Definitions of Management by Different Authors
According to Henry Fayol, “To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, & to control”.
Whereas Luther Gullick has given a keyword ’POSDCORB’ where P stands for Planning, O for Organizing, S for Staffing, D for Directing, Co for Co-ordination, R for reporting & B for Budgeting.
1. PLANNING
drawing up plans of actions that combine unity, continuity, flexibility and precision given the organisation's resources, type and significance of work and future trends. Creating a plan of action is the most difficult of the five tasks and requires the active participation of the entire organisation. Planning must be coordinated on different levels and with different time horizons;
2. ORGANISING
providing capital, personnel and raw materials for the day-to-day running of the business, and building a structure to match the work. Organisational structure depends entirely on the number of employees. An increase in the number of functions expands the organisation horizontally and promotes additional layers of supervision;
3. COMMANDING
optimising return from all employees in the interest of the entire enterprise. Successful managers have personal integrity, communicate clearly and base their judgments on regular audits. Their thorough knowledge of personnel creates unity, energy, initiative and loyalty and eliminates incompetence;
4. COORDINATING
unifying and harmonizing activities and efforts to maintain the balance between the activities of the organisation as in sales to production and procurement to production. Fayol recommended weekly conferences for department heads to solve problems of common interest;
5. CONTROLLING
identifying weaknesses and errors by controlling feedback, and conforming activities with plans, policies and instructions. Fayol's management process went further than Taylor's basic hierarchical model by allowing command functions to operate efficiently and effectively through co-ordination and control methods. For Fayol, the managing director overlooked a living organism that requires liaison officers and joint committees.
The American Luther Gulick and Brit Lydnall Urwick expanded Fayol's list to seven executive management activities summarised by the acronym POSDCORB:
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| Henry Fayol |
- In the words of Henry Fayol – “To manage is to forecast and to plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate and to control”.
- According to Peter F Drucker – “Management is a multi-purpose organ that manages a business and manages managers and manages worker and work”.
- In the words of E.F.L. Brech – “Management is a social process entailing responsibility for the effective and economical planning and regulation of the operations of an enterprise, in fulfilment of a given purpose or task, such responsibility involving: (a) judgement and decision in determining plans and in using data to control performance, and progress against plans; and (b) the guidance, integration, motivation and supervision of the personnel composing the enterprise and carrying out its operations”.
According to Henry Fayol, “To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, & to control”.
Whereas Luther Gullick has given a keyword ’POSDCORB’ where P stands for Planning, O for Organizing, S for Staffing, D for Directing, Co for Co-ordination, R for reporting & B for Budgeting.
But the most widely accepted are functions of management given by KOONTZ and O’DONNEL i.e. Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling.
The Five Functions are:
1. PLANNING
drawing up plans of actions that combine unity, continuity, flexibility and precision given the organisation's resources, type and significance of work and future trends. Creating a plan of action is the most difficult of the five tasks and requires the active participation of the entire organisation. Planning must be coordinated on different levels and with different time horizons;
2. ORGANISING
providing capital, personnel and raw materials for the day-to-day running of the business, and building a structure to match the work. Organisational structure depends entirely on the number of employees. An increase in the number of functions expands the organisation horizontally and promotes additional layers of supervision;
3. COMMANDING
optimising return from all employees in the interest of the entire enterprise. Successful managers have personal integrity, communicate clearly and base their judgments on regular audits. Their thorough knowledge of personnel creates unity, energy, initiative and loyalty and eliminates incompetence;
4. COORDINATING
unifying and harmonizing activities and efforts to maintain the balance between the activities of the organisation as in sales to production and procurement to production. Fayol recommended weekly conferences for department heads to solve problems of common interest;
5. CONTROLLING
identifying weaknesses and errors by controlling feedback, and conforming activities with plans, policies and instructions. Fayol's management process went further than Taylor's basic hierarchical model by allowing command functions to operate efficiently and effectively through co-ordination and control methods. For Fayol, the managing director overlooked a living organism that requires liaison officers and joint committees.
The American Luther Gulick and Brit Lydnall Urwick expanded Fayol's list to seven executive management activities summarised by the acronym POSDCORB:
- planning: determine objectives in advance and the methods to achieve them;
- organising: establish a structure of authority for all work;
- staffing: recruit, hire and train workers; maintain favourable working conditions;
- directing: make decisions, issue orders and directives;
- coordinating: interrelate all sectors of the organisation;
- reporting: inform hierarchy through reports, records and inspections;
- budgeting: depend on fiscal planning, accounting and control.
