Management is an important process in modern operations of organizations. Managers are individuals overseeing day-to-day operations of companies. In addition, managers are responsible for leadership, a role that is vital for the conversion of production resources into production. Without managers’ dynamic leadership, conversion of resources will be a major hurdle.
Management therefore is the act of organizing individuals towards the achievement of company-desired objectives (Bunderson, 2003). In addition, it provides a well-structured model of addressing day-to-day operations of a firm. However, most traditional firms have failed to factor in its usage in their operations; some have survived while others have shut down operations because of failure to meet their company objectives. Management is part of the factors of production.
It helps in the coordination of the other production factors i.e. land and labor. An organization well versed with management practices is able to achieve its set goals within a postulated period (Bell, 2007). Management cuts across all organizations; both profit and nonprofit making organizations are eligible to apply the practices of management to streamline their daily operations and operate in a clear outline. The article is going to look into the five management practices and their implementation in a place of work.
Planning is the backbone of management. A plan is a well-designed roadmap with clear datelines on how to achieve an objective. Planning is therefore the act of designing a clear roadmap that describes the happenings of the company in future. In contemporary firms’ management, planning is the duty of managers.
Company managers are responsible for the general performance of the company. There are three classes of managers; top, middle and lower level. Before making a decision, a number of management personnel will ascertain its feasibility.
This therefore implies that managers need to be versed with the vision of the company to help devise sound strategies to achieve a prudent decision. Market information helps in planning process; the information is derived from the data collected in the market. Managers use the market facts to formulate and analyze the impacts of their decisions in the future. This practice calls for wide knowledge of the market.
Planning being a vital component in the success of the business always entails timely reviews of the strategies to meet the ever-changing market demands. However, different managers may disagree on different aspects of the strategy. A firm with a sound planning structure will ensure that each part of the organization associate with the final solution. Down-up initiative usage will curb differences in the adoption stage of a plan.
Lower level management therefore needs to engage all the departments and employees in the formulation of a policy before passing the same to the middle level managers. Middle managers scrutinize the document to ascertain the changes incorporated to keep it in line with the company future objectives.
Leading involves marshalling individuals behind a given task. A company is made up of several departments. Each of these units offers unique services in accordance with the firm’s main goal. A number of departmental heads oversee the daily functions of these departments.
Employees of different qualifications make up the personnel of these units. Most management problems in an organization arise from people, hence successful managers need to be good leaders as this will help them use the employees’ attitudes to the firm advantage. Challenges are paramount in firm operations and addressing them to the advantage of the company is the function of departmental leaders.
A leader is an individual who is trusted to influence fellow workers to achieve a desired objective. Without a leader, the workplace could be chaotic as problems could go unaddressed. Leadership in management is important given a firm is to maintain her market advantage. Leadership skills are learned in the course of training or duty though some individuals are born leaders. Directing people to an activity to achieve a desired principle is core in management because firm operations are kept smooth.
The main objective of a firm is to make profit. However, before the generation of revenue, plan implementation has to be considered. Top-level management is much involved in the planning and organizing firm’s operations than lower level managers. Organization entails the process of marshaling funds for implementation process.
This is the second stage after the designation of a plan. Reinvesting the part of the revenue and sourcing funds outside the firm are major sources of implementation funds. Top-level organization strategy is to maintain the firm’s profitability while also funding the long-term plan. Successful plans mean the firm will have a competitive advantage over its incumbent market competitors. Plans deemed to generate massive revenue and those that are critical for the company survival are given priority during funding.
Management is about uniting brains to achieve a given goal. Staff is a vital component of an organization. Organizations need to ensure that the positions in the organization are filled and anytime there is a vacant position appropriate actions needs to be undertake n to ensure the positions remain filled (Stoner & Gilbert, 2003).
This will ensure that there is no backlog of work and that the firms systems are operational at any given time. The employee is responsible for the implementation of the firms plan. Sound human resource policies are important in the selection and recruitment of employees. This will ensure that the firm has the right people to fill various positions (Koontz, 1961).
Good working conditions and a competitive salary is also vital to motivate the employees towards achieving the organization dream. Human resource, a body responsible for hiring and firing employees, are tasked to prepare salary scales of the workers to be approved by top-level management. The employees considered need to be persons of impeccable character. Moreover, job analysis is important for the firm to understand and monitor the contributions of individual employees (Koontz, 1961).
Management is responsible for harmonizing the gender levels of those employed. This ensures that the employments made are in accordance to the statutes guiding employers. The quality and performance of individual employees determines the level of the company’s success. Reward scheme by the human resource department is important to motivate employees who deliver in their daily operations.
The formulated strategic plans call for monitoring during implementation. Although the formulation of strategies precede monitoring, funds are important in the controlling stage. Controlling this process is vital to ensure due process is followed and ensuring implementation is in line with the plans (Bonner et al., 2006).
Controlling as a management process is comparing plan notes with the progress. Controlling expenses and frequent measuring of the work of employees will ensure their activities conform to the mother plan. Pinpointing problems at the course of implementation and providing a solution to the same is paramount to keep the implementation on schedule.
Making a plan conform to a progress entails the digression from the management decision to have a plan in a given manner. This involves taking necessary steps that will ensure improvement in performance. Monitoring of time lags is important to ensure implementation is on schedule. Reports on the progress are established and presented to the responsible implementing authority (Bonner et al., 2006). Successful progress in plan implementation implies that the firm’s objective is a success too.
In conclusion, management is an important tool that ensures efficiency in the realization of set goals. In addition, management has been a success and its existence will be for decades. The practices address specific problems related to day-to-day operations of various organizations. Managerial practices ensure managers develop skills not seen by other employees of a firm. Many firms who have adopted the practices have achieved their goals and stayed at the edge of market competition.
Management skills needed in the different levels i.e. the lower, middle and top management vary. Therefore, training is necessary to ensure that managers are well conversant with the requirements of each level to ensure smooth operation of the firm. Moreover, firms interact daily with their environment. Environment is changing more often and managements need to address the changes.
For management to be a success, managers should be able to interact and learn from both external and internal factors i.e. communication. Finally, managerial practices are important to increase company productivity. It is therefore advisable for those companies who operate traditionally to apply the aforementioned five factors to compete at an equal ground with the firms already applying the management practices.
References
Bell, S. T. (2007). Deep-level composition variables as predictors of team performance: a meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92: 595-615.
Bonner, B. L., Baumann, M. R., Lehn, A. K., Pierce, D. M. and Wheeler, E. C. (2006). Modeling collective choice; decision making on complex intellective tasks. European Journal of Social Psychology, 36: 617-33
Bunderson, J. S. (2003). Recognizing and utilizing expertise in work groups: a status characteristics perspective. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48: 557-91.
Koontz, H. (1961). The management theory jungle. In Journal of the Academy of Management, December.
Stoner, J., Freeman R. and Gilbert, l. R. (2003).Management. New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India Sixth Edition.