Team Management Activity and Reflection. Free Essay

Teamwork has been rooted in our society for decades. A manager leads a team and molds the culture of the organization. The management functions are planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling that I have to perform as a manager to attain the business objectives efficiently. I must set a plan first, organize the resources, adequately staff the employees, lead the staff towards achieving the goals, and monitor the efficiency.

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Planning

Planning is looking forward to the future and outlining a path to be followed. It’s a preliminary management function. This step defines procedures, roles, and timing that will be used while performing a specified task. Planning is a systematic task. It considers available and prospective resources of the company to coordinate, contribute and correctly adjust effectively. As a manager, I intend to build a productive team culture by staying true to my word, nurturing trust and respect, and ensuring that every employee feels seen and heard.

The planning function involves several steps. They are such as establishing the objectives, developing the grounds or planning, selecting an alternative action plan, formulating derivative plans, securing cooperation, and following up. Realizing the targets and setting goals serve as a compass to indicate the direction that the efforts should be put (Juneja, 2015). Stating of these goals should be in qualitative and quantitative terms. In this case, the goal is to build a productive team culture. Planning premises act as a basis of planning. They are such as management-labor relations and socio-economic changes. The evaluation of merits, demerits, and consequences of every alternative is done before choosing the alternative plan of action. Secondary plans like budgets and schedules are derived from the basic ones. After defining the plans, I will have to secure the employees that will implement these plans. The final step is the execution of the plan. A plan has to be goal-oriented and flexible. This means it has to meet the desired objective of having a productive team culture and have room for changes in the case of changes in policies. A plan analyzes and foresees the future. Another characteristic of planning is that it is a mental process that involves creative thinking and sound judgment. It is a continuous process that consists of the manager, supervisors, and packers because of the nature of the business environment. Proper planning will assist the business to attain its goals at the minimum possible cost. The plan will benefit us by facilitating the company's objectives, facilitating coordination of activities, and minimizing uncertainties.

Organizing

Organizing is the next step after planning. In coordination, all the resources are synchronized and combined. The essential resources are labor, finances, and physicals. Organizational function assists in achieving results. As per Chester Barnard’s statement, “Organizing is a function that defines the duties, relationship between jobs and the coordination between authority and responsibility." Since I will have to organize activities to attain results, the functionality structure would be best suited. Functional departmentalization will organize the employees according to their tasks.

The steps that guide the organizing function are first identifying the activities, organizing them according to their departments, classifying the authority to bring about efficiency, and finally coordinating the authority and responsibilities (Zimmerman & Blythe, 2017). The importance of departmentalization is that it clearly defines jobs, clarifies authority, creates coordination between various departments, and facilitates administration. Additionally, organizing allows for growth and diversification.

Staffing

Staffing is about correctly and effectively selecting personnel and developing them to meet their responsibilities in an organization. Theo Haimann defined it as "Staffing deals with recruiting, selecting, developing and compensating of the subordinates." Staffing is an important managerial function, as all the other functions rely on the labor availed through staffing. The procedure starts with recruitment, followed by selection, placement, training, and then development. Like planning, staffing is a continuous process that is carried out by all managers. The ground for staffing is to efficiently manage the workforce by placing the right person at the right job.

The first step in staffing is determining any future labor requirements. If there is a need for more human resources, interested candidates will be sent for them to apply. Then invitations will be sent to the suitable candidates. The desired candidates will be selected according to the requirements. Through orientation, the appointed candidates will familiarize themselves with their workstations and the environment. As they continue working, there will be training to develop them. To keep the employees motivated, I advocate for remuneration according to the type of work done. Regular evaluation of employee performance is crucial. When an employee is transferred or promoted, the staffing cycle starts again.

Leading

Leading consists of a social source of influence on other people. When the managers are effective team leaders, the employees are excited about putting in the effort to achieve the company goals. The most applied leadership theories are transactional theories and transformational theories. The transactional approach focuses on the role of supervision and organization. It is based on a reward and punishment system that rewards the successful employee while punishing the one that fails.

On the other hand, transformational theories focus on the relationship between leaders and their subordinates. These managers motivate and inspire the employees by assisting the team members in realizing the importance of the task. I will implement the transformational theories to help the staff fulfill their potential as well as perform their duties effectively. Behavioral science research shows that to be an effective leader, one has to comprehend the team members' personalities, attitudes, and values.

Controlling

Controlling involves checking that the activities align with the plans put in place, given instructions, and established principles. It ensures the achievement of the desired objectives through efficient and effective utilization of the company's resources. It assists in implementing corrective actions. It does this by measuring the deviation of the obtained results from the desired standards. These standards are either tangible or intangible. The tangibles are cost, time, and expenditure, while the intangibles are such as the attitude of the workers.

Controlling is an end function that facilitates coordination and assists in planning. It is a dynamic process that needs reviewing techniques as making amendments whenever possible. Generally, planning and control are integral. Their frequency and type define the controls. As a manager, I will apply periodical automated internal control measures. This is because the approach is reliable.

Conclusion

Conclusively, all management functions are interrelated. This means the functions blend into each other, and each function directly affects the results of the other functions. It’s not possible to skip any. These processes maintain an environment in which the team accomplishes its objectives. It is advisable for team leaders to systematically implement the functions of management to create a high-performance team. That is planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. They all work as continuous functions.

References

4 Functions of Management Process: Planning, Organizing, Leading, Controlling. iEduNote.com. (2020, April 16). https://www.iedunote.com/function-of-management-process.

Juneja, P. (2015). MSG Management Study Guide. Planning Function of Management. https://www.managementstudyguide.com/planning_function.html.

Laasch, O., & Conaway, R. (2018). Main business functions. Responsible Business: The Textbook for Management Learning, Competence and Innovation, 207–221. https://doi.org/10.9774/gleaf.9781783534876_13

Zimmerman, A., & Blythe, J. (2017). Organizing for maximum effectiveness. Business to Business Marketing Management, 372–392. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315564098-19