Introduction
The management practices of organizing, staffing, leading, planning, and controlling play an important role in any modern workplace because of the ever-changing business environment. This has been brought about by competition and the ever-increasing need to attain different organizational goals. It should be understood that these management practices ensure that a given organization’s operations run smoothly to achieve both long term and short term goals. These practices are closely intertwined in one way or the other (Kotter, 2002, P. 23). This, therefore, means that they can be effectively used to enhance efficiency and productivity amongst various employees.
As much as every organization might have the pursuit to ensure that such practices are adhered to, what matters is the way by which they are implemented. In this case, every organization has its way of implementing such practices based on its existing practices and way of doing things. Implementation might take different dimensions based on what the management believes in the best option. No organization can do without such management practices based on the role that it has played in the field of business and organizational management (Kotter, 2002, P. 53).
Therefore, these management practices should be implemented in the best way possible that will preserve and take care of a given organization’s interests. In the process, it should be understood that different managers will try to come up with better ways of implementing these management practices for long-term sustainability as time goes by (Robert, 2008, p. 45). This paper will therefore try to give an analysis of how these management practices have been implemented in my previous place of work because I am currently not working. In this case, it will be based on how they were implemented by looking at practical examples.
Management practices
As much as all these practices are related in one way or the other, it is better if they are implemented individually for proper evaluation of expected outcomes.
Planning
The management practice of planning is the identification and evaluation of different requirements of human resources that will help the organization to achieve its goals and objectives. This means that planning revolves around various human resources administrative functions. It should be understood that the significance of planning cannot be underestimated in any way. Therefore, in my previous place of work, the management practice of planning was done by anticipating different staff requirements about future growth expectations.
The organization was growing and this necessitated the need to plan the number of employees to be employed to suit such expectations (Price, 2007, p. 39). The management was able to plan for and cut costs by carrying out a good analysis of the number of employees that will need to be hired to accomplish a given task. In cases where there was a lean budget, training was done in advance to prepare for the inevitable business uptrend.
Good management practices should be able to link strategic planning and processes for immediate advantages. The talents and skills of different employees were well documented to give a good roadmap on how they can be optimized. Planning should anticipate the future needs of an organization to meet its goals and objectives that might change now and then based on shareholder demands (Robert, 2008, p. 73).
Every company might need new capabilities in the future and this is what planning as a management process is all about. In this case, companies should be able to consider optimal solutions that can be implemented by decision-makers. An example of planning from my previous employer was where employees were able to be in their locations doing the right thing at the right time.
Leading
Leading as a management practice is a very important human resource aspect that determines the level of productivity in an organization. Leadership in any place of work should be efficient enough to guide the organization towards achieving its goals and objectives. Leading requires a lot of operational excellence for long term sustainability. For leadership to be well articulated and implemented, the management should fully understand the organization’s needs and requirements because you cannot participate in what you don’t know (Legge, 2004, p. 20). This ensures full participation of all employees which therefore enhances efficiency and productivity. Leading should ensure that the human resource function has the full capability and capacity to implement various aspects that relate to employees.
This management practice should ensure that all employees are engaged. The drivers that create value in an organization should be optimized to produce a good outcome. This ensures that people can work collaboratively to gain a good understanding of the organization. Leadership was implemented by my previous employer through human resource capacity building. This is something that has also been adopted by various organizations to ensure that there is a good organizational design.
As an example, my previous employer always enhanced leading others as a management practice by insisting on team activity through proper execution and planning of various human resource activities (Rebecca, 2008, p. 48). There were better human resource management budgets to ensure that every aspect of leadership is taken into consideration as time goes by.
Organizing
The organizing function of management touches on various issues and this is after planning has been done. This is where the combination of different aspects of human resources takes place. The human, financial and physical resources are very vital in organizing management practices. This was well infused at my previous place of work through proper and effective coordination of functions. For example, a manager is supposed to perform the management function of organizing by following some steps for ultimate efficiency (Legge, 2004, p. 96). Through proper organizing, my previous employer was able to achieve results. Organizing by my previous employer was practiced by role positions that matter most in the organization.
The organizing function of management is supposed to revolve around coordination between the responsibility and authority in place. As far as management is concerned, managers are supposed to organize things to get results. This means that there should be proper identification of activities. In the process, these activities will be organized departmentally to classify authority. There should be proper coordination between the authority and responsibility for what is being organized to become reality.
Relationships are enhanced through interaction that comes up in the process of organizing various activities in an organization (Price, 2007, p. 67). All this is done to achieve different organizational goals. Proper implementation of organizing as a management practice requires a lot of coordination by involving all stakeholders for success.
Staffing
Staffing revolves around manning different organizational structures. This is done by the proper selection of employees so that they can effectively fit in the roles that they have been assigned. For example, this was well done by my previous employer through proper identification of positions early enough thereby defining roles so that a suitable individual can be selected through a competitive recruitment process. Staffing can also involve appraisal and development of employees to come up with a good workforce that will help in the attainment of organizational goals (Rebecca, 2008, p. 48). Staffing should also be understood as an important management process that needs to be implemented effectively for success as far as the attainment of goals is concerned.
Controlling
Controlling as a management practice has two main roles to play. In this case, it enhances coordination and helps in general planning. Controlling ensures that everything is occurring according to set plans. This means that everything should conform to the instructions that were issued together with the principles that had been established. Through controlling, there is the proper utilization of resources which is important for an organization to achieve its goals.
For example, controlled by my previous employer was effected through risk control and assessment to ensure that everything is going on as planned. For proper implementation, controlling should be majorly concerned with measuring the actual performance with the expected performance (Legge, 2004, p. 51). This ensures that everything is laid down for proper evaluation of possible and expected outcomes.
Conclusion
These management practices should be effectively enforced because they are supposed to bring results. All these practices should focus on leading-edge activities that will guarantee results. All these practices can ultimately act as mitigation measures that will ensure that goals and objectives are attained without any problem. There are differences in management practices because of the ever-changing and competitive business world and this is a trend that is expected to continue as time goes by. As much as these are realities of the business world that every organization is expected to cope with, there should be efforts towards proper implementation of management practices.
Reference list
Kotter, J. (2002). The Heart of Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.
Legge, K. (2004). Human Resource Management: Rhetoric’s and Realities. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Price, A. (2007). Human Resource Management: in business context. London: Cengage Learning.
Rebecca, K. (2008). Introduction to Human Resource Management. Oxford. Oxford University Press.
Robert, C. (2008). Management: People, Performance, Change. New York: McGraw- Hill.