Managerial Functions

For more than half a century, the functional view has been the most popular approach to describing what managers do. It has been popular because it characterizes the management process as a sequence of rational steps. Henry Fayol, a French industrialist turned writer, became the father of the functional approach in 1916 when he identified five managerial functions: planning, organizing, command, coordination, and control. Fayol claimed that these five functions were the common denominators of all managerial jobs, whatever was the purpose of the organization. Over the years Fayol’s original list of managerial functions has been updated and expanded by management scholars. Here is a brief overview of eight managerial functions which describe what managers do.

• Planning. Commonly referred to as the primary management function, planning is the formulation of future courses of action. Plans and the objectives on which they are based give purpose and direction to the organization, its subunits, and contributing individuals.

• Decision making. Managers choose among alternative courses of action when they make decisions. Making the correct decision in today’s complex world is a major management challenge.

• Organizing. Structural considerations such as the chain of command, division of labor, and assignment of responsibility are part of the organizing function. Careful organizing helps ensure the efficient use of human resources.

• Staffing. Organizations are only as good as the people in them. Staffing is recruiting, training, and developing people who can contribute to the organized effort.

• Communicating. Today’s managers are responsible for communicating to their employees the technical knowledge, instructions, rules and information required to get the job done. Recognizing that communication is a two-way process, managers should be responsive to feedback and upward communication.

• Motivating. An important aspect of management today is motivating individuals to pursue collective objectives by satisfying needs and meeting expectations with meaningful work and valued rewards.

• Leading. Managers become inspiring leaders by serving as role models and adapting their management style to the demands of the situation.

• Controlling. When managers compare desired results and take the necessary corrective action, they are keeping things on track through the control function. Deviations from past plans should be considered when formulating new plans.

Text 3

Read the following text and answer the questions that follow it.

Frederick w. Taylor: Scientific Management

Present writers generally credit Frederick W. Taylor with first focusing attention on an analysis of the tasks and responsibilities of the first-line supervisor within the organization. Beginning with his employment in Midvale Steel Works in 1878, Taylor placed new emphasis on the job of the manager. It was his idea that the planning and performance of the task should be separated, the operator being held responsible for performance, while management assumed the responsibility for planning.

The task of planning as conceived by Taylor involved several key points. First, Taylor believed it necessary for management to investigate thoroughly all of the variables and components involved in the performance of each task. Second, as a result of this investigation, management would be able to select the single most effective method to be used in the performance of a given task. Third, in Taylor’s opinion the responsibility of management did not end with the development of a standard method for each job; in addition, it was now necessary for the manager to select workers who were both mentally and physically capable of performing each specific task within the factory. Finally, the integration of capable men and most effective method was undertaken by management through the proper training of the workers in the method to be utilized.

As a result of the manager’s planning and training activities, Taylor believed it would now be possible for management to achieve lower labor costs as well as increased productivity. This would be possible because the value of the worker’s output increased at a faster rate than his piece work wages. In Taylor’s opinion, the ability to pay these increased wages would serve to spur worker efforts to increase output to an even greater level and bring about still lowers costs and increased productivity. It seems that Taylor’s philosophy of motivation was rooted in the concept of the “economic man”, and it was therefore mainly through economic incentives that management could appeal to the workers to achieve greater levels of productivity.

Perhaps the most important contribution of Taylor, however, was in bringing a specific definition and function to the discipline of management. Based upon the work of Taylor and of other writers of the scientific management school, there began to evolve a set of responsibilities and functions specifically associated with the practice of management. The principles of scientific management may be summarized as follows:

1. Management is a separate and distinct activity.

2. First-line supervision is basic.

3. Management function include: examining variables involved in the task; developing the most effective methods; selecting workers according to the psychological and physiological requirements of the job; training workers in the most effective methods.

4. Productivity increases mean higher wages for the worker.

1. What do present writers credit F.W. Taylor with ?

2. What are the main principles of scientific management?

3. What are the key points the task of planning involves as conceived by F.W. Taylor?

4. How did scientific management change industrial management?

5. Say some words on the concept of the “economic man”.

6. Speak for or against F.W. Taylor’s principles.

Text 4

Read the following text and answer the questions that follow it.