Four Management Functions:

Within every business structure are managers. No matter the type of business, a manager’s job is
essentially the same across the board but there are four functions of management to consider
regardless of the leadership style.

In short, those four functions are to plan and implement plans to achieve the organization’s goals, to
organize those plans while directing employees in their own roles and ultimately controlling the plan to
function as an effective manager.

Planning:
The manager’s main duty is to determine what the organization’s goals are and what actions to take in
order to achieve those goals. Think of it like a football coach creating a playbook to help his team reach
the Super Bowl (or something like that). A manager is responsible for creating a ‘game plan’ to reach a
specific goal. For example: A weekly plan may include meetings, creating employee schedules or
receiving a report that details statistics. These are all actions that a manager plans to implement on a
weekly basis. Planning means setting an organization’s goal and deciding how best to achieve them.
Planning is decision making, regarding the goals and setting the future course of action from a set of
alternatives to reach them. The plan helps to maintain managerial effectiveness as it works as a guide
for the personnel for future activities. Selecting goals as well as the paths to achieve them is what
planning involves. Planning involves selecting missions and objectives and the actions to achieve them, it
requires decision-making or choosing future courses of action from among alternatives. In short,
planning means determining what the organization’s position and the situation should be at some time
in the future and decide how best to bring about that situation. Planning helps maintain managerial
effectiveness by guiding future activities. For a manager, planning and decision-making require an ability
to foresee, to visualize, and to look ahead purposefully.

What is to be done?
Who is going to do it?
How are they going to complete the task?

These are the types of question management must ask under the banner of planning. Using all of the
intelligence gathered from data analyses the function of management is to create a ‘road’ map’ to
success for the organization. The success management has in performing this function has a direct
positive correlation on the success of the organization. Great planning is the foundation for both
efficiency and effectiveness

Planning is an ongoing and continuous process that requires management to monitor progress as well as
the business, social and governmental environments to identify new and emerging opportunities for an
organization. A direct outcome of the panning function is the development of strategy and tactics to
accomplish the objectives defined by the planning function.

Organizing:

Whether it is the employees or resources, the manager is responsible for organizing the daily functions
of it all. What shifts are needed? How many employees per shift? Are the employees reaching their set
goals? If not, why? These are only a few of the questions asked in the organization process of the
management functions. This process can also be considered the backbone of all the management
functions due to the fact that this step is more direct. In other words, this is the process employees
actually see and are affected by. If a manager is disorganized there is a ripple effect. Employees will lose
respect for management; making the next function of management harder to achieve.

Organizing can be defined as the process by which the established plans are moved closer to realization.
Once a manager set goals and develops plans, his next managerial function is organizing human
resource and other resources that are identified as necessary by the plan to reach the goal. Organizing
involves determining how activities and resources are to be assembled and coordinated. The
organization can also be defined as an intentionally formalized structure of positions or roles for people
to fill in an organization. Organizing produces a structure of relationships in an organization and it is
through these structured relationships that future plans are pursued. Organizing, then, is that part of
managing which involves: establishing an intentional structure of roles for people to fill in the
organization. It is intentional in the sense of making sure that all the tasks necessary to accomplish goals
are assigned to people who can do the best. The purpose of an organization structure is to create an
environment for the best human performance. The structure must define the task to be done. The rules
so established must also be designed in light of the abilities and motivations of the people available.
Staffing is related to organizing and it involves filling and keeping filled, the positions in the organization
structure. This can be done by determining the positions to be filled, identifying the requirement of
manpower, filling the vacancies and training employees so that the assigned tasks are accomplished
effectively and efficiently. The managerial functions of promotion, demotion, discharge, dismissal,
transfer, etc. Are also included with the broad task “staffing.” staffing ensures the placement of the
right person at the right position. Basically organizing is deciding where decisions will be made, who will
do what jobs and tasks, who will work for whom, and how resources will assemble.

