The Role of Management

As mentioned earlier, managers perform five functions – planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. Since these functions are very essential for effective management, they have been used as the basic framework for this book. They have been briefly explained in the next section of the chapter.

In order to understand the role of management, in the late 1960s, Henry Mintzberg devised a new approach – the managerial roles approach – by observing what managers actually do. He did a careful study of five chief executives at work and found that they were involved in a number of varied, unpatterned activities of short duration. Using a method called structured observation, Mintzberg isolated ten roles which he believed were common to all managers. As shown in Table 1.1, these ten roles were grouped into three categories – interpersonal roles, informational roles and decisional roles.

A manager is required to interact with many people, both within and outside the organization and hence, the need to perform interpersonal roles. The three interpersonal roles of a manager are figurehead, leader and liaison. In his role as a figurehead, a manager performs all the ceremonial or symbolic duties. Example, it would be the duty of a college dean to award diplomas at the convocation ceremony. In the leadership role, a manager is required to motivate the employees to perform at their best to achieve the company’s objectives. In the liaison role, a manager is required to interact with people both within and outside the organization.

A manager acts as a channel of information within the organization. The three informational roles of a manager are that of a recipient, disseminator and spokesperson. In the role of a recipient, a manager receives information pertaining to changes, opportunities and problems that the organization may face. As a disseminator, a manager provides information to subordinates that would influence their performance at work. And finally, a manager performs the role of a spokesperson when he or she represents the organization in public.

Table 1.1: Mintzberg's 10 Managerial Roles

 

FUNCTIONS OF MANAGERS
The functions of a manager provide a useful framework for organizing management knowledge under the various heads of planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. Managerial functions are effective tools for managers to achieve the organization’s planned objectives. They include the general administrative duties that need to be carried out in virtually all organizations. Figure 1.2 depicts the management process and shows the various functions that managers are involved in. It is evident from the figure that managers are involved in more than one activity at the same time.


Planning
Planning can be defined as the process, by which, managers decide the mission and objectives of the firm and take necessary steps to achieve the desired objectives. At the same time, managers need to determine the future trends in business and incorporate change and innovation into the organization from time to time.  There are various types of plans and they may range from planning to define the overall purposes and objectives of an organization to planning for a specific action. Planning helps a firm decide its future course of action.

Organizing
Organizing is the process of assigning tasks and allocating resources to individuals to enable them to accomplish organizational goals.  Organizing is a continuous process of determining (1) which tasks are to be performed, (2) how tasks can best be combined into specific jobs, (3) how jobs can be grouped into various units, and (4) the authority and reporting relationships within the corporate hierarchy. The organizational structure of a firm is a key element in determining its success or failure. If plans are not organized properly even the best of plans can fail. On the other hand, the pitfalls associated with a poor plan can be eliminated by excellent organization.

Staffing
Today, staffing is better known as “human resource management” and involves manning or filling the various positions in the organizational hierarchy. Activities like determining manpower requirements, assessing the number of people presently available in the organization, recruiting and selecting candidates, training and placing them in the organization come under the purview of staffing. This function also deals with compensation, performance appraisal, promotion and career planning.

Leading
Leading is defined as “the management function of influencing, motivating, and directing people towards the achievement of organizational goals.” It is the management function that involves influencing and inspiring team members to perform well and accomplish corporate objectives. Leading involves (1) communicating with others, (2) leadership styles and approaches, and (3) motivating people to put forth the effort required to achieve organizational goals. In simple words, it is the act of making things happen through others.

Controlling
The final step in the management process is to monitor the progress of an organization towards its goals. Controlling can be defined as the continuous measurement and analysis of actual operations against the established industry standards developed during the planning process and corrections of deviations, if any.
The basic control process involves (1) comparing performance with standards, (2) determining where negative deviations occur, and (3) developing remedial measures to correct deviations.