Functions of management: Key responsibilities for organizational success

Whether you're a new graduate or a workplace veteran doesn't matter. Understanding the basic functions of management is essential to prepare you for future opportunities. 

We'll explain the four core functions in management – planning, organizing, leading, and controlling – and how you can apply them in your current role. Here are the topics that we'll cover: 

• Managing: What are the four functions of management? 
• Planning: Setting the course for success 
• Organizing: Structuring for efficiency 
• Leading: Guiding and motivating teams 
• Controlling: Ensuring employees help meet organizational goals 
• Adding other management functions 
• Developing management skills for career growth 
• Mastering management functions for organizational success 
• FAQ. 

Managing: What are the four functions of management? 

Management functions are the foundations that an organization believes are important to reach its goals. These functions include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, also known as the POLC framework. Managers often use this framework to guide their team, regardless of its size. 

Management theorist Henry Mintzberg identified 10 managerial roles that fall into three categories: 

• Interpersonal: These are usually leadership roles that also function as company figureheads. 
• Informational: People in these roles often share information or act as spokespersons for the company. 
• Decisional: Managers in these roles often make big decisions for the company, as entrepreneurs or CEOs may. 

Following the POLC framework can help steer you through different corporate settings, no matter what management role you decide to take on. These environments can also include navigating cultural sensitivities such as pakikisama (harmony) and hiya (social propriety), which you may face as a manager. Let's explore the framework's aspects and what each means. 

Planning: Setting the course for success 

Planning is an essential aspect of effective management. It includes developing and setting goals for your team and outlining the actions they can take to achieve these goals. Good planning can help you adapt to a changing economy. Here are three different types of planning you may have to take on as a manager: 

• Strategic planning: This includes planning for the long term while aligning your goals with changing market trends. 
• Tactical planning: This type of planning is mid-level and often used to carry out strategic actions to achieve goals, such as a marketing campaign to increase profits. 
• Operational planning: Operational planning includes managing your team's day-to-day workload, such as setting a restaurant staff schedule. 

The planning process 

Here's a guide to the planning process: 

• Define your objectives: Outline what you want your team to achieve. Objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound, and fit the company's mission and values. 
• Analyze the current situation: Use tools such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis, or examine market trends and regulations to understand your opportunities and challenges. 
• Identify resources: Determine what's needed to achieve your goals. This may include outsourcing work or hiring employees. 
• Develop your action steps: Develop and carry out the tasks to hit these goals and ensure everyone understands their responsibilities and deadlines. 
• Monitor and revise: Track your team's performance regularly and revise your plan when needed. 

Organizing: Structuring for efficiency 

Organizing is important. It helps divide your resources efficiently to prevent waste and encourage productivity. There are three core elements to organizing: 

• Division of labor: This refers to forming departments and dividing responsibilities by function. This helps teams focus on their work and increases productivity and efficiency. 
• Chain of command: Establishing a proper chain of command helps set clear reporting structures that your team can stick to. This creates an orderly workplace while encouraging a flow of information through different organizational levels. 
• Span of control: This relates to how many employees a manager can oversee effectively. While a narrower span allows for better communication and supervision, a broader one can encourage autonomy. 

These are also three different types of organizational structures that you may find in companies: 

• Functional: You can often find functional structures in a corporate setting. Examples include human resources, business development, and marketing. 
• Matrix: Tech consultancies often use a matrix structure, where workers may report to several managers and work with different teams. 
• Flat: A flat hierarchy, which has grown more popular recently, is usually found in startups to encourage open communication and innovation. 

These structures are common but not absolute due to cultural nuances such as familial ties. 

Leading: Guiding and motivating teams 

True leadership extends beyond managing a team; it involves motivating and guiding your team toward shared aims and goals. Good leaders have strong emotional intelligence, or EQ, and can empathize and communicate effectively with their team, improving employee relations and morale. Good leadership often includes the following skills: 

• Motivation: As a leader, it's important to motivate your employees to give the company their best. This can include recognizing hard work where it's due and helping them grow professionally and personally. 
• Communication: Good leaders often have strong communication skills. They're able to stay respectful and sensitive to various cultures while communicating with their team. 
• Inspiration: Effective leaders often inspire others to work toward a company's mission and values while setting an example for their employees. 