The second principle function of management is to organize the workplace in a manner that allows
people and groups of people to work together to achieve the goals of the organization. To succeed on
both the effectiveness and efficiency scales the organization must deploy resources, both human and
material, in a manner that aligns these resources to produce the greatest possible outcome. One of the
outcomes of organization is the concept of organizational structure. Grouping people into departments,
work units, or other operational entities defines these interactions as does the hierarchy and leadership
structure required to help the organization reach its potential.

Amongst other benefits the importance of organizing includes:

 Allows organizations to reap the benefit of specialization

 Provides the optimum utilization of resources

 Helps in effective administration

 Provides channels for expansion and growth

 Achieves co-ordination among different departments

 Creates scope for change

Leading:

Company objectives cannot be achieved if the manager doesn’t provide direction; however, if you
haven’t planned or organized you will not succeed with this function. Direction and motivation are the
key factors in leading. A clear plan that is organized and dispersed to employees is what employees are
seeking. A manager will find themselves to be an effective leader if their workers understand what is
required of them and why.

The third basic managerial function is leading it is the skills of influencing people for a particular purpose
or reason. Leading is considered to be the most important and challenging of all managerial activities.
Leading is influencing or prompting the member of the organization to work together with the interest
of the organization. Creating a positive attitude towards the work and goals in among the members of
the organization is called leading. It is required as it helps to serve the objective of effectiveness and
efficiency by changing the behavior of the employees. Leading involves a number of deferment
processes and activates. The functions of direction, motivation, communication, and coordination are
considered a part of the leading processor system. Coordinating is also essential in leading. Most
authors do not consider it a separate function of management. Rather they regard coordinating as the
essence of manager ship for achieving harmony among individual efforts towards accomplishing group
targets. Motivating is an essential quality for leading. Motivating is the function of the management
process of influencing people’s behavior based on the knowledge of what cause and channel sustain
human behavior in a particular committed direction.

The leadership task includes creating a vision, focus and direction for the organization that will
encourage employees to work at high levels and to ensure their activities are coordinated to achieve
maximum results for the organization. Leadership has and will continue to be one of the most studied
aspects of human activity. Without leadership, in some form or function, there would be no pyramids of
Egypt, Great Walls in China, lunar landings, or any other achievement of note, either good or
evil. Although one can examine the past and make a statement like this, it rests on an intuitive
approach to state the same conditions will apply in the future. Great achievements will not be
accomplished without leadership, in some form or function.

Leadership is about behaviors and creating the conditions for success. Kouzes and Posner developed a
construct that can fairly represent the aspects of leadership actions. The Five Practices of Exemplary
Leadership model define the transformational leader (Kouzes & Posner, 1995);

1. Model the way – leaders become role models and demonstrate, through action, how members
of the organization should treat each other and their customers.

2. Inspire a shared vision – leadership is about establishing a vision and then promoting that vision
in their actions, thoughts, and speech

3. Challenge the process – Leaders do not settle for the status quo, they constantly seek
improvement and take risks. They understand risk taking leads to mistakes and create a climate
where mistakes are learning opportunities

4. Enable others to act – Leaders encourage and develop teams that show mutual respect and that
sustains effort. They create an atmosphere of trust that encourages all to feel capable and
engaged.
 5. Encourage the heart – Leaders recognize and acknowledge contributions from others. They
make people in the organization feel valued and needed.

Controlling:

The controlling function of management, in large part, is about monitoring the organization’s
performance to ensure the ultimate goals are being met and correcting any areas of the process that are
restricting the outcome desired. Praise and recognition are controlled at this level. Since the final data is
gathered here the manager generally knows who is and who isn’t excelling in their role of the processes.
You will ensure continued success if you acknowledge those that are exceeding expectations while at
the same time affecting another to strive for the same recognition. It is a win-win for everyone.

