Organizing as a Function of Management

The major functions that a manager completes can be categorized into four different functions, known asplanning, organizing, leading, and controlling; a fifth function of staffing also appears in some management literature. This lesson will focus on the second managerial function, known as organizing. The organizing function is carried out once a plan, or an outline for how to achieve some organizational goal, is in place. Many believe organizing is the most critical of managerial functions because of its ability to help or hinder an organizational plan and thus profoundly affect organizational success.

Think about any team sport and how important organizing is to the success of the team. A coach will spend countless hours planning various plays and formulating strategies to beat the opponent. However, those plays and strategies are only as effective as how well the coach organizes various players on the team, each with his or her own set of talents and abilities. The coach must identify which players are best-suited for each position on the team and how the assembly of the larger unit will allow for the plays or strategies to be successfully executed. Misplacing just one player into a position in which he or she is not best-suited, or does not understand the responsibility attached, may have devastating effects on the entire team's ability to complete the play or strategy. Each player must understand his or her role and responsibilities in the assigned position for the plan to be successfully achieved.

Organizing is the function of management which follows planning. It is a function in which the synchronization and combination of human, physical and financial resources takes place. All the three resources are important to get results. Therefore, organizational function helps in achievement of results which in fact is important for the functioning of a concern. According to Chester Barnard, “Organizing is a function by which the concern is able to define the role positions, the jobs related and the co-ordination between authority and responsibility. Hence, a manager always has to organize in order to get results.

1. Identification of activities - All the activities which have to be performed in a concern have to be identified first. For example, preparation of accounts, making sales, record keeping, quality control, inventory control, etc. All these activities have to be grouped and classified into units.
2. Departmentally organizing the activities - In this step, the manager tries to combine and group similar and related activities into units or departments. This organization of dividing the whole concern into independent units and departments is called departmentation.
3. Classifying the authority - Once the departments are made, the manager likes to classify the powers and its extent to the managers. This activity of giving a rank in order to the managerial positions is called hierarchy. The top management is into formulation of policies, the middle level management into departmental supervision and lower level management into supervision of foremen. The clarification of authority help in bringing efficiency in the running of a concern. This helps in achieving efficiency in the running of a concern. This helps in avoiding wastage of time, money, effort, in avoidance of duplication or overlapping of efforts and this helps in bringing smoothness in a concern’s working.
4. Co-ordination between authority and responsibility - Relationships are established among various groups to enable smooth interaction toward the achievment of the organizational goal. Each individual is made aware of his authority and he/she knows whom they have to take orders from and to whom they are accountable and to whom they have to report. A clear organizational structure is drawn and all the employees are made aware of it.