The Four Functions of Management Essay

As a Naval Officer I had the opportunity to experience both leadership and management. Today's Navy operates with fewer people and resources than before. Therefore, leadership and management are more important than ever. Very early in my career I was taught leadership and as I advanced through the ranks I experienced management.

Within this assignment I will describe my understanding of the links between management and leadership, the skills and styles of management and leadership, the application of management and leadership theories in an organisational context and planning for the development of management and leadership skills.

The objective of this paper is to explain and define the four functions of management, which are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The paper will also explain how these four functions are incorporated in the fast food franchise of Hardees and Carl Jr. restaurants. Discussed are different ways the restaurant managers practice these functions for their employees, and how employees use the functions themselves. The four functions are described as essential parts of any organization. Organizations must use these functions in management in order to ensure tasks are completed in the correct order using

Management is the process of getting tasks done through the use of people. Through management decisions, our team will have one of the leading coffee shops within the BizCafe simulation. Within the management aspect of the company, we must first look at human capital, which are the skills, values, and overall output of an employee and the price at which these facets are worth. The managers of The Grind must delegate tasks through the serving staff of our company. The servers are the face of The Grind, meaning that it will be the servers who will interact to build strong customer relations with the guests of The Grind. However, there should be an efficient number of servers working on the clock at any given time throughout the day; The Grind should strive to always be properly staffed. If the shop is understaffed, customers will experience longer wait times, rushed customer interactions, and an overall subordinate experience; however, if the shop is overstaffed, each individual employee is most likely to give less production, and more importantly, our shop’s payroll will be out of proportion, meaning we will be spending too much money on labor. Wages also effect overall production from the employees. If we pay our servers too little, compared to the competition, we are likely to see less production, unhappy employees, and a large turnover rate. On the other hand, if we pay our servers too much, we risk blowing our weekly labor cap if our sales do not exceed the

According Vermeulen, most new strategies are implemented. One of the chief reason for lack of implementation of these strategies is that ‘’ new strategies’’ are usually not strategies at all. A real strategy involves a clear set of choices which define what the organization is going to execute and those which isn’t going to execute. Therefore, most strategies are never put into actions despite the ample efforts of hard-working individuals since they doesn’t represent a set of clear choices (Vermeulen, 2017). To improve your strategy you must ensure that there is a clear communication of the strategy to the implementers who are the employees as well as all the people in the enterprise. Communicating your logic will be very important in answering some of the ‘’why’’ questions that your employees have. Answering such questions will help in persuading the employees that the new strategy is valuable. For effectiveness of the strategy, it should be issued from the top down and supported from the bottom up. This means that lower-level workers must be empowered so that they can think of their own initiatives to realize the

Leading is defined and having to influence the people in the team to get the job done, molding the company and managing conflict and team communications

McDonald’s is one of the biggest companies in the world with restaurants in 119 countries and it has accomplished this extraordinary global presence through its effective management practices. McDonald’s uses a combination of Fredrik Taylor’s scientific management, Max Weber’s hierarchical structure, and Henri Fayol’s administrative principles to run its restaurants. McDonald’s has become a mechanistic organization by making its restaurant environment predictable. McDonald’s has developed set management structure and a predetermined set of procedures for running its restaurants. As a result, McDonald’s has come to resemble a machine where employees are like components of the big McDonald’s machine.

According to Friedman, a manager’s only responsibility is to the shareholders, and not society as a whole (Jennings, 111). We all agree that a manager 's primary responsibility is to the company and the shareholders. We feel that the manager’s role is to act as an agent to conduct business in congruence with the goals set by the shareholders and laws of society, effectively making profit for the company.

McDonald’s is the quintessential fast-food chain that has dominated the globe and minds of many consumers. The strategy McDonald’s has taken that has led to its domination began when Ray Kroc bought the McDonald’s name from the two brothers and franchised the company worldwide as fast as possible. One way to accommodate for this fast growth was to establish a training center, Hamburger University, that would train store managers. As a result of Hamburger University (the first of its kind), McDonald’s created a competitive advantage over other firms because it was equipped for its tremendous growth due to its well trained employees.

