Evaluating Management Functions in Community Service: A Report

This report delves into strategic management and planning within the context of community services. It explores the core management functions of planning, leading, organizing, and controlling, analyzing their concepts, benefits, and the importance of strategic management (SM). The report identifies various issues that arise during the development and implementation of these functions, such as rigidity in planning, poor communication, and geographic limitations in controlling. It offers potential solutions, including environmental scanning, continuous planning, and flexible approaches to address these challenges. The paper concludes that effective SM, incorporating careful planning, monitoring, and assessment, is crucial for community services to achieve their goals, encourage collaboration, and improve service delivery. This assignment is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib, a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

Running Head: MANAGEMENT
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Management
Management in Community Service
(Student details :)
5/14/2019

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Contents
Contents......................................................................................................................................1
Strategic Management and Planning..........................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Concept, benefits and need of SM in community services management...................................2
Issues while developing basic management functions...............................................................3
Issues with the development of planning...............................................................................3
Issues with the development of leading.................................................................................3
Issues with the development of organizing............................................................................4
Issues with the development of controlling...........................................................................4
Possible solutions to address above discussed issues................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Strategic Management and Planning
Introduction
This discussion is purposed to research and evaluate the major concerns related to the
development of the basic management functions such as planning, leading, organising as well
as controlling. To do so, a detailed analysis of the literature of the topic introduction to
management services within community will be covered in this paper. In the context of
community services management, this discussion will mainly include strategic management
(SM) and planning. In general, SM is the process of continuous monitoring, planning,
analysis and detailed assessment of the things which are necessary for a company in order to
meet their goals as well as organizational objectives (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015). Finally,
conclusions will be derived from the analysis and assessment of the chosen topic of SM and
planning.
Concept, benefits and need of SM in community services management
Concept of SM and planning in the context of managing community services is all
about strategies, annual objectives and performance measures. As the performance measures
are the indicators which can be used to track performance by the managers, boards and staff
hence they comes under the core concept of the SM (MSG, 2018). In addition, management
strategies as well as annual aims and objectives are the ways covered within SM which allow
resources to be allocated and arranged manner (Zahra & Nambisan, 2012).
In this context, there are so many benefits of strategic management and planning as
listed below:
 With the help of these functions like planning, leading, organizing and controlling,
each and everyone within organization becomes clearer on their objectives and role
for achieving organizational goals.
 SM and planning always leads to much effective use of resources.
 SM always builds motivation and commitment of the managers effectively (Sites
Gov, 2019).

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There can be a number of reasons given, in support to adopting strategic management
and planning practice while managing into community services. Some important reasons are
as follows:
 SM and planning promotes coordinated efforts
 Planning as well as SM effectively reduces uncertainty within organizational
functions
 A proper planning within community services reduces wasteful and overlapping
activities
 Besides, SM and planning forms goals and standards which can facilitate control over
organizational functions (Robbins, Decenzo, Bhattacharyya, & Agarwal, 2008).
Issues while developing basic management functions
While researching and evaluating issues related to the development of the
management functions like planning, organizing, leading and controlling, the writer of this
paper has identified following findings:
Issues with the development of planning
While organizations practice development of management functions like concrete
planning for managing the community services, then following issues likely to occur:
 A formal planning may produce rigidity as it carries strict guidelines, protocols and
their implementation largely (Book Boon, 2010).
 Sometimes, formal planning in management does not include creativity and intuitions
hence issues arise due to the fact that planning can never replace intuition and
creativity (Book Boon, 2010).
 In addition to that, a detailed planning always focuses managers’ attention over
contemporary competition while overlooking future’s survival which creates
sustainability challenges (Bass & Dalal-Clayton, 2012).
 One more issue associated with the implementation of management planning is that it
generally reinforces success that may lead to failure sometimes.
Issues with the development of leading
In this context, leading management process of the community services face many
issues those really need to be addressed by the managers for an effective achievement of the

