We now turn to the management processes of planning, controlling,organizing and leading. A particular manager may be more concerned with,say, controlling and organizing customer services/complaints, while another may be dealing with planning, say, supply of power. The degree of involvement with each of these processes may vary from manager to manager, but essentially everyone has to be concerned with these processes.
We shall first take up the planning process as it precedes other processes in a logical sequence.
Planning
Planning is the most basic and pervasive process in management. It means deciding in advance what actions to take and when and how to take them.Planning is needed for committing and allocating the organisation’s (limited) resources towards achieving its objectives in the best possible manner, and anticipating future opportunities and problems.
Planning implies:
i)Making choices: There can be several diversification opportunities to choose from. The wisdom of the management lies in choosing the
alternative, which offers the maximum potential for growth and profitability.
ii) Committing resources: The marketing manager who increases the amount earmarked for promotion, and adds more salesmen in each
territory with the objective of achieving higher sales, commits scarce resources (money, people, etc.).
iii) A time horizon: Planning always refers to a specific time limit within which it must be completed. The field supervisor plans movements of each of her/ his salespersons on a daily basis. The marketing manager plans promotion efforts for the next three months, six months or twelve months.The top management may have a long time perspective, which may extend anywhere between 5 and 15 years.Planning ensures the most efficient use of scarce resources. Planning is the only way by which an organisation can exercise control to check that it is on the desired course of action.
Controlling
Planning and controlling go hand in hand. There can be no control without a plan and plans cannot be successfully implemented in the absence of controls. Controls provide a means of checking the progress of the plans and correcting any deviations that may occur along the way.A control is meaningful only when there is clear cut responsibility for activities and results. It is meaningless to have a control process which simply points out deviations but cannot pinpoint the area in which they occurred and who is responsible for taking the corrective measures.Controls may be used to measure physical quantities (such as volume of output, number of man hours, number of units of raw material consumed per machine, etc.), monetary results (value of sale, capital expenditure, return on investment, earning per share, etc.) or to evaluate intangibles such as employee loyalty, morale, and commitment to work. Obviously, the third kind of control is the most difficult to design and implement. No quantitative measure can be used and only a qualitative, descriptive evaluation is possible for intangibles.There are three basic steps involved in designing a control process. They are:
i) establishment of standards;
ii) measurement of performance; and
iii) correcting deviations.
i)Establishment of standards: The first step for establishment of standards is to have clear plans which, in turn, become the standards for reference and control. The sales forecast plan, which sets sales targets, becomes the standard against which actual sale is measured. However,an effective control process focuses only on the critical variables rather than controlling all the variables. It also indicates the permissible range of deviation from the expected target. Only when the actual performance is outside this range, does it become a matter of concern for the manager to find out the reasons for the same and take corrective action. Similarly, the marketing manager at the head office would be interested in the sales figures achieved by each branch and not in the performance of individual salesperson.
ii) Measurement of performance: Having set standards, it is necessary to devise a system for measuring the performance of individuals,departments or the company against these standards. In some cases,quantitative goals can be set, such as the number of units to be sold by each salesperson, number of units to be produced per machine, or the profit to be generated by each branch office. However, evaluating performance in the case of managers at the top level or those operating in areas such as personnel, public relations, and administration is far more difficult. The work output cannot be translated into quantifiable terms; only a qualitative appraisal is possible.
iii) Correcting deviations: The ultimate objective of the control process is to pinpoint the occurrences outside the permissible range of action and allow the management to take corrective action. For example, the number and duration of interruptions in power supply everyday in a locality could be controlled to manage demand. When the duration and/or number of interruptions increase beyond an acceptable level, it is time for the production supervisor to investigate and take suitable steps to correct the situation.