McDonald’s Corporation operates and franchises restaurants all over the world. We are in competitive industry of quick service restaurants that is expected to grow 22% by 2017. We are the leading global food service retailer by means of over 34,000 restaurants in more than 118 countries, serving about 50 million people daily. Total revenue in 2012 was $27.8 billion, which is over 2% increase from 2011,yet McDonalds was struggling to drive sales. Net-Income dropped from $5.5 billion in 2011 to $5.47 billion in 2012. McDonald’s success in the fast food industry comes from their main success factors which are cost efficiency, product development, and marketing. Franchising plays a huge role in McDonald’s success, where each store can be expected to bring in $ 1.7 million in annual sales. Large portion of sales comes from international markets, earning 70% of total sales. Having to overcome the death of two new CEO’s, as well high employee turnover rate and a need to expand internationally and change menus due to changing world health view. McDonalds has sought to overcome these challenges with strategic focuses of a “being better, not just bigger” and “Plan to Win.”

“Management is the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of mankind and other resources to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively (University, p 4 2011)”. The greatest achievement of an organization is to provide goods and services that customer’s value. The managerial department of an organization has the power to determine the performance of the employee’s, which directly affects the quality of the service or product that is being supplied to the customer. “Managerial tasks are essential for effective management, which involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (University, p 6 2011)”. Planning is the process of identifying the suitable goals of an organization and how they will be implemented in the company. Organizing is the procedure that determines the departments of an organization. When departments have been established the next step is to decide who will work best at a particular job. The development of organization inside a business will form the organizational structure for the company. “Leading is the ability to inspire and organize individuals to work as a team to complete the goals of the business in an efficient and effective manner (University, p 9 2011)”. Controlling is being able to assess the procedures of a company and eliminate or change any strategy plans that are not showing high- performance levels. Controlling may consist of monitoring

In today’s ever changing economy, society’s idea of management is becoming increasingly more difficult to sustain with the continuous demands of the position. A successful manager must have a certain level of expertise and problem solving techniques to carry out the daily tasks required. Over the years, there have been various ideas on what management is, such as planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

McDonalds Corporation had developed to become the leading fast-food chain of restaurants since its inception to the extent that it serves more than 47 million customers across the globe on a daily basis. The corporation is the largest global food-service retailer since it has over 30,000 local restaurants that serve approximately 52 million people in over 100 countries every day. One of the critical factors attributed to the success of McDonald's global business is operations management, which focuses on the careful control of processes that are used in manufacturing and distribution of goods and/or services.

McDonald’s has a divisional organizational structure. Each division handles a specific operational area. The aim of this organizational structure is to support autonomy and organizational flexibility. McDonald’s organizational structure has the following characteristics, arranged according to significance: Global hierarchy, Performance-based divisions, Function-based groups. Global Hierarchy covers all its operations worldwide. This feature of the organizational structure emphasizes corporate control. McDonald’s CEO, Stephen Easterbrook, directs the activities of all business areas. He passes mandates down to middle managers, and to the restaurant managers and personnel, etc. This is the typical system used in many global business organizations. McDonald’s used performance as basis for the new divisions in its organizational

Normally, management is generally known as that social process which entails the fulfillment of the given set objectives of a particular organization through effective and economical regulation and operation of the organization. The system is a dynamic process since it consists of handling of different activities and elements each time. However, these elements and activities are not like the operative functions which merely involve finance, purchasing, marketing and many more of similar type. Moreover, the activities are commonly practiced by every manger regardless of the status or the level within the chain of command. Besides, effective management always goes in hand with leadership and includes employees’ motivation, creatively solving of problems and ensuring timely completion of the organization’s goals and objectives. Therefore, this paper has critically focused on how the five management practices such as planning, leading, organizing, staffing, and controlling are implemented in my current workplace.