Monitoring the organizational progress toward goal fulfillment is called controlling. Monitoring the
progress is essential to ensure the achievement of organizational goal. Controlling is measuring,
comparing, finding deviation and correcting the organizational activities which are performed for
achieving the goals or objectives. Controlling consist of activities, like; measuring the performance,
comparing with the existing standard and finding the deviations, and correcting the deviations. Control
activities generally relate to the measurement of achievement or results of actions which were taken to
attain the goal. Some means of controlling, like the budget for expenses, inspection records, and the
record of labor hours lost, are generally familiar. Each measure also shows whether plans are working
out. If deviations persist, correction is indicated. Whenever results are found to differ from the planned
action, persons responsible are to be identified and necessary actions are to be taken to improve
performance. Thus outcomes are controlled by controlling what people do. Controlling is the last but
not the least important management function process. It is rightly said, “Planning without controlling is
useless”. In short, we can say the controlling enables the accomplishment of the plan.

Creating exceptional plans, developing the perfect organizational matrix and finding the perfect leader is
of little value unless you can measure performance and ensure the organization stays on track. This is
the domain of the controlling function. Control cannot exist without plans, goals, and objectives and it is
practice at all levels of management within an organization

All the management functions of its process are inter-related and cannot be skipped. The management
process designs and maintains an environment in which personnel’s, working together in groups,
accomplish efficiently selected aims. All managers carry out the main functions of management;
planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. But depending on the skills and position on an
organizational level, the time and labor spent in each function will differ.
Management Roles:

Leadership and Interpersonal Roles

Which type of manager spends more time in leadership activities? The short answer is all effective
managers display leadership characteristics. Leadership is the ability to communicate a vision and
inspire people to embrace that vision.

Top managers are often required to fulfill what Mintzberg described as figurehead activities. They are
the public face of the management team and represent the business in legal, economic, and social
forums. Middle managers are also leaders, although their focus may be more on interpersonal skills,
such as motivating employees, negotiating salaries, and encouraging innovation and creativity. First-line
managers lead both by example when they actively participate in the tasks assigned to their workers
and by modeling the policies and work ethics of the organization.

Informational Roles
Informational roles involve the receiving and sending of information—whether as a spokesperson, a
mentor, a trainer, or an administrator. A top manager is a voice of the organization and has to be aware
that even personal opinions will reflect (for better or worse) on the business. With the free flow of
information on the Internet, it is very difficult for top managers to separate their personal identities
from their corporate positions. For example, there was a consumer backlash in 2017 when Uber CEO
Travis Kalanick accepted a seat on President Trump’s economic advisory council. Kalanick initially said
that he was “going to use [his] position on the council to stand up for what’s right.” He resigned a few
days later in response to the protest.
Middle managers must skillfully determine what information from top management should be shared
with others, how it should be interpreted, and how it should be presented. Similarly, they must weigh
the value of information they receive from first-line managers and employees in order to decide what to
forward to top management. If transmitted information tends to be untrue or trivial, then the manager
will be viewed as a nonreliable source and his or her opinions discounted.

The informational role for first-line managers is primarily one of disseminating what they have been
given and helping the employees to see how their own contributions further organizational goals. They
have a responsibility to see that the employees understand what they need to be successful in their
jobs.

Decision Making Roles

All managers are required to make decisions, but managers at different levels make different kinds of
decisions. According to Mintzberg, there are four primary types of management decision roles. These
include the following:

 Entrepreneur. The entrepreneurs in a firm are usually top-level managers. They identify
economic opportunities, lead the initiative for change, and make product decisions.

 Disturbance handler. Top and middle managers will react to disturbances (unexpected events)
in the organization—whether internal or external. They will decide what corrective actions
should be taken to resolve the problems.

 Resource allocator. All levels of management will make resource allocation decisions,
depending upon whether the decision affects the entire organization, a single department, or a
particular task or activity.

