Smith's Accounting Tax & Service Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Smith's Accounting Tax & Service - Case Study Example Importance of Management Functions The four major management functions, planning, organizing, influencing, and controlling, play a significant role in performing the daily activities of an organization. The concept of planning sets specific goals for organizations, managers, and other employees. In the opinion of Pride, Hughes, and Kapoor (2010), planning assists the management team to understand where the organization is, how to make the organization move along the specified path, and when to take appropriate measures to achieve the targeted organizational goals etc (pp.169-170). Elimination of uncertainties, minimization of impulsive and arbitrary decisions, quick resource allocation, effective use of resources, adaptive responses, anticipative action, and integration of various decisions and activities are other benefits usually obtained from planning. According to Hurd, Barcelona, and Meldrum (2008, pp.42-43), ‘organizing’ is an effective functional element of manage ment that assists the firm to achieve the targets set in the planning phase. Organizing aids a firm to distribute the works effectively among its employees. Organizing is essential to clarify the powers of every manager and the way he has to exercise those powers. This practice will also prevent managers from taking unfair advantages of their position. Similarly, work coordination, effective administration, growth and diversification, sense of security, and scope for new changes are some other fruitful outcomes of organizing. A manager’s level of success or failure is determined on the basis of his/her ability to influence people within the particular department. When managerial individuals effectively deploy their influencing skills, they exude a positive energy that would highly motivate their subordinates. This motivation will directly enhance organizational productivity and thereby profitability. In the view of Marquis and Huston (2009, p. 434), motivation helps an indivi dual to move forward in spite of all possible difficulties and challenges. Controlling is a management function that bridges the gap between actual performance and the planned performance by finding reasons for such gaps and taking corrective measures or actions to address those reasons. Rothbauer-Wanish (2009) says that this function is essential to make sure that the business is running along the predetermined path. Moreover, it would enable the management team to successfully enter into the next phase of planning. Recommendations to Amanda (1)Although you (Amanda) had established an effective mission statement, you failed to develop and share it in an appropriate way. It seems that you have not tried to pass her visions and goals on to your new employees. For the profitable running of Smith’s Accounting and Tax Service, Amanda’s employees must be well aware of the firm’s ultimate goal. Therefore, you must give great emphasis on sharing your mission and vision with your employees. (2)Similarly, you failed to organize and control human resources effectively. You completely relied on Lisa even before analyzing the range of Lisa’s performance. You gave full freedom to Lisa to manage the day to day activities of other employees. In short, you have not given adequate care in dealing with the individual performance of your employees. Hence, it is

Business Report about Prudential Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business Report about Prudential - Essay Example In the words of Henry Fayol (1987), management is all about forecasting, planning, organizing, forming coordination and keeping control. This implies that management is made of four interlocking functions namely planning, organizing, leading and controlling (Porter, 2008) Management is a continuous process because its four functions are interdependent on each other therefore, management never stops. A deep insight into the concept of management shows that the task of a manager is to ensure that all resources of the organization are working in harmony with human resources. A manager is responsible for creating such an environment where workers are motivated and they do not lose their focus. Management as a whole is dynamic in nature. It involves the use of various disciplines such as economics, ethics, psychology and sociology etc in order to guarantee that workers achieve their targets on time by utilizing resources optimally (Terence Lucey, 2005). Competing Values Framework (CVF): T here are a number of approaches to management and fortunately they have all come together in Quinn’s (1981) competing values framework (CVF). The idea behind the introduction of this approach was to simplify the language which is useful in defining organizational effectiveness in terms of its designing, analysis and development. This framework can have multiple purposes: it serves as a learning system in the organization, an idea generator, a map and a mechanism that makes sense of organizing. It helps in the identification of factors and guidelines which assist the managers in managing conflicts, congruencies and relationships at different levels of the organizations (Wesley, 2008). The competing values framework (CVF) helps the organizational members and managers create value for the organization as well as improve its performance at both internal and external levels. Cameron and Quinn (2006) proposed that organizational effectiveness can be demonstrated by four of competin g values namely internal, external, flexibility and control. The model illustrates that the vertical axis represents structural preferences of organizations from flexibility to control and the horizontal axis shows the perspectives from internal (people oriented) to external (organization oriented) emphasis (see Appendix). The framework is further divided into four quadrants namely human relations model, internal process model, open system model and rational goal model (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983). 2.0 Application 2.1 Name and Challenge Establishes in 1875 and headquartered in the city of Newark, NJ, Prudential Financial Inc. is one of the leading companies which offers to its customers various products and services of financial nature. These offerings include investment management, mutual funds, annuities, life insurance policies and special services for the retired citizens. For over more than hundred years, the company is enjoying successful operations in Latin America, United State s, Europe and Asia. So far, the number of permanent employees associated with Prudential Inc. has reached up to fifty thousand one hundred and four. There are three main divisions of the company namely: U.S Retirement Solutions and Investment Management, International Insurance and Investment and U.S Individual Life and Group Insurance. Of the many challenges Prudential is facing, the challenge of climate change holds significant importance. Global warming has given rise to the issue of