Analyzing The Four Functions Of Management

Situational and Authentic leadership are increasingly important skills to possess in today’s era of technological changes and availability and flow of information we have in this day and age. Leaders today must be able to adjust their leadership styles to the whatever situation arises as well as to the people who they are leading. Leaders are not limited to just use one style in one situation, being able to adapt appropriate styles to different situations will influence and help a leader succeed. A leader’s judgement, intelligence, cultural awareness, and self-control plays major roles in helping them choose the proper style and appropriate technique for the task at hand (Lau & Cronin, 1998).

At the center of theories concerning innovation and change is the role of transformational leadership, emotional intelligence (EI), and the innate ability of leaders to create a compelling vision that energizes entire companies to attain challenging objectives. Transformational leadership as a theory is predicated on a strong level of situational awareness, emotional intelligence (EI), and the ability to motivate through a shared vision for an organizations (Gilley, Dixon, Gilley, 2008). Further, transformational leadership theories point to the critical role of trust as a strong catalyst of communication and a willingness to invest time and effort in long-term gains over short-term rewards (Sosik, Godshalk, Yammarino, 2004). This orientation and foundation of transactional versus transformational leadership theories is in large part predicated on the approach of using rewards versus gaining trust and attaining a high level of shared commitment to a common, challenging

There are many models of leadership that exist across a range of fields (e.g. social work, education, psychology, business, etc.). The ability to transform an organization successfully requires a different set of attitudes and skills. Transformational leadership is an approach where a leader utilizes inspiration, charisma, individualized attention, and intellectual stimulation with their employees (Iachini, Cross, & Freedman, 2015, p. 651). Transformational leadership helps to clarify organizational vision, inspires employees to attain objectives, empowers employees, encourages employees to take risks, and advocates the seeking of alternative solutions to challenges in the workplace (Transformational Leadership, 2015). It allows the leader to engage and motivate each follower identify with the organization’s values and goals.

Bass acknowledges that transformational leadership is not a panacea, and in certain situations other styles of leadership are indicated (Avery, Avery, Bell, Hilb, & Witte, 2004, p. 97). A flexible organization with leaders whose style is adaptable to meet the changing needs of employees and situation may ascribe the situational leadership model. Situational leaders rely on intuition and analysis of a given situation to lead in a way that makes sense based on that particular situation. The effective manager is able to utilize multiple leadership styles as conditions change. Blanchard and Hersey (Chapman, 2012) characterized the situational leadership style in terms of the amount of the direction, and the support, that the leader provides to followers. Depending on employees’ competencies in their task areas and commitment to their tasks, the leadership style varies from one person to another. This leader might lead the same person one way sometimes, and another way at other times.

The book The Heart of Change shows the practical side of the theories that are taught in the course textbook. It presents stories of successes and failures based in the application of concepts discussed in Organizational Behavior and Management and in class. Although we talked about several different concepts the ones that are evident in the examples in The Heart Of Change are the more progressive and individual centered approaches. The leadership characteristics that are important to successful change in an organization are those that are espoused in the transformational theory of management. It makes sense that ideals in line with the transformational management theory

Transformational leadership theory applies four factors for leaders to influence employees to perform beyond their abilities. These factors describes leaders that promote leadership through idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration (Shresh & Rajini 2013).Transformational leaders are deem as the most effective leadership style because of their character strengths as a excellent role model who leads by example and manage people based on their strengths and weaknesses to optimizes the organization performance (Shresh, & Rajini, 2013). Transformational leaders are known to reward, encourage and mentor people based on performance through inspiration, creativity, and innovation to solve problems to exceed expectation of the organization (Smith,

During the past three decades, transformational leadership has helped to transform the workforce. The need for this type of inspirational style was recognized and explored in an original work called Leadership by James Macgregor Burns (1978). Burns believed that transformational leadership was a collaborative process that served to raise the morals and motivations of everyone involved (Leadership, 1978, 19). This type of leader works to inspire others with a goal or plan for the future. According the Marquis and Huston (2015) one of the key aspects of this style is the ability to empower others

