7 Ways General Management Can Increase Your Productivity

Management is the process of developing an organization’s resources to achieve specific aims through the functions of planning, leading and controlling. In other words, management deals with how we can utilize available resources to achieve planned objectives or goals.

This article highlights some basic steps you need to follow so that you can manage several businesses successfully with ease.

From the above definition and illustrations of management, the following features are important to know:

• Organizing: organizing means allocating work to people and directing their doing so that the objectives of the business can be proficient.
• Control: this involves making sure that people carry out directives according to plan.
• Leading: it refers to the way in which mangers help their employees or assistants to achieve certain goals of the business.
• Planning: this is mainly concerned with setting objectives and devising the necessary course of action to achieve these objectives.

And that is why business management is considered a good major processes for every organization or a business firm.

The Functions of Management In a Business

The main functions of management are planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

Planning Process In General Management

Planning is significant because it helps in the establishment and completion of objectives; provides performance standards that facilitate control; reduces uncertainty by anticipating changes; gives a focus and sense of direction to the business; helps n the allocation and utilization of business resources, and precedes the execution of all other managerial functions.

Here are some of the process involved in management planning, guide here would make you not to ask how does one create a business plan? Below are some of the things you need to know.

i. Identify opportunities and threats;

ii. Formulate objectives;
iii. Make assumptions and draw up plans of action accordingly;
iv. Identify alternative plans of actions;
v. Analyze and consider alternative plans of actions;
vi. Choose a final plan;
vii. Draw up a budget;
viii. Implement and evaluate the plan.

Kinds of Plans In Management

Plans can be branded into the following Kinds:

1. Time prospect: in this case plans are classified on the basis of the time factor. On the basis of the time factor, we have long-term plans, medium-term plans, and short-term plans.
2. Level of management: the types of plans according to levels of management are strategic plans, functional or tactical plans, and operational plans.
3. Continuity basis: by this, we are referring to whether the plans will continuously be used or whether the plans will be used just once.
4. Functional plans: these are the types of plans according to the functional areas of business.

Advantages of a Good Plan In Management

A good plan must have some the following advantages:

i. A good plan must be realistic
ii. Must be futuristic
iii. Must be goal – oriented
iv. Must be considerate in the course of action
v. Must be flexible in nature.

Disadvantages to Effective Planning In Management

Here are some of the stumbling blocks to effective planning
i. Rigidity of plan
ii. Wrong timing
iii. The poor inspiration of workers
iv. Environmental factors
v. Inadequate resources.

Organizing Method In Management

Organizing is the management purpose by means of which a business structure is well-known through the distribution of responsibilities, the allocation of resources and the coordination of activities to achieve the objectives of the business.

Leading Process Of Management

Leading is the management function which monitors the people within an organization in such a way that they will cooperate or work together towards the accomplishment of the goals of the business as efficiently as possible.

Management Control

Control is the formation of accurate standards against which the actual act of the employees and the business can be measured and, whereby, any abnormalities from the business’s standards can be detected in good time it entails verifying whether instructions are carried out according to plan.

General Management Control processes

Control process involves the following steps:

1. Calculating the actual performance
2. Taking remedial action
3. Assessing and comparing actual performance against set standards

Principles of effective Control In Management

1. It must be understandable
2. It must be elastic
3. It must be correct and timely
4. It must be economical

Other Management Tasks are as follows:

Motivation: it is the procedure in which a general manager or a businessman encourages the employees that they should voluntarily do their work as well as possible. Motivation is a driving force that grows spontaneously in a person and managers must strive to the ways they do.

Delegation: it is the process whereby tasks are allotted to assistants or employees with the needed authority and duty to enable them to do the tasks.

Discipline: Discipline forms the conduct of employees so that their behavior helps to ensure the successful acts of the business.

Communication: people can only exist within the framework or social institutions and through contact and interaction with other people. This interaction takes place by means of communication. Communication is the transfer of messages between the business and its internal and external environment.

Coordination: it is the process in which the numerous business tasks or activities are treated as a functional unit so that the objectives of the business can be successfully achieved.

