Leadership and Management: Reflecting on a Science Project Experience

This essay reflects on the application of the four management functions—planning, organizing, leading, and controlling—in the context of a science project. The author details their role in guiding a team of friends to success, highlighting the importance of setting objectives, allocating resources, inspiring action, and monitoring performance. While the project was ultimately successful, the essay also includes a critical reflection on areas for improvement, such as investing more time in planning, choosing a more engaging topic, and gathering more background information. The author concludes by affirming the effectiveness of these management functions in both personal and organizational settings.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Managing People and Organization Subject
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1MANAGEMENT
Introduction:
The essay focuses at an incident from life where I have used the four management
function of planning, organizing, leadership and controlling in guiding my friends in a science
project where each student is supposed to participate in some activity or other. I was also asked
by my teacher to ensure that the project is a success. However, when I look back there are
certain changes I would like to make provided I was given the opportunity of managing the same
thing. The report also put forward an account of this.
Discussion:
Planning represents the management function that involved setting of the objectives and
determination of the course of the actions for the achievement of the objectives (Coombs 2014).
Planning requires manager in remaining aware of the environmental conditions facing the
organization and forecasting the future conditions. It requires the managers to be the good
decision makers.
As a part of the planning, I tried to establish objectives along with deciding on the
alternative sources of action in case no adversity can ruin the project. After evaluation of various
alternatives, I decided on the best course of the action for the achievement of objectives. During
the project, I tried to constantly evaluate the plan and undertake corrective action for the
effective plan implementation.
Organizing focuses on the management function that involved development on the
organizational structure and allocation of the human resource for the accomplishment of the
objectives (Burke 2011). The structure of organization represents the framework for coordination
of the effort.

2MANAGEMENT
As a part of the organizing, I tried design individual responsibilities within the project
team and took decisions about the responsibilities and the duties of the individual jobs and the
way in which the duties are carried.
Leading involved the informal and the social sources of influences that one uses in
inspiring the action taken by the others (Griffin 2013). When the managers are effective leaders,
the subordinates remain enthusiastic about exerting the effort in attaining the organizational
objectives.
As a part my leadership, I tried to interact and understand the personalities, attitudes,
values and the emotions of my friend so that they are able to do justice to the roles assigned to
them.
Controlling consisted of three different steps that included establishment of performance
standards, comparison of the actual performance against the standard and undertake corrective
action whenever necessary (Vuko and Ojvan 2013).
To ensure effective control, I ensured existence of specific plans that provided required d
performance objectives and standards. It also provided me with a clear understanding of the
deviation of responsibility from the standard.
The management of the task was quite successful as we ended up in achieving the best
science project award. However, there are some areas which I would like to re organize had I
been given the opportunity of managing the same thing. This time I would plan and invest lot of
time since such projects demand more time. Although, our project has been successful but this
time I would plan differently and choose a topic that would not challenge but also develop
interest of the group thereby making its less stressful. It is also important to choose an

3MANAGEMENT
uncommon topic which was not the case previously. This time my plan would include gathering
lot of background information. As far as organizing goes, this time I would keep a up to date and
detailed note.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it can be said that the four management functions of planning,
organizing, leading and controlling are effective management functions for describing the
manager’s role be it in a personal incident of life or within an organizational setting.

4MANAGEMENT
References:
Burke, V., 2011. Organizing for excellence. Performance psychology: A practitioner’s guide,
pp.99-119.
Coombs, W.T., 2014. Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding.
Sage Publications.
Griffin, R.W., 2013. Fundamentals of management. Cengage Learning..
Vuko, T. and Ojvan, I., 2013. Controlling and business efficiency. Croatian Operational
Research Review, 4(1), pp.44-52.