Planning and DecisionsPlanning is the most fundamental of the five management functions; without it, none of the other functions can be carried out effectively. Show
Learning Objectives Identify planning as the most fundamental role of management Key TakeawaysKey Points
Key Terms
What Does Planning Have to Do with Management ?Management operates through various functions, often classified as:
Of the five functions, planning is the most fundamental; it is the management form from which the other four stem. To wit:
Therefore, plans are the seeds from which the organization functions. Even so, the need for planning is often apparent only after the fact. In the short run, planning is easy to postpone. The postponement of planning especially plagues labor-oriented, hands-on managers. The Master Plan: Planning takes time, but its importance should not be overlooked. What is Planning? Planning is concerned with the future impact of today's decisions. It is a technique of projecting expectations, anticipating problems, and guiding decision making.
The Anatomy of Plans Plans can be created for projects, programs, or strategies. During the planning process, decision makers deliberately select objectives, programs, or projects, as well as the policies and procedures for accomplishing them within organizations. The creation of plans
inevitably involves decision-making, because the planner must select from among considered alternatives.
Strategy Level, Program Level, and Project PlansAt the strategy level, plans articulate longer-term objectives and executive management's vision of how the organization intends to achieve those objectives. In the process of determining a company's strategic plan, three basic questions are answered:
Program level plans translate strategic plans within functional areas to coordinate activity across functions and up and down the layers of an organization. A budget is an example of a financial plan that formalizes strategic plans in monetary terms.
Can Plans Change? Regardless of the level of planning, plans must be re-examined regularly in the light of changing conditions and
circumstances. Organizing TasksManagers must organize to see their plans to fruition, thus assigning tasks to individuals and arranging them in an framework that allows decision making. Learning Objectives Explain the nature of organization Key TakeawaysKey Points
Key Terms
Organizing: An Overview Once a plan has been created, a manager can begin to organize.
The synchronization of all of these elements is important if results are to be obtained. The Nature of OrganizationThe following are the important characteristics of organization. Specialization and Division of Work
Orientation Towards Goals Every organization has its own purposes and objectives. Organizing is the function employed to achieve the overall goals of the organization. Organization harmonizes the individual goals of the employees with overall
objectives of the firm.
Differentiated functions
Continuity
Benefits of Organization Together, these characteristics:
Optimise the use of resources
Aid managers in performing other managerial functions
Facilitate growth and
Facilitate human treatment of employees
Organizational Design: Helping Managers OrganizeOrganization design can be defined narrowly, as the process of reshaping organization structure and roles, or it can more effectively be defined as the alignment of structure, process, rewards, metrics and talent with the strategy of the business. Organizational Design: This is one type of matrix organizational structure. Organization design may involve strategic decisions, but is properly viewed as a path to effective strategy execution. The design process nearly always entails making trade-offs of one set of structural benefits against another. Staffing RolesThe managerial responsibility of staffing is an involved process of hiring, training, compensating, positioning, and assessing team members to enable operational success. Learning Objectives List the various functions involved in staffing for managers Key TakeawaysKey Points
Key Terms
Managerial Staffing Responsibilities One of the core functions of a manager is building and maintaining a team, which is accomplished