Principles of Management

A principle is an important fact. Principles of management are the important facts which guide the activities and processes of an organization. They are guidelines that guide the actions of and decisions of managers in their bid to utilize business resources to achieve stated organizational goals.

The principles are as follows:

1. Discipline: members of the organization should respect the rules and agreements that govern the organization.
2. Authority: managers should have the right to give orders and exact compliance.
3. Division of labor: functions should be separated into areas of concentration in such a way that one worker performs one activity.
4. Order: materials and people should be placed and maintained in their proper location.
5. Equity: a manager should treat employees and peers with respect and justice. Managers should be fair and just to all workers.
6. Stability of tenure: workers should be sure of maintaining their jobs for a reasonable period of time.
7. Initiative: assistants should be given the liberty to perceive and carry out their policies within the bounds of their delegated authority and defined jobs, even though some errors may result.

Levels of Management

Basically, there are three levels of management in any organization, namely top-level management, middle-level management, and first-level or lower-level management.

i. Top-level management: managers at this level are responsible for the overall management of the organization; they establish operating policies and guide the organization’s interaction with its external environment. They make key decisions and long-term plans for the organization. Examples of top-level managers are:
a. Managing director;
b. Chief executive officer;
President’
c. General manger;
d. Chairman, the board of directors’
e. Non-executive directors, etc.

ii. Middle-level management: managers at this level are at the midrange of the organizational ladder; they are answerable to other managers and sometimes for some operational employees; the report to more senior managers; they express departmental purposes, rules and plans; they link management decisions and policies to their assistants; and carry out key decisions of the top-level managers. Examples of middle-level managers are:

a. Marketing manager;
b. Production manager;
c. Chief accountant;
d. Chief engineer;
e. Administrative manager, etc.

iii. First-level management: managers at this level are responsible for the work of operating employees only and do not supervise other managers; they are “first” or lowest level managers in the organizational hierarchy; they plan for the day-to-day operations and assign personnel to specific jobs;

Roles of a Manager

In other to successfully deliberate on the roles of a manager, we will love to discuss who a manager is and what he does?

A manager is a person at any level of the organization who guides the labors of their people in accomplishing goals. He is the person who is responsible for making decisions concerning the use of business properties to achieve results.

He is also a substance that makes things happen and the vigorous, life-giving element in every business, without his governance, the resources can never become production.

He launches goals, plans operations, arranges various resources (personnel, materials, equipment, capital, information, time, etc.) leads and motivates people to accomplish, evaluates actual results against the set objectives, and improves people for the organization.

A role is defined as an organized set of behaviors belonging to an identifiable office or position. Roles are those behaviors that can be attributed to managerial position or job. That is the behavioral patterns that managers are expected to display within the unit they are to function.

The roles of a manager are broadly divided into three (3) groups, namely:

• Interpersonal roles: these are the dealings that managers have with other people as a result of their status and position.
• Informational roles: these relay to the sources and note of information which result from manager’s interpersonal roles.
• Decisional roles: these include making organizational choices on the basis of mangers’ status and power, and access to information.

Managerial Skills

What is a skill?

A skill is an ability to do something well. Managerial skills, therefore, are the abilities of managers to utilize business resources efficiently and effectively in order to achieve stated organizational goals. Though skills are important at all levels of management they are more important at one level than the other. For example, the significance of the technical skill diminishes as the manager climbs up the ladder and vice versa and also the significance of the conceptual skill diminishes as the manager climbs down the ladder and vice versa.

At this juncture, we are going to be outlining three (3) managerial skills namely;

• Technical skill: it refers to the capability of a manager to use a particular information, devices, procedures, and techniques in a specialized arena.
• Human skill: this refers to the ability of a manager to work with, comprehend, encourage and get along with others.
• Conceptual skill: this also refers to the ability of a manager to recognize the difficulties of the overall organization and how each department or unit fits into the organization.

Wrapping Up:
Every business needs good management in order to grow above its competitors and achieve its main goal.

If you have any suggestion, contribution to management, please do not hesitate to use the comment box below. Thanks for reading.