Management Practices Introduction - Research Paper Example

? Management Practices Introduction The management practices in an organization are of five types which are planning, leading, organizing, staffing and controlling. The paper discusses these five managerial functions in one of the most popular beverage companies in the world, Coca-Cola. These practices are vital for every manager in a company and have substantial importance for operating a business. The objective of the paper is to discuss the significance of these functions in Coca-Cola and how the company uses the management practices in the business in order to maintain and improve the performance of the employees as well as the organization. Management Practices in Coca Cola Coca-Cola is considered as one the biggest beverage companies operating in almost 200 nations. To operate in the international markets, it requires appropriate management practices in every level of the company (SAP AG, 2001). Planning Planning is the preliminary stage of any task whether it is production or launching of a new product. It is necessary for a company to plan what should be done and without proper planning, the business objectives cannot be achieved. In case of Coca-Cola, the planning stage involves development of overall strategy by keeping in mind the mission and the objectives of the company. The planning in Coca-Cola includes mapping out how precisely the company can accomplish a particular objective. One of the most significant objectives of Coca-Cola with respect to human resources is succession planning which refers to the identification, evaluation and improvement of internal employees in order to achieve a single objective i.e. prepare appropriate people for the senior management position. The succession planning procedure in Coca-Cola comprises outlining the condition of the employees and planning for management steadiness in the incident of employee turnover or departure. Similarly, the other significant objective of Coca-Cola with respect to business is marketing planning. The marketing planning is conducted in order to raise the sales of its products. The marketing planning of Coca-Cola consists of activities such as assessing the marketing environment, making competitors’ analysis, decide upon suitable and attractive advertisements, inventory planning, planning the sales staff and planning the marketing mix elements (Curd, n.d.). Leading A manager in an organization is required to lead the employee towards the planned activities in order to accomplish the organizational objectives. The leading stage in any business involves aspects such as motivating, communicating, managing and inspiring employees towards higher performance. It necessitates managers to train, assist and solve any issue of the employees while performing tasks. Leading requires the capability to establish value for the company towards the employees (Plunkett, Attner & Allen, 2011). Leading in any organization is demarcated as the procedure of motivating people so that they can contribute their best effort towards the organizational as well as team objectives. Leading managers can help employees so that they can easily fulfill their own desires and use their potential while performing tasks (Ng, 2011). Coca-Cola practices the leading function of management by providing training, on-the-job learning, and coaching to the employees. The objective of leading the workforces is to ensure that employees are provided with all necessary assistance they require for performing effectively in the company. Coca-Cola believes that the success of the company relies on the encouraged and dedicated employees. For this reason, the company provides reward to the employees. Coca-Cola offers competitive compensation and other fringe benefits in order to attract and retain the most capable employees. It helps to drive the business forward. Coca-Cola assumes the training and development activities quite seriously, as it is a part of leading the people in the organization. It constantly invests on these activities with the intention of strengthening the employee productivity (The Coca-Cola Company, 2010). Organizing Organizing is the other management practice employed by a manager in an organization. It is the procedure of providing direction to the employees in an arranged way. Organizing encompasses determining obligations and accountabilities for every employee and it ensures that the organizational policies are abided by. The planning and the organizing practices of an organization are intimately related with each other. Organizing denotes activities such as identification and arrangement of compulsory actions and consignment of tasks with authority essential to administer the people. The structure of an organization must be planned in such a way so that it becomes clear for the members about their levied responsibilities (Ritter, Wilkinson, & Johnston, 2004). In Coca-Cola, the organizational structure is designed in such a way so that it can satisfy the business objectives. It encompasses flexible organizational structure where it becomes easy to share the knowledge within the organization, efficiently. The organizational structure of Coca-Cola inspires co-operation among the employees. In Coca-Cola, the headquarters is responsible for providing direction and support to the entire business. The executive board is accountable for making any strategic decision for the organization. Other managers are responsible for their specific business specializations such as the financial officers are responsible for taking decisions regarding finance. Coca-Cola organizes the business effectively so that there can be less confusion and doubt about the job roles of the employees. The organizing practices of Coca-Cola help to remove obstacles to the performance caused owing to confusion and uncertainty in assigned tasks (The Times 100, 2012). Staffing Staffing is considered to be one of the imperative functions of management as staffing relates to the aspect of human resources in a particular company. The human resources of a company are measured to be amongst the integral factors that are supposed to contribute greatly towards the accomplishments and attainments of the company. The appropriate management of this particular practice also aids the companies in attaining competitive advantage which assists in ensuring the sustained existence of the company. The managerial practice with regard to staffing has been learnt to engage the aspect