Principles and Functions of Management

Principles and Functions of Management

2005 "To those unsung heroes , the millions of men and women who bear the responsibility of managing today 's interlocking maze of business corporations , government agencies , schools , hospitals , TV stations newss armies and other institutions that comprise the social br

Prof . William E . Halal of George Washington University , Preface to The New Management : Democracy and Enterprise Are Transforming Organizations (1 , 1

According to James Higgins , management is creative problem solving [which] intended result is the use of an organization 's resources in a way that accomplishes

its mission and objectives (2 , 5

Manager 's job lies in maintaining such an environment in an organization that all employees could efficiently do their job and discharge their obligations

Four major functions of management are : planning , organizing directing , and controlling the resources of the company (3 , 1 . Besides he has to determine the company 's goals and ways of their achievement It should be noted that all of the named functions are interrelated and interconnected . Planning means continuous setting of the company 's goals and refers mostly to the future . Organizing involves taking all necessary measures for the plan 's fulfilment i .e . producing structure establishing useful relationships and arranging resources (people equipments

Directing presupposes setting workers on the right track to achieve set objectives

And as to controlling , it means checking fulfilment of the plan . If the letter is not done properly than a manager should refine his method and make corrections

The job of manager dates back to the eighteenth century when an owner transformed to professional manager . This was the result of industrialization and emergence of big companies running of which required new managing knowledge and skills

These newly born managers used church and military institutions as models and some terms that are now used in management were actually borrowed from these two spheres (for instance , strategy , subordinate - superior , etc

As practice cannot go without theory scientists in different times worked hard on creating frameworks for organizing managerial knowledge and arranging supplemental information . Modern managers use many principles and techniques from the previous experience

One can name such earliest explorers of management as : Robert Owen who was one of the first managers to display respect to his subordinates and provided better working conditions and meals together with reduced working hours and the first professor in the world who taught management principles Andrew Ure at Anderson 's College in Glasgow . The Classical school of management was created at a turn of the twentieth century and includes such notion as the `scientific management Scientific management pays particular attention to ways of improving the performance of individual workers . Some of the major representatives of this teaching are

Frederick W . Taylor who considered that workers are for some reason working beneath their potential and introduced a 4-step method to combat this problem . At first the job was broken into its smallest pieces , then the most qualified workers were selected and trained to perform that job . The next step was...