BUSINESS ENGLISH_Chapter 7

MANAGEMENT

1. Management Functions

Management plays a vital role in any business or organized activity. Management is composed of a team of managers who have charge of the organization at all levels. Their duties include making sure company objectives are met and seeing that the business operates efficiently. Regardless of the specific job, most managers perform four basic functions. These management functions are planning, organizing, directing, and controlling.

Planning involves determining overall company objectives and deciding how these goals can best be achieved. Managers evaluate alternative plans before choosing a specific course of action and then check to see that the chosen plan fits into the objectives established at higher organizational levels. Planning is listed as the first management function because the others depend on it. However, even as managers move on to perform other managerial functions, planning continues as goals and alternatives are further evaluated and revised.

Organizing, the second management function, is the process of putting the plan into action. This involves allocating resources, especially human resources, so that the overall objectives can be attained. In this phase managers decide on the positions to be created and determine the associated duties and responsibilities. Staffing, choosing the right person for the right job, may also be included as part of the organizing function.

Third is the day-to-day direction and supervision of employees. In directing, managers guide, teach, and motivate workers so that they reach their potential abilities and the same time achieves the company goals that were established in the planning process. Effectively direction, or supervision, by managers requires ongoing communication with employees.

In the last management function, controlling, managers evaluate how well company objectives are being met. In order to complete this evaluation, managers must look at the objectives established in the planning phase and at how well the tasks assigned in the directing phase are being completed. If major problems exist and goals are not achieved, then changes need to be made in the company’s organizational or managerial structure. In making changes, managers might have to go back and re-plan reorganize, and redirect. 

In order to adequately and efficiently perform these management functions, managers need interpersonal, organizational, and technical skills. Although all four functions are managerial duties, the importance of each may vary depending on the situation. Effective managers meet the objectives of the company through a successful combination of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling.

2. Management and Human Resources Development 

Managers perform various functions, but one of the most important and least understand aspects of their job are proper utilization of people. Research reveals that worker performance is closely related to motivation; thus keeping employees motivated is an essential component of good management. In a business context, motivation refers to the stimulus that directs the behavior of workers toward the company goals. In order to motivate workers to achieve company goals, managers must be aware of their needs.

Many managers believe workers will be motivated to achieve organizational goals by satisfying their fundamental needs for material survival. These needs include a good salary, safe working conditions, and job security. While absence of these factors results in poor morale and dissatisfaction, studies have shown that their presence results only in maintenance of existing attitudes and work performance. Although important, salary, working conditions, and job security do not provide the primary motivation for many workers in highly industrialized societies, especially at the professional or technical levels.

Increased motivation is more likely to occur when work meets the needs of individuals for learning, self-realization, and personal growth. By responding to personal needs – the desire for responsibility, recognition, growth promotion, and more interesting work – managers have altered conditions in the workplace and, consequently, many employees are motivated to perform more effectively.

In an attempt to appeal to both the fundamental and personal needs of workers, innovative management approaches, such as job enrichment and job enlargement, have been adopted in many organizations. Job enrichment gives workers more authority in making decisions related to planning and doing their work. A worker might assume responsibility for scheduling work-flow, checking quality of work produced, or making sure deadlines are met. Job enlargement increases the number of tasks workers perform by allowing them to rotate positions or by giving them responsibility for doing several jobs. Rather than assembling just one component of an automobile, factory workers might be grouped together and given responsibility for assembling the entire fuel system.

By improving the quality of work life through satisfaction of fundamental and personal employee needs, managers attempt to direct the behavior of workers toward the company goals.