4 Basic Functions of Management is a systematic way of doing things.

We refer to management as a process to emphasize that all managers,

irrespective of their aptitude or skill, engage in some inter-related functions in
order to achieve their desired goals.
Management process/functions involve 4 basic activities;

basic functions of management process are;

1. Planning and decision making

2. Organizing
3. Leading
4. Controlling

5.Planning and Decision Making – Determining

Courses of Action
6. Looking ahead into the future and predict possible trends or
occurrences which are likely to influence the working situation is the
most vital quality as well as the job of a manager.
7. Planning means setting an organization’s goal and deciding how best to
achieve them. Planning is decision making, regarding the goals and
setting the future course of action from a set of alternatives to reach
them.
8. The plan helps to maintain the managerial effectiveness as it works as a
guide for the personnel for the future activities. Selecting goals as well
as the paths to achieve them is what planning involves.
9. Planning involves selecting missions and objectives and the actions to
achieve them, it requires decision-making or choosing future courses of
action from among alternatives.
10. In short, planning means determining what the organization’s
position and the situation should be at some time in the future and
decide how best to bring about that situation.
11. Planning helps maintain managerial effectiveness by guiding future
activities.
 12. For a manager, planning and decision-making require an ability to
foresee, to visualize, and to look ahead purposefully.

2. Organizing – Coordinating Activities and

Resources
13. Organizing can be defined as the process by which the
established plans are moved closer to realization.
14. Once a manager set goals and develops plans, his next managerial
function is organizing human and other resources that are identified as
necessary by the plan to reach the goal.
15. Organizing involves determining how activities and resources are
to be assembled and coordinated.
16. The organization can also be defined as an intentionally formalized
structure of positions or roles for people to fill in an organization.
17. Organizing produces a structure of relationships in an
organization and it is through these structured relationships that future
plans are pursued.
18. Organizing, then, is that part of managing which involves:
establishing an intentional structure of roles for people to fill in the
organization.
19. It is intentional in the sense of making sure that all the tasks
necessary to accomplish goals are assigned to people who can do the
best.
20. The purpose of an organization structure is to create an environment
for best human performance.
21. The structure must define the task to be done. The rules so
established must also be designed in the light of the abilities and
motivations of the people available.
22. Staffing is related to organizing and it involves filling and keeping
filled, the positions in the organization structure.
23. This can be done by determining the positions to be filled, identifying the
requirement of manpower, filling the vacancies and training
employees so that the assigned tasks are accomplished effectively and
efficiently.
24. The managerial functions of promotion, demotion, discharge,
dismissal, transfer, etc.  Are also included with the broad task “staffing.”
staffing ensures the placement of the right person at the right position.
25. Basically organizing is deciding where decisions will be made,
who will do what jobs and tasks, who will work for whom, and how
resources will assemble.

3. Leading – Managing, Motivating and

Directing People
26. The third basic managerial function is leading.
The skills of influencing people for a particular purpose or reason is
called leading. Leading is considered to be the most important and
challenging of all managerial activities.
27. Leading is influencing or prompting the member of the
organization to work together with the interest of the organization.
28. Creating a positive attitude towards the work and goals in among the
members of the organization is called leading. It is required as it helps
to serve the objective of effectiveness and efficiency by changing the
behavior of the employees.
29. Leading involves a number of deferment processes and activates.
30. The functions of direction, motivation, communication, and
coordination are considered a part of leading process or system.
31. Coordinating is also essential in leading.
32. Most authors do not consider it a separate function of
management.
33. Rather they regard coordinating as the essence of managership
for achieving harmony among individual efforts towards accomplishing
group targets.
34. Motivating is an essential quality for leading. Motivating is the
function of management process of influencing people’s behavior based
on the knowledge of what cause and channel sustain human behavior in
a particularly committed direction.
35. Efficient managers need to be effective leaders.
36. Since leadership implies fellowship and people tend to follow
those who offer a means of satisfying their own needs, hopes and
aspirations it is understandable that leading involves motivation
leadership styles and approaches and communication.
 4. Controlling – Monitoring and Evaluating
activities
37. Monitoring the organizational progress toward goal fulfillment is called
controlling. Monitoring the progress is essential to ensure
the achievement of organizational goal.
38. Controlling is measuring, comparing, finding deviation and
correcting the organizational activities which are performed for
achieving the goals or objectives. Controlling consist of activities, like;
measuring the performance, comparing with the existing standard and
finding the deviations, and correcting the deviations.
39. Control activities generally relate to the measurement of
achievement or results of actions which were taken to attain the goal.
40. Some means of controlling, like the budget for expenses, inspection
records, and the record of labor hours lost, are generally familiar. Each
measure also shows whether plans are working out.
41. If deviations persist, correction is indicated. Whenever results are
found to differ from the planned action, persons responsible are to be
identified and necessary actions are to be taken to improve
performance.
42. Thus outcomes are controlled by controlling what people
do. Controlling is the last but not the least important management
function process.
43. It is rightly said, “planning without controlling is useless”. In short,
we can say the controlling enables the accomplishment of the plan.
44. All the management functions of its process are inter-related and
cannot be skipped.
45. The management process designs and maintains an environment in
which personnel’s, working together in groups, accomplish efficiently
selected aims.
46. All managers carry out the main functions of management;
planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. But depending on
the skills and position on an organizational level, the time and labor
spent in each function will differ.