Peter Drucker (1909), a management consultant, once said, “A manager is

responsible for the application and performance of knowledge.” A Manager must possess
skills and qualities to attract and influence people provide a desirable output. Most of the
sources provide five functions of a manager which are planning, organizing, staffing,
leading, and controlling. According to the article of Alfred de Grazia, a political scientist in
Greece, all executives perform broadly similar functions. The President of the United States,
like governors of the states or the Prime Minister of England, or the dictator of the Soviet
Union, does many things in common with his subordinate executives and with all men who
have headed large organizations. He is referring to POSDCORB. Luther Gulick (1937) has
classified these common tasks of the executive. The acronym POSDCoRB will provide seven
major functions of a manager that stands for planning, organizing, staffing, directing,
coordinating, reporting and budgeting.

POSDCoRB is, of course, a made-up word designed to call attention to the various
functional elements of the work of a chief executive because "administration" and
"management" have lost all specific content.

P
LANNING Planning is working out in broad outline the things that need to be done
and the methods for doing them to accomplish the purpose set for the enterprise.
Alan Klein once said “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Everything must start with
a plan. A good plan will bring the team to success. Manager must see things in a broader
perspective; pros and cons must take into consideration so that alternative plans can be
executed if the other one fails.

O
RGANIZING is the establishment of the formal structure of authority through
which work subdivisions are arranged, defined and coordinated for the defined
objective. In the book Supervisory Leadership by J.P. Leveriza in his discussion
about The Supervisor: the organizational leader, he discusses that as organizational leader
of the group, the manager organizes followers into an effective team working to achieve set
goals. The manager also has management ability to decide on execution and
implementation of plans prepared by the superiors to meet organizational objectives. After
the planning, identifying the resources to be used to execute the plan, the manager now will
be the one to allocate the resources appropriately. Here comes the consideration of the
manager to become task oriented and at the same time relationship oriented. “Put people in
the right place.” (J. Maxwell) is the first thing to do in the dissemination of responsibilities.
Trying to get the right person in the right job can take a lot of time and energy. Don’t be
afraid to move people around if they’re not shining the way they think they could. It will
surely help the person to improve and add to the company’s success.

S
TAFFING is the whole personnel function of bringing in and training the staff and
maintaining favorable conditions of work. As a manager, it is very important have
team building. It is discussed that before building a team it is a must to build the
team spirit. “Team-spirit” is knowing your people as member of your team. In the book of J.
Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Law of Leadership, states “The stronger the relationship you
form with followers. The greater the connection you forge and the more likely those
followers will be to want to help you.” Many people fall into the trap of taking relationships
for granted. That’s not good, because our ability to build and maintain healthy relationship
is the single most important factor on how we set among in every arc of life. “Our people
skills determine our potential success.” (Winning the People by J. Maxwell).

D
IRECTING is the continuous task of making decisions and embodying them in
specific and general orders and instructions and serving as the leader of the
enterprise. In Management 101 by F. John Reh of Abouat.com website, “directing
is like conducting an orchestra. Everyone in the orchestra has the music in front of them.
They know which section is playing which piece and when. They know when to come in,
what to play, and when to stop again. The conductor cues each section to make the music
happen.” The same with the job of a manager: informing the workers about the plan;
allocate right number of workers in each department; prepare the available resources.
Once everything is ready to work what the managers do is to tap the baton and start
conducting for the staff to start working.

Co
ORDINATING is the all-important duty of interrelating the various parts of
the work. The manager serves as a coordinator of programs, groups,
materials, and reports. It is the manager who acts as a link between
programs and people. He or she knows the disparate pieces of the educational process and
directs the actions of others to make the pieces blend. As a director of staff development,
the supervisor plans, arranges, evaluates, and often conducts in-service programs with and
for teachers. Communication and presentation skills have something to do with reporting.
It is said that communication is a two way process, the way on how to disseminate
information is very important for a manager but it is also important to know what is being
communicated. “The ear of the leaders must ring with the voices of the people.” –W. Wilson,
28th president of America. You cannot learn and understand your people if you are doing
all the talking. Understanding comes along with listening.

R
EPORTING is keeping those to whom the executive is responsible informed as to
what is going on, which thus includes keeping himself and his subordinates
informed through records, research and inspections.

B
UDGETING is in the form of fiscal planning, accounting and control. It is assessing
alternative investments and policies, programming the consequences of
investment decisions and policy commitments, target setting (Thompson, 2000).
Mary Landrieu, a senator of United States said, “A budget should reflect the values and
priorities of our nation and its people.” The same with the budget of the company, budget
with its figures show what the company is main concern and it reveals the vision, mission
and goal of the organization.

Yang (2010), founder and public management professor devise a formula to further
explain POSDCoRB.
 From an unknown author quotes “A little tact and wise management may often
evade resistance, and carry a point, where direct force might be in vain.” I, personally in my
position as the subject area coordinator of TLE/Computer experience difficulty in
managing people. I admit it because I am still a neophyte in this area. Actually as a manager
the first must be assessment and not planning. Assessment helps me a lot in this first year
of my responsibility. I know that change does not happen immediately, the way that my
teachers develop their working habit takes time, the same thing that when I want to change
them, it also takes time. I have to build a good relationship with them and must build team
spirit before expecting to have team building. It runs through the process.

As a summary of this reflection, becoming a manager is not an easy task. It is not

only a position or a title but a responsibility that needs a heart and passion to meet the
expected result. A quote says “There is no best way to lead, only the best manager”, it
implies that manager must not only be task oriented but also relationship oriented.
 REFERENCES

U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu. 2010. Fighting and Winning for Louisiana. October 25, 2010.
http://www.marylandrieu.com/about/

Maxwell, John. (2007). The 21 Irrefutable Law of Leadership. Thomas Nelson, Inc.: Nashville,
Tennesse, USA.

Leveriza, J.P. (1998). Supervisory Leadership. National Bookstore, Inc.: Philippines.

Maxwell, John. 2006. Winning the People.Thomas Nelson, Inc.: Nashville, Tennesse, USA.

Rebuild the Twin Towers. 2006. The Pursuit of Happiness. October 25, 2010.
http://www.twintowersalliance.com/petition/the-pursuit-of-happiness

Grazia, Alfred. 2003. Political Organization. October 25, 2010. http://www.grazian-

archive.com/politics/PolOrganization/PO_C04.htm

POSDCORB. 2008. Management Theories. October 25, 2010.

http://www.vectorstudy.com/management_theories/POSDCORB.htm

Reh, John F. (2010) Management 101. October 25, 2010.

http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/Management101.htm
 UNIVERSTIY OF REGINA CARMELI
Catmon, City of Malolos
S.Y. 2010-2011
Second Trimester

A REQUIREMENT TO THE COURSE

MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOL SYSTEMS

SUMMARY

Submitted by:
JOSELINE M. SANTOS
Student – Ph.D. maj. Educational Leadership and Management

Submitted to:
DR. BELEN DE JESUS
Professor

October 26, 2010