 Negotiator. Depending on the effect on the organization, most negotiation is done by top and
middle-level managers. Top managers will handle negotiations that affect the entire
organization, such as union contracts or trade agreements. Middle-level managers negotiate
most salary and hiring decisions
Mintzberg's Management Roles:
For instance, as well as leading your team, you might find yourself resolving a conflict, negotiating new
contracts, representing your department at a board meeting, or approving a request for a new
computer system. Put simply, you're constantly switching roles as tasks, situations, and expectations
change. Management expert and Professor Henry Mintzberg recognized this, and he argued that there
are ten primary roles or behaviors that can be used to categorize a manager's different functions.

The ten roles are:

1. Figurehead: As a manager, you have social, ceremonial and legal responsibilities. You're
expected to be a source of inspiration. People look up to you as a person with authority, and as
a figurehead.

2. Leader: This is where you provide leadership for your team, your department or perhaps your
entire organization; and it's where you manage the performance and responsibilities of
everyone in the group.

3. Liaison: Managers must communicate with internal and external contacts. You need to be able
to network effectively on behalf of your organization.

4. Monitor: In this role, you regularly seek out information related to your organization and
industry, looking for relevant changes in the environment. You also monitor your team, in terms
of both their productivity, and their well-being.

5. Disseminator: This is where you communicate potentially useful information to your colleagues
and your team.

6. Spokesperson: Managers represent and speak for their organization. In this role, you're
responsible for transmitting information about your organization and its goals to the people
outside it.

7. Entrepreneur: As a manager, you create and control change within the organization. This means
solving problems, generating new ideas, and implementing them.

8. Disturbance Handler: When an organization or team hits an unexpected roadblock, it's the
manager who must take charge. You also need to help mediate disputes within it.

9. Resource Allocator: You'll also need to determine where organizational resources are best
applied. This involves allocating funding, as well as assigning staff and other organizational
resources.

10. Negotiator: You may be needed to take part in, and direct, important negotiations within your
team, department, or organization.
Management Skills:
Managerial skills are the knowledge and ability of the individuals in a managerial position to fulfill some
specific management activities or tasks. This knowledge and ability can be learned and practiced.
However, they also can be acquired through practical implementation of required activities and tasks.
Therefore, you can develop each skill through learning and practical experience as a manager.

Management skills can be defined as certain attributes or abilities that an executive should possess in
order to fulfill specific tasks in an organization. They include the capacity to perform executive duties in
an organization while avoiding crisis situations and promptly solving problems when they occur.
Management skills can be developed through learning and practical experience as a manager. The skills
help the manager to relate with their fellow co-workers and know how to deal well with their
subordinates, which allows for the easy flow of activities in the organization.

Good management skills are vital for any organization to succeed and achieve its goals and objectives. A
manager who fosters good management skills is able to propel the company’s mission and vision or
business goals forward with fewer hurdles and objections from internal and external sources.

Management and leadership skills are often used interchangeably as they both involve planning,
decision-making, problem-solving, communication, delegation, and time management. Good managers
are almost always good leaders as well. In addition to leading, a critical role of a manager is to also
ensure that all parts of the organization are functioning cohesively. Without such integration, several
issues can arise and failure is bound to happen. Management skills are crucial for various positions and
at different levels of a company, from top leadership to intermediate supervisors to first level managers.

Types of Management Skills

 Technical Skills

Technical skills involve skills that give the managers the ability and the knowledge to use a variety of
techniques to achieve their objectives. These skills not only involve operating machines and software,
production tools, and pieces of equipment but also the skills needed to boost sales, design different
types of products and services, and market the services and the products. For example, let’s take an
individual who works in the sales department and has highly developed sales skills achieved through
education and experience in his department or the same departments in different organizations.
Because of these skills that he possesses, this person can be a perfect solution to become a sales
manager. This is the best solution because he has excellent technical skills related to the sales
department.

 Conceptual Skills

These involve the skills managers present in terms of the knowledge and ability for abstract thinking and
formulating ideas. The manager is able to see an entire concept, analyze and diagnose a problem, and
find creative solutions. This helps the manager to effectively predict hurdles their department or the
business as a whole may face. Conceptual skills are vital for top managers, less critical for mid-level
managers, and not required for first-level managers. As we go from the bottom of the managerial
hierarchy to the top, the importance of these skills will rise.
  Human or Interpersonal Skills

The human or the interpersonal skills are the skills that present the managers’ ability to interact, work or
relate effectively with people. These skills enable the managers to make use of human potential in the
company and motivate the employees for better results. These skills will enable managers to become
leaders and motivate employees for better accomplishments. Also, they will help them to make more
effective use of human potential in the company. Simply, they are the essential skills for managers.

Examples of Management Skills

There is a wide range of skills that management should possess to run an organization effectively and
efficiently. The following are six essential management skills that any manager ought to possess for
them to perform their duties:

1. Planning

Planning is a vital aspect within an organization. Planning is one’s ability to organize activities in line with
set guidelines while still remaining within the limits of the available resources such as time, money, and
labor. It is also the process of formulating a set of actions or one or more strategies to pursue to achieve
certain goals or objectives with the available resources. The planning process includes identifying and
setting achievable goals, developing necessary strategies, and outlining the tasks and schedules on how
to achieve the set goals. Without a good plan, little can be achieved.

2. Communication

Possessing great communication skills is crucial for a manager. It can determine how well information is
shared throughout a team, ensuring that the group acts as a unified workforce. How well a manager
communicates with the rest of his team also determines how well outlined procedures can be followed,
how well the tasks and activities can be completed, and thus, how successful an organization will be.

Communication involves the flow of information within the organization, whether formal or informal,
verbal or written, vertical or horizontal, and it facilitates smooth functioning of the organization. Clearly
established communication channels in an organization allow the manager to collaborate with the team,
prevent conflicts, and resolve issues as they arise. A manager with good communication skills can relate
well with the employees and thus, able to achieve the company’s set goals and objectives easily.

3. Decision-making

Another vital management skill is decision-making. Managers make numerous decisions, whether
knowingly or not, and making decisions is a key component in a manager’s success. Making proper and
right decisions results in the success of the organization, while poor or bad decisions may lead to failure
or poor performance. For the organization to run effectively and smoothly, clear and right decisions
should be made. A manager must be accountable for every decision that they make and also be willing
to take responsibility for the results of their decisions. A good manager needs to possess great decision-
making skills, as it often dictates his/her success in achieving organizational objectives.

4. Delegation

Delegation is another key management skill. Delegation is the act of passing on work-related tasks
and/or authorities to other employees or subordinates. It involves the process of allowing your tasks or
those of your employees to be re-assigned or re-allocated to other employees depending on current
workloads. A manager with good delegation skills is able to effectively and efficiently re-assign tasks and
give authority to the right employees. When delegation is carried out effectively, it helps facilitate quick
and easy results.

Delegation helps the manager to avoid wastage of time, optimizes productivity, and ensures
responsibility and accountability on the part of employees. Every manager must have good delegation
abilities to achieve optimal results and accomplish the required productivity results.

5. Problem-solving

Problem-solving is another essential skill. A good manager must have the ability to tackle and solve the
frequent problems that can arise in a typical workday. Problem-solving in management involves
identifying a certain problem or situation and then finding the best way to handle the problem and get
the best solution. It is the ability to sort things out even when the prevailing conditions are not
right. When it is clear that a manager has great problem-solving skills, it differentiates him/her from the
rest of the team and gives subordinates confidence in his/her managerial skills.

6. Motivating

The ability to motivate is another important skill in an organization. Motivation helps bring forth a
desired behavior or response from the employees or certain stakeholders. There are numerous
motivation tactics that managers can use, and choosing the right ones can depend on characteristics
such as company and team culture, team personalities, and more. There are two primary types of
motivation that a manager can use, which includes intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.