CHAPTER 1 1. What are the four basic functions that make up the management process? How are they related to one another? The four basic functions that make up the management process are: planning & decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling. Planning is setting an organization’s goals and deciding the best way to carry them to fruition. Decision making, which is also apart of the planning process, involves choosing a course of action from a set of alternatives.

Organizing involves determining how activities and resources are to be grouped. Leading is a process used by management to get members of the organization to work together to further the interests of the organization. Finally, there is controlling, or monitoring the organization’s progress toward its goal. All four of these functions are necessary in order to accomplish an organization’s goals. The manager however, has the task of leading his or her organization to the successful completion of these goals.

In order to do this, the manager must use all resources in an organized manner to achieve those goals. This will require that the manager effectively implement all functions of the management process. He or she should be able to plan and make decisions, organize, lead, and control the organization’s employees. Each manager will assume different roles according to their level of management (position), but each manager will play a critical role in the day-to-day aspects of his or her organization.

Managers deal with a various issues, both favorable and unfavorable on a daily basis; which causes them to rely on other employees to assist in accomplishing the organization’s goals and objectives. Therefore, these functions are related to one another in such a way that it takes each one to complete the other; and a manager may have to utilize more than one function of planning and decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling at a time in order to achieve the desired results for his or her organization.