People Management Techniques Flashcards
What are the four functions of Management?
Planning - involves the planning of decision making
Organizing - includes appropriate coordination between planning and resources
Leading - involves motivating the employees to achieve organizational goals
Controlling - is related to monitoring and evaluation
What are the three major areas the planning function can be divided into?
Strategic planning
Tactical Planning
Operational planning
What is strategic planning
occurs when the company focuses on its long-term objectives of sustainable growth. The strategy is drafted by upper management and becomes a framework that guide the long-term plans for the company.
Tactical Planning
relatively short-term, i.e., less than a year. Upper management is not heavily engaged in these plans; instead they are managed by middle management. Plans, such as sales events, procurement, manufacturing output, etc., are included in tactical planning.
Operational Planning
very short-term or daily basis planning and is mostly taken care of by the low-level managers. This includes daily targets and other daily goals.
What are the elements of effective planning?
Collecting information: This step involves gathering information about the company’s needs, competitors, market, and the economy. An analysis of strengths and weaknesses is required here.
Stating goals and objectives: A company needs to state what it wants to achieve in the future from the planning. Will it be an increase in sales, expanding to newer markets, strategic maneuvering to be competitive, etc.?
Strategizing: This element entails charting actions to be taken to achieve the goals. If expansion is needed, then which market? Will sales be increased by slashing prices?
Implementation: Implementation of the plan includes acting upon the strategies established to achieve the stated goals and objectives. For expansion, the company would arrive at a given market or geographical area.
Monitoring: Monitoring of the plan and whether it is proceeding in an appropriate direction needs to be undertaken at regular intervals. It may also lead to change in plans if required.
Evaluation: Evaluation helps to avoid the same mistakes in the future. It is based on whether the plan achieved its desired goals and objectives.
Tactical Plans vs. Strategic Plans
What are the important steps in organizing?
Identifying tasks: This involves identifying different activities that an organization has to perform in order to operate. This includes all activities related to production, sales, accounting, quality control, etc.
Clubbing activities: This is a way of organizing similar people and tasks into one department. For example, the sales department would include all employees engaged in selling and marketing.
Resource distribution: The company resources, including the human resources, are distributed based on the clubbed activities. The employees are then appointed for a particular task.
Appointing managers: Each department would have their managers/leaders who are engaged in decision making while the lower rung employees act on their directives with allowed deviations.
Inter-departmental coordination: Different departments engage with each other to check if the policies and planning are moving in the same direction. They can raise issues that may affect the efficiency and changes are undertaken if deemed fit.
Organizing Function of Management
The organizing function of management assembles all the human, physical and financial resources in a way that provides the best possible use for each. This enhances the efficiency of the company as a haphazard placement of resources could lead to high wastage. The organizing function occurs directly after the planning stage.
Planning Function of Management
Planning is having the foresight of the future. The planning function of management entails goal setting and laying out detailed steps on how to achieve those goals. The methods used to achieve the goals differ from one company to another. Management is responsible for choosing the best course of action.
Leading Function of Management
The leading function of management includes influencing employees to work toward completing all tasks appropriately. This increases the efficiency of the company. A good leader, i.e., the manager, motivates employees in a way that they would want to participate in the growth of the organization. This can be done by incentivizing employees and linking their growth with the growth of the company.
Leading vs. Directing
Leading involves motivating the workers to work in the best interest of the company. This directing involves taking the company in a particular direction
Controlling Function of Management
The controlling function of management is concerned with verifying whether the tasks are being performed in conformity to the planned course of action. It ensures that the plans are adopted, and work proceeds based on established principles and instructions issued.
Controlling serves two major purposes:
Increased coordination between the departments because of appraisal of tasks allotted.
Provides insights for future planning.
The Feedback Loop
Each of the four functions of management are connected in a feedback loop. The feedback helps assessment of the teams and helps to determine if any changes are required.
