Planning as a Management Function - Essay Example

A manger is a person who supervises and harmonizes the activities of his subordinates to ensure achievement of the organizational objectives efficiently and effectively. A manager of any company leads from the front. The four dominant functions of a manager are planning, organizing, controlling and leading. (Barnett 2006). The objective of this paper is to shed light on the lack of managerial skills of a particular supervisor who failed to productively lead his supervisors towards attaining the goals of the organization. The paper will also explain the essential skills that a manager should have to be successful. The supervisor I am going to write about is the person whom I used to report while working as a marketing executive in the marketing department of a company. This particular manager lacked all essential managerial skills. The most fundamental skill a manager should have is the ability to lead a team. This particular manager seriously lacked this skill. I am now going to explain all the requisite skills a good manger should have in relationship to the manger I used to work under who gravely lacked all those skills. Planning is definitely the first step in attaining an objective. It can be defined as setting goals and determining a course of action for attaining those goals. A manger must take the available resources, time and objectives into account while planning. A successful planning can not be formulated without a lucid understating of the competitive environment. Furthermore, planning also requires allocation of resources and time for implementation of the plan. This particular manager had a total lack of skill in planning. For example, the marketing department was given a yearly budget of US$ 5 million for carrying out marketing and promotional activities. It was then the responsibility of the Marketing Department to allocate the resources for electric media advertising, press advertising and so forth. But surprisingly my manager allocated an equal amount for all marketing activities. I think this way of distribution of resources really catastrophic for the company. My manager did not do any strategic or tactical planning for the set goals. The manager also did not formulate any contingency plan. At the end of the year, the sale of the company fell off by 12% even though the sale of the particular industry increased by 20%. This result did not come to me as a surprise as it is exactly what I could foresee when my manager "planned" the company's marketing activities at the beginning of the year. In think, planning is done so that a goal can be attained effectively using the least amount of available resources. An ideal manager would have certainly considered the objectives the company wanted to acquire. He then would have allocated resources for the gaols accordingly. But setting a realistic goal and rational allocation of resources can never ensure success. Constant monitoring of activities has to be conducted. Assessment of the actions should also be done from time to time. Organizing calls for development of a structure of the company matching the objectives of an organization. A manger also has to place personnel so that the objectives of the organization can be successfully achieved while organizing. The right person has to be in the right place. A good manager knows about the strengths and shortcomings of his subordinates. A visionary manager knows who is good at what and then places his subordinates accordingly considering his strength. But deplorably my manager proved himself as awful in organizing as in planning. My manger obviously lacked people skill. Neither did my manager know how to communicate his ideas to others nor was he interested to listen to what others might have to say. Free flow of information sharing is a must for success. Not surprisingly, my manager failed to place the tight person in the right place. Consequently, there always was a credibility gap between the manager and other staffs. Leadership can and does make a meaningful in every aspect of a company. "The dynamism of the business environment requires leadership that continuously assesses the external environmental for the purpose of identifying and creating opportunities and lessening potential threats to the organization."(Hickman 1998) The most significant quality of a manager is certainly leading. The success of a team unquestionably depends on good leadership. A good leader takes every step thoughtfully. A manager plays a wide range of roles as the leader in the organization namely informational role, decisional role and so forth. A good manger applies his problem solving skill at the time of crisis. The manager moves his whole team towards the set goal effectively and efficiently. A manager continuously supervises his employees' activities to ascertain that the expected result is achieved And he or she act as mentor to his subordinates. To put it briefly, a good manager has to have the natural charisma to persuade, motivate and guide his subordinates. But my manger did not have the skills that a manager should have. He did not know how to inspire his staffs. My manger barely ever supervised the activities of the employees in our department. Consequently, some employees used to evade their responsibilities. The manager totally failed to maintain discipline in the department that lead to a disorganized situation. Despite being the manger of a marketing department, he was least keen to know about the changing business environment and competitive activities. "Leading involves influencing others toward the attainment of organizational objectives." (Barnett 2006). An ideal manager would have tried to influence the employees for attainment of the goals efficiently as well as effectively. The controlling activity of a manger is of supreme importance for successful accomplishment of organizational goals. If an active control system is not in place, the entire department may fall into complete disorder. Monitoring of the activities of the employees has to be done on regular basis to ascertain that activities are being carried out in line with the set goals. If there is any divergence, required changes should be made. My manager was also very bad at controlling. He had no control over the employees. Controlling was turned into manipulation by this manager. An efficient manager knows how to allocate his time. He knows how to priorities his works for better controlling. An ideal manger would have been established a clear line of communication to ascertain that performance meets the required standards. References Barnett, T. (2006) Management Functions. Hickman, G. R. (1998). Leading organizations: Perspectives for a new era. CA: Sage Publications Inc., P 2 Read More