What are the Basic Functions of a Manager?

There is a management/manager for every business and business activities. Depending on the size of the organization there can be managers at functional level or one manager as the director of the entire entity. Every manager or management perform various functions whether they are employed at functional level, operational or at the strategic level. Function of the management can be summarized as follows:

Planning

The manager needs to set direction of the organization and plan organization activities for the near future. At the planning stage manager needs to set the vision of the organization followed by the mission statement of the organization. There after mission statement needs to be converted into goals and objective where objectives needs to be SMART. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable Realistic and Time bound) The manager needs to take external and internal factors and develop the business plan for the organization.

Organizing

The manager needs to organize the internal environment of the organization to execute the plan prepared at the planning stage. As the first step of organizing manager needs to design the internal structure of the organization where he needs to decide on the different level of employees who are gonna work as his subordinates (departmentalization). He needs to build the organizational hierarchy to execute the business plan. There after he needs to employ concepts such as division of labour delegating authority to subordinates to execute tasks. He needs to organize ways to coordinate with every level of the organization. Organizing should fit into the organizational culture as well as the internal network that are already established.

Leading

This is where the manager employs his skills to execute the plan and being the leader in executing the plan. Plan for the business is set by him and now it is his duty to lead his subordinates to achieve the plan proposed. He needs to influence and motivate his subordinates and get them to work and achieve targets which will ultimately help achieving goals. He needs to be a team player and set examples for his subordinates and communicate with them and solve issue that are arising. Level of the leadership skills of the manager is crucial in performing this.

Controlling

This is where the manager measures the actual performance of the organization against the planned performance level at the planning stage. In other words this is where the manager evaluates the actual performance of the organization with the targets of the organization and making necessary actions to correct if there are any deviation.

These 04 functions of management is often referred to as POLC model/framework of management.

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