Horti-Business Management

Functions of Management

Functions of Management refer to the key roles that are performed in any organization for the smooth functioning of the organization to achieve the goals of the organization. Though there are several views about the roles of management, the most common are Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling (Koontz and O’Donnell).
 
1. Planning: It is the process of selection of objectives of the firm and deciding the course of action to achieve them. It is about preparing the long term goals and short term targets and deciding the best course of action among various available alternatives so as to achieve the goals of the firm.
2. Organizing: It is the process of identification and grouping of activities and assigning tasks and authority and responsibility to enable employees to accomplish organization objectives. Farming involves lot of activities to be done in a sequence at times the role of skilled labour would be required for efficient operations. Though the farmer, in majority farms is the overall manager, he may also delegate some of the work like supervisory work to family members.
3. Staffing: It is the process of manpower planning, recruiting employees for various positions in the organization and training them to achieve the objectives of the organization and offering reasonable remuneration for their services. It involves assessing labour requirements, permanent and casual, depending on the size of the farm and arranging for labour for various operations in the farm.
4. Directing / Leading: It is the process of communicating, motivating and supervising people so as to achieve the organizational goals. It involves effectively and efficiently using human resources by empowering and encouraging them for achieving the goals of the firm.
5. Controlling: It is the process of monitoring the progress of an organization for achieving its objectives. Plans are based on assumptions and they have to be executed properly. Plans may require midterm corrections depending on the situation, hence the implementation process has to be closely monitored to avoid loss and attain the targets.