Planning
The activities involved here include outlining of the objectives of the company’s goals and objectives. During planning, managers should outline or state the best way for accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organization. After the management states the strategic goals to be achieved, they should outline or state the strategic plan involving the actions and resource allocation. During planning, managers should answer the questions relating to the direction of flow of the organization, the environment, and how to get to where they are going. Planning involves; establishing or developing a clear vision; establishing a mission statement; developing forecasts for sale of sporting goods; analyzing the sport house service competition; stating the goals and objectives and developing action plans (Pearson Education, 2008).
Organizing
It concerns division of labor, coordinating tasks and the control of these tasks and information flow within the organization. The activities would involve distribution of jobs among the employees. Managers’ activities need reflect the planning function-the mission, objectives, goals and tactics. The managers must decide on the departmentation, delegation of authority, coordination and span of control. The organizational structure will be stipulated in the organizational chart. Authority is about power to influence others (Bernard, n.d). Organizing will also involve staffing. The role of leadership is very important in an organization because of management of resources including the employees. Staffing will involve activities like recruiting, selecting, and hiring. Employee training is very important in the organization. Recruiting must involve the placing and replacing of employees with the right people possessing right characteristics. Staffing must also include selection of the right number of employees to fill the vacancies.
Directing
Employees of an organization can be directed by influencing people through leadership, discipline, group dynamics, communication and motivation. The employees are influenced so as their behavior will be used in accomplishing the goals and missions of an organization while they are assisted to build their career objectives. Motivation can be achieved or boosted through such activities as retraining, establishing reward programs for particular job targets, recognition of employees, acquiring the right and best equipment to accomplish specific tasks, and investing in the right and best technology. In addition, promotion can also be used to give motivation to employees. The employer should be willing to invest in the boosting of the inner abilities that are essential in boosting the motivation of an individual, for example supporting excellence in talents such as sporting, craftsmanship, among others. In the sporting job, the manager should support employee skills and recognize them. Motivation can also be boosted by making sure that employees do not face threats of job losses, intimidation by managers, ensuring that the employees have access to system that can assist them during times of need such as assisted credit arrangements. Proper channels of communication are also important in ensuring proper direction of employees. The managers should establish a proper way of dealing with complains, issues relating to employee relationships, channeling of disputes and complains among others. Proper communication can be achieved through organizing for meetings, and ensuring that there is feedback.
Controlling
The controlling function ensures that the employer measures how the goals and objectives are met and putting in corrective measures that may make these goals not to be achieved within a specified time limit. The manager must be willing to measure the actual performance, report it, compare the actual with expected performance and initiate actions towards meeting the expected performance (James, 1994; qtd in Bernard, n.d.). Preventive measures are also important to ensure that no failure is achieved. In such a job, the management should have sale targets for the sporting goods, measure and monitor these sales, and put proper measures to ensure that the projected sales are reached. The management should therefore put in place a standard that will be measured against, such as the quantity of goods expected to be sold in a specific time period.
Levels of management
Management levels to be used in this case are as indicated in the organization chart. The management is directed by the managing director to the organization, including the personnel manager, sales and purchasing managers. The sales manager will be responsible for the sales of the sporting goods, in charge of handling customer complains and order placements. He will coordinate with the purchasing department staff to ensure that customer placements are considered and ordered and in time. The sales manager will also be responsible for the sales executives of the company and will give direction to them pertaining operations of the company.
The purchasing manager will be responsible for all purchases in the company. The manager will liaise with company suppliers and make sure that the company makes purchases at the right time and quantities. The manager will also be in charge of quality control department which ensures that the company meets the quality demands of the customer orders. The quality controller coordinates with the sales department to ensure the customer specifications are considered, while the quality supervisor supervises to see they are implemented in the purchases. The store keeper is in charge of the store and tracking of inventories. The customer representatives is in charge of customer complains and specifications. The sales executives direct and supervises the sales representatives to make sure that the company increases the sales and maintains customers in doors and outdoor.
Organization Chart
Management styles
While some management styles tend to depend on products or projects, others are more people-oriented. Managers should know the right style to use in order to enhance their management skills. The management style to be used by the management will depend on the people’s skills & knowledge and available resources, desired resources among other things. The management style in this case will be a mixture of participatory and directing style. The directing style will be important because the employees will need to be directed on what they will be doing, why, how to do it, and given direction on what time to do it among other issues. Because the employees are expected to perform different tasks in the sporting store departments, the question relating to what job, why, where, when, how and others will need to be answered by a top management. Participatory leadership is very effective to be able to have the managers lead by example and make the employees feel part of the task. It would allow all employees to be motivated to participate because they feel that they own the project. Some would be involved in sales and marketing, others in purchases, personnel management, financial issues and others. During controlling the business functions, the managers should be more concerned with cost effectiveness, timeline, accuracy of tasks, and flexibility among other things.
Some management styles like participatory discourage reactions of employees such as resistance to change since the type of leadership influence employees to either accept changes or reject it. Enforcement of decision should be via influence rather than through autocratic mode of leadership or dictatorship.
Reference List
Bernard, E. (n.d.) The Five Functions of Management. Web.
James, H. (1994). The Management Challenge, Second Edition, Macmillan.
Pearson Education Inc. (2008). Four Basic Functions of Management the Planning and Organizing Functions. Web.