Question

What are the five basic functions of the management process? Explain some of the specific activities involved in each function. Which function is most closely associated with human resource management?

Answer 1

Five basic principles of a management process include:

1. Planning

Planning takes into account the needs of the organization, aligning it with the vision and the mission in order to look ahead into the future aspect of the organization and bring out the best possible plan of action to counter any problems.

2. Organizing

Organizing is the process of defining the structure, function as well as the resources in order to allow the organization to make use of their capabilities to the fullest.

3. Commanding

Commanding includes the process of being able to provide lear working order and instructions to the employees in order to be able to utilize their ability to get the required output that is needed by the organization

4. Coordination

Coordination can be understood as the harmonizing flow of activities within each other. This is a positive function of influence in the sense that it aims at forming a complete process with the collective efforts of all the net functions performed by all the elements and bring it all together through good communication and leadership.

5. Controlling

Controlling refers to the process of establishing the standards, measuring the actual performance comparison of the results and then bringing out a corrective measure to counter it.

The function that is most closely associated with HR is controlling. This is due to the fact that after the structure has been realized, there is a need to check if all the resources of the company are being used to its full potential. Since, the human resource makes use of all the other resources of the organization, we can say that the HRM provides the basic control an organization needs in order to contribute to the factor of productivity.