Authority
Authority is the legitimate power assigned to a manager to make decisions, issue orders, and allocate resources on behalf of the organization to achieve organizational objectives. Authority is within the framework of the organization structure and is an essential part of the manager’s job role. Authority follows a top-down hierarchy. Roles or positions at the top of the hierarchy are vested with more formal authority than are positions at the bottom. The extent and level of authority is defined by the job role of the manager. Subordinates Comply with the manager’s authority as it is a formal and legitimate right to issue orders.
Work Specialization
Also called division of labor, work specialization is the degree to which organizational tasks are divided into separate jobs. Each employee is trained to perform specific tasks related to their specialized function. Specialization is extensive, for example running a particular machine in a factory assembly line. The groups are structured based on similar skills. Activities or jobs tend to be small, but workers can perform them efficiently as they are specialized in it. In spite of the obvious benefits of specialization, many organizations are moving away from this principle as too much specialization isolates employees and narrows down their skills to perform routine tasks. Also it makes the organization people dependent. Hence organizations are creating and expanding job processes to reduce dependency on particular skills in employees and are facilitating job rotation among them.
Importance of Organizing
A comprehensive approach to organizing helps the management in many ways. Organizing aligns the various resources towards a common mission. Efficient Administration It brings together various departments by grouping similar and related jobs under a single specialization. This establishes coordination between different departments, which leads to unification of effort and harmony in work. It governs the working of the various departments by defining activities and their authority relationships in the organizational structure. It creates the mechanism for management to direct and control the various activities in the enterprise. Resource Optimization Organizing ensures effective role-job-fit for every employee in the organization. It helps in avoiding confusion and delays, as well as duplication of work and overlapping of effort.…
Importance of Organizing
Organizations are systems created to achieve common goals through people-to-people and people-to-work relationships. They are essentially social entities that are goal- directed, deliberately structured for coordinated activity systems, and is linked to the external environment. Organizations are made up of people and their relationships with one another. Managers deliberately structure and coordinate organizational resources to achieve the organization’s purpose. Each organization has its own external and internal environments that define the nature of the relationships according to its specific needs. Organizing is the function that managers undertake to design, structure, and arrange the components of an organization’s internal environment to facilitate attainment of organizational goals. Organizing creates the framework needed to reach a company's objectives and goals. Organizing is the process of defining and grouping activities, and establishing authority relationships among them to attain organizational objectives.
Budgeting
Once the plans are finalized and set, the final step is to convert them into quantifiable parameters through budgeting. Budgets are most commonly expressed in terms of money, but are also expressed as hours worked, as units sold, or in any other measurable unit. An enterprise usually has overall budgets representing the sum total of income and expenses, with consequent profit or surplus. Each department of the enterprise or organization can have its own budget, commonly of expenses and capital expenditures, which make up the overall budget. A well planned budgeting exercise can become a standard for measuring the progress and effectiveness of the planning process.
Formulating Derivative Plans
Derivative plans are sub-sections of the operating plan. The division of overall plan into derivative plans is necessary for effective execution. Derivative plans are essentially required to support the basic or general plan and explain the many details involved in reaching a broad major plan.
Managerial Skills
Henri Fayol, a famous management theorist also called as the Father of Modern Management, identified three basic managerial skills - technical skill, human skill and conceptual skill. Technical Skill Knowledge and skills used to perform specific tasks. Accountants, engineers, surgeons all have their specialized technical skills necessary for their respective professions. Managers, especially at the lower and middle levels, need technical skills for effective task performance. Technical skills are important especially for first line managers, who spend much of their time training subordinates and supervising their work-related problems. Human Skill Ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people as individuals or in groups. According…
Creating Assignments and Timelines
As the plans are frozen and prioritized, timelines for completing associated tasks need to be finalized. At this stage, resource allocation and the line of authority and responsibility also needs to be established. The manager should consider the abilities of staff members and allocate the best fit resource for the job. Also the timelines for completion should be realistic and fair. This step in the planning process is important as it brings coordination in the activities of different departments. The timings and sequence of operations must be communicated to the concerned departments, managers and staff for implementation of the plan.
Evaluating and Choosing Alternatives
Once alternative courses of action have been identified, each alternative has to be analyzed and evaluated in the light of its strength and weakness and its fitment in achieving the organizational goals. While evaluating alternatives, managers should consider facts like the costs involved, how resource intensive it is, the time frame for completion, the gestation period, return on investment, etc. Major challenges of effective evaluation can be uncertainty about the future and risk. Various intangible factors which are not within the control of the management like market changes, socio-economic-political factors, etc. Also have a bearing. At this stage, managers can use operations research, and mathematical as well as computing techniques to predict and analyze alternatives.
Determining Alternatives
The next step is to search for and find out alternatives that will guide the fulfillment of the objectives established. At this stage, managers need to plan on how to move from their current position towards their decided future position. Managers may find many alternatives, however, dropping the less desirable ones and narrowing on the few desired alternatives is what will help in identifying the best fit solution. The manager can take the help of quantitative techniques, research, experimentation, and experience to determine various alternatives.
