The Four Functions of Management
A look at contemporary management requires a look into the four functions of
management. These are basic building blocks of sound management practices and are
present in all successful corporations today. The four functions are; planning, organization,
leading, and control. The first of these, planning, is appropriately placed in the terms of
importance also.
Planning is the most important part of a corporation stature. Any corporation that wants to
survive and meet all of its targeted goals knows planning is the first and foremost step in
that journey. To lay out the intended track and desired goal is a guarantee to realize what
actions must be taken and what structure is needed. In light of this knowledge the
corporation will know what senior executive staff to tailor into position and how to attract
or develop from within its junior executive managers. This falls into the region of
organization and will be discussed further into the paper.
In returning to the realm of planning let delve into the details and background for a
companies existence. The planning stage is a point for the company to recognize
opportunities and challenges from internal and external sources and plan for all known
possible contingencies. An obvious point is sometimes not so obvious nor dealt with in the
planning stage. This is the area of knowing what niche of the market the company intends
to target. Successful corporations know exactly what market they are intending to reach.
They lay out strategies to get their product or service to their market mass in the most
impact full presentation possible.
The next stage is organization. As stated earlier; the executive staff is part of the
organizational phase and deserves a considerable amount of focus to ensure the intended
and planned goals of the corporation are propagated through its management staffing.
Most fortune 500 companies now pay particular attention to it senior level and manager
level staffing through company sponsored training and routine developmental feedback.
Though not new to the business world; the form of executive training in present day is
greatly advanced in concept and allotted time. At the corporation I am employed; the
managerial staff is required to commit to paper and task list their individual developmental
goals for a period of 90 days and status with their department head monthly and the
General Manager biannually on the progression and feedback of the goals. We are also
