When we consider the four functions of management, regardless of the industry, they are the same.
The four functions of management that we’re going to be looking at, for the purposes of
this are, planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. One anchor that I’d like you
to think about, and keep in mind, throughout each of the given functions of management,
is the word, objectives.
So let’s first talk about planning. As you can see, when you look at planning, we do
this first, because we’re setting a direction for the organization. We’re actually setting
up the objectives that will determine our actions throughout the organization. We’ll
anchor them to our vision and mission. We’ll anchor them, and hopefully build strategy
to help achieve those objectives. When we look towards organizing, organizing is all
about delegating, and organizing tasks and resources to then, wait for it – achieve
the objective. So within organizing, we’re looking at levels of decision making, of delegating,
and setting ourselves up so that once we get the people in place, we can achieve our objectives,
and we’ll head down the path of being successful as an organization achieving those objectives.
So let’s get rid of organizing here. When we’re done organizing, we’re then into
the leading process, and I say done, but I want you to think of the four functions of
management very much as a process. So we plan, we organize, and now we’re looking at leading.
When we consider leading, it’s all about influencing employees, and their behaviour
to what? You got it, to achieve the organizational objectives. So this is where we delve in and
when we thinking about leadership, we’re thinking about communications, we’re thinking
about managing teams, inspiring people and, influencing their behaviours. Ironically,
not all managers are leaders. Cause it might not be part of their function, or who they
are. But that’s a debate we can have in class. So we’re planning, we’re organizing,
we’re leading, and last but not least, we’re controlling. When we look at controlling this
will be the function we look at the least in this course. Please don’ t think that
there is not importance there though, cause there is great importance in evaluation, in
feedback, in identifying performance and performance and performance of appraisal of your people.
But for purposes of this course, many of these pieces are covered off in your HR course.
So I want you to think of controlling, as establishing and implementing mechanisms and
processes to ensure that the organization achieves its objectives.
So there we have it, looks pretty good. Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Often
when you think of management and leadership, you see this leading in controlling as the
majority of the tasks. But it’s because these two functions is what we see our managers
doing. Often, when they close doors, or go into meetings, equal amounts of their time
can be spent in this planning and organizing phases of things.
Okay. So there we have it. Our four functions of management. I want you to think about who
you’re going to be as a manager. What areas are you strong, where would you like to improve,
and where do you see yourself within these given functions? Lots of room to grow, lots
of great interesting areas to dig into. Have fun!