Ways in which managerial functions enhance productivity in the organization.
The managerial functions are the separate parts (activities) that make up the whole process of management. They can be described as the activities that are inherent in most managerial jobs. Many of these activities can be grouped into the following general functions – planning, organizing, directing, staffing and controlling.
Planning
This is the process of selecting missions, goals and objectives and the strategies to attain them. It involves anticipating the future to discover alternative courses of action. It also involves determining in advance what should be accomplished and how it should be realized.
Planning can be long term (strategic and corporate planning) or short term. Planning therefore describes the direction/path that the organization must follow in order to achieve goals most efficiently and effectively.
The three major types of plans are strategic, tactical and operational.
Planning is important for several reasons
• It gives direction and purpose to organizational activities.
• Aids in utilization of resources.
• It gives good measures against which performance can be judged.
• It reduces waste especially of time and resources.
• Helps organization members to remain within focus and it gives boundaries of the extent of organizational activities.
• Planning is the basis for all other functions of management.
Organizing
Plans have to be put into operation. This involves detailed organization and coordination of tasks and the human and material resources needed to carry them out.
Organizing therefore is the process of identifying and grouping work to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority and establishing relationships to ensure people work together effectively.
The key components and concepts in organizing include designing jobs, managing authority and responsibility, the span of management and line/staff positions.
Organizing helps management to respond to new opportunities, threats and challenges as the environment is always changing.
Organizing also assures the appropriateness of an organization’s structure and its processes
i.e. its ability to attain the goals of the organization.
Staffing
It is that element of management that ensures that the organization has qualified people at all levels and at all times to meet its short and long-term Human Resource requirements. It involves activities such as recruitment, training and development, compensation, labour relations etc.
The human resource is the most important resource in the organization. Without competent people both in managerial and employee positions, organizations will not be able to accomplish their goals.
The staffing process ensures that an organization is supplied with the right people, in the right positions at the right time.
Directing
This is the process of determining or affecting the behaviour of others. The actual performance of subordinates is guided through common goals. It involves motivation, leadership, communication and all other aspects of organizational behaviour. Supervising is one aspect of this function at lower levels where physical overseeing of work is possible.
Directing is of critical importance to management because unless people are motivated, led and effectively communicated to, not much in the way of results can be achieved even with very good plans and organization structures.
Controlling
Controlling involves the measurement and correction of the performance of employees and of other organizational resources to ensure that everything is going according to plan.
The process of control involves three major steps:
• Setting the standards
• Measuring performance against the standards
• Taking corrective action
Control applies to all the activities of the organization. An organization controls its human resources, financial resources, physical resources as well as the information resources.
Controlling helps organizations to readjust their plans in cases of changes in the environment. Plans will thus remain appropriate.
A proper control system will help a manager to grasp all the inner working of the organization. It can provide instant data on inventories of all resources, raw materials, work- in-progress and finished goods.
Control procedures help to detect errors in good time. A small error not detected early can become bigger and afflict the whole firm e.g. use of faulty raw materials will result in faulty products which in effect will lead to poor sales.
Controls therefore help managers to answer a very important question, ‘how well are we doing?’