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The Four Functions of Management

In a capitalistic economy such as America, the business world consists of numerous organizations, all who compete against one another with one goal in mind, to generate a profit. Although America is home to many different types of businesses, from various ends of the economic spectrum, they all have one thing in common, and that is the need for good leadership, and efficient management. Management can be defined as the act of handling, supervising, or controlling a business, as well as dealing with the day to day issues or problems that may arise. In simpler terms, managing is creative problem solving. This creative problem solving is accomplished through four functions of management. These four functions of Management are key components in today’s rapidly changing business world. It’s a challenge that requires managers to focus on being able to run an organization at its highest level. With proper skills and knowledge, managers must follow the four functions of management to create and maintain an effective and efficient organization. The four functions of management are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. These functions integrate with one another and should be implemented equally in order to practice sound managerial skills. Even though these management principles appear to be rather general, it is the job of the manager to apply each of the principles to their organization in ways that they see fit. However, failure to acknowledge

these four functions will quickly lead to the demise of an organization.
The first of the four functions of management is planning. Planning is the ongoing process of developing the business’s mission, objectives, goals and determining how they will be accomplished (Carson). For this reason it is the most important aspect of the management functions, from which the other three functions stem from. Planning is concerned with the future impact of...