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organizational vision, mission and objectives. Here, both the leaders, and their sub-ordinates
face these issues associated to development of good leading practice while managing into
community services (Forbes, 2017). In this way, issues can be explained as below:
 Poorly defined aims, goals and objectives
 Insufficient team or leader skills
 Scope creep
 Unrealistic deadlines
 Improper communication channels and skills
 Issues or conflicts within organizational teams
 Lack of skill or training development
 Resistance by the employees to an organizational change
 Building an effective understanding about community context
 Issues related to community planning, action and mobilization
 Establishing community level improvements
 Promoting community changes and trends (Buckley & Ghauri, 2015).
Issues with the development of organizing
While organizing the work functions within community services for an effective
management then managers or organizers face following issues as follows:
 A proper understanding as well as addressing of the opposition and resistance of the
employees becomes an issue sometimes
 Organizing function of management requires intervention and maintenance of
directional efforts; otherwise it would result in a big issue
 Influencing system or broader change is again an issue while organizing work
functions (Kapferer, 2012).
 Improper inter-professional collaboration
 Availability of the required resources
 Hard-to-reach populations
 Social and cultural issues
 Language
 Motivating the community and further keeping the motivation alive

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Issues with the development of controlling
There are many issues during the development of controlling functions of
management in community services as follows:
 Geographic limitations are the most important controlling issues within community
services
 Resources availability while ensuring sustainability is a great challenge to controlling
function of management
 Ensuring every individual’s development is also a great issue while controlling
development and progress in community services
 Market competition and trend issues (Kapferer, 2012).
Possible solutions to address above discussed issues
On conducting research over basic and important management functions such as
planning, leading, organizing and controlling this paper has evaluated the adverse impacts of
the above mentioned issues on the smooth functioning of the organizational services (Bass &
Dalal-Clayton, 2012). In this way, the writer is suggesting some possible solutions in order to
address these issues effectively, they are as follows:
 By using environmental scanning external environments can be better analysed hence
many of the issues can be addressed through environmental scanning process
 Continuing planning and SM is necessary even in unpredicted environmental and
economic scenarios so that long-term goals and growth can be achieved.
 SM and planning should be specific, flexible and on-time (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015).
 Regular evaluation of available resources can address these management issues
 Determining the individual goals along with the organizational goals can help in
addressing issues
 In order to assess goals progress, build-in feedback mechanisms can be used
 Review practice of the organization’s mission as well as employee tasks can help
addressing all above mentioned issues (Robbins, Decenzo, Bhattacharyya, &
Agarwal, 2008).

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Conclusion
In conclusion, this discussion has successfully researched and evaluated the issues
related to the development of the management functions of such as planning, leading,
organising, and controlling. This paper has demonstrated4 a detailed literature review of the
topic strategic management and planning in the context of introduction to management in
community services. Post conducting literature research over the chosen topic, it can be said
that a successful planning , monitoring, assessment and analysis can definitely help an
organization meeting their goals and objectives effectively within timeline. In this way, with
the help of strategic management and planning, different aspects of a firm can be brought
together to achieve a common goal as well as encourage collaboration within community.
References
Austin, E., & Pinkleton, B. (2015). Strategic public relations management: Planning and
managing effective communication campaigns. London: Routledge.
Bass, S., & Dalal-Clayton, B. (2012). Sustainable development strategies: a resource book.
London: Routledge.
Book Boon. (2010). Thinking Strategically. Retrieved from Book Boon:
http://training.hr.ufl.edu/resources/LeadershipToolkit/job_aids/strategic_thinking.pdf
Buckley, P., & Ghauri, P. (2015). International business strategy: theory and practice.
London: Routledge.
Forbes. (2017). 11 Strategies For Achieving A More Diverse And Productive Work
Environment. Retrieved 01 27, 2019, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/01/20/11-strategies-for-
achieving-a-more-diverse-and-productive-work-environment/#6c332d1574d0
Kapferer, J. (2012). The new strategic brand management: Advanced insights and strategic
thinking. NJ: Kogan Page publishers.
MSG. (2018). Strategy Formulation vs Strategy Implementation. Retrieved from MSG:
https://www.managementstudyguide.com/strategy-formulation-vs-
implementation.htm

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Robbins, S., Decenzo, D., Bhattacharyya, S., & Agarwal, M. (2008). Essentials of
management. Canada: Pearson Education.
Sites Gov. (2019). INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT.
Retrieved from Sites Gov: https://sites.ed.gov/aapi/files/2015/08/Grant-Writing-
Training-Manual.pdf
Zahra, S., & Nambisan, S. (2012). Entrepreneurship and strategic thinking in business
ecosystems. Business horizons, 55(3), 219-229.