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Business > Small Business > Four Functions of Management in the Home
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Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : Michael Spindler
Four Functions of Management in the Home
Researched and Authored by: Michael J. Spindler
Over the course of this paper, the author is going to examine the four functions of management; planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. We are also going to explore some of the realities of the business world that impact, for better or worse, these four functions and how these functions affect employees, profitability, and the future direction of the company.
The first phase of management is in planning. At this stage, the company is given an objective. For the purpose of this paper, we are going to focus on an external Information Technology (IT) Company that has been contracted to take over all internal IT functions of the hiring company. To further narrow down a rather large endeavor, we are going to narrow down this analysis to the desktop support department.
The external IT Company now handling the principle company’s technology needs has the primary goal of meeting the bare minimum with the highest rate of financial return. In planning, the IT Company needs to analyze, the technology needs of the individual customers within the organization. This would include hardware types to support, whether personal computers, laptops, peripherals such as scanners, desk side printers, and other various office related equipment. The number of customers the IT Company will be supporting as well directly impacts the number of support staff that will be needed, as well as skill levels required to support the wide range of technologies. In an ideal world, the IT Company would be wise to have one technician per 800 customers supported. However, as this company is looking to make a profit, we are going to increase our technicians support load to 1600 customers. While this may easily lead to employee burn out, in preplanning, and with no obligation to meet a Service Level Agreements (SLA). Tickets from customers can sit in the queue for up to one month.
Now let us take a look at further poor preplanning, which leads this paper in the direction of organizing. To save more money, the IT department is going to let go of an entire department consisting of twelve employees that handle technical refreshes. Tech Refresh (TR) refers to the roll over of equipment that is due to be returned on lease agreements. Failure to return the equipment on time results in high penalties, which are usually higher in costs than the actual worth of the equipment.
In order to do this, now we are going to strip down half of our desk side support team to half, down to three. The other three will now be in charge of handling the full volume of TR’s. However, a new problem has arisen. New models of laptops and desktops are coming in. The IT Company now needs to dedicate a technician to building an operating system and customizing it to meet the security needs and standards of the organization. The IT Company says to itself, “We don’t have an SLA on tickets that the three main technicians are working, so let us pull one of those technicians to work on the full time project basis of building up the new systems.” But as ticket volumes steadily grow, the IT Company decides to export desktop functions that can be completed remotely to a great city name Monterey in the country of Mexico.
Incredible savings to boot with a lower communication barrier issue to the English speaking customer the IT Company supports in Kansas City. “Offshore staff offer fantastic skills but cultural and dialect differences undermine their value in key customer facing roles such as call centres.” (Venkataraman, 2007) In the world of information technology, if a customer has reached the point of frustration to sit on hold while fuming over a technical issue. The last dilemma a customer wants to deal with is attempting to communicate a problem and trying to help the recipient on the other end to understand. While the staff in Monterey is knowledgeable, this is yet another item on a growing list of complaints towards the IT Company servicing the companies technically challenged employees.
Now that the IT Company has downsized the support staff, demoralized them with a tremendous work load with little reward and no hope that there will be light at the end of the tunnel, how does this IT Company lead the troops? It does not. This is a company that has poorly planned and executed a strategy. Has no organizational structure or one that bends so easily on the threats of the hiring company that no employee can keep up with new direction due to lack of communication. “By "structure" I mean things like degree and type of horizontal differentiation, vertical differentiation, mechanisms of coordination and control, formalization, and centralization of power.” (Borgatti, 2001)
The conclusion brings us to the controlling aspect of the function of management. While the reason for conducting business is to earn a profit. Any control the IT Company has is in instilling fear into the employees to continue to produce while the information technology market is tight. Time and again, this author has seen the scenario above played out across this industry, and ultimately it is the employees, the company that was meant to be served that lose.
Please note; this paper may have not been what was asked for. But the author believes that just as much can be learned from seeing how management performs poorly as well above average. By observing how co-workers, supervisors, and managers, all cogs in a wheel out of control, cope with this distress. It has opened my eyes to direct impact that company choices affect everyone.
References - Do Not Strip Article References
Borgatti, S. P. (2001, October 08). Organizational Theory: Determinants of Structure. Retrieved November 10, from http://www.analytictech.com/mb021/orgtheory.htm
Venkataraman, J. (2007, August 8). Don’t outsource your customers!. Retrieved November 10, 2007, from http://www.businessinacan.com/artic
Researched and Authored by: Michael J. Spindler
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Do Not Remove the Authors name: Michael J. Spindler and keep all hyperlinks pointing to: http://www.localmusichits.com - I use software that compares my “library” and scours the web for postings. When I find my article on your site and you have not followed the above binding agreements, Lawyers will be sending letters. A considerable investment of time is involved with this content.
All articles are queried on previous researched material, and compiled to answer questions I set forth for myself…. Eventually authored by me in an attempt to answer my own questions in many subjects I give credit were due, which is why I ask that you do not remove my reference sources, in case it ignites an interest in someone else.
Michael J. Spindler of http://www.localmusichits.com Search for Local music and culture hits in your city!
Articles are free to distribute - However- Do not strip Research Article References, remove the HTML if needed, but keep the URL text. Credit is due to referenced authors, scholars, and, researchers; in which information was used to help to make or disprove points of arguments. Have respect for their hard work and genius.
Do not remove the Authors name: Michael J. Spindler and keep all hyperlinks pointing to: http://www.localmusichits.com - I use software that compares my “library” and scours the web for postings. When I find my article on your site and you have not followed the above binding agreements, Lawyers will be sending letters. A considerable investment of time is involved with the development of this content for our readers benefit.
About the Author: Michael J. Spindler; Michael has a multitude of interests, from Local Music Bands, Arts, Psychology, Sociology, Business Techniques/Management, architecture, and construction.. My first love will always be working with my hands in construction.
As time goes by, most of my articles will focus on the world of Local Music and the bands, musicians, and singers that bring such pleasure to our world. But at this time, I would like to share with you my other varied interest.
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