A2 Functions of Management
Planning involves setting goals for the future and deciding on the most appropriate course of action in order for those goals to be achieved. This may involve setting team and individual objectives, planning tasks to be completed and ensuring resources are in place for goals to be achieved.
Organising involves arranging staff, physical and financial resources in a way that most effectively achieves the team goals. This may involve developing strong worker relationships in under to understand the skills and competencies of individuals in a team in order to assign tasks.
Coordinating involves getting different functions of an organisation to work together to achieve common goals. The CEO of an organisation may oversee all departments of an organisation as they have a whole firm perspective but managers of individual functions also need to coordinate with other functions. For example, the marketing manager will need to ensure they have the financial resources for a marketing campaign or the operations manager will need to work with HR to recruit staff.
Controlling involves being aware of all of the tasks that need to be completed, the expected standards to which they are to be completed and how long each task should take. The controlling function requires managers to be aware of the activities of staff and who is underperforming and ensuring that they complete their part of the team responsibilities to ensure overall objectives are met.
Monitoring is the management function that checks actual performance against planned performance. It is the responsibility of the manager to ensure that objectives are met. This may include monitoring of individuals through a performance management process such as appraisal.
Delegating involves the passing on of tasks and responsibility to subordinates. It is important that managers understand the capabilities of their staff to ensure that the level of responsibility is appropriate. It is also important that the manager understands the requirements of tasks being delegated to ensure that work is distributed evenly. Delegation allows managers to focus on other tasks and can also be very motivating to staff to be given responsibility.