through staffing responsibilities. Simply put, staffing is the managerial process of hiring, positioning, and overseeing employees. Often enough, human resources are both the most expensive and the most valuable assets a business has. Having internal talent can be a core competitive advantage, and bringing in the right people and positioning them for success is a core managerial responsibility. Hiring Finding talent is an enormous challenge and opportunity in today's economy. With the diversity of skill sets, the high volume of applicants, and the growing complexity of organizational needs, managers are busier than ever when it comes to the hiring process. Many job postings will receive hundreds or even thousands of applicants, and filtering
through this large applicant pool can be expedited by software solutions and the hiring of third parties to manage the hiring process. TrainingOnce a new employee is selected, it can take anywhere from a week to 6 months to truly get them up to speed. Every job is different, and every job has different training requisites. Investing both time and capital in preparing employees for success can create significant increases in value and return on investment, as well as empowering employees to grow and improve. Hiring employees without proper on-boarding can result in costly mistakes, role uncertainty, and ultimately job dissatisfaction. CompensationCompensation as a managerial responsibility isn't just about salary (though certainly that's an important component). Managers must understand what their employees need, and help to provide it via benefits, bonuses, training, and opportunities for professional growth. From health care to helping with a university degree, organizations have the opportunity to create employee loyalty as well as develop talent via strong staffing skills on behalf of management. Performance AppraisalsWhether management does it on an ongoing basis, an annual basis, or a quarterly basis, most managers must consider the performance of their employees at one point or another. This can be done formally (and often is at larger firms) or informally, and must include both past performance and the expectations set at the beginning of the appraisal period. The employee must know before hand what it is they will be assessed on, and what the objectives and expectations are. It is also relatively common to attach incentives to performance appraisals, to provide value when value is provided. Identifying GapsManagement Process: Other managerial functions are highlighted in this diagram, in addition to the tasks involved in staffing. From a more strategic frame, managers must consider the overall process and objectives their work group is aiming to accomplish alongside what resources and skills must be present to do so. That means identifying where there are functional or skill gaps in a given team, and solving that problem. There are more solutions than just hiring full-time employees too. Managers may notice a skill gap that only requires 10 hours per week to fill. In this case, hiring a contractor on an hourly basis is lower risk and lower cost than hiring a new employee. ComplianceFinally, managers must comply with a variety of legal aspects in collaboration with the HR department. Employee rights, unions, and other legal requirements from the governing bodies must be built into contracts and operations. ConclusionWhen combining all of these responsibilities, you have one facet of a manager's overall responsibilities. This provides some scope to not only how much is involved in staffing, but how much can be involved in the role of management in general. Managers must also plan, organize, direct, and control. Leading TeamsCertain leadership competencies help people become effective leaders; successful team leaders follow planning and implementation processes. Learning Objectives Evaluate effective team leadership Key TakeawaysKey Points
Key Terms
Leading TeamsThe Team Leader: an Overview A team leader or team lead is someone (or in certain cases there may be multiple team leaders) who provides guidance, instruction, direction, and leadership to a group
of other individuals (the team) for the purpose of achieving a key result or group of aligned results. The Team Leader: Reporting Structure The team lead reports to a project manager (overseeing several teams). The team leader monitors the quantitative and qualitative result that is to be achieved. The leader works with the team membership. The Team Leader: Responsibilities The responsibilities of a team lead vary greatly between organizations, but usually include some responsibility for team building and ensuring teamwork. The Team Leader: Leadership CompetenciesThere are six leadership competencies that are the building blocks to becoming an effective leader:
Does an effective team leader both merge into the group as a member of the team and also maintain a leadership role?
