Management Is My Business

Our five senses are essential to our everyday life. They help us navigate, explore and experience things that are new and common to us. Without them we would miss out on a lot of things in life and opportunities. Also, there are ways to overcome certain circumstances where as if one of our senses didn’t function properly, like a stuffy nose or watery eyes. The five functions of management are like our five senses in the business world. Without them, managers and teams all over the world would be clueless on how to manage an organization properly and effectively. If used properly they can lead to positive and long-lasting outcomes within an organization. I’ve been working within my family’s business since the day we bought it back in 2005. We own a 100 room hotel with a bar and restaurant. The main entity that we operate is the hotel, which is independent or non-franchised; the other two are leased out. The hotel consists of four main departments; they are management, front desk, housekeeping and maintenance. In order to get the business up and running to our standards we had to do a lot of trial and error and come up with new ways to make money and save some too. We had to do some planning and come up with some organizational goals. Then we had to organize departments, jobs and responsibilities involved in each department. Next, we had to hire a staff to fill the positions created from organizing. After we staffed the company we had to lead and give them direction in order to get the tasks done. Lastly, we had to remain control of all aspects of the business from human resources to finance. The five functions of management play a major role in the operation of our business and I’m going to explain how each of them has been utilized within it.
The first step of the five functions of management is planning. Planning sounds like a simple concept, but when it comes to management planning is taken to a different level. It involves knowing your environment by analyzing the competition, creating goals that will benefit your organization, coming up with a plan to achieve your company’s goals and being able to budget your company’s funds to invest in your goals. Within our town we have a total of nine hotels. The hotels are located off the main highway on the north side and south side of town. My hotel is located on the north side with only one competitor next door. We compete with all the hotels in our town as well as county. The small city of Douglas is where everything revolves around and we are about one mile from the center of the city. With the hotel business the goals are complex, being that we aren’t franchised we have our own set policies and guidelines that are to be followed by the employees as well as their departmental guidelines. When we plan our goals for the year we compare last year’s figures, expenses and inventory to see where we can improve and make the necessary adjustments to our budget plan. Experts Reilly, Minnick & Baack state (2011), “Managers will engage in a variety of planning activities in the course of their work to achieve organizational or departmental goals”. Aside from the utilities, mortgage, licenses and taxes we figure in employee salaries, outside services, staffing/training, supplies and miscellaneous expenses. We even make business plans with the bar and restaurant as well as other local businesses and offer incentives to customers who use us for the services we provide. Also, we experience seasonal business traffic that we have regulars stop by during summer and holidays or reservations booked a year ahead. Planning also comes into play if we have to make adjustments in our staff due to lack of performance and w the job. So, we’ve discussed the planning function and how it helps in creating our budget, company policies and procedures, employment, as well as business collaborations. Next, we will cover how the organizing function contributes to my hotel.