Management has been described as a social process involving responsibility for economical and effective

planning & regulation of operation of an enterprise in the fulfillment of given purposes. It is a dynamic process
consisting of various elements and activities. These activities are different from operative functions like marketing,
finance, purchase etc. Rather these activities are common to each and every manger irrespective of his level or
status.

Different experts have classified functions of management. According to George & Jerry, There are four
fundamental functions of management i.e. planning, organizing, actuating and controlling. 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 ODONNEL i.e.Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling.

For theoretical purposes, it may be convenient to separate the function of management but practically these
functions are overlapping in nature i.e. they are highly inseparable. Each function blends into the other & each
affects the performance of others.

1. Planning
It is the basic function of management. It deals with chalking out a future course of action & deciding in
advance the most appropriate course of actions for achievement of pre-determined goals. According to
KOONTZ, Planning is deciding in advance - what to do, when to do & how to do. It bridges the gap
from where we are & where we want to be. A plan is a future course of actions. It is an exercise in
problem solving & decision making. Planning is determination of courses of action to achieve desired
goals. Thus, planning is a systematic thinking about ways & means for accomplishment of pre-
determined goals. Planning is necessary to ensure proper utilization of human & non-human resources.
It is all pervasive, it is an intellectual activity and it also helps in avoiding confusion, uncertainties, risks,
wastages etc.

2. Organizing
It is the process of bringing together physical, financial and human resources and developing productive
relationship amongst them for achievement of organizational goals. According to Henry Fayol, To
organize a business is to provide it with everything useful or its functioning i.e. raw material, tools,
capital and personnels. To organize a business involves determining & providing human and non-
human resources to the organizational structure. Organizing as a process involves:

Identification of activities.
Classification of grouping of activities.
Assignment of duties.
Delegation of authority and creation of responsibility.
Coordinating authority and responsibility relationships.

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 3. Staffing
It is the function of manning the organization structure and keeping it manned. Staffing has assumed
greater importance in the recent years due to advancement of technology, increase in size of business,
complexity of human behavior etc. The main purpose o staffing is to put right man on right job i.e.
square pegs in square holes and round pegs in round holes. According to Kootz & ODonell,
Managerial function of staffing involves manning the organization structure through proper and effective
selection, appraisal & development of personnel to fill the roles designed un the structure. Staffing
involves:

Manpower Planning (estimating man power in terms of searching, choose the person and
giving the right place).
Recruitment, selection & placement.
Training & development.
Remuneration.
Performance appraisal.
Promotions & transfer.
4. Directing
It is that part of managerial function which actuates the organizational methods to work efficiently for
achievement of organizational purposes. It is considered life-spark of the enterprise which sets it in
motion the action of people because planning, organizing and staffing are the mere preparations for
doing the work. Direction is that inert-personnel aspect of management which deals directly with
influencing, guiding, supervising, motivating sub-ordinate for the achievement of organizational goals.
Direction has following elements:

Supervision
Motivation
Leadership
Communication
Supervision- implies overseeing the work of subordinates by their superiors. It is the act of watching &
directing work & workers.

Motivation- means inspiring, stimulating or encouraging the sub-ordinates with zeal to work. Positive,
negative, monetary, non-monetary incentives may be used for this purpose.

Leadership- may be defined as a process by which manager guides and influences the work of
subordinates in desired direction.

Communications- is the process of passing information, experience, opinion etc from one person to
another. It is a bridge of understanding.

5. Controlling
It implies measurement of accomplishment against the standards and correction of deviation if any to
ensure achievement of organizational goals. The purpose of controlling is to ensure that everything
occurs in conformities with the standards. An efficient system of control helps to predict deviations
before they actually occur. According to Theo Haimann, Controlling is the process of checking whether
or not proper progress is being made towards the objectives and goals and acting if necessary, to
correct any deviation. According to Koontz & ODonell Controlling is the measurement & correction of
performance activities of subordinates in order to make sure that the enterprise objectives and plans
desired to obtain them as being accomplished. Therefore controlling has following steps:

a. Establishment of standard performance.

b. Measurement of actual performance.
c. Comparison of actual performance with the standards and finding out deviation if any.
d. Corrective action.

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 Functions of Management - Download DEMO Powerpoint Presentation

POSDCORB is an acronym widely used in the field of Management and Public Administration that
reflects the classic view of administrative management. Largely drawn from the work of French
industrialist Henri Fayol, it first appeared in a 1937 staff paper by Luther Gulick and Lyndall
Urwick written for the Brownlow Committee. The acronym stands for steps in the administrative
process: Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting.

Contents

[hide]

1 Coining of the Acronym

2 Elaborations

3 Influence from French Administration Theory

4 Place in Management and Public Administration History

5 Criticisms

6 References

7 External links

[edit]Coining of the Acronym

In his piece "Notes on the Theory of Organization", a memo prepared while he was a member of the
Brownlow Committee, Luther Gulick asks rhetorically "What is the work of the chief executive? What
does he do?" POSDCORB is the answer, "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."

In Gulick's own words, the elements of POSDCORB are as follows:

Planning, that 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;
Organizing, that is the establishment of the formal structure of authority through which work
subdivisions are arranged, defined, and co-ordinated for the defined objective;
Staffing, that is the whole personnel function of bringing in and training the staff and
maintaining favorable conditions of work;
Directing, that 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;
Co-Ordinating, that is the all important duty of interrelating the various parts of the work;
Reporting, that 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 inspection;
Budgeting, with all that goes with budgeting in the form of planning, accounting and control.

