Functions of Management

The Functions of Management

The four functions of management include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Each provide the fundamentals needed in a company that is just starting or a company that has been established for many years. Planning is specifying the goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals. Planning activities include analyzing current situations, anticipating the future, determining objectives, deciding in what types of activities the company will engage, choosing corporate and business strategies, and determining the resources needed to achieve the organization's goals. Plans set the stage for action and for major achievements (Bateman, Snell, 43).

At Pritchard Engineering, Inc., we are a service-oriented, not product, team that strives to provide the best for our clients. Our staff department heads meet every Monday morning to discuss what projects we will be working on and completing for the upcoming week. We have a round-table discussion to prioritize what areas are most important to the least important.

Organizing is assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals. Organizing activities include attracting people to the organization, specifying job responsibilities, grouping jobs into work units, marshaling and allocating resources, and creating conditions so that people and things work together to achieve maximum success (Bateman, Snell, 44).

During the staff meeting, each department head specifies where his crew will be for the week. Weather plays a significant role in our business. If it is not suitable for surveying, drilling, or testing, other accommodations must be made. After each project is discussed, I get a compiled list of clients to invoice or send past due statements.

Leading is stimulating people to be high performers. It is directing, motivating, and communicating with employees, individually and in groups. Leading involves close day-to-day contact with people, helping to guide and inspire them toward achieving team and organizational goals. Leading takes place in teams, departments, and divisions, as well as at the tops of large organizations (Bateman, Snell, 46).

My boss is very good at laying the groundwork for projects and his expectations of thoroughness and completion. He is constantly