And if so, how? Leading Teams: Team Leadership Knowledge ManagementOrganizations use knowledge management to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable strategy and process. Learning Objectives Explain the importance and recent developments in Knowledge
Management (KM) Key TakeawaysKey Points
Key Terms
Knowledge ManagementKnowledge management (KM) comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable the adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise of knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizations, such as processes or practices. Once an organization has the framework in place that knowledge management provides, it can design its strategy, structure and processes in such a way that it uses what it knows to. This, in turn, creates value for its customers and the community as a whole. Organizational Functions of Knowledge Management and Their BenefitKnowledge management efforts typically focus on organizational objectives such as:
As a result, companies benefit as they are able to:
How does an Organization Know it is Receiving these Benefits?Here are a few of the criteria for measuring the efficacy of a knowledge management strategy:
Facets of Knowledge ManagementEarly KM technologies included online corporate yellow pages as expertise locators and document management systems. Combined with the early development of collaborative technologies (in particular Lotus Notes), KM technologies expanded in the mid-1990s. Subsequent KM efforts leveraged semantic technologies for search and retrieval and the development of e-learning tools for communities of practices (Capozzi 2007). Knowledge management systems can thus be categorized as falling into one or more of the following groups:
More recently, the development of social computing tools (such as bookmarks, blogs, and wikis) have allowed more
unstructured, self-governing or ecosystem approaches to the transfer, capture and creation of knowledge, including the development of new forms of communities, networks. Knowledge Management in Education and in CorporationsAn established discipline since 1991 (see Nonaka 1991), KM includes courses taught in the fields of business administration, information systems, management, and library and information sciences (Alavi & Leidner 1999). More recently, other fields have started contributing to KM research, such as information and media, computer science, public health, and public policy. Many large companies and non-profit organizations have resources dedicated to internal KM efforts, often as a part of their business strategy, information technology, or human resource management departments (Addicott, McGivern & Ferlie 2006). Several consulting companies also exist that provide strategy and advice regarding KM to these organizations. Knowledge Management: The Knowledge Spiral Controlling ActivitiesControlling is a core managerial function defined by observing and optimizing operational processes. Learning Objectives Understand the managerial process of control Key TakeawaysKey Points
Key Terms
ControllingOne facet of management is called controlling, and it is an important piece of the management puzzle. Control is observing current (and projecting future) processes and operational systems in order to avoid mistakes, identify improvements, ensure objectives are accomplished, and consider the big picture. Organizations are made up of operational systems, each of which can be iterated upon and optimized for improved performance. The Four Elements of ControlThe process of control can usually be divided into the following four components:
Production Control: This chart demonstrates the control process chronologically over time, and the way in which management can actively impact the execution of a given operation. Strategic ControlThe above example relates primarily to an operational process. Optimizing operational processes is often done at the mid-managerial level. At the upper managerial level, strategic control is a similar process in a broader context. Strategic control pertains to four elements as well:
Management Control Systems: This chart demonstrates the relationship between various work groups in the controlling process. Customer Experience ManagementCustomer experience management focuses the operations and processes of a business around the need of the individual customer. Learning Objectives Explain the difference between Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Key TakeawaysKey Points
Key Terms
What Is Customer Experience Management (CEM)? Customer experience management (CEM) is a strategy that focuses the operations and processes of a business around the needs of the individual customer. Companies are focusing on the importance of the experience. Jeananne Rae says that companies are realizing that "building great consumer experiences is a complex enterprise, involving strategy, integration of technology,
orchestrating business models, brand management and CEO commitment." In-N-Out Burger: University Tower in Irvine, next to the University of California. This office building is home to the corporate headquarters of In-N-Out Burger. The In-N-Out restaurant chain has developed a highly loyal customer base and has been rated as one of the top fast food restaurants in several customer satisfaction surveys. Customer experience solutions provide strategies, process models, and information technology to design, manage, and optimize the end-to-end customer experience process. Why Isn't Customer Relationship Management Enough? Traditionally, managing the customer relationship has been the domain of customer relationship management (CRM). However, CRM strategies and solutions are designed to focus
on product, price, and enterprise process, with minimal or no focus on customer need and desire. Licenses and AttributionsCC licensed content, Shared previously
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Which of the following functions of leadership involves assigning responsibilities to the task a department is required to accomplish?Organizing involves assigning authority and responsibility to various departments, allocating resources across the organization, and defining how the activities of groups and individuals will be coordinated.
What are the 4 management functions?They were initially identified as five functions by Henri Fayol in the early 1900s. Over the years, Fayol's functions were combined and reduced to the following four main functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
What is the management function?At the most fundamental level, management is a discipline that consists of a set of five general functions: planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. These five functions are part of a body of practices and theories on how to be a successful manager.
What is the primary managerial responsibility in an organization?Managers are usually responsible for ensuring that the organization's goals are met. They also ensure that the employees are motivated and engaged in achieving these goals. Managers are expected to provide guidance and direction to their team members.
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