Four Functions of Management

All successful managers use the four functions of management, planning, organising, leading and controlling. The Australian Bureau of statistics tells us that one in every ten employees is a manager (Cole, 2001, p.4). The National Industry Task Force on Leadership and Management Skills, chaired by David Karpin, estimated that Australia has a total of 890,000 managers. About half of them are over 40 years of age. Just over half (about 511,000 are employed in the 80% of Australia’s enterprises that have four or fewer employees (Cole, 2001, p.4). These managers occupy many levels of management in an organisation, starting with first line supervisors up to middle and then to senior managers, Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors. Each level of management is there for one purpose only and that is to ensure that the organisations goals are achieved. Managers achieve these organisational goals by using the following functions.

Planning is the essential and primary function of ...