Chapter 1 Essay Questions:

1. Explain the relationships among the four functions of management.

The four basic management functions are planning, influencing, and controlling. a. Planning involves choosing tasks that must be performed to attain organizational goals, outlining how the tasks must be performed, and indicating when they should be performed. b. Organizing-can be thought of as assigning the tasks developed under the planning function to various individuals or groups within the organization. c. Influencing is referred to as motivating, leading, directing, or actuating. d. Controlling is the management function through which managers i. Gather information that measures recent performance within the organization ii. Compare present performance to pre-established performance standards. iii. From this comparison, determine whether the organization should be modified to meet pre-established standards.
These functions are interrelated because the performance of one depends on the performance of the others. For example, organizing is based on well thought out plans developed during the planning process, and influencing systems must be tailored to reflect both these plans and the organizational design used to implement them. The fourth function, controlling, involves possible modification to existing plans, organizational structure, or the motivation system used to develop a more successful effort.

2. How can controlling help a manger to become more efficient?

e. Managerial efficiency is the proportion of total organizational resources that contribute to productivity during the manufacturing process. The higher this proportion, the more efficient the manager. So if the manager is controlling properly like gathering information, comparing and contrasting pre-established standards