Empathy was also noted to be an important aspect, without it the leaders would not be able to demonstrate consideration to the individuals(Harms, 2010). Other important attributes to a transformational leader includes showing self-confidence, emotional intelligence theses are all correlated with being a strong and successful leader (Harms, 2010; Hutchinson, 2013). Some important effects of transformational leadership is increased commitment to the organisation, improved staff health with lower numbers of staff with anxiety, stress and emotional exhaustion. Within the work environment reports of better role clarity and less conflict and uncertainty were evident as well as an increased productivity rate(Cummings, 2010). Transformational leadership works on the assumption that the workers become more motivated when they are encouraged to engage with their own governance and work environment, it works throughout the ranks but especially on lower ranked employees due to the shared government that transformational leaders are empowering them to do(Donogue,

The scholarly theory of transformational leadership was defined by Bernard Bass as a style of leadership that inspires employees to make extraordinary efforts (Bass 1985). This is accomplished through “idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration” (Deschamps 2016). This leadership theory closely represents my personal management style. Transformational leadership transforms the attitudes of employees to create an emotional attachment to the company (Pradhan & Pradhan, 2015).

The four functions of a manager are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. These are key elements that managers must understand to run a successful organization. I will view each concept as well as their roles to acknowledge how these functions have been related to my personal experience in the work environment. Behind the scenes of a manager, they spend an equal amount of time planning so that he or she can successfully achieve the leading and controlling functions. These functions are standard for any industry that is striving to maintain a strong organization. While reviewing this paper, try to think of the four functions as a method that is established to build on each other. The four functions must be performed efficiently, and when done correctly, an organization will reap the accomplishments from a well-defined plan. My own experiences of how the four functions operate illustrates that each role requires a manager to devote time and patience in order to ensure that the main principles are achieved.

There are four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading and controlling. The four basic principles of management found in all businesses and corporations. Management is a process designed to achieve an organization's objectives by using its resources effectively and efficiently in a changing environment.

“Management is the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of mankind and other resources to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively (University, p 4 2011)”. The greatest achievement of an organization is to provide goods and services that customer’s value. The managerial department of an organization has the power to determine the performance of the employee’s, which directly affects the quality of the service or product that is being supplied to the customer. “Managerial tasks are essential for effective management, which involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (University, p 6 2011)”. Planning is the process of identifying the suitable goals of an organization and how they will be implemented in the company. Organizing is the procedure that determines the departments of an organization. When departments have been established the next step is to decide who will work best at a particular job. The development of organization inside a business will form the organizational structure for the company. “Leading is the ability to inspire and organize individuals to work as a team to complete the goals of the business in an efficient and effective manner (University, p 9 2011)”. Controlling is being able to assess the procedures of a company and eliminate or change any strategy plans that are not showing high- performance levels. Controlling may consist of monitoring

There are number of factors for managers that contributes to the success of the business. The four functions of management are established to help managers see how effectively they carry out the roles (Schermerhorn 2011:112). The aim of this essay is to discus the four functions, which includes planning, organizing, directing and controlling. Also, It will look at how the different level managers in an organization and the influence of the theories of Douglas McGregor and Abraham Maslow.

There is no one definition for the term management. However, Fayol (1916) defined the term management as; “To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control.” Mc Ilwee.T and Roberts I, (1991): p.g117 Management is not standardized and is undertaken at all levels of the organization, as it is an integrating activity. Managers have to manage in order to achieve the overall objectives and strategy of the firm. All firms are seeking effective managers, and the quality of management is a key element of business success.

A manager that has all five types of powers is a strong leader. Occasionally employee’s posses power too. Effective managers use their powers in a way that they maintain a healthy balance between their own power ant that of their employees.