The successful control process hinges on the concept of feedback. This refers to the information on the critical control variable of the operation or activity which when fed back to the manager enables her/him to take corrective action. Except in a self-regulated, closed mechanical system, where the corrective action is taken instantaneously and automatically, most activities within an organisation require human intervention. For example, the finance manager of your utility may be more interested in finding out why earnings/collections/profits have fallen below the established level and may take suitable steps to remedy this. In some cases, only a minor corrective action is needed. But sometimes the situation requires drastic action, such as scrapping a department or plant whose operation has become totally unprofitable.
In the earlier times, feedback implied a lag between the time when the event actually occurred and the time by which information about the event reached the manager concerned. To overcome this problem of time lag, most companies generated daily reports of critical variables, which provide early signals to the manager. With the introduction of computers and real time information systems (instantaneous transmission), this problem has largely been overcome. All control processes should reflect the plans that they are supposed to follow. However, to be truly effective, the controls must highlight the critical variables in an objective manner and be worth their cost in installing and operating.Budget is a traditional and widely used control process. Apart from this, a company may use historical statistical data, or break-even analysis to control its operations. Many sophisticated control techniques pertaining to implementation of control for inventory management, distribution logistics and project or programme management are designed. Some of these include Programme Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), Critical Path Method (CPM), etc.
Organising
Organising refers to the formal grouping of people and activities to facilitate achievement of the organisational stated objectives.Issues for discussion here are the types of organisation structure, degree of centralization, levels of management, span of control, delegation of authority,unity of command, line and staff relationship, and staffing.
• Structure refers to the specific manner in which people are grouped.
• Centralisation refers to the point or level where all decision-making authority is concentrated. One-person enterprises, such as a small bread and butter store, vegetable vendor, a self-employed car mechanic, are examples of complete centralisation. Is there an official in your utility who plays a similar role?
• Closely related to the concept of centralization are the concepts of levels of management and span of control. Levels of management refer to the number of hierarchical levels under the control of a particular manager.How many levels of management exist in a power utility? In a power utility,the number of linemen who directly report to the field supervisor represents his/ her span of control.
• At each level of management, there is a reporting relationship between the manager and her/his subordinates. The fewer the number of people that an official has to report to, the lesser will be the problem of conflict in instructions, and the greater the feeling of responsibility for results.Similarly, clearer the line of authority from the manager to the workers, better will be the decision-making and communication.
• The process of staffing starts with the identification of the job(s) to be done and the necessary qualifications, skills and experience required for doing it.Having found the right candidate, it is equally important that you are able to retain him. Among other things, motivation and leadership provided by the top management play an important role.
Motivating and Leading
Having established plans, controls and an appropriate structure to achieve the organisational objectives, the manager has to get her/his people to work.Motivation is the desire or feeling within an individual which prompts her/ himto act. Every individual has needs, desires and drive, which are collectively referred to as motives and channelise the behaviour and action towards achievement of stated objectives. The manager’s role is to influence each individual’s behaviour and action towards achievement of common organisational objectives. For example, the management of your utility has taken steps to motivate you to study this programme for achieving certain goals! What are those steps?
Money is the most commonly used motivating factor in the form of salary,bonus, incentives, commissions and rewards. Salary or wage is of course the primary motivation, but the poorer the economic background of an individual, the greater the motivational value of money. However, once a basic salary or wage is assured, to motivate people to work a little extra and achieve higher revenue generation or upscale sale figures, incentives and commissions come in handy. Most sales organisations use salary plus incentives to good effect.It is an old saying that humans do not live by bread alone. Living in a social order, they seek recognition and status through work and achievements. The status or position which an individual enjoys in an organisation, the number of people who work for her/him, the non-monetary benefits and perks are important motivational factors. In fact, sometimes these are as important, if not more, as the actual take-home pay packet.The physical environment in which a person works also has tremendous motivational force. A pleasant, noise-free, well-lit room with comfortable temperature, and proper facilities (of telecommunication, etc.,) is more conducive to work.
