Understanding Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning, Organizing, Actuating, and Controlling

This document provides a comprehensive understanding of the four fundamental functions of management: planning, organizing, actuating, and controlling. It explores each function in detail, providing practical examples and insights into how they are applied in a real-world business setting. The document also examines the importance of organizational culture and effective communication in achieving organizational goals. It delves into different types of organizational cultures and their impact on employee behavior and performance. Furthermore, it highlights the significance of effective communication strategies for fostering a positive work environment, resolving conflicts, and ensuring efficient information flow within an organization.

UNDERSTANDING MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
TASK 01............................................................................................................................................2
FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT...................................................................................................2
TASK 02............................................................................................................................................4
BUSINESS STRUCTURE.................................................................................................................4
TASK 03............................................................................................................................................6
ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE:.......................................................................................................6
TASK 04............................................................................................................................................8
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION.....................................................................................................8
REFERENCES:..................................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX:......................................................................................................................................11
1

TASK 01
FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT
There are four fundamental functions of management; planning, organising, actuating and
controlling. These four functions for our business are described below (Schaper, et.al. 2014):
Figure 1: Management Functions
PLANNING:
Planning involves deciding the appropriate course of action from where we are to where we
want to go. It is a systematic way of thinking of ways to reach the goal. In our business, areas
are divided among the teams equipped with necessary equipment and visit the customers on
regular basis. Cleaning stocks are provided to the teams on requirement basis. Proper track of
customer requirements is noted by each team for better services.
2

ORGANISING:
It is a process of combining different resources for the achievement of organisational goals. It
involves identification and classification of the activities, assigning duties, authority delegation,
and coordinating authority (Bateman et.al. 2011). In our business, teams are provided with the
cleaning materials and are asked to maintain the list of utilization of materials. Team leads are
asked to report to headquarter before starting and finishing the work in order to monitor the
work efficiency of the individual team. Areas in the city are divided on the basis of work
efficiency and total customer in the area.
ACTUATING:
It is an attempt to make the plan a reality, planning needs implementation in order to get the
work done. It includes staffing and directing; staffing includes planning manpower required,
selecting, training, performance appraisal and promotions. Each team in our company include a
specific number of workers, each assigned for specific tasks; each worker is trained for every
work needed in the field. Directing involves supervision, motivation and communication. Each
worker is led by a team lead, and the team lead reports to headquarter; teams are rewarded on
the basis of their performance. Each team is assigned a dedicated link to contact headquarter.
Daily performance list and checklist has to be maintained by the team leads. Activities are
performed for the workers to keep them motivated.
CONTROLLING:
Controlling is the measurement of the deviation of actual performance to the standard
performance and to take corrective action if needed. In our organisation, a standard of cleaning
is set, and workers are trained to achieve it, in addition to this, feedback forms are provided to
the customers. This helps to find the difference in the performance. Workers are trained and
motivated if the performance level is not achieved.
3

TASK 02
BUSINESS STRUCTURE
The business structure is a legal structure selected by the founders of the company; our
company uses hierarchal business structure. Each team of a specific number of workers report
to their team lead, different team leads report to the manager, and the manager reports to the
CEO. This structure provides simplicity and ease of supervising and monitoring the teams. Also,
information sharing becomes easy as everyone is assigned to report to their respective
authority.
Figure 2: Business Structure
This structure gives us the following benefits to achieve our goals:
It provides a clear chain of command, due to which employees know to whom the report to;
and who possess the authority to assign the tasks.
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CEO
Manager
Team 01
Team 02
Manager Team 03

Each team member is assigned a specific task, which makes them a specialist in their work; this
provides the customer satisfaction and thus helps to achieve the goal of the company. There is
always a chance for growth, in such structured organisation (Burton, et.al. 2012).
Our company maintains its quality service at an affordable price due to the structure it follows,
as each member is assigned a set of authority and responsibility; every member understands
the assigned responsibility. It motivates the workers to perform as there is always a chance for
promotion. It promotes employees to perform as specialists.
The goal of our company is to provide better services at affordable prices. This is achieved by
proper utilization of the resources provided to the teams. Team leads maintain a list of used
and required goods, which are daily, passed to the manager. Budget is made according to the
requirement list for the purchase of new goods.
5