Leadership styles 

Here are the most common types of leadership styles you may see in a company: 

• Transformational: Transformational leadership inspires positive change. Leaders connect emotionally with employees, enabling them to innovate and create positive change. You can often find this type of leadership in social enterprises or startups. 
• Transactional: Transactional leadership involves using rewards and punishments to motivate and direct employees. This often follows a clear chain of command and is usually found in large organizations and multinational corporations. 
• Servant leadership: Servant leadership is a style that emphasizes employees' growth and well-being. Servant leaders follow a philosophy of leading by serving others and guide their teams through action. 

A leader needs to have EQ; leaders with high EQ usually lead their teams well, thanks to their ability to empathize and form good interpersonal connections. You can usually find this in servant leadership. Leaders with a high EQ also help to improve team morale and behavior, leading to better team performance and business results.

Controlling: Ensuring employees help meet organizational goals 

Controlling is a vital management function that helps businesses grow. It focuses on performance tracking to ensure the team meets its objectives and finds ways to improve processes. Controlling includes setting key performance indicators, tracking progress, and making necessary adjustments. The steps in the control process are below. 

• Set performance standards: Setting clear goals for your team before any campaign or work starts is important. These may cover quality benchmarks, sales targets, or customer satisfaction scores. 
• Measure performance: Once the team starts work, you can begin tracking and measuring its performance. This can include reviewing analytical tools or conducting audits. 
• Compare actual vs. planned performance: You should compare your team's performance to the goals you set. Comparing performance can help you identify your plan's successes, challenges, or areas for improvement. 
• Take corrective action: Take steps to correct any challenges or areas you may improve. This can include training your employees or revising your targets. 

Types of control 

We list several types of control below: 

• Feedforward: Feedforward control uses tools to prevent issues, such as sending employees for training before starting a new project. 
• Concurrent: Concurrent control checks work performance while it's happening, such as using real-time analytics. This also allows you to identify any deviations from the plan and correct them promptly. 
• Feedback: Feedback usually happens after the work itself and includes giving the team tips on improving, usually during performance reviews. 

Managers often use performance reviews because they help to manage and assess their team's work. This ensures that your team's activities align with the company's plans and objectives and can achieve the goal. Effective controlling also allows for continuous improvement, leading to the team's personal and professional growth. 

Adding other management functions 

The POLC framework comprises the four main management functions. Others complement, support, and enhance those functions to form a holistic management approach, which includes the functions described below. 

Staffing 

Staffing is a crucial management function that includes finding the right person to perform the task. This is especially important in high-demand industries, such as health care, construction, and information technology. Effective staffing allows you to find the right employees to achieve organizational objectives and lead the company's growth and success. 

Staffing includes tasks such as the following: 

• Recruiting and selecting the right staff for the role 
• Developing current employees to learn the skills for a new role 
• Improving employee churn by using retention strategies 
• Mapping competency and staff alignment to identify employees' strong and weak points. 

Coordinating 

Coordination ensures that everyone works together to achieve shared goals. This is especially important in companies with cross-functional teams and remote working, where miscommunication can easily happen. 

Coordinating includes: 

• sharing information so that cross-functional teams receive consistent and accurate information 
• sequencing tasks to make sure they're executed in the right order 
• bridging any gaps between departments to ensure they build strong relationships and collaborate effectively. 

Reporting 

Reporting is a function that keeps your team accountable for their tasks while tracking their progress. It assists with transparent communication so that other teams can make informed decisions based on your team's achievements and progress. These are some common tools you can use for reporting: 

• Spreadsheets: In a smaller company, you can easily use spreadsheets to key in data and send it to various departments. 
• Business intelligence tools: Technologically advanced companies may use business intelligence tools, such as Tableau and Power BI, to understand data in real time. 
• Project management systems: You may find tools such as Trello and Asana in tech companies. These tools track a team's progress in projects so that you can identify any bottlenecks. 

