Management

Abstract This paper gives a description of the four basic functions of management. In response to the scenario, this paper gives managements’ decision for its manufacturing choice and the reasons for its decision. It explains why its manufacturing choice was chosen over other options and why. Management is broken down into four basic functions. According to English statesman Sir Thomas More (1435-1537), “As a discipline, management consists of the interlocking functions of formulating corporate policy and organizing, planning, controlling and directing an organization's resources to achieve the policy's objectives (retrieved on September 13, 2011 from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/management.html). The larger the organization the more likely there will be many levels of management, each division/department responsible for its overall contribution to the company as a whole. Controlling is the establishment of company standards, monitoring actual performance and taking corrective action if necessary to fix a problem. An assembly line works properly when all parts are available when needed and this keeps a constant production of products. When a part is not available, production stops. Corrective/disciplinary action may be needed to correct the problem. This is done to, not only, fix the problem, but to ensure that the problem doesn’t occur again. Leading/directing is the building of an effective work climate and opportunity for motivation, supervising, disciplining and scheduling of employees toward company goals. As an employer, you want to provide a good work environment for your employees. By establishing company policy, you outline your requirements for the work environment. This is done so that Unit 4 Independent Project all employees will know how to conduct themselves while at work. If /when an infraction occurs, management will dispense proper disciplinary/corrective action. Organizing is the assembling of resources to obtain an organization’s objectives/goals. It requires certain components to assemble a product. Organizing a business is just the same. The company must provide the means (productive activity) to produce the required outcome. Management must ensure that the required resources are available so that the assembly can take place and produce products. Being a new company, I would choose to use an assembly only form of management. To show our commitment to the community and to be a positive impact on the economic growth, this would allow the company to use local vendors to compile components needed to complete the final product. This would increase revenue of the existing businesses as they increase production levels to meet the increase in products needed. To staff the new assembly plant, new jobs are created for the local citizens. By having an assembly only operation, it decreases the number of environmental issues to monitor. While the components vendors would be more directly in control of the environmental issues of their company, the company would have fewer obligations to have monitored. The option of outsourcing had no appeal. Not only does it take jobs away from the community, it doesn’t show the community any respect. With the current state of the economy, any company should be willing to invest in the community it resides. Outsourcing is not conducive to the perception of a company’s commitment to the community. While the complete production assembly plant was a tempting choice, the negative impact it would have on the community ruled it out. There would be new jobs created, but there will be competition to the Unit 4 Independent Project local vendors. This competition would be another negative factor on the exiting economic climate. It would also put the company at a higher risk for environmental infractions, a negative impact on the company reputation and financially. By keeping the company’s obligation to a minimum and focusing on quality production, the company becomes more profitable with a minimum of direct management involvement. The local vendors will have quality control standards in place for the production of the individual components, which limits the amount of environmental monitoring the company has to engage. Quality checks done upon arrival at our facility will ensure that only the highest quality components reach the final assembly line. The company still has control of the final production of the product, thereby increasing the chances of producing a higher quality product to the consumer. Management’s function is to make ready all that is needed to ensure production readiness and profitability. Through proper planning and controlling of resources and personnel, management will be able to guide the company towards and achieve its goals. References * ITIL Service Management. Retrieved on September 13, 2011 from BusinessDictionary.com. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/management.html) * Ebert, Ronald J. and Griffin, Ricky W. (2011). Business Essentials (8th Ed.) Pearson Education, Inc., Prentice Hall.