The Role of Planning. Planning involves the setting of goals and then determining the best way to achieve them. Directing is the process of providing focus for employees and motivating them to achieve organizational goals. Controlling involves comparing actual to expected performance and taking corrective action when necessary. Licenses and Attributions. CC licensed content, Shared previously. Decisions are made by a few people and handed down to the masses.
In contrast, decentralized, or flat, organizations push management authority down. In flat organizations, many managers and subordinates are empowered to independently make decisions within their area of expertise in the company. Because of the trend toward flatter organizations during the s and s, traditional middle levels of management have become obsolete in many companies. Effectively, all workers become managers to some degree in the flattest organizations.
Staffing, the third major organizational function, encompasses activities related to finding and sustaining a labor force that is adequate to meet the organization's objectives.
First, managers have to determine exactly what their labor needs are and then go into the labor force to try and recruit those skills and characteristics. Second, managers must train workers. Third, they have to devise a method of compensating and evaluating performance that complements objectives.
This includes designing pay and benefits packages, conducting performance appraisals , and promoting employees. Finally, managers usually must devise a system of firing ineffective employees or reducing the workforce. In addition, management duties related to staffing often entail working with organized labor unions and meeting federal and state regulations.
Leading, or motivating, is the fourth basic managerial function identified by the process approach to management. It is defined as the act of guiding and influencing other people to achieve goals. Leading involves leadership, communication, and motivation skills. In addition, the leadership role for most managers entails four primary duties: educating, evaluating, counseling, and representing.
Educating includes teaching skills and showing workers how to function within the company and how to perform their assigned tasks. They do so through both formal and informal means.
Examples of informal education are attitudes, work habits, and other behavior that sets an example for subordinates to follow. Evaluating activities that are part of a manager's leadership responsibilities include settling disputes, creating and enforcing standards and policies, evaluating output, and dispensing rewards.
In fact, much of the respect and esteem that a manager gets from subordinates is contingent upon the ability to evaluate effectively. A manager's ability to counsel will also impact his or her effectiveness. Counseling involves giving advice, helping workers solve problems, soliciting feedback from subordinates, and listening to voluntary input or employee problems.
Finally, managers lead through representation by voicing the concerns and suggestions of their subordinates to higher authorities. In other words, managers must show a willingness to back their workers and represent their needs and goals. Numerous theories have been posited to explain the leadership function and to describe the traits of successful leaders.
For example, John P. Kotter, author of The Leadership Factor, identified six traits considered necessary for managers in large organizations to be effective leaders: 1 motivation, 2 personal values, 3 ability, 4 reputation and track record, 5 relationships in the firm and industry, and 6 industry and organizational knowledge. Contrary to traditional beliefs about leadership, which hold that leadership ability is innate, these trait groups are acquired through combinations of early childhood experiences, education, and career experiences.
In addition to developing leadership traits, effective managers must adopt a style of leadership that complements their position, personality, and environment. In general, managers practice some combination of four recognized leadership styles: directive, political, participative, and charismatic. The directive leadership style emphasizes the use of facts, sound strategy, and assertiveness.
This type of manager focuses on gathering information, establishing objectives through a careful assessment of data, devising strategies to accomplish goals, and then directing subordinates and coworkers to achieve those ends. Managers who subscribe to a directive leadership style are less concerned about building a consensus for their vision than they are about motivating others to achieve it.
They are more likely to confront resistance to their goals and to have less patience in pursuing objectives than other types of leaders. In contrast, managers who embrace a political leadership style believe that their ability to lead requires the power to manipulate forces within the entity toward common objectives.
Importantly, they assume that the company is a political arena fraught with deception, in-fighting, and selfish goals. Therefore, they often must push, bargain, and manipulate to advance the interests of their departments and themselves. Although such leaders may be well-intentioned, honest, and acting in the best interests of the company, they may be willing to deceive others and act selfishly in order to achieve a desired result.
Common tactics include keeping goals flexible or vague, advancing their agendas patiently, and manipulating channels of influence and authority. The participative, or values-driven, style of leadership emphasizes joint decision making, decentralization, the sharing of power, and democratic management. Managers who are participative leaders assume that their subordinates are highly motivated by work that challenges them, builds skills, and is accomplished with teams of people that they respect.
Thus, unlike directive leadership, the participative style focuses on building a consensus during the decision-making process. It also stresses bottom-up management—information and expertise is gleaned from workers in lower levels of the organization and used to direct decisions and goals—and the empowerment of subordinates to make decisions. The fourth basic managerial style of leadership, charismatic leadership, differs from the other three styles in that it is more suited to realizing radical visions or handling crises.
It is less concerned with influencing behavior toward the attainment of long-term goals or day-to-day management activities. Charismatic leadership in business organizations is a style often used by entrepreneurs who are starting new companies, or by transformational managers seeking to revitalize established organizations. The fifth major managerial function, controlling, is comprised of activities that measure and evaluate the outcome of planning, organizing, staffing, and leading efforts.
Controlling is an essential part of management because it helps managers determine the fruitfulness of the other functions planning, organizing, etc. Controlling is typically viewed as an ongoing management process that ensures that the organization is moving toward its goals. The process includes establishing performance standards, evaluating ongoing activities, and correcting performance that deviates from the standards. Managers begin by establishing specific criteria outlining how they want a company's tasks performed.
Based on company objectives, managers determine the performance standards in order for the company to attain its goals. Performance standards may take the form of qualitative and quantitative criteria. Examples of performance standards are budgets, projections, pro forma statements, and production, sales, or quality initiatives.
Successful managers usually rely on a feedback system to see how employees are responding to performance standards; this allows managers to identify problems before they develop into crises. During the second stage of the control process, evaluation, managers determine how closely their subordinates' or department's performance matched up with preset standards. Of import is the manager's acceptable range of deviation, or the degree to which actual performance can vary from the standard before corrective action is necessary.
