WHAT FUNCTIONS ARE MANAGERS EXPECTED TO PERFORM?

What is management?

Management is the process that primarily involves achieving organisational objectives and goals through efficient and effective application of resources.

Management is the process that primarily involves achieving organisational objectives and goals through efficient and effective application of resources. Not all managers have the word ‘manager’ in their title. Management titles come in such forms as Co-ordinator, Administrator, Director, Superintendent, Team Leader, Supervisor and, indeed, Manager. 

The term ‘manager’ or its derivative is often combined with other words. Examples include Country Manager, Product Manager, Sales Manager and Managing Director.

And so, given the variety of titles, how does one recognise a manager?

The Four Key Functions of a Manager

It is possible to tell that one is a manager by examining the principle tasks that they perform.

Researchers have been able to identify four main activities a manager is regularly carrying out. They are planning, organising, leading and controlling. And what exactly do these tasks involve? Let us look at each in turn.

Planning. Planning is the management function that involves setting organisational objectives and goals and selecting the most appropriate method of achieving them from among different possible solutions. 

Typical organisational objectives include achieving certain levels of profit and profitability, company growth, and production and productivity.

Planning is the first management activity that happens.

Organising. To organise is to structure and allocate resources (among them human, physical, financial and informational) as well as drive their utilisation toward attainment of the objectives and goals of an organisation in the best way possible. Organising immediately follows planning.

An important part of organising is creating an organisational chart and establishing reporting lines.

While many consider organising as including the activity of finding the right human resources for each job, some give staffing as an independent, fifth, management function. (Indeed, achieving the aims of the organisation requires the right people). 

Leading. Leading means influencing others in a way that makes them most enthusiastic about, and focused on, converting the plans of the organisation to reality.

The manager as leader needs to have a clear vision of the chosen direction of the institution they work for and an effective, empathetic way of communicating with others.

Controlling. Controlling is about ensuring that any deviation from what has been planned is identified and corrective action is taken.

The control process consists of:

·        Establishing performance standards

·        Monitoring performance 

·        Measuring actual results against desired outcomes

·        Taking corrective courses of action

Sometimes, in the control process, managers do have to make changes to the plans themselves to make them more realistic or simply update them in line with new situations.

Henri Fayol’s Five Functions of Management

Henry Fayol’s pioneering work of the early twentieth century uncovered the management functions. 

Fayol identified five separate tasks, namely, planning, organising, commanding, co-ordinating and controlling. In modern literature, though, one will note that co-ordinating is often not included, considered generally an integral part of the others.         

Management Skills

There are three types of skills that managers need to have to successfully perform the four major functions. They are:

1.     Conceptual. These help a manager mentally picture situations and, where necessary, devise appropriate solutions.

2.     Human. Human skills concern ability to interact with others and exert the positive influence that leads to successful implementation of the objectives in the plans.

3.     Technical. Technical Skills are practical abilities in a particular field, such as marketing, accounting and engineering. Technical skills not only help a manager fully understand the job he/she, sub-ordinates and others do but also are often a key problem-solving tool. Education and training are principal sources of technical skills.

Henry Mintzberg’s 10 Management Roles

In the 1970’s, Henry Mintzberg closely studied five managers in an attempt to capture their every class of activity. The result was the list below of ten roles he saw as mainly played by a person in a management position:

·        Figurehead

·        Leader

·        Liaison

·        Disseminator

·        Monitor

·        Spokesperson

·        Entrepreneur

·        Disturbance-handler

·        Resource allocator

·        Negotiator

In many ways, the ten roles would look like a breaking up of the four fundamental functions earlier given. Not surprisingly, then, it would seem difficult for a manager to play the ten roles well if any of the three types of skills is absent. 

Conclusion: The Manager in Action

Even though the four major functions of a manager are given in a sequential order, what happens in a manager’s office and around it is hard to predict. 

The manager normally shifts from any one of the functions to any of the others free of any written rules. So, in one moment the manager will be planning; and in the next controlling. In the next, they will be organizing; and will then move back to controlling, or on to providing leadership.  

In both profit-making and not-for-profit entities, the four main functions looked at here are essential components of the work of a manager.     

                                                                                                                                                                              Rupert Chimfwembe