Budgeting 

Budgeting is a key management function that includes planning and distributing financial resources to meet company goals while making a profit. This helps maintain daily operations while ensuring the company is still growing. 

Budgeting includes tasks such as the following: 

• Forecasting future revenue based on historical data and market trends 
• Planning expenses to ensure that operations stay under budget 
• Dividing resources based on business priorities and functional needs 
• Tracking actual vs. planned expenses and adjusting the budget accordingly. 

Developing management skills for career growth 

Here are some tips to learn management skills and grow your career. 

Develop key skills 

Developing skills under each management function can prepare you for a future role and set you up for success in your current career. This is a breakdown of the skills you can develop under each management function: 

• Planning: Strategic thinking and goal-setting 
• Organizing: Time management and resource allocation 
• Leading: Communication and EQ 
• Controlling: Data analysis and performance tracking. 

There are several ways you can develop these skills, such as formal education (e.g, getting a master's degree), achieving certifications, and taking online courses. Another good way to develop these skills is to learn on the job. You can work with other departments to pick up communication skills, or rotate roles to learn about new tech. You could also enter a mentorship program, partnering with a business mentor to guide you. 

Mastering management functions for organizational success 

Learning and developing these basic functions of management and skills is crucial to advancing your career. They're guidelines that can help you grow and tools that direct daily operations, team development, and business strategy to improve an organization. 

Understanding these functions can enhance your standing in a competitive job market. Start developing your skills in these functions today, and become the manager you want to be in the future. 

FAQ 

These are some of the most frequently asked questions about applying management functions in real-world settings. 

1. How do companies typically structure their organizational hierarchy for the greatest efficiency? 
   ⁠Most large Filipino companies have a strong hierarchical structure, where power resides in the hands of a few senior managers. However, some Western business practices have begun to appear, and trained middle managers are growing in influence, encouraging collaboration and flexibility. 
2. What are the most effective leadership styles in Filipino business culture? 
   ⁠In modern times, transformational, authoritative, and servant leadership are the most effective since they foster a culture of creativity, adaptability, and resilience. 
3. How do the four main management functions interact and support each other in practice? 
   ⁠Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling work collectively to achieve business goals. Planning sets the objective and direction, organizing places resources where needed, leading inspires the team to execute, and controlling ensures that the team is hitting their aims and goals. 
4. What are the current trends in strategic planning among top companies? 
   ⁠Many CEOs are looking to invest in new social and environmental opportunities and prioritize digital transformation by adopting the latest technology. One example is developing and enhancing digital payment platforms with more payment options to make it more accessible to the public. Companies are also heavily investing in artificial intelligence (AI) for many areas in the buesiness: managing HR processes, employee training, customer service, and more.
5. How does the organizing function contribute to employee productivity in workplaces? 
   ⁠The organizing function applies resources to the right roles and sets proper direction and responsibilities, helping to increase output in specialized areas. 
6. What are the key challenges leaders face in motivating teams in the business environment? 
   ⁠Some of the most common challenges that leaders face when motivating employees include employee engagement, tailoring the inspiration to each employee, and cultivating the team's positive mental health. 
7. How do Filipino companies measure and assess performance as part of their controlling function? 
   ⁠Companies measure and rate performance by setting performance metrics and KPIs and then watching the metrics closely through case reviews, audits, and feedback. 
8. What emerging management functions are gaining importance in modern businesses? 
   ⁠In recent years, businesses are focusing more on employee engagement and motivation and digital transformation. Some companies also address sustainability reporting. 
9. What are the most in-demand management skills in the current job market? 
   ⁠Some of the most common and in-demand management skills are time management, communication, leadership, negotiation, problem-solving, and strategic planning.