Different individuals are motivated by different factors. This is because each individual in the organisation comes from a different socio-economic, cultural,religious, educational and family background, and each of these has a role in determining the degree to which one can be motivated by different factors.You may like to state the factors, which drive you to improve the image of your utility. Use the margin for this.The design and content of the actual work to be done is in itself an important motivational factor. An element of freedom to experiment with new ideas within the parameters of the job fulfils the creative urge of every individual. Freedom to take decisions and assume responsibility for the results is another factor which enhances an individual’s self-confidence and self- esteem. The more such factors can be built into the job, the greater would be the job satisfaction of the individual performing the job. A happy, satisfied worker is more productive and a great asset to any organisation. If you have devised some successful strategies as a manager, list them in the margin. Share them with your peers in the video-conferencing sessions. If an individual is allowed to design the content and objectives of her/his job,there are greater chances that s/he will work better to fulfil these objectives. This approach is known as Management by Objectives (MBO) and has been found to have tremendous motivational potential.The manager has not only to motivate his people but also provide them with leadership. To that extent every manager is a leader. A manager has to inspire and influence her/his people to willingly work towards achieving the organisational objectives.
Meaning of Leadership: Leadership and management are related, but not synonymous. For example, the management side of executing plans focuses on monitoring results, comparing them with goals, and correcting deviations.On the other hand, the leadership side of the same activity focuses on energizing people to overcome bureaucratic hurdles to help reach goals. This is further illustrated in Box .
Box: Leadership Compared to Management
We shall first take up the planning process as it precedes other processes in a logical sequence.
Planning
Planning is the most basic and pervasive process in management. It means deciding in advance what actions to take and when and how to take them.Planning is needed for committing and allocating the organisation’s (limited) resources towards achieving its objectives in the best possible manner, and anticipating future opportunities and problems.
Planning implies:
i)Making choices: There can be several diversification opportunities to choose from. The wisdom of the management lies in choosing the
alternative, which offers the maximum potential for growth and profitability.
ii) Committing resources: The marketing manager who increases the amount earmarked for promotion, and adds more salesmen in each
territory with the objective of achieving higher sales, commits scarce resources (money, people, etc.).
iii) A time horizon: Planning always refers to a specific time limit within which it must be completed. The field supervisor plans movements of each of her/ his salespersons on a daily basis. The marketing manager plans promotion efforts for the next three months, six months or twelve months.The top management may have a long time perspective, which may extend anywhere between 5 and 15 years.Planning ensures the most efficient use of scarce resources. Planning is the only way by which an organisation can exercise control to check that it is on the desired course of action.
Controlling
Planning and controlling go hand in hand. There can be no control without a plan and plans cannot be successfully implemented in the absence of controls. Controls provide a means of checking the progress of the plans and correcting any deviations that may occur along the way.A control is meaningful only when there is clear cut responsibility for activities and results. It is meaningless to have a control process which simply points out deviations but cannot pinpoint the area in which they occurred and who is responsible for taking the corrective measures.Controls may be used to measure physical quantities (such as volume of output, number of man hours, number of units of raw material consumed per machine, etc.), monetary results (value of sale, capital expenditure, return on investment, earning per share, etc.) or to evaluate intangibles such as employee loyalty, morale, and commitment to work. Obviously, the third kind of control is the most difficult to design and implement. No quantitative measure can be used and only a qualitative, descriptive evaluation is possible for intangibles.There are three basic steps involved in designing a control process. They are:
i) establishment of standards;
ii) measurement of performance; and
iii) correcting deviations.
i)Establishment of standards: The first step for establishment of standards is to have clear plans which, in turn, become the standards for reference and control. The sales forecast plan, which sets sales targets, becomes the standard against which actual sale is measured. However,an effective control process focuses only on the critical variables rather than controlling all the variables. It also indicates the permissible range of deviation from the expected target. Only when the actual performance is outside this range, does it become a matter of concern for the manager to find out the reasons for the same and take corrective action. Similarly, the marketing manager at the head office would be interested in the sales figures achieved by each branch and not in the performance of individual salesperson.