[edit]Elaborations

Gulick's "Notes on the Theory of Organization" further defines the principles of POSDCORB by
explaining that if an executive's workload becomes too overwhelming, some of the elements of

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POSDCORB can be organized as subdivisions of the executive, depending on the size and
complexity of the enterprise.

Under Organizing, Gulick emphasized the division and specialization of labor in a manner that will
increase efficiency. Gulick notes that there are three limitations to division of labor. The first occurs
when labor is divided to the point where any one task in the division of labor would require less than
the full time of a worker, in which case a worker may need to be employed in other tasks to fill up their
time. The second limitation to division of labor arises from technology and custom, where certain
tasks may only be handled by certain workers either because of a lack of technological means or
customs at the time. Gulick gives the example of a single worksite in which only plumbers do the
plumbing work and electricians do the electrical work, though this may not take up their full work time.
Work in these areas could be re-combined in a manner to increase efficiency, however union
considerations could prevent this. The third limitation to division of labor is that it must not pass
beyond physical division into organic division, or intricately related activities must not be separated
from each other. Gulick gives the example that while it may seem more efficient to have the front end
of a cow grazing in pasture at all times and the back half being milked at all times, this would not work
due to the intricate connection between the halves that is needed for the whole to function.

Gulick notes that organization of specialized workers can be done in four ways which are:

By the purpose the workers are serving, such as furnishing water, providing education, or
controlling crime. Gulick lists these in his organizational tables as vertical organizations.
By the process the workers are using, such as engineering, doctoring, lawyering, or
statistics. Gulick lists these in his organizational tables as horizontal organizations.
By the clientelle or materiel or the persons or things being dealt with, such as immigrants,
veterans, forests, mines, or parks in government; or such as a department store's furniture
department, clothing department, hardware department, or shoe department in the private sector.
By the place where the workers do their work.

Gulick is careful to recognize that these modes of organization can often cross, forming a complex
and interrelated organizational structure where organizations like schools will include workers and
professionals not in the field of education such as doctors or nurses, janitors, secretaries, police
departments might include non-police professionals, a shoe department including buyers as well as
salespeople, etc.

Under Coordination, Gulick notes that two methods can be used to achieve coordination of divided
labor. The first is by organization, or placing workers under managers who coordinate their efforts.
The second is by dominance of an idea, where a clear idea of what needs to be done is developed in
each worker, and each worker fits their work to the needs of the whole. Gulick notes that these two
ideas are not mutually exclusive, and that most enterprises function best when both are utilized.

Gulick notes that any manager will have a finite amount of time and energy, and discusses span of
control under coordination. Drawing heavily from military organizational theory and the work of V. A.
Graicunas, Sir Ian Hamilton, and Henri Fayol, Gulick notes that the number of subordinates that can
be handled under any single manager will depend on factors such as organizational stability, the
specialization of the subordinates and whether their manager comes from the same field or specialty,
and space. Gulick stops short of giving a definite number of subordinates that any one manager can
control, but authors such as Sir Ian Hamilton and Lyndall Urwick have settled on numbers between
three and six. Span of control was later expanded upon and defended in depth by Lyndall Urwick in
his 1956 piece The Manager's Span of Control.

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Also under coordination, as well as organization, Gulick emphasizes the theory of unity of
command, that each worker should only have one direct superior so as to avoid confusion and
inefficiency.

Still another theory borrowed from military organizational theory, particularly Sir Ian
Hamilton and Lyndall Urwick and brought to prominence in non-military management and public
administration by Gulick and Urwick is the distinction between operational components of an
organization, the do-ers, and coordinating, the coordinating components of an organization who do
the knowing, thinking, and planning. In the military, this is divided between "line" and "staff" functions.
Gulick gives the private-sector example of a holding company performing limited coordinating,
planning, and finance functions, with subsidiary companies carrying out their work with extensive
autonomy as it saw fit according to the parent company's overall direction.

[edit]Influence from French Administration Theory

Gulick states that his statement of the work of a chief executive is adapted from the functional
analysis elaborated by Henri Fayol in his "Industrial and General Administration". Indeed, Fayol's work
includes fourteen principles and five elements of management that lay the foundations of Gulick's
POSDCORB tasks of an executive.

Fayol's fourteen principles of management are as follows:

Division of Work
Authority and Responsibility
Discipline
Unity of Command
Unity of Direction
Subordination of Individual Interest to General Interest
Remuneration of Personnel
Centralization
Scalar Chain (line of authority with peer level communication)
Order
Equity
Stability of Tenure of Personnel
Initiative
Esprit de Corps

Fayol's influence upon Gulick is readily apparent in the five elements of management discussed in his
book,

Planning - examining the future and drawing up planwhich are:s of actions

Organizing - building up the structure (labor and material) of the undertaking
Command - maintaining activity among the personnel
Co-ordination - unifying and harmonizing activities and efforts
Control - seeing that everything occurs in conformity with policies and practices

In his 1987 piece "Deja Vu: French Antecedents of American Public Administration," Daniel Martin
notes that virtually all of the principles in American Public Administration up to 1937 and the coining of
the POSDCORB acronym, including the POSDCORB principles, were present in the French literature

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on the subject by 1859, but that this literature had largely been forgotten by the theorists of that era,
thus the "re-invention" of these principles in the later French and American literature.