of entailing personnel or staffs within the organizational framework. This particular mentioned practice is executed or rather implemented with the help of appropriate as well as effectual selection, growth and appraisal in relation to the required human resources for the reason of filling up the allotted designations or positions concerning the intended workforce of the company (Weihrich, 1993). The practice of staffing is also known to engage certain definite rudiments such as filling the designations or specified job roles within the organizational structure and even involves maintaining the filled positions as well. This is attained by recognizing the necessities of the workforce, inventorying the accessible individuals, employing, choosing, positioning, supporting, suitably setting up the career, recompensing along with training. Staffing even relates to the actuality of developing the appropriate prospective applicants as well as the present job holders for the reason of realizing their respective tasks competently and proficiently (Weihrich, 1993). Coca-Cola is learnt to have put into application of a fresh procedure in relation to posting jobs in order to spread out its respective diversity recruitment endeavors. The company has also enhanced its degree of supervision with respect to the above mentioned phases included in the entire procedure of staffing. The company is believed to have implemented and incorporated an approach related to talent acquirement through which the company aims to plan the employment of the external applicants or staffs. The company also makes use of a centralized procedure with regard to posting of jobs with the intention to recruit internally. The mentioned processes in relation to staffing are believed to significantly assist the company to develop a varied collection of talent pool for the purpose of selection prospects all through the company (Herman, Burns, Casellas, Cooke, Knowles, Lee, & Redwood, 2012). Controlling The application or rather the purpose of controlling has been stated to be the process of ascertaining along with rectifying or modifying the conducts of the subordinates in order to make certain that the occurrences or rather the end results match with the intended plans. Controlling has been explained to be the measurement of the activities in opposition to the objectives as well as plans set by the company. This definite practice aids in identifying the presence or prevalence of an adverse deviation and also assists in developing and implementing certain actions which are believed to rectify the existing divergences. These corrective actions help in making certain of the attainments of the preset plans. However, it needs to be stated in this context that there requires to exist a planned procedure for executing this management function in a particular company (DuBrin, 2011). There is believed to be present a certain procedure of measuring the performance of Coca-Cola. In the initial stage, the purposes, targets or rather the aim of the company is designed or decided upon and is then communicated to the entire staff or the workforce from the organizational standpoint. Once the targets and the intentions are communicated, various ways of ascertaining the performance of the staff are then conducted at different stages. An assessment is conducted on a monthly basis in order to ascertain the monitoring of the execution of the communicated intentions or objectives. The monthly assessment is believed to take place at the departmental stage. Then another assessment is carried out during the middle of the year for the reason of bringing into line the aims and the purpose along with the fresh policies. This alignment is redesigned again for the reason of attaining the objectives of the company. The final assessment is learnt to be conducted at the end of the year where the definite accomplishment is matched in accordance with the or against the specified targets (Herman, Burns, Casellas, Cooke, Knowles, Lee, & Redwood, 2012) Conclusion The above made discussion helps in lucidly comprehending the imperativeness of the different management practices and the necessity of their application with regard to Coca-Cola. It can be evidently deciphered that the appropriate execution of the stated functions helps the company to attain its desired and aimed objectives along with streamlining the business operations in an effectual manner. The application of the functions in Coca-Cola helps to comprehend the significance associated with each of the management related functions. The procedure of management is believed to develop and keep up an environment which facilitates the individuals or the groups of the company to professionally attain the intended objectives. The implementation of the management functions triggers the possibility for the employees or the individuals to put in their optimum contributions towards group intentions. References Curd, M. (n.d.). Marketing Plan: Coca-Cola in 2015. Retrieved from http://www.nice-cuppa-tea.co.uk/marketingplan.pdf DuBrin, A. J. (2011). Essentials of management. United States: Cengage Learning. Herman, A. M., Burns, M. A, Casellas, G. F., Cooke, E. D., Knowles, M. F., Lee, B. L. & Redwood, R. A. (2012). First annual report of the task force. United States District Court Northern District of Georgia, pp. 1-59. Ng, L. C. (2011). Best management practices. Journal of Management Development, 30(1), pp. 93-105. Plunkett, W. R., Attner, R. F., & Allen, G. S. (2011). Management. United States: Cengage Learning. Ritter, T., Wilkinson, I., & Johnston, W. J. (2004). Managing in complex business networks. Industrial Marketing Management, 33, pp. 175-183. SAP AG. (2001). Coca-Cola goes live with global consolidation, planning, reporting and decision making using mySAP.com. Retrieved from http://www.sap.com/belux/platform/netweaver/businessintelligence/pdf/CS_Coca_Cola.pdf The Coca-Cola Company. (2010). Employment: Our people. Retrieved from http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/about-us/employment-our-people.html The Times 100. (2012). Creating an effective organisational structure. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CFAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetimes100.co.uk%2Fdownloads%2Fcoke%2Fcoke_10_full.doc&ei=IN28T5dOx8msB-7TjaYN&usg=AFQjCNFqgAt3g_6vpBLO1rsiYPHyJsvJoQ&sig2=_mSO73x7GbFii1MxovpGPg Weihrich, H. (1993). Management: Science, theory and practice. University of San Francisco, pp. 1-15. Read More