processes modify its approach to avoid loss.
Organizational Efficiency
Organizational efficiency essentially denotes how well a company uses money. Nonprofit assessment organization Charity Navigator measures efficiency based on the relationship between the effectiveness of fundraisers and organizational expenditure. In publicly traded corporations, organizational efficiency lies in a company%u2019s ability to maximize profits based on capital acquired through equity and debt. Writing in Philanthropy Journal, analyst Chris Harris notes that return on investment (ROI) constitutes a good measure of organizational efficiency. For instance, if you sell company stock for $10 per share and one year later your stock holds a value of $20 per share, your company exhibits a high degree of inefficiency. Regularly monitoring organizational efficiency can help small businesses prevent money loss.
2) Managers are organizational members who are responsible for the work performance of other organizational members. Managers have formal authority to use organizational resources and to make decisions. In organizations, there are typically three levels of management: top-level, middle-level, and first-level. These three main levels of managers form a hierarchy, in which they are ranked in order of importance. In most organizations, the number of managers at each level is such that the hierarchy resembles a pyramid, with many more first-level managers, fewer middle managers, and the fewest managers at the top level. Each of these management levels is described below in terms of their possible job titles and their primary responsibilities and the paths taken to hold these positions. Additionally, there are differences across the management levels as to what types of management tasks each does and the roles that they take in their jobs. Finally, there are a number of changes that are occurring in many organizations that are changing the management hierarchies in them, such as the increasing use of teams, the prevalence of outsourcing, and the flattening of organizational structures.
TOP-LEVEL MANAGERS
MIDDLE-LEVEL MANAGERS
FIRST-LEVEL MANAGERS
MANAGEMENT LEVELS AND THE FOUR MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS
Managers at different levels of the organization engage in different amounts of time on the four managerial functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
Planning is choosing appropriate organizational goals and the correct directions to achieve those goals. Organizing involves determining the tasks and the relationships that allow employees to work together to achieve the planned goals. With leading, managers motivate and coordinate employees to work together to achieve organizational goals. When controlling, managers monitor and measure the degree to which the organization has reached its goals.
The degree to which top, middle, and supervisory managers perform each of these functions is presented in Exhibit 1. Note that top managers do considerably more planning, organizing, and controlling than do managers at any other level. However, they do much less leading. Most of the leading is done by first-line managers. The amount of planning, organizing, and controlling decreases down the hierarchy of management; leading increases as you move down the hierarchy of management.
3) (a) : Restructuring : Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Other reasons for restructuring include a change of ownership or ownership structure, demerger, or a response to a crisis or major change in the business such as bankruptcy, repositioning, or buyout. Restructuring may also be described as corporate restructuring, debt restructuring and financial restructuring.
(b) : Outsourcing : In business, outsourcing is the contracting out of a business process to a third-party. The term "outsourcing" became popular in the United States near the turn of the 21st century. Outsourcing sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another, but not always.Outsourcing includes both foreign and domestic contracting, and sometimes includes offshoring or relocating a business function to another Country. Financial savings from lower international labor rates is a big motivation for outsourcing/offshoring.
(c) : Empowerment : Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, educational, gender, or economic strength of individuals and communities.
According to author Stewart, in her book Empowering People she describes that in order to guarantee a successful work environment, managers need to exercise the %u201Cright kind of authority%u201D. To summarize, %u201Cempowerment is simply the effective use of a manager%u2019s authority%u201D, and subsequently, it is a productive way to maximize all-around work efficiency. These keys are hard to put into place and it is a journey to achieve empowerment in a workplace. It is important to train employees and make sure they have trust in what empowerment will bring to a company.
(d) : self-managed team : A self-managed team is a group of employees that's responsible and accountable for all or most aspects of producing a product or delivering a service. Traditional organizational structures assign tasks to employees depending on their specialist skills or the functional department within which they work. A self-managed team carries out supporting tasks, such as planning and scheduling the workflow and managing annual leave and absence, in addition to technical tasks. Management and technical responsibilities are typically rotated among the team members.
4) A manager's job is varied and complex. Managers need certain skills to perform the duties and activities associated with being a manager. Robert L. Katz (1974) found that managers needed three essential management skills
1. Technical 2. Human 3. Conceptual.
Management function pervades across the enterprise and works at all levels. However the position of an individual within the organization's hierarchy determines the nature and content of his or her managerial position. The lowest level of management is called first-line of management which consists of people such as foreman, sales executives etc. The next level of management is called middle-level management which consists of people such as production managers, process engineers etc. Middle management consists of a great bulk of any organization. The next level of management is called Top-Management which the highest powered group in a given organization. In case of a business top management consists of Board of directors, CEO, President etc.
Examples:
SDM Educational Society:
Top Management: Board of Governors
Middle Management: Heads of institutions such as principals/directors
First-Line management : Heads of departments, faculty etc
Managerial skills
Management work demands skills in people. Skill is an ability to translate knowledge into action. The nature of skills needed depends on the work on hand and this itself depends on the level of management. In general three are three categories of skills expected.
5) Competitive advantage is defined as the strategic advantage one business entity has over its rival entities within its competitive industry. Achieving competitive advantage strengthens and positions a business better within the business environment.
Competitive advantage consists of four major superiority building blocks including: quality, customer responsiveness, innovation, and efficiency. Superior quality includes quality design, reliability, durability, and image. When people think of a product or services, they think in these terms. For example, when people are on the market for a vehicle, many of them would pick a Nissan (or other foreign car) over a Ford. Nissans and other foreign cars typically have a reputation of a high quality, up-to-date design, they run forever, you can hit many a curb and the vehicle is usually still in tact, and consumers associate these vehicles with a high-quality image.
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