The PODSCORB - Assignment Example

of the paper and number submitted Contents Introduction 3 Planning 3 Leading 4 Organizing 5 Staffing 6 Controlling 6 Reference 8 Introduction The world in the 21st century is moving at a fast pace. Steady change along with tremendous growth and rapid development has resulted in the process of evolution of a completely new kind of living world for today’s masses. It is highly important to mention that the advancement of the communication technology along with the emergence of internet technology since the last decade has resulted in the evolution of a highly technology enabled lifestyle. This has resulted in a well informed & well aware customer base that constantly looks for better & upgraded products & services. The emerging style of business is therefore concentrating significantly on the efficient & systematic functioning of their organizations. For this purpose, most of the organizations follow the famous principles of management which was first established by Henry Fayol & F.W. Taylor & later on those were modified by Gullick and Lyndall (Opara & Nosike, 2012). These principles are known as The PODSCORB which includes planning, organizing, directing or staffing, coordinating, reporting or budgeting. Here we will discuss about the implementation of these principles in a real organization. Planning This article is based on the functioning of an organization were I worked previously. My previous employer was an FMCG firm which specialized in preparing herbal products. I was appointed as the marketing officer & my job was to co-ordinate between the sales team & marketing team. As strategic planning is considered to be a new aspect in the field of marketing therefore the organization trusted on the abilities of the young graduates & constantly encouraged them to take initiative for taking up responsibilities (Adams & Cunningham, 1989). The marketing team along with the sales team followed a definite plan before stepping into the market. This plan include- Discovering & defining the marketing task by the process of data collection about the customer’s needs from every possible source Then the team prepares a strategic brief that includes the work approach of every individual. In this part, every individual is given a territory from where they will find information about the customers, competitors & the market as a whole. Each person is given the objective of brand positioning among its target market. This task is delegated to the sales team. In this phase the team concentrates on creative & media part. The development of advertisements & their display zone is decided in this stage. The marketing people are basically focused on for this activity. The ad ideas are presented to the clients in this stage. This is an experimental way to find out why & how the customers react to certain ads. The final stage included follow-up & evaluation where the desired outcome is measured with the achieved results & any gaps are assessed carefully to avoid the same error to take place in future. Leading The leading or directing function were carried out by the sales & marketing managers. The conventional ways of leadership describes it as an activity of supervising & controlling the followers. However modern day management considers a leader as a mentor who guides the trainees & rectifies the mistakes made by them. It is a deliberate influence exerted by an individual over his subordinates to assist them in activities within an organization (Karp & Thomas, 2009). The managers used to take feedback everyday from those who used to visit the market & then me & my team was instructed to prepare a plan for their next day’s activity. Any kind of grievance among the team members was skillfully managed by those leaders & there used to be a participative style of management where each one shared their opinion, suggestion, complaints with the managers. The managers used to direct the team as well as support & guide them by teaching them various sales tactics. Handling customer objections was a crucial part of the sales function which the sales manager handled carefully & in many cases he used to address the objections personally without hurting the customer’s ego. Organizing The organizing model is generally used in two terms- A model which supports excellent union practice that encourages the members to grow by upgrading or extending association at the workplace level. A measure to revive the social movement origins of labor, essentially by reforming the union & considering it as a mobile composition that motivates activism among the members and gives rise to workplace campaigns and workplace justice (Byford, 2011).  Thus it can be concluded from both the definitions that organizing function mainly deals with the employees & the workplace where they work. In the present scenario it should be mentioned that the organization where I worked had a poor organizational structure. After a full month’s hard work, when the time for salary payment used to arrive, the employees used to get upset because of the delay. The sales people had to go through several formal steps to get their incentives & travelling allowance. It was pretty much insulting for the workers as waiting for the price of their hard work was really very frustrating. Also the accounts department constantly faced the issue of employee turnover due to which the all over function of the organization used to get disrupted. The hierarchy of the organization was based on a divisionalized form where standardization of products & vertical decentralization was followed. As a result, the products lacked innovation & were considered by the customers as a substitute of a competitive product. The company limited the ad campaigns & increased the sales target instead, which posed as a tremendous pressure for the workforce (Lunenburg, 2012). Staffing The staffing phase includes the recruitment & selection procedure of the organization. The primary objective of staffing is to make sure that the organizational positions are filled by eligible & experienced personnel who are willing & able to take up the responsibilities delegated to them (Weihrich & Koontz, n.d.). It was already mentioned that the staffing function was much unorganized in the mentioned enterprise & as a result the company suffered from great amount of absenteeism & employee turnover. The training facilities were not adequate in spite of having great managers to guide. The human resource department’s function was only restricted to recruitment. The CEO of the firm considered training as a cost & therefore he supported the technique of hands on experience due to which the company lacked a skilled set of sales people. As a result it suffered from huge losses & poor growth rate. There was grievance among the staffs for insufficient payments & long working hours but the management paid no attention. The firm also lacked a proper performance evaluation method. These were the causes for the decline of the company’s sales in spite of the association of an age-old brand name with its products. Controlling The domain of the controlling function includes supervising the performance of the employees & taking required steps to ensure desired actions. The process of controlling always keeps track of the activities done & makes sure that those are performed in accordance with the organization’s goals. In the given organization, the controlling function existed in an improper infrastructure. This lead to bitterness & confusions as the way of controlling the employees was too much directive & authoritative. The employees were threatened to be sacked in case of non- achievement of targets. This strict structure de motivated the employee’s mindset & scared them. In general the controlling process includes the following steps- 1. Setting performance standards & objectives 2. Measuring the actual performance 3. Comparing actual performance with desired outcome 4. Taking necessary steps to prevent the further occurrence of the errors All these steps were never followed by the management of the discussed firm. They usually remained content by setting the standards & then comparing those. The necessary actions always meant punishment like salary reduction or increased target for the next month. As a result, most of the efficient employees felt in secured & left their job before the management could ask them to leave. Thus it is evident from the entire procedure of planning, leading, organizing, staffing & controlling that it is necessary to coordinate the tasks keeping in mind the organizational objectives. Also an organization can only be successful with a motivated, organized & skilled workforce & for that sufficient cost must be incurred. Reference Adams, D. C & Cunningham, W.H J. (1989) Performance: a function of planning Planning: a function of size. (Ashford University ed.) Canada: Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Karp, T. & Thomas I.T.H. (2009) Leadership as identity construction: the act of leading people in organisations: A perspective from the complexity sciences. (Ashford University ed.) UK : Emerald Group Publishing, Limited Byford, I. (2011) The effectiveness of the organising model in higher education. (Ashford University ed.) UK : Emerald Group Publishing, Limited Lunenburg, F.C. (2012) Organizational Structure: Mintzberg’s Framework. Retrieved from http://www.nationalforum.com Weihrich, H & Koontz, H. (n.d.) Major Principles or Guides for the Managerial Functions of Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Leading, and Controlling. Retrieved from http://www.usfca.edu Opara, J.A. & Nosike, A.N. (2012) UNIVERSALITY OF MANAGEMENT IN A GLOBAL AGE: A PERSPECTIVE ON MANAGERIAL PHILOSOPHY. Retrieved from http://indusedu.org Read More