TASK 03
ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE:
Organisational culture is defined by the values, policies and guidelines followed by any
organisation. The belief and principle form an organisational culture. It is essential for a
company's growth as a properly followed culture helps to create a positive workspace and the
employees to work efficiently (Schein, 2010). Handy C. proposed a model stating that an
organisation follows either one of the following cultures:
POWER CULTURE:
Here all the authority is in the hand of few people, they take the major decisions in the
company. The subordinates do not have the authority to share their views regarding any
decisions (Janićijević, 2013.).
TASK CULTURE:
People with same interest come together to achieve a target and every team member
contribute equally.
PERSON CULTURE:
In such organisations, the employees are more concerned about self rather than the goals of
the organisation; and work only for the sake of money. Eventually, the company suffers, as the
productivity is low in such culture (Nongo, 2012).
ROLE CULTURE:
In such culture, every member is assigned the task according to their interest and skills, this
helps the employees to take the task as a challenge and perform it with greater efficiency. Each
employee is responsible for their own action and in such culture, power comes with
responsibility (Ojo, 2012).
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Our organisation follows the role culture, as all the workers are assigned to do a specific task,
which makes them specialist with time, also team leads are chosen on the basis of different
skills in an employee. Such culture develops the loyalty within the employees, for the
management; they feel more connected to the management thus contribute more to the
growth of the organisation. Healthy competition exists in our company, employees perform at
their best to earn recognition, and this increases the quality of work.
Pre-defined policies guide the employees and provide them with a sense of direction; in our
organisations, teams have workers from a different background, which are united together due
to the work culture in our company, this helps in maintaining a healthy relationship among the
employees. All this creates a positive work environment in which employees feel motivated and
perform at their best.
Proper guidelines are provided to the team, and each team member understands his/her roles
and responsibility, this helps them to complete their tasks prior to the deadline. Our company’s
culture defines its identity and the quality provided by the team to the customers contributes
to the brand image.
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TASK 04
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Figure 3: Effective Communication
Source: http://www.edukart.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/internal-
communication-plan.jpg
Effective communication is the backbone of an organisation's success. It helps the manager to
perform his basics tasks like planning, organising controlling etc. It may be in written or oral
form according to the need of the company (Turner, 2010).
Our organisation follows different ways to communicate with the employees, in order to
maintain a positive environment in the organisation; those are:
Two-way communication strategies are used in our company, which not only helps in
communicating the decisions to the employees but also gives them a chance to be a part of
decision making, Many decisions in the company are taken by considering the feedback from
the employees and customers. This increases the trust and loyalty of the customers and the
employees as they feel more connected to the organisation.
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Communication in our company is result oriented; team leads daily submit the checklists
having the information and usage of the goods, which help the managers to provide them with
the good before their next customer visit.
The company focuses on listening, for better understanding and to obtain a productive result
from the communication, both the employee and the employers should be a good listener. This
way it helps the decision makers to better understand the employee's point of view and can
know about the ground level requirement. This helps the manager to better understand the
employee and can apply the different theory of motivation when needed.
Each team in the company has a specific goal; to provide quality service to the employees,
keeping in mind their preference if any. All the team members have a clear understanding of
their role and goal of the company and are reminded time to time via gathering and messaging.
Effective communication is also required to sort out the conflicts within the employees, and
improper communication in an organisation leads to stress, anger and poor performance, which
is unprofitable for the employee and the company (Barker, 2010). In addition to this, it results
to lack of information within the company, which degrades the performance, as in our case,
lack of communication between team lead and manager results in a shortage of cleaning goods
at the team end, thus reducing the overall quality of cleaning and failure in achieving the
company quality index. This is the reason why above mentioned effective communication is
used in our company for achieving the goal of the organisation.
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REFERENCES:
1. Barker, R.T. and Gower, K., 2010. Strategic application of storytelling in organizations:
Toward effective communication in a diverse world. The Journal of Business
Communication (1973), 47(3), pp.295-312.
2. Bateman, T.S. and Snell, S., 2011. Management: Leading & Collaborating in a
competitive world.
3. Burton, R.M. and Obel, B. eds., 2012. Design models for hierarchical organizations:
computation, information, and decentralization. Springer Science & Business Media.
4. Janićijević, N., 2013. The mutual impact of organizational culture and
structure. Economic annals, 58(198), pp.35-60.
5. Nongo, E.S. and Ikyanyon, D.N., 2012. The influence of corporate culture on employee
commitment to the organization. International Journal of Business and
Management, 7(22), p.21.
6. Ojo, O., 2012. Influence of organizational culture on employee work
behaviour. International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies, 3(11), pp.46-57.
7. Schaper, M.T., Volery, T., Weber, P.C. and Gibson, B., 2014. Entrepreneurship and small
business.
8. Schein, E.H., 2010. Organizational culture and leadership(Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.
9. Turner, T., Qvarfordt, P., Biehl, J.T., Golovchinsky, G. and Back, M., 2010, April. Exploring
the workplace communication ecology. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on
human factors in computing systems (pp. 841-850). ACM.
1.
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APPENDIX:
FIGURE NUMBER SOURCE
Figure 1: Management Functions
Figure 2: Business Structure
Figure 3: Effective Communication http://www.edukart.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/
2013/01/internal-communication-plan.jpg
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