Management and Functional Tools of management

INTRODUCTION
This paper will be geared in exploring the concept of management and the functional tools of management i.e planning organizing leading and controlling. The other main objective of this work is to analyze the application of management functional responsibilities in the context of Osotwa Mt. Meru community based conservation organization (cbco).
The work will also try to identify roles allocation in each level of Osotwa Mt. Meru community based organization, and skills required if the organizational goal is to be achieved.
Conclusion will be drawn basing on lessons learned and my own experience.

























PROFILE OF OSWOTWA MT. MERU COMMUNITY BASED CONSERVATION ORGANISATION
The Osotwa Mt. Meru community based organization is a legally registered charitable non-partisan and non-governmental organization based in Arusha – Tanzania, established in 2001.
It is dedicated to addressing environmental issues and ensures ecologically sustainable development and proper use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development of the indigenous populations on the slopes of Mt. Meru. The Osotwa Mt. Meru CBCO cooperates with other community development groups and organizations to meet the developmental needs of the poor communities around Mt. Meru furthermore, equitable gender development through environmental and economic empowerment for women is a priority for the organization.

MISSION OF THE ORGANISATION
The organization mission is to alleviate poverty and raise living standards on the slopes of Mt. Meru by helping the communities to find an environmentally sustainable path self-sufficiency and stable economic growth.

VISION OF THE ORGANISATION
Osotwa Mt. Meru community based conservation organizations vision is to care for Mt. Meru for the benefit of the current and future generations.

THE GENERAL OBJECTIVE OF THE ORGANISATION
Will be to establish, coