FUNCTIO

NS OF

MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTIONFirms have goals to achieve. Some of these include:• Maximising sales• Earning profits

Management is the process of achieving the major goals of a firm with the best use of available resources.

FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENTThere are basically seven functions of management (podccdm).

Planning

Organising

Directing

Controlling

Coordinating

Delegating

Motivating

1. Planning - developing proposals for future activities and operations of the firm

• Analyse future strategies• Deciding on the direction that the firm should take• Preparing the resources that are needed

2. Organizing - ensuring that resources are in place at a particular time

• Grouping similar activities together• Thinking ahead to decide who is going to do which job• Fixing deadlines for jobs

3. Directing - developing goals and objectives , and giving instructions

• Once management knows what they want to achieve they communicate it to workers and attempt to get them to understand

• This is the only way that workers at all levels will know what is required

4. Controlling – establishing systems which monitor performance

• Performance is analysed to see if objectives are being achieved• This allows problems to be detected and measures are put in place

to reduce any problems

5. Coordinating – ensuring that all functional areas work cooperatively and support for each other

• If the marketing department wants to develop a new promotion they will have to liaise with the finance department to ensure funds are available

6. Delegating – giving responsibility for specific areas to subordinates

• Management cannot do everything and will have to give subordinates responsibilities for which they will be held accountable

• Management should receive reports from those who were delegated the authority

7. Motivating – encourage staff to do the jobs that management wants them to do

• Make the staff feel as though they want to do the job • Provide incentives for employees (not only pay)