Introduction to Management

INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The presented report is an introduction to management where the various managerial aspects are discussed. The report initiates with an understanding of management structures and business functions. It discusses marketing functions and their role in the success of the organisation. It also evaluates different management functions, their interlink and role in organisational success. At last, the report throws light on talent management in an organisation and organisational cultures and their impact.

INTRODUCTION

The presented report is an introduction to management and its various aspects. The report will start with developing an understanding of the different forms and functions of the business, management functions and their needs, the role of marketing in business success and human resources in organisational culture. In the words of Harold Koontz, management is an art which lets getting the things done through others in formally organized groups (Drucker and Koontz, 2016).

MANAGEMENT STRUCTURES AND BUSINESS FUNCTIONS

An organisational structure provides an outline to the business covering the activities of a business leading to the achievement of the organisational goals. Such activities comprise of roles, responsibilities and processes with a rational link (D?wigo?, 2017). There are various management theories developed to build an understanding of the management like classical management theory, scientific management theory, administrative management theory, etc. The scientific management theory has been developed by Frederick Taylor in 1911 under which focus is put on the maximization of productivity with scientific approaches. Taylor believed in scientific management as a solution to business problems. The administrative management theory was developed in 1916 by Henry Fayol based on his personal experiences as a senior manager. His theory provided six functions and fourteen principles of management which are relevantly used today as well in large organisations (Nadrifar et al., 2016).

The organisational structures of a business identify the format of division and assignment of the organisational activities. There can be various organisational structures like entrepreneurial, divisional, functional, matrix, etc.

• Entrepreneurial structure: It is a simple and most common structure comprising of top-level (owners) and lower level (employees). It is significantly centralised, informal and directly supervised (WMP, 2019).

• Divisional structure: A divisional structure is found where management of various products, projects or markets is to be made. The different autonomous units governed separately comprise such structure (Chron, 2020).

Merits	Demerits
Such a structure helps assist the addition of new projects, products or market to the business (Chron, 2020). Example: They business intends of entering into an exclusive new field. Such new business can be easily adopted as there is it will be a totally new division with no impact on the existing divisions.	This structure is very expensive as a whole new set of management, infrastructure and other aspects are required for each division (Chron, 2020). Example: Each of the division needs a separate set of structure, be such division profitable or not, new or old.

BUSINESS FUNCTIONS AND THEIR ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

According to Picincu (2019), business functions refer to such processes which assist in the appropriate performance of an organisation. Here are the roles and responsibilities of different business functions:

• Sales and marketing: This function is responsible for the promotion of business and creating and retaining customers with the final aim of enhancing sales (Picincu, 2019).

• Human resource management: This function is responsible for recruiting talent in the organisation and retaining them by the management of employee relations (Picincu, 2019).

• Accounting and finance: This function deals with the overall finances including taxation, customer invoicing and business financial performance (Picincu, 2019).

MARKETING FUNCTION AND ORGANISATIONAL SUCCESS

Importance of marketing for a business cannot be ignored while determining the success of a business. The ultimate impact of marketing is brand awareness, growth of sales, enhancement of business and engagement of customers (Gross, 2019). It cannot be denied that what is seen is sold. The marketing function has a key role in attracting customers to the business and retaining them. It gives the customers a reason to prefer the products or services of the organisation over others’. It attracts the customers and keeps them engaged with the business even before they buy the products or services.

The bottom line of any business is to generate maximum revenue and that cannot be done without appropriate marketing in the present era of robust competition. Forty asserts marketing to be more like food than medicine (Gross, 2019). A business must survive first and then flourish. Happy customers are the key to organisational success. Marketing enables building a healthy relationship with sothe customers. It is not a one-time activity, rather an ongoing process. It helps to make the customers stay loyal to the business. New customers alattract to a properly marketed business and efficient marketing helps in retaining them to succeed (Gross, 2019).

