There are four functions that a manager must be able to do in order to run a successful
company; planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Each of these elements is equally
important. If even one of these elements is looked over the management process is
incomplete and a mangers effectiveness and efficiency will diminish. The business world
of today is drastically different than that of years before, most importantly because of the
advancements of technology. Even though the daily tasks that a manager will perform
today are different than the tasks a manager in the 1950s would perform, the foundation is
still the same. In the same way an owner of a small business will have the same
fundamentals as a manager for a large corporation.
Managers must be able to plan; otherwise they are not able to understand what they are
working towards. Planning and thinking should be done at all levels of a business. A
manager should communicate the plans that they have decided upon so that they have the
opportunity to get input from other members of the organization. This will give a manager
a complete view of their goals and will have received the constructive criticism that may
be helpful. Planning is the “management function of systematically making decisions
about the goals and activities that an individual, a group, a work unit, or the overall
organization will pursue in the future” (Schermerhorn, 2003, p. 15).
My company is a very small one, consisting of 10 people. Each of the employees is
continually thinking about where the company is going and how we plan to get there. We
have weekly meetings where we discuss these goals. The CEO and the operations manager
bring up their own ideas each week and as a group we pick these ideas apart till we have
created a plan of action that the whole group agrees upon. We then take this plan and
decide how this will apply to the daily activities of the company.
Organizing is an important aspect of successful management because without organization
things can be forgotten or neglected. Ifa manager is organized there should not be any
issues with people or information that is needed. A good organizer will be able to adjust
when changes occur because they have everything in place and have prepared everything
to allow for flexibility.
Organization is “the management function of assembling and coordinating human,
financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals”