ii) Measurement of performance: Having set standards, it is necessary to devise a system for measuring the performance of individuals,departments or the company against these standards. In some cases,quantitative goals can be set, such as the number of units to be sold by each salesperson, number of units to be produced per machine, or the profit to be generated by each branch office. However, evaluating performance in the case of managers at the top level or those operating in areas such as personnel, public relations, and administration is far more difficult. The work output cannot be translated into quantifiable terms; only a qualitative appraisal is possible.
iii) Correcting deviations: The ultimate objective of the control process is to pinpoint the occurrences outside the permissible range of action and allow the management to take corrective action. For example, the number and duration of interruptions in power supply everyday in a locality could be controlled to manage demand. When the duration and/or number of interruptions increase beyond an acceptable level, it is time for the production supervisor to investigate and take suitable steps to correct the situation.
The successful control process hinges on the concept of feedback. This refers to the information on the critical control variable of the operation or activity which when fed back to the manager enables her/him to take corrective action. Except in a self-regulated, closed mechanical system, where the corrective action is taken instantaneously and automatically, most activities within an organisation require human intervention. For example, the finance manager of your utility may be more interested in finding out why earnings/collections/profits have fallen below the established level and may take suitable steps to remedy this. In some cases, only a minor corrective action is needed. But sometimes the situation requires drastic action, such as scrapping a department or plant whose operation has become totally unprofitable.
In the earlier times, feedback implied a lag between the time when the event actually occurred and the time by which information about the event reached the manager concerned. To overcome this problem of time lag, most companies generated daily reports of critical variables, which provide early signals to the manager. With the introduction of computers and real time information systems (instantaneous transmission), this problem has largely been overcome. All control processes should reflect the plans that they are supposed to follow. However, to be truly effective, the controls must highlight the critical variables in an objective manner and be worth their cost in installing and operating.Budget is a traditional and widely used control process. Apart from this, a company may use historical statistical data, or break-even analysis to control its operations. Many sophisticated control techniques pertaining to implementation of control for inventory management, distribution logistics and project or programme management are designed. Some of these include Programme Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), Critical Path Method (CPM), etc.
Organising
Organising refers to the formal grouping of people and activities to facilitate achievement of the organisational stated objectives.Issues for discussion here are the types of organisation structure, degree of centralization, levels of management, span of control, delegation of authority,unity of command, line and staff relationship, and staffing.
• Structure refers to the specific manner in which people are grouped.
• Centralisation refers to the point or level where all decision-making authority is concentrated. One-person enterprises, such as a small bread and butter store, vegetable vendor, a self-employed car mechanic, are examples of complete centralisation. Is there an official in your utility who plays a similar role?
• Closely related to the concept of centralization are the concepts of levels of management and span of control. Levels of management refer to the number of hierarchical levels under the control of a particular manager.How many levels of management exist in a power utility? In a power utility,the number of linemen who directly report to the field supervisor represents his/ her span of control.
• At each level of management, there is a reporting relationship between the manager and her/his subordinates. The fewer the number of people that an official has to report to, the lesser will be the problem of conflict in instructions, and the greater the feeling of responsibility for results.Similarly, clearer the line of authority from the manager to the workers, better will be the decision-making and communication.
• The process of staffing starts with the identification of the job(s) to be done and the necessary qualifications, skills and experience required for doing it.Having found the right candidate, it is equally important that you are able to retain him. Among other things, motivation and leadership provided by the top management play an important role.
Motivating and Leading
Having established plans, controls and an appropriate structure to achieve the organisational objectives, the manager has to get her/his people to work.Motivation is the desire or feeling within an individual which prompts her/ himto act. Every individual has needs, desires and drive, which are collectively referred to as motives and channelise the behaviour and action towards achievement of stated objectives. The manager’s role is to influence each individual’s behaviour and action towards achievement of common organisational objectives. For example, the management of your utility has taken steps to motivate you to study this programme for achieving certain goals! What are those steps?