Unlike previously, marketing is not much expensive. Social media and mouth publicity have been presenting a key role in marketing the business. Marketing communicates the value proposition of the business to its customers. It inspires them to get attached to the business. It is a fundamental trait of all the successful businesses to never stop marketing. This shallow-cost activity leads to great profits to the business. Thus, the importance of marketing in making the organisation flourish cannot be overlooked.

MANAGEMENT FUNCIONS AND ORGAMNISATIONAL SUCCESS

Henri Fayol, popularly recognized as the founder of modern management method, classified managerial functions in five categories. According to him, for managing, it is needed to forecast and plan, organize, command, coordinate and control (Teke, 2020). Here are the roles and responsibilities of such five functions:

• Planning: This function is responsible for making the managers plan and forecast for the future activities of the organisation keeping in mind the ultimate goals and any uncertainty which may arise. This function shapes strategies for the upcoming period (Teke, 2020).

• Organising: This function is responsible for the organisation of the workforce and aligning them to the organisational goals by providing them with the required resources (Teke, 2020).

• Commanding: This function supervises the lower managerial levels and employees by delegating them their powers, communicating them their goals and maintaining their consistency with the organisational policies (Teke, 2020).

• Coordinating: This function has the role of making apt coordination in the organisation with proper communication (Teke, 2020).

• Controlling: To ensure that the commanding and coordinating functions are in place, the activities of personnel are controlled under this function (Teke, 2020).

INTERRELATION OF MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS

The managerial functions performed by the management are not mutually exclusive. They all are interlinked and dependent on each other. The managerial functions go hand in hand and work in the background while any of them is in process. For example, while organizing the personnel, coordination and control are never abandoned. The managers are even mentioned as coordinators or coaches in various organisations. The managerial functions together utilize the different resources like capital, human, materials, etc. to attain competitive advantage and organisational goals. Proper coordination between all the managerial functions helps in succeeding. For operational efficiency and effectiveness, proper integration and coordination of planning, organizing, leadership and controlling aspects are a must (Singh et al., 2020).

HR AND TALENT MANAGEMENT

Human resource (HR) management deals with the life cycle of the employees and administering their benefits. It primarily supports the employees in the organisation. Its role begins with the recruitment of the appropriate talent in the organisation, process the payrolls, perform disciplinary actions, maintain the HR policies, keep employee records and conduct benefit analysis (Lucidchart, 2020). To flourish, each organisation seeks the best talent. Thus, a business must value its employees and effort to retain them. Talent management is practised globally by organisations to achieve a competitive advantage over others with the help of personnel capital (Claus, 2019). Talent management is considered to be the lifeline of business success. Organisation’s success and viability depend on the talent acquired and utilised by it. The profits are aimed to be maximized by investing in a group of highly productive employees with good potential. Such investment can assure dynamic results as the performance outcome.

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND ITS IMPACT

Organisational culture is defined by Agwu as a set of values, beliefs and rules which impact the thoughts, feelings and behaviour in the workplace. It is characterized as collective, emotional, historic, symbolic and dynamic. The organisational culture can have two dimensions, i.e. participative and manipulative. In the participative culture, employees seek self-esteem and maintain peaceful relations with others, while in a manipulative culture, employees seek to attain their desires by any means (Odor, 2018).

The organisational culture can either be weak or strong, depending on the adaptation of the culture by the employees. A strong culture is where all the employees align to the agreed pattern of behaviour accepting it as a culture, whereas a weak culture is where the values, beliefs and rules of the organisation are not appreciated and followed. A positive strong culture helps achieve the organisational goals while weak culture disturbs the progress (Odor, 2018).

CONCLUSION

The presented report was an introduction to management which addressed management structures and business functions and their responsibilities. It also covered marketing functions and their role in the success of the business. Further, the report consisted of management functions, their responsibilities and role in organisational success. At last, talent management and organisational culture were discussed.

REFERENCES

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