Business Management

POLC

Planning
Organising
Leading
Controlling

Planning is the process of deciding where a tea, department or whole organisation should be heading and how it intends to get there.

>Strategic planning
long term maybe up to 5 years
Who is responsible? senior managers such as managing directors, chief executive officers

>Operational/Tactical planning
short term maybe from six months to one or two years
middle managers including functional managers such as human resource or operations managers

>Front-line planning
Very short term, day-to-day planning
Lower managers, frontline managers or supervisors

Stage 1- setting objectives(where does the organisation want to go?)

Stage 2- analysing the present situation and future opportunities(where is the organisation now?), use SWOT
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats

Stage 3- developing and evaluating alternatives(How is the organisation going to get where it wants to go?)

Stage 4- implementing the plan(devise a way of making the plan work)

Stage 5- monitoring and reviewing results(How are the key results going to show?)

Organising is the coordination of resources and systems so that plans and objectives can be achieved.

Leading is the process of influencing workers so that they want to do their best to achieve organisational objectives.

Characteristics of a good leader:
1. interpersonal qualities( inspirational, vision, the ability to build trust in their working relationships)
2. Informational qualities( gather relevant information, analyse and understand the implications of information received, spread relevant information while being able to communicate it clearly)
Decision-making qualities(make hard decisions, while taking this responsibility seriously, striving to do what is best for the organisation)

Leadership is important because it improves the culture of a LSO to one in which relationships are strong and all employees have a willingness to achieve and there will resentment in the workplace.

Controlling is the process of establishing ways to compare actual performance with planned performance. (The term MONITORING has the same meaning)

SWOT analysis is a technique that can assist strategic planning by identifying and analysing an organisation's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

A form of organisation characterised by a formal hierarchical structure, rules and regulations, and impersonal relationships/

Vertical specialisation: the hierarchy of formal authority and decision-making power within an organisation. This structure reflects an organisation's chain of command from top management down to front-line management.

Horizontal specialisation: an organisational structure in which staff are grouped into departments according to similarity of products, services or markets/ multitasking.

Functional model: an organisational structure in which staff are grouped into departments according to their function in an organisation e.g(production, personnel, finance, marketing).

Divisional(geographic) model: The way staff are grouped into specialised departments within an organisation.

Matrix model: An organisational structure that combines specialisation by function and division.

The shared values or beliefs of the people within an organisation. It is the unwritted rules and is expressed in attitudes and performances of employees.

Reflects how things actually operate within an organisation. It is best identified by observing the relationships among the people in the organisation.

The set of values and beliefs an organisation wishes to present to the public.