MEANING
Process of Management includes planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating and controlling in order to achieve the organizational goals effectively and efficiently.
ACCORDING TO LOUIS ALLEN
“Management is what manager does.”
ACCORDING TO HENRY FAYOL
“To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control.”
ACCORDING TO GEORGE R TERRY
“Management is a distinct process consisting of activities of planning, organising, actuating and controlling performed to determine and accomplish stated objectives with the use of human beings and other resources.”
ACCORDING TO JAMES L LUNDY
“Management is principally the task of planning, coordinating, motivating and controlling the efforts of others towards a specific objective.”
Management is a process which brings the scarce resources together and motivates people for the achievement of objectives of the organisation.
FEATURES OF MANAGEMENT PROCESS
Management process is characterized by following features:
SOCIAL PROCESS: Management is a social process because it involves human beings, employees, employers, government, suppliers and customers etc. For achieving the goal of an enterprise, it is essential for the management to study the complex nature of human beings.
CONTINUOUS PROCESS: Management is a continuous process or never ending function. It is not an isolated activity. It continues to operate till the organized activities of a group continue to achieve its objectives. It is an ongoing activity without any breaks and gaps. For example: Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and controlling are performed by all the managers all the time. Sometimes, they are doing planning, then staffing, organizing etc. and other times directing or controlling.
UNIVERSAL OR PERVASIVE: Management is pervasive i.e. universal in nature. It is applicable to all types of organisations whether it is profit organisation, non-profit organisation, social, religious, sports or military organisation. It is the concept which is used all over the world.
ACCORDING TO HENRY FAYOL
“Be it a case of commerce, politics, religion, war…. In very concern there is management function to be performed.”
ITERATIVE: Managerial functions are inter-related to each other. Various functions are taken together. All functions i.e. planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating and controlling are sub-functions of each other.
PROCESS OF MANAGEMENT
PLANNING
Planning is the first step of process of management. It is deciding in advance about the future course of action. It is a ‘Thinking before Doing’ function. It is deciding about:
- What to do?
- How to do?
- When to do?
- Who will do it?
It is a mental activity. It bridges the gap between where we stand today and where we want to reach. Planning is the basic of all other functions of management.
ORGANISING
The next step of management after planning is organising. It is concerned with assembling, arranging, guiding, coordinating, directing and controlling the activities of others factors of production i.e. man, material, machinery and money to achieve the goals of business organisation.
It involves:
- Creating organizational structure.
- Job description, Job specification.
- Determining authority-responsibility relationships.
- Specifying the accountability of each job.
It is also responsible for setting an organisation structure to implement the plans made.
STAFFING
Staffing is concerned with filing and keeping the positions filled in the organisation structure. It is a function concerned with human resources of an organisation. It consists of:
- Manpower planning
- Recruitment, selection and training of employees
- Placement and orientation
- Development, promotion, transfer and performance appraisal
- Determination of employee remuneration and other incentives.
DIRECTING
Directing is concerned with carrying out the desired plans. It is associated with guiding, leading, motivating supervising and inspiring the employees to work in a desired way to achieve the goals of the organisation effectively and efficiently. Direction is ‘Management in Action.’
Directing involves:
- Supervision
- Leadership
- Motivation
- Communication
Directing initiates organized and planned action and ensures effective performance by subordinates towards the accomplishment of group objectives.
CO-ORDINATION
Co-ordination is regarded as an Essence of Management. It is one of the most important functions of management. Co-ordination brings unity in action and integrates different activities of organisation. It ensures planned objectives are achieved with minimum cost. It is a continuous process and performed at all levels of organisation. It acts as binding force within the organisation.
SUPERVISION: It refers to overseeing the work of the employees or subordinates to ensure maximum utilization of resources.
MOTIVATION: It means an act of stimulating and inspiring someone to contribute his best for the accomplishment of goals.
LEADERSHIP: Leadership is a process by which an executive or manager directs or guides and influences the work of others in choosing and attaining specified goals.
COMMUNICATION: It means sharing of ideas, suggestions, feelings, emotions and knowledge and information between two or more persons. It is essential to create the cordial or good relations between the management and employees. It may be upward i.e. from subordinates to superior or downward i.e. from superior to subordinate.
CONTROLLING
Controlling is last step of process of management. It means determining what is being accomplished. It is concerned with evaluating the performance of the employees and applying the corrective actions, if necessary.
Controlling involves:
- Establishing standards of performance
- Measuring Actual performance
- Comparing actual performance with standard performance
- Finding out the deviations, if any
- Taking corrective actions.
