Management is the art of getting things done through and with people in formally organized groups. (Harold Koontz)
Management is the Co-ordination of all resources through the process of planning, organizing, directing and controlling in order to attain stated goals. (Henry L. Sisk)
Management is the process of working with and through others to achieve organizational objectives in a changing environment.
FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT or PROCESS OF MANAGEMENT
Organisations are social units or human groups deliberately constructed to seek specific goals.
The elements of management process are known as functions of management. There is, however, no single list of functions acceptable to all. Luther Gullick has given keyword ’POSDCORB’ which stands for Planning(P), Organizing(O), Staffing(S), Directing(D), Controlling(O), Staffing(S), Directing(D), Controlling(Co), Reporting(R) and Budgeting(B).This word is made up of initials and indicates the following activities.
P stands for Planning – is a decision making and involves selecting and integrating the course of action that an organisation with following to attain its objectives, Planning is deciding in advance, what to do, how to do, when to do, and who is to do and with what results. Planning envisages bridges, the gap between where we are, where intend to reach.
Effective planning requires
1. Clearly defined objectives and strategies.
2. Identification of limiting or critical factors
3. Anticipation of future requirements and problems
4. Rigidity and flexibility
5. Built in method of monitoring and evaluation, so that needed changes could be made to reach to desired goal.
The social responsibility for extension planning is that their implementation shall help in reducing social disparity and make the benefits available to the entire clientele, particularly to the resource-poor larger community.
Contingency planning
Planning is done for future and the future is always subject to uncertainty. In animal husbandry uncertainties may arise from situations like disease outbreaks, drought, flood and cyclone etc. In critical situations these may cause the basic premises for planning to change.
O stands for Organisation – building up the structure of authority through which the entire work to be done is arranged with well-defined subdivision and co-ordination. Co-ordination arrives at combining individuals, groups and organizations as a ‘Team’ to attain the enterprises objectives. Means – establishing harmonious relationship between the efforts of individuals and groups for the accomplishment of enterprise objectives.
An organisation structure should be designed to clarify who is to do what and who is responsible for what result, to remove obstacles to performance caused by confusion and uncertainty of assignment, and to furnish making and communication networks reflecting and supporting enterprise objectives.
Effective organizing requires
1. A balanced organizational structure.
2. An optimum span of control i.e. an optimum number of persons or offices an individual can effectively supervise.
3. Clear line of authority from superior to subordinates
4. Adequate delegation of authority
5. Parity between authority delegated and responsibility fulfilled
6. An individual reporting to a single superior
7. Division of work according to specialization of tasks
8. Adequate co-ordination.
Span of management
The principle of span of management states that there is a limit to the number of subordinates a manger can effectively supervise. Depending on the actual situation, this may vary from three to eight subordinates or subordinate office.
Scalar principle
The clearer the line of authority from the ultimate management positions an enterprise to every subordinate position, the clearer will be responsibility decision making and the more effective organization communication will be.
Delegation of Authority
According to Koontz et al., (1984), Delegation of authority is the vesting of decision-making power in a subordinate by a superior, and involves
1. The determination of results expected from persons in position
2. The assignment of tasks to persons in a position
3. The delegation of authority for accomplishing these tasks, and
4. The holding of people in position responsible for their accomplishment of these tasks
S stands for Staffing – is the process of selecting, maintaining and developing personnel in position to fulfill the organizational objectives, i.e., appointing suitable persons to the various posts under the organisation and the whole of personnel management.
Staffing is the process of selecting maintaining and developing personnel in position to fulfill the organizational objectives
Effective staffing requires
1. Clearly defined organisation roles
2. Selection and requirement of qualified personnel who are able and willing to fill the positions
3. Adequate compensation, both monetary and psychic
4. Clearly defined job for each category of personnel, with the criteria of appraisal made known to them in advance
5. Continuous training and development of personnel
6. Assessment of performance on the job
Management – involves co-ordination and integration of all resources (both human and technical) to accomplish specific results (money, material, equipment, people) is that activity is an organization which consists in deciding upon the goals of an organisation and in deciding upon the means by which the goals are to be effectively reached.
D stands for Directing – making decision, issuing orders and instructions for the guidance of the staff. Effective directing needs effective communication. Communication is the process of receiving and sending information to promote desirable action in an organisation. Communication in an organisation generally flows downwards, upwards and horizontally.]
Co stands for Co-ordination.-Inter-relating various parts of the work and eliminating over lapping and conflict, arrival combining individuals, groups and organisation as a team to attain the enterprise objectives.
Coordination means establishing harmonious relationship between efforts of individuals and groups for the accomplishment of enterprise objective, for smooth running of enterprise coordination is necessary within organisation is necessary within organization as well as with outside organizations. Some sort of basic coordination is essential within an organisation throughout its lifetime for its survival and unified action.
The need for co-ordination generally increases with increase in the size of organization and the complexity of its functioning. Voluntary co-ordination may be encouraged amongst employees by clarifying the objectives and by motivating them. Co-ordination may also be achieved externally by the use of committees and supervision etc.
R stands for Reporting – keeping both the superiors and subordinates informed of what is going on and arranging for the collection of such information its inspection, research and records.
A report is a formal record of activities of performance.
Reporting should be standardized as far as possible, so that comparable data are obtained from all staff and summarized for the organization. However, there should be provision for reporting something significant and unusual.
An annual report provides for some amount of functional control in an organisation and also serves as documentation for its work. The annual report furnishes the needed feed back information to the funding agency, the audit other organizations and general public. The annual report also serves as an integrating factor by providing information about the total organization to its different offices, sections, units, which may be located at various places.
B stands for budgeting – This is more concerned with the financial affairs of the organisation. It means stating the objectives in material and financial terms.
It indicates the allocation of funds for different sectors of the programme and is essentially a part of the planning process .Budgeting aims at arriving at a least cost and most-effective model for implementation of a project. Budgeting provides for pre-expenditure control of funds.
A new concept of budgeting is performance budgeting the introduction of which has been recommended by the administrative Reform Commission. According to the U.S Government Bureau of budget (Patnaik, 1986), a PERFORMANCE BUDGET is one which presents the purpose and objectives for which funds are required, the cost of the programmes proposed for achieving these objectives, and quantitative data measuring the objectives and accomplishment and work performed under each programme.
These POSDCORB activities are common to all fields of administration and also applicable to existing administration.
