FNS 8199 Lecture Jotting.

MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS

Managerial is a process of achieving organization goals and objectives through the use of human
resources, financial resources, technological resources, managerial resources, and informational
resources in the most efficient and effective manager. Mary Parker Follet also defined management as
the process of getting things done through other people.

Management is also concerned with the process of planning, organizing, leading, staffing,
coordinating and controlling the efforts of organizational members and utilizing resources to achieve
organizational goals and objectives.

Management is universal in the sense that all organizations regardless of their specific
objectives, type of work, geographical or cultural environment must be managed. Management also
goes beyond the traditional boundary of narrowly defined discipline and it is by its nature an
interdisciplinary field. It borrows knowledge from philosophy, economics, political science, engineering,
mathematics, sociology, psychology, and anthropology to develop its concepts and principles. The
management or managerial functions include:

Planning

organizing

Leading/directing

staffing

Decision making

Coordinating

Controlling.

PLANNING: is the process of setting goals and objective, developing programmes, formulating policies,
and determining how the goals and objectives can be achieved. Planning is futuristic in nature because it
bridges the gap between where we are (present) and where we want to be (future). It is a process by
which one looks ahead and consciously determine a course of action from available alternatives for the
purpose of achieving desired results. Planning includes budgeting and forecasting. It also involves what
to do, how to do it, when to do it, where to do it, who to do it, and what are needed to do it. Managers
plan:

To focus on objectives.
To forestall uncertainty and unexpected changes.

To minimize operational costs.

To take proactive rather than reactive measures and decisions.

To prepare for unforeseen circumstances

To facilitate control.

Planning process or steps:

Establish a goal or set goals and objectives.

Define the present situation.

Identify the aids and barriers to the goals.

Develop a plan or set of actions for reaching the goals.

ORGANIZING: this is the process of structuring activities and personnel for accomplishing assigned tasks.
It involves establishing responsibilities and roles for people in an organization. One major function in
organizing is the design of the organization structure (ORGANOGRAM), it also involves
departmentalization which can be by function, by process, by geographical location or territory, and by
product.

Steps to organizing:

Identification and classification of required activities

The grouping of activities into e.g. Marketing, production, personnel, accounting e.t.c.

Delegation of responsibilities to managers

Provision for coordination

Designing organization structure (organogram); to indicate the roles and responsibilities of individuals
within the organization.

LEADING/DIRECTING: leading is influencing people so that they can contribute to the achievement of
organizational goals and objectives. It also has to do mainly with interpersonal aspect of managing. Of all
managerial function/activities, leading involves managers most directly with the human element to a
very large extent the manager’s ability to motivate, influence, direct, and communicate with the
subordinate will determine his effectiveness and efficiency. In practice, leading is more than ordering or
communicating things to be done, but an influence or a catalyst that initiate and maintains purposeful
actions. Leading also involve the appropriate actions. Leading also involve the appropriate use of
leadership styles (autocratic, democratic, and laissez faire).

STAFFING: as a management function is a general term used to describe activities in getting people into
the organization as employees, it involves job analysis, manpower planning, recruitment, selection,
placement, orientation, and socialization process in an organization. Staffing involves filling and keeping
filled the positions in the organizational structure (organogram). There are two major activities involved
in the performance of staffing function. They are recruitment and selection.

Recruitment can be defined as the process of reaching out, searching for and attracting a large
supply of people or interested applicants which an organization chooses competent or qualified people
for a particular job. The process of recruitment can be external or internal.

Selection is the process of gathering sufficient information about the candidate or the applicant
for the process of evaluating, screening, and deciding who among the applicants possess the potential
for successful job performance.

DECISION MAKING: is the process of choosing from among two or more alternatives. Decision can be
taken under certainty, uncertainty, risks, and conflict (intense conditions). Decision making also involves
a special course of action from among several possible alternatives which may sometimes be scientific-
methods or intuition. Virtually all management functions involve making decisions.

Steps in decision making:

Identification and definition of problems.

Collection of relevant data or information.

Development of alternative solutions.

Selection of best alternative.

Implementation of the best alternative.

feedback

COORDINATION: the main task of coordination is to align individual goals with the organizational
objectives. The goals and objectives of the organization should be carefully spelt out and made known to
the employees, in order to avoid working at cross purposes. Coordination functions involve creating
harmony, and bringing together the divergent views o the employees. For effective coordination, there
should be direct contact between the management and subordinates. Coordination can be achieved in
the organization through interpersonal, vertical, and horizontal relationship of people at the work place.

CONTROLLING: can be referred to as a procedure for measuring performance against objectives. It

usually involves measuring performance relative to objectives and standards and taking corrective
actions where necessary. The importance of controlling functions is to monitor plans and performance
in order to take appropriate steps to remedy any deviation or deficiency. Controlling function is a kind of
feedback mechanism.

Steps in controlling:

Establishment of objectives and goals.

Setting of performance standards.

Measuring of performance with standards.

Determination of variation (positive or negative) or deviations.

Initiation of corrective or remedial actions.

Determination of feedback mechanism.