Money is the most commonly used motivating factor in the form of salary,bonus, incentives, commissions and rewards. Salary or wage is of course the primary motivation, but the poorer the economic background of an individual, the greater the motivational value of money. However, once a basic salary or wage is assured, to motivate people to work a little extra and achieve higher revenue generation or upscale sale figures, incentives and commissions come in handy. Most sales organisations use salary plus incentives to good effect.It is an old saying that humans do not live by bread alone. Living in a social order, they seek recognition and status through work and achievements. The status or position which an individual enjoys in an organisation, the number of people who work for her/him, the non-monetary benefits and perks are important motivational factors. In fact, sometimes these are as important, if not more, as the actual take-home pay packet.The physical environment in which a person works also has tremendous motivational force. A pleasant, noise-free, well-lit room with comfortable temperature, and proper facilities (of telecommunication, etc.,) is more conducive to work.
Different individuals are motivated by different factors. This is because each individual in the organisation comes from a different socio-economic, cultural,religious, educational and family background, and each of these has a role in determining the degree to which one can be motivated by different factors.You may like to state the factors, which drive you to improve the image of your utility. Use the margin for this.The design and content of the actual work to be done is in itself an important motivational factor. An element of freedom to experiment with new ideas within the parameters of the job fulfils the creative urge of every individual. Freedom to take decisions and assume responsibility for the results is another factor which enhances an individual’s self-confidence and self- esteem. The more such factors can be built into the job, the greater would be the job satisfaction of the individual performing the job. A happy, satisfied worker is more productive and a great asset to any organisation. If you have devised some successful strategies as a manager, list them in the margin. Share them with your peers in the video-conferencing sessions. If an individual is allowed to design the content and objectives of her/his job,there are greater chances that s/he will work better to fulfil these objectives. This approach is known as Management by Objectives (MBO) and has been found to have tremendous motivational potential.The manager has not only to motivate his people but also provide them with leadership. To that extent every manager is a leader. A manager has to inspire and influence her/his people to willingly work towards achieving the organisational objectives.
Meaning of Leadership: Leadership and management are related, but not synonymous. For example, the management side of executing plans focuses on monitoring results, comparing them with goals, and correcting deviations.On the other hand, the leadership side of the same activity focuses on energizing people to overcome bureaucratic hurdles to help reach goals. This is further illustrated in Box .
Box: Leadership Compared to Management
To be an effective leader, a manager must have the ability to get along well with people, be honest and possess impeccable integrity. To command respect of others, s/he must excel at the basic job of ensuring good customer satisfaction. In the context of a power utility, this means ensuring uninterrupted supply of power, zero error billing, etc. The leader must lead from the front and set an example through her/his actions rather than by just making speeches.His/her actions must communicate to the people that s/he is one of them.Only the feeling of oneness inspires confidence.
Secondly, a manager must remember that a role or responsibility has been
assigned to her/him. And to be able to perform effectively, the role demands objectivity in judgment and decisions and s/he should be guided only by the organisational objectives. For a leader, the interests of his/her people are of paramount importance and come first while personal benefits take second place.
Thirdly, the role must be moulded according to the unique situation in which the manager is placed. In our society, great emphasis is laid on personal relationships and contacts and managers are perceived to be elderly figures with paternalistic attitude towards their workers. In the West and countries with a colonial past, the manager-worker relationship is confined to work.Therefore, if a manager were to adopt a paternalistic approach in such countries, s/he would be totally ineffective. A manager who usually follows a consultative and participative approach, seeking the opinions and consensus of his/her subordinates before implementing any decision, may adopt a very authoritarian approach in a crisis situation to effectively manage the situation.
Political leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi who commanded the respect of millions of people are a model for managers to learn from. The leadership style of Gandhi ji was so finely turned to the frequency of the people and the situations that every word of his was law for the common man. His actions and life-style made people feel that he belonged to them.
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