In addition, managers must factor into the performance comparison influences outside of the control of their unit. They must also devise a means of communicating results to subordinates in a constructive manner. If measured results deviate outside of an acceptable range, the manager must take corrective action. Corrective action may mean simply readjusting the preset standards to reflect more realistic goals. Or, the manager may have to analyze the process that lead to the deviation and then act to make changes.
For instance, if a production line fails to meet quality goals the manager may choose to rearrange work teams or change the financial incentive system to emphasize quality. The manager may also determine that the departmental budget needs to be revised to increase spending on quality control. To be effective, managers must design control systems that are based on meaningful and accepted standards. If standards are too high, subordinates are likely to lose motivation or become frustrated.
Standards should also be based on the overall goals of the organization rather than on the narrow objectives of one department or division. The control process should emphasize two-way communication so that controls are understood by subordinates and managers are able to effectively set standards and evaluate performance, taking into account the workers' perspective.
In addition, standards and controls should be flexible enough to accommodate emerging problems and opportunities. Most importantly, controls should be used only when necessary so that they don't unnecessarily obstruct creativity and drive. In addition to the five basic managerial functions defined by the process approach, a number of ancillary roles can be identified depending on the position and responsibilities of individual managers that are necessary to perform the functions.
These roles take the form of interpersonal roles, information roles, and decision maker roles. As part of their interpersonal roles, managers are generally expected to act as figureheads and leaders for their units or organizations, which entails performing ceremonial duties or entertaining associates. Managers also act as liaisons, working with peers in other departments or contacts outside of the organization.
The liaison role requires managers to have contact with peers, customers, executives, and others. Searle says prospective management accountants should expand their studies beyond those of a traditional financial accountant.
There are two major professional designations for management accountants. Obtaining one of these designations may help you command a higher salary. You can earn this designation if you complete a bachelor's degree, pass the two-part CMA exam , and acquire two continuous years of professional experience in management accounting or financial management. The second is the chartered global management accountant designation, offered by the American Institute of CPAs in conjunction with the London-based Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
The credential has only been offered since the beginning of At its inception, the CGMA program offered the credential based on experience alone. As of , there is also an exam requirement.
I value each of these credentials," Knese says. Management accountants often begin their careers as staff accountants to learn the fundamentals of accounting and how a business functions, Kuchen says. Searle notes they may also start out as analysts.
They may advance to become senior accountants or senior analysts, then to accounting supervisors to controllers, and to CFOs. According to Mulling, the career ladder can go in many different directions depending on your individual goals.
In fact, he says management accountants often make their mark at companies as vital decision-makers. He says the best way to advance is by volunteering to work on various projects and decision-making tasks to increase your knowledge of the company and your role in its success. Mulling also recommends getting involved in your profession at the local or global level.
For instance, the IMA provides that opportunity and also helps professionals create a network for career opportunities, skill enhancement, and decision support. Kuchen adds that devising new systems, business processes, and analyses that save the company money and help it run more efficiently, along with showing an interest in and aptitude for cost accounting, will help you advance. Knese's career provides an example of one of the possible paths for management accountants.
He started as a public accountant and earned the CPA credential, then advanced to management accounting before earning the CMA credential. I have worked for both public and private companies , and I wanted to learn as much about the business and accounting world as I could," he says. Knese says he differentiated himself and advanced in his career through certification and continuing professional education. Careers are advanced because people ask for the chance to show what they know and what they can do.
Searle says lower-level accountants and analysts can advance by demonstrating analytic, leadership, and financial skills. Depending on the type of company, management accountants need to demonstrate expertise in different areas, according to Searle. In a technical field, the professional might need to take on duties in developing systems or managing technical education projects," he says.
He adds that management accountants are often called upon to monitor marketing efforts or act as analysts on special projects. These experiences can prepare them for additional management responsibilities either in finance or general management. Just like any other position, the salary of a management accountant depends on several factors including experience, specialties, education and designations, and the company for which you work.
Although the Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS does not differentiate between different accountants, it does report salary expectations for accountants—along with auditors—in general. The industry reported more than 1. The median annual salary for accountants and auditors in , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Management accountants work in both the public and private sectors. They prepare data—recording and crunching numbers—that their companies use for budgeting and planning purposes. They are also responsible for managing risk, planning, strategizing, and decision making.
Since organizations can be viewed as systems, management can also be defined as human action, including design, to facilitate the production of useful outcomes from a system. This view opens the opportunity to manage oneself, a pre-requisite to attempting to manage others. Management functions include: Planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization a group of one or more people or entities or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.
There are several different resource types within management. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of:. There are different types of management styles, and the management process has changed over recent years. The addition of work teams and servant leadership has changed what is expected from managers, and what managers expect from their employees. There is a hierarchy of employees, low level management, mid-level management, and senior management.
In traditional management systems, the manager sets out expectations for the employees who need to meet goals, but the manager receives the reward of meeting those goals.
With this approach, the manager helps supply resources the employees need to meet company goals. In servant leadership, the organization recognizes employees as experts in their field and work to help them work efficiently.
No matter which type of management style is used by an organization, the main objective of managers is to help employees reach company goals and maintain company standards and policies. The purpose of management is to serve customers. Yet, if one looks through most management books for a definition of management, This is astonishing because serving customers in order to obtain a profit is the crux of every business organization.
Equally remiss is the fact that most definitions of management neatly filter out service in their descriptions of management. Good managers constantly streamline their organizations toward making a sale. In this regard, a good manager is responsible for reducing waste and ambiguity, keeping costs down, and motivating others to do the same.
0コメント