Title: Good managers discover how to master the four basic functions of management. Explain in details these
basic functions viz: Planning, Organising, Leading and Controlling.
Remarks: Your answer to be applied to a specific industry or organisation of your choice with reliable examples
and diagrams. You may also include quotes from management scientists, advantages/disadvantages etc.
Here the example taken is a manager of a branch of KFC in Mauritius. Let’s say his name is John. His duties
have been written down under each basic functions of management below which he has to perform as the
manager of a branch of KFC in Quatre Bornes.
Above all we must know that the task of management is to get work done through other people in order to
achieve a specific goal or set of goals. An organization must be organized and properly managed if it is to
achieve its goals. Therefore, proper management is important. Managers should achieve organizational goals by
allocating & delegating the required tasks to employees and not by themselves. This is where comes the quote
‘Management is the art of getting things done through other people’ by Mary Parker Folett.
For instance, the goal of KFC is to provide food service and quality to customers.
Managers should work in collaboration with other people. The quote of Stephen Robins says that ‘Management
refers to the process of getting activities completed efficiently, with and through other people’ which is
definitely right.
Here are some other quotes from some management scientists:
‘To manage is to forecast & plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate & to control.’
Henri Fayol
‘Management is the process of achieving organizational goals through engaging in the four major functions of
planning, organizing, leading & controlling.’
Kathryn Bartol et al.
‘Management is the process of planning, organizing, leading & controlling the work of organization members &
of using all available organizational resources to reach stated organizational goals.
James Stoner et al.
An efficient manager should also know how to achieve more output or results from a given input( such as
materials, money, labour, equipment) or the same output from less input. Efficient managers should therefore
minimize the cost of resources. Resources can only be put to proper use by an efficient manager.
However what Bartol et al. & Stoner et al. wanted managers to understand by the word ‘process’ in their
definitions is that managerial activities are carried out in a systematic way by executing the four basic functions
of management which are planning, organizing, leading and controlling. These are the basic functions that need
to be acquired by all managers so as to achieve goals. It is a traditional approach known as the POLC approach
to define the framework of management. They are a guide to describe most of the key aspects of the role of
managers in practice.
PLANNING
As we know planning comes first in the list of the four basic functions of management. This is because we
must have a plan before we can organize.
, Planning involves
→ Objective – setting, that is, what an organisation wants to achieve. Planning can be defined as the
management function which involves setting the company’s goals & deciding how best to achieve them.
→ Environment scanning, that is, assessing internal strengths and weaknesses and anticipating external
opportunities and threats. Environment scanning is therefore a pre-requisite for the planning process.
Environmental scanning is commonly carried out through what is termed a SWOT analysis – the identification
of strengths and weaknesses pertaining to the internal environment of an organisation and opportunities and
threats that the external environment presents. However, actually the organization can control the factors which
pertain to the internal environment and cannot really handle those of external one.
→ Decision making, that is, what to do, how to do it, when to do it and who should do it. So, on the whole
planning involves decision-making.
Planning is primarily essential as it:
- gives direction;
- enables predictability;
- enables adaptation to changes without crisis.
Some advantages of Planning:-
(a) helps to clarify objectives
(b) helps to think ahead systematically
(c) eases accommodation of change
(d) reveals duplication of effort, bottlenecks in workflows and foreseeable pitfalls
(e) helps to take decisions unhurriedly, using maximum or optimum information
An organisation with access to materials, machines and manpower will fail if the most important element is
missing- the ability to efficiently use these resources. This is why planning is important. Many businesses have
failed because of mismanagement due to bad planning.
Hierarchy in Planning:
• Broad long-term strategies
• Medium term tactics and policies
• Short term operational budgets and schedules
basic functions viz: Planning, Organising, Leading and Controlling.
Remarks: Your answer to be applied to a specific industry or organisation of your choice with reliable examples
and diagrams. You may also include quotes from management scientists, advantages/disadvantages etc.
Here the example taken is a manager of a branch of KFC in Mauritius. Let’s say his name is John. His duties
have been written down under each basic functions of management below which he has to perform as the
manager of a branch of KFC in Quatre Bornes.
Above all we must know that the task of management is to get work done through other people in order to
achieve a specific goal or set of goals. An organization must be organized and properly managed if it is to
achieve its goals. Therefore, proper management is important. Managers should achieve organizational goals by
allocating & delegating the required tasks to employees and not by themselves. This is where comes the quote
‘Management is the art of getting things done through other people’ by Mary Parker Folett.
For instance, the goal of KFC is to provide food service and quality to customers.
Managers should work in collaboration with other people. The quote of Stephen Robins says that ‘Management
refers to the process of getting activities completed efficiently, with and through other people’ which is
definitely right.
Here are some other quotes from some management scientists:
‘To manage is to forecast & plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate & to control.’
Henri Fayol
‘Management is the process of achieving organizational goals through engaging in the four major functions of
planning, organizing, leading & controlling.’
Kathryn Bartol et al.
‘Management is the process of planning, organizing, leading & controlling the work of organization members &
of using all available organizational resources to reach stated organizational goals.
James Stoner et al.
An efficient manager should also know how to achieve more output or results from a given input( such as
materials, money, labour, equipment) or the same output from less input. Efficient managers should therefore
minimize the cost of resources. Resources can only be put to proper use by an efficient manager.
However what Bartol et al. & Stoner et al. wanted managers to understand by the word ‘process’ in their
definitions is that managerial activities are carried out in a systematic way by executing the four basic functions
of management which are planning, organizing, leading and controlling. These are the basic functions that need
to be acquired by all managers so as to achieve goals. It is a traditional approach known as the POLC approach
to define the framework of management. They are a guide to describe most of the key aspects of the role of
managers in practice.
PLANNING
As we know planning comes first in the list of the four basic functions of management. This is because we
must have a plan before we can organize.
, Planning involves
→ Objective – setting, that is, what an organisation wants to achieve. Planning can be defined as the
management function which involves setting the company’s goals & deciding how best to achieve them.
→ Environment scanning, that is, assessing internal strengths and weaknesses and anticipating external
opportunities and threats. Environment scanning is therefore a pre-requisite for the planning process.
Environmental scanning is commonly carried out through what is termed a SWOT analysis – the identification
of strengths and weaknesses pertaining to the internal environment of an organisation and opportunities and
threats that the external environment presents. However, actually the organization can control the factors which
pertain to the internal environment and cannot really handle those of external one.
→ Decision making, that is, what to do, how to do it, when to do it and who should do it. So, on the whole
planning involves decision-making.
Planning is primarily essential as it:
- gives direction;
- enables predictability;
- enables adaptation to changes without crisis.
Some advantages of Planning:-
(a) helps to clarify objectives
(b) helps to think ahead systematically
(c) eases accommodation of change
(d) reveals duplication of effort, bottlenecks in workflows and foreseeable pitfalls
(e) helps to take decisions unhurriedly, using maximum or optimum information
An organisation with access to materials, machines and manpower will fail if the most important element is
missing- the ability to efficiently use these resources. This is why planning is important. Many businesses have
failed because of mismanagement due to bad planning.
Hierarchy in Planning:
• Broad long-term strategies
• Medium term tactics and policies
• Short term operational budgets and schedules
