Core Management Functions and Principles
Management Fundamentals
For a company to function properly, it needs effective direction. Establishing goals, defining plans, organizing work and resources, and managing are essential for operations. The importance of management lies in ensuring that planning and organization are effective by properly guiding and coordinating people’s work. Good planning and organization are of little use if people work without clear direction and coordination.
Core Management Principles
- Principle of Unity of Command: Each person in the company should report to a single authority to avoid conflicting orders.
- Principle of Delegation: Essential activities for achieving objectives must be delegated to a level where they can be executed properly. Delegating involves assigning tasks, transferring authority, and demanding accountability for task execution.
- Principle of Span of Control: This refers to the ideal number of subordinates that any one manager can effectively supervise directly.
- Principle of Coordination: All activities must be coordinated and integrated towards a common goal.
Communication in Management
Communication is the process of transmitting understandable information to the people involved.
Types of Organizational Communication
- Vertical Communication: Can flow downwards (from management to subordinates) or upwards (from subordinates to management).
- Horizontal or Cross Communication: Refers to lateral communication between departments or positions at the same organizational level. It also includes diagonal communication, occurring between people at different levels who do not have direct authority/subordination relationships.
Leadership Styles and Power
Leadership is closely linked to power. Power is the ability of one person to influence another.
Common Leadership Styles
- Autocratic or Authoritarian Leader: Makes decisions unilaterally and enforces orders.
- Participatory or Democratic Leader: Presents tasks to subordinates and offers various options for execution, involving them in decision-making.
- Liberal or Laissez-Faire Leader: Does not impose; allows complete freedom of action for the group (laissez-faire means “let do”).
Understanding Employee Motivation
Motivation means providing a reason for a person to behave in a certain way.
Key Elements of Motivation
There are three core elements in the context of motivation:
- The existence of an internal desire or need within a person.
- The existence of an external end goal or objective (incentive), perceived as a means to satisfy the desire or need.
- The choice of an action strategy, based on evaluating various options, aimed at securing the incentive needed for satisfaction.
The determinants of work motivation involve factors both intrinsic and extrinsic to the job itself:
- Factors intrinsic to the work itself.
- Factors external to the work situation.
The Control Function in Management
Control involves regulating deviations that may occur in systems through processes designed to measure and correct these deviations within a given time and space.
The Formal Control Process
Structuring the control process requires considering the following elements:
- Responsibility Centers: These are units or individuals within the organizational structure where defined roles, responsibilities, and tasks form the basis for assigning decision-making authority and tracking tasks for control, consistent with the strategies and targets set by the organization.
- Control Activities: These are the various stages applied in business process management, including setting objectives, establishing standards and indicators, benchmarking, implementing corrections, and evaluating performance.
- Information System: This is the platform providing data collection, data analysis, and output information necessary for the administration and management of the control system.