Management Functions

MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS

by Antonio C. Antonio

November 25, 2013

Upland resource management is not as simple as most think.  Management principles, simple as they are, become complex when applied to real-life/business situations.  Here are five relevant questions in upland management which I will try to answer:

1.  Discuss the practical application of these universal management functions (organizing, directing and controlling) in a specific upland management endeavor. 

Organizing, directing and controlling, in the case of the upland, means having to exercise these functions on people.  Managing human resources is harder than managing investments (financials and physical).  Upland management entails building an ideal working environment for people (company personnel and the community).  Although not mentioned, staffing (matching position and function with the right personnel with the right core competencies) plays a very important role in the organizing function.  Directing and controlling will be easier if the right people are assigned tasks within their abilities and talents.  Cascading information and strategies to the rest of the organization will be more effective with competent middle management personnel.

2.  Weihrich (1993) separates staffing function of management from organization.  Do you think that is necessary?  Why?

Human resource development and retention is a specialized function of a business organization.  I included “retention” because this is an aspect that a lot of HR (Human Resource) practitioners often forget.  Oftentimes, managers who are directly involved in the day-to-day management of the organization do not have the time and are not the right persons to decide on HR issues.  On the other hand, HR practitioners are trained to identify the right talent/skill for a particular type of task.  Although staffing is part of organizing, it should be best to separate this particular function from organizing.

3.  Some people seem to be born leaders.  What do you think should a person aspiring to be a manager but seem to have no inherent leadership skill should do in order to acquire it and become an effective leader and eventually an effective and efficient manager?

I feel that the key word in the concept of leadership is “communications.”  But communications is not just the mere motion of talking to people and communicating your thoughts.  A larger part of communications is listening… but mere listening too will not be effective without listening with your heart.  Everyone has a story to tell… whatever the substance of their story is, it should be respected and given due recognition.  (Desiderata: “Even the dull and the ignorant, they too have their stories.”)  Listening to people, especially when they are angry, will always reveal inner and guarded truths.  And listening provides the manager the necessary information, knowledge and feel of any given situation.  This will tool the manager with different perspectives which will come in handy in his decision-making processes.  Sound decision-making would eventually define the leadership quality of the manager.  A good manager (and/or leader) should also possess technical managerial competence.

4.  In which function of management should monitoring, evaluation, and plan readjustment be included and why?

Monitoring, evaluation and plan recalibration should be a never-ending process that should be made in all the functions of management… therefore, PODC (planning, organizing, directing and controlling).  Although others will argue that these can be best done in the monitoring or controlling functions, I believe that they should be present in all functions of management.  Even in the initial planning stage, some degree of evaluation and readjustments should already be made to come up with a more plausible plan.

5.  Sound management starts with a good plan but must not end there.  It must be implemented, checked for progress, and readjusted depending on the actual circumstances that arrive, but the missions must remain the same.  However, have you ever seen a management plan particularly in government offices wherein their plan, after spending thousands or millions of pesos for its preparation, remain in the shelves and never implemented?  What can you recommend so that the resources spent in making the plan are not wasted?

Before the actual planning and implementation of the development project is started, perhaps a broad-stroke assessment should first be made… a concept paper.  This would be less expensive than drawing up a full-blown written study and plan.  If the project turns out to be acceptable and would make a difference, the planning stage for the project could then be started.  Funding is also important and should first be secured before anything else.  In the case of moth-balled government projects… they often are the result of political considerations.  Often, projects that are conceptualized by a political administration are not acceptable with the next administration.  Sometimes, even projects, already started, are set aside simply because they were not initiated by the incumbent politician or political administration.  Local governments are very prone to this problem since they have elections every three years.  This is sad because more meaningful developmental projects often have long gestation periods… and three years is not just enough to realize the desired results.

Just my little thoughts…