Critiquing The Functions Of Management In The Changing Environment

Classical Functions of Management

Management plays a very important role in the growth and success of the organization. There are some objectives and goals of every organization and it uses all the resources to accomplish the same. It cannot be possible without managing the activities in a proper way. There are different kind of organizations and for each of them management means something different. Management functions are specified from past some years and the same has been followed to fulfill the objectives but now some contemporary management functions have been introduced that are more beneficial when it comes to managing an organization. There are many departments that are responsible for different functions like HR, marketing and finance so in every department management is necessary for the good performance of all the activities. With the help of management, every process becomes so smooth and it becomes so easy to achieve organizational goals.

There is different type of management activities in every department and they are different from each other. Manage is responsible to handle that and manage everything in an efficient way to achieve future goals and objectives. The functions of management that have been used from a long span of time are classical functions and the changed and improved version of the same is contemporary management. There is some pre specified function in classical management and they are applicable to each and every kind of organization irrespective of the nature. In contemporary management, managerial functions are considered as a basic think that has to be done by each and every person by taking ownership of the responsibility (Teague and Roche, 2011). Every person is responsible for the management function that includes planning, organizing, leading and controlling. These functions have a great role in success of many organizations in the past and in present era also many organizations are using the same theory but as per the changing environment, the requirement of the society has been changed. Now organizations have a different environment and a changed work culture, due to that it is important to considered contemporary management theories. Contemporary management is a very broad terminology and it is not only related to the duty and responsibility of managers. Management is the part of everyone’s life and now there is no need of training to explain management. A manager can only control the operations and restrict the employees for doing something role (Kotter, 2012).

There are some fixed functions in classical theory of management and these functions are applicable to every organization. The functions are planning, organizing, leading and controlling (Wagner, 2007).

1. Planning- Planning is a function that consists of making plans for future activities to reach the goal. There are different types of strategic plans as well as management plans that play a great importance in the fulfillment of objectives. All the activities are planned in this process and the steps of achieving the goals have been prepared. Planning is a very crucial step because all the other activities are wholly depends upon the planning process. In contemporary management, everything is decided as per the situation so there is no pre planned strategies and everything has been done as per the suitability of the situation (Ivanenko, 2018).
2. Organizing- Organizing means set up everything in a systematic manner. There are different resources in an organization like Raw material, human resources and the whole team of workers and it is important to organize them in the best possible manner for fulfillment of goals. Organizing activities are according to the plans that have been created in the planning process. There are two activities in organizing function. One activity is related to granting the authority to the people as decided in planning phase and the other one is assigning of work to everyone as per the expertise. Organizing is different if it comes to contemporary environment and the theories are different (Davidson, Griffin and Baxter, 2006).
3. Leading- Leading refers to the process of leading the whole group. After assigning the task, it is important to keep everyone motivated and communicate everything in a proper way. Leading in the third step of classical function of management (McClain, 2011). Leading helps in making sure that everything is going in the right direction. Sometimes, there are issues in operations so it can be easily detected with the help of leading and resolved at the same time. It helps in the efficient working of the organization. Leading is not the same in contemporary environment because people know the process of management and it helps in maintaining motivation in the organization.
4. Controlling- Controlling is a main aspect of management in classical management because after all the processing, controlling is necessary so that everything will go in the right direction. Manager is responsible for controlling the whole process. Controlling is a necessary thing to do because sometimes situation becomes out of control and everything goes against the plans. It can be wrong for the planning process as it can create an issue on the fulfillment of the goals. People nowadays know how to control the process and all the tasks (Shell, 2003)

In contemporary management, there are three levels of managers and they are responsible to handle different type of things in an organization.

1. First line managers- First line managers are responsible for handling day to day operation in an effective way to reach the goal in a short time period (Special issue of Management Accounting Research: Risk management, corporate governance and management accounting, 2006).
2. Middle manager- Middle managers are the ones who have the responsibility to give supervision to all the first line managers. It leads in optimum utilization of resources in successful achievement of goals.
3. Top level managers- Top level managers have the responsibility to guide all the middle line managers. They possess the responsibility for the performance of the organization and handle all the departments. Top managers are responsible to develop the goals and helps middle level managers (de Groot, 2006)

Contemporary management includes some other theories that are relevant as per the changing environment. These theories may vary as per the nature of the organization (Ayoko, 2016).

1. Contingency Theory- Contingency theories refer to a different approach that explains that the nature and work of every organization is different. According to this theory, circumstances of every organization are unique and different and the methodology of managing the same has to be different. It is necessary to select the best approach of management according to the situation. Contingency theories say that “there is no one best way to manage” and concentrate on the usage of some other technique of management like behavioral, scientific and quantitative. These are very helpful approaches that can easily help the manager in managing the operations of the organization in the best way. As per this contingency theory, managers are responsible for decision making process as per the situation on the spot instead of using the same approach every time (Waddell, Jones and George, 2013).
2. Systems theory- Systems theory suggests that ab organization is a mixture of some independent components that basically do coordination with each other in order to achieve organizational goals. There are four important part of organization’s operations-

• Inputs- Input refers to the resources that an organization uses to create final output like human resources, equipment, machinery and raw material.
• Transformation process- It is the process of converting inputs into outputs by applying all the technological functions and managerial approaches.
• Outputs- Output is the result of transformation process. Output can be of different nature as it can be a product, service, profit or loss. An output can be considered as input for some other organization as output can be returned to the environment or transferred to an individual for the use.
• Feedback- Feedback is very important as it is considered as a reaction that environment gives for transferring the output. Feedback helps in improving the whole process as per the customer’s requirement

This approach basically used for the interaction process of the organization with the bigger environment. There are mainly two types of system.

1. First system is considered as an open organizational system that helps in the interaction of the organization with bigger environment.
2. The second system is closed system and it is known as self- sufficient. No organization can have closed system because it is necessary to interact with the external environmental forces to survive.

Conclusion:

Contemporary management is more beneficial as per current environmental circumstances as it keeps on changing. There is no fixed function in contemporary management because the actions can be determined only at the real time situation. The direction and decisions has to be taken only when the situation is determined. Contemporary management is a very wide term and it is not fixed to the pre-defined functions. Some organizations have adopted classical management function and according to them, it is still suitable for their organization but in long run, these functions cannot help in achieving the targets. Contemporary management is dependent on the workforce as it describes that people know how to manage themselves and the tasks assigned to them.

References:

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Davidson, P., Griffin, R. and Baxter, A. (2006). Management. Milton, Qld.: John Wiley & Sons Australia.

de Groot, R. (2006). Function-analysis and valuation as a tool to assess land use conflicts in planning for sustainable, multi-functional landscapes. Landscape and Urban Planning, 75(3-4), pp.175-186

Ivanenko, ?. (2018). Bureaucratic management functions: special issues. Public management, 15(5).

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Kotter, J. (2012). Leading change. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Review Press.

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Shell, R. (2003). Management of professionals. New York: Marcel Dekker.

Special issue of Management Accounting Research: Risk management, corporate governance and management accounting. (2006). Management Accounting Research, 17(2), pp.224-225.

Teague, P. and Roche, W. (2011). Line managers and the management of workplace conflict: evidence from Ireland. Human Resource Management Journal, 22(3), pp.235-251.

Waddell, D., Jones, G. and George, J. (2013). Contemporary management. North Ryde, N.S.W.: McGraw-Hill Education.

Wagner, M. (2007). Integration of Environmental Management with Other Managerial Functions of the Firm. Long Range Planning, 40(6), pp.611-628.