A brief discussion of the seven functions of management

2. INTRODUCTION
Firms have goals to achieve. Some of these include:
• Maximising sales
• Earning profits
Management is the process of achieving the major goals of
a firm with the best use of available resources.

3. FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT
There are basically seven
functions of management (podccdm).
Planning
Organising
Directing
Controlling
Coordinating
Delegating
Motivating

4. 1. Planning - developing proposals for future activities and operations of
the firm
• Analyse future strategies
• Deciding on the direction that the firm should take
• Preparing the resources that are needed

5. 2. Organizing - ensuring that resources are in place at a particular time
• Grouping similar activities together
• Thinking ahead to decide who is going to do which job
• Fixing deadlines for jobs

6. 3. Directing - developing goals and objectives , and giving instructions
• Once management knows what they want to achieve they communicate it to
workers and attempt to get them to understand
• This is the only way that workers at all levels will know what is required

7. 4. Controlling – establishing systems which monitor performance
• Performance is analysed to see if objectives are being achieved
• This allows problems to be detected and measures are put in place to reduce
any problems

8. 5. Coordinating – ensuring that all functional areas work cooperatively
and support for each other
• If the marketing department wants to develop a new promotion they will have
to liaise with the finance department to ensure funds are available

9. 6. Delegating – giving responsibility for specific areas to subordinates
• Management cannot do everything and will have to give subordinates
responsibilities for which they will be held accountable
• Management should receive reports from those who were delegated the
authority

10. 7. Motivating – encourage staff to do the jobs that management wants
them to do
• Make the staff feel as though they want to do the job
• Provide incentives for employees (not only pay)