POLCA

POLCA Refers to the four functions of Management POLC implemented with quality assurance.

Planning Organizing Leading Controlling Assurance

PLANNING:

Process of setting the goals and establishing an overall strategy and developing plans for organizational activities.

Planning is the preparation of a predetermined course of action for a business. It involves setting the mission statement, organizational objectives, and showing how the business will achieve its stated mission and objectives.

What is to be achieved and how?

Reasons for planning

Provide direction to Managers and Non-managers. Reduce uncertainty. Minimizes waste and redundancy. Establishes the goal and standards used in controlling.

Strategic Planning:

Strategic planning is long-term planning to determine where in the market the firm wants to b, and what the firms wants to achieve in relation t its competitors. It involves setting mission statement and determining organizational objectives.

Tactical Planning:

Tactical planning is flexible, adaptable, S-T planning, usually over 1 or 2 years, which will assist in implementing the strategic plan.

Operational Planning:

Operational planning provides specific details of the way in which the firms will operate in the short-term.

ORGANIZING:

Organizing is the structuring of the organization (financial, human and material resources) to translate plans and the biz’s objectives into action. Organizing determines:

What tasks are to be done? Who is to do them? How the tasks are to be grouped? Who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made?

Management has to coordinate activities to translate plans into reality using the strategic, tactical and operational plans to achieve the objectives of the business.

The Organization Process

The organization process is the range of activities that translate the objectives of a business into reality. The organization process has the following steps:

Determining the work activities – usually broken down into smaller steps. Classifying& grouping activities – similar activities can b grouped together = efficiently

allocation of R. Assigning work & delegating authority – determine who is going to do what. Effective

delegation = efficiency + productivity + job satisfaction for employees.

LEADING:

A phenomenon of Management in which we influence the behavior of others so as to achieve organization's objectives

Leading is having a vision of where the business should be in the Long & Short-Term and being able to direct & motivate the human Resources in an organization to achieve its objectives.

NB: management is different to leadership. Leadership involves more of the human aspect.

Leader Ship Styles

The four main types of leadership approaches and their characteristics are as follows:

Autocratic Strong, centralized control with a single source of authority, expects subordinates to follow orders, 1-way communication from the top down, external motivation through sanctions and rewards

DemocraticAuthority & power decentralized throughout the organization, encouragement of employee empowerment, i.e., employees involved in the decision-making process

CollegialManagement adopts an integrative role & establishes an environment of mutual contribution, a style frequently adopted by professional organizations where the in intellectual abilities & skills of employees are similar and/or complementary, employees are self-directed and intrinsically motivated.

Laissez-faire

Little or no central management role other than the establishment of broad objectives & policies, a style frequently adopted in organizations where highly qualified employees work in research teams to achieves specific objectives & results.

Managers who adopt a strict classical-scientific approach commonly display an autocratic leadership style. This style of leadership is effective in time of crisis or when speed in meeting deadlines is important.

CONTROLLING:

Controlling is the monitoring the POL processes (of POLC) to ensure that the objectives of the organization are being met. This is the step where the performance is compared with objectives. If there are discrepancies, changes and improvements can be made.

Meeting objectives = maintaining competitive advantage in the sensitivity and ever-changing market. The concept of control throughout the production process is still relatively new. It is used extensively in Japan.

The Control Process

The control process involves establishing standards in line with the objectives of the organization, measuring the performance of the organization against those standards or benchmarks & making changes where necessary to ensure that the objectives of the organization have been met.

ASSURANCE:

Assurance /Quality assurance refers to planned and systematic production processes that provide confidence in a product's suitability for its intended purpose. Refer to the definition. It is a set of activities intended to ensure that products (goods and/or services) satisfy customer requirements in a systematic, reliable fashion. QA cannot absolutely guarantee the production of quality products, unfortunately, but makes this more likely.

Two key principles characterize QA: "fit for purpose" (the product should be suitable for the intended purpose) and "right first time" (mistakes should be eliminated). QA includes regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components; services related to production; and management, production and inspection processes.

It is important to realize also that quality is determined by the intended users, clients or customers, not by society in general: it is not the same as 'expensive' or 'high quality'. Even goods with low prices can be considered quality items if they meet a market need.