Functions of Management, Directive Path Theory - Case Study Example

Letter: Functions of Management al Affiliation) MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS AMANDA SMITH REF: MANAGEMENT RECCOMENDATIONS Dear Amanda, First is to appreciate you for your efforts to start a new business. Being a Certified Public Accountant has made you a professional in your area of specialization. The growth of your business shows all your expertise and entrepreneurial skills. Your decision to have Lisa as your first employee was quite good since you two have been close for a long time. Increasing the number of workers as the business grew was a major strategy. However, you did not put some of the management functions in place. It was the reason for the business failures as the business grew in size. The management skills, which accrue to a business’s success that you did not put into consideration, include controlling, planning, organizing, and directing skills that accrue to a successful business. Directing: One of the reasons that affected the business’ success was your directive skills. According to your business statistics, you employed Lisa and entrusted her with all the business operations. Irrespective of you two being friends for a long time, you should not have trusted her with all the directive orders. She would report to work, wash the office and tidy up then start her daily chores. This was a lot for her and what she had not expected. She had to check all the tax forms and serve all the customers. For a business to be successful and achieve the goals and objectives, it should ensure a proper channel of communication between the workers (Richman 2012). Lisa had confidence that she was doing the right thing even after adding the three new employees. You should have controlled all of them since you are the senior manager. You should have given your orders to the employees in case of any changes, which should have been directly, or indirectly through According to Directive Path Theory, a business leader should give freedom to his/his employees for them to realize their job expectations. In reference to the theory, your management should do a follow up on employees’ tasks to ensure that they achieve the required job standards and set goals. Remarkably, members of the management are required to involve the subordinate staff in the process of making strategic decisions. You should have involved your employees in decision-making processes that would have helped produce effective workplace union. Employees can also motivated by awarding them accordingly after excellent progress in their work. Awards can be through issuing of presents and souvenir just as you did in your case. Additionally, you did not put your supervisions skills into consideration hence led to your employees taking advantage of the situation. As for Lisa’s case, she would not let you down due to your close relationship but the other employees would due to lack of an employee-employer relationship. It was the cause for the embezzlement of funds by your accountants. Communication is an essential measure in business management and should be employed to ensure a communication between top management and the junior staff (Richman, 2012). Communication avenues includes vertical and horizontal. In your case, you only emphasized on vertical communication. It entailed her communication skills with Lisa but not the other accountants. However, you did not consider horizontal type of communication. Good management skills allow both horizontal and vertical communication that entails an open office where communication occurs from all sides. These sides include communication from the senior management to the junior staff and the vice versa. Management should ensure an open office relationship where you allow your staff to make suggestions on issues before making decisions. Planning: On the issue of planning, you had good plans while establishing the job. You hired just one employee to cut costs that would boost the capital needed. However, according to management theories on planning, duties should be allocated to different employees who fit the job description (Certo & Certo, 2012). This strategy will help in division or specialization of labor. From this theory, different departments should be set aside to be accountable for decision made by the staff. According to research from most economists, job planning assists in job description. Job description is whereby an employee is assigned duties according to his/her qualifications and skills. In your case, you did not plan for the future and growth of the business. You did not cater for subordinate employees such as cleaners to ensure that Lisa would concentrate on the tax duty alone. Diversity of duties would not help in specialization and division of labor because Lisa would not have one duty to specialize in. However, due to your relationship, she accepted jobs, which were out of her professional profile. This played a major role in the increase in setbacks. You should have also been part of the employee vetting process since it would have provided you with an opportunity to look for efficient employees. It would not have led to the business failure later on. Controlling: Management control is the essential management function that ensures that the job standards, goals, and objectives are achieved (Lussier, 2009). It entails all the other management functions, which include planning, directing and staffing. Through control, management is able to identify the risks at an earlier stage. In your case, you were not able to identify cases of fraud at an earlier stage. With your accounting skills, the control function would have come in handy to supervise and be aware of the where about of your employees. If you had improved your communication skills, you would have known the issues affecting the employees. Organizing: This function entails allocation of the resources and having a responsible internal management structure (Dyck & Neubert, 2010). As for this function, you were organized while starting the business through employing qualified personnel. However, according to managerial theories, a good business leader is one that organizes the allocated to different duties to emphasize division of labor. You had Lisa who was your first employee then the three other employees who were also professionals vetted by Lisa. However, you should have increased the number of employees to ensure proper authority delegation, which should have emphasized on the division of labor in the firm. Recommendation: You sacrificed a lot for the success of the business and should not give up irrespective of the risks. A good entrepreneur should be always take risks. Effective consideration on the outlined functions of management will ensure that your business will be successful. It will make you adopt strategies that will help you in case of competition from other similar businesses. Yours faithfully, (Name) References Certo, S. and Certo, S. (2012). Modern management. Boston, Mass.: Pearson. Dyck, B., & Neubert, M. J. (2010). Management: current practices and new directions. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Lussier, R. N. (2009). Management fundamentals: concepts, applications, skill development (4th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western. Richman, L. L. (2012). Improving your project management skills (2nd ed.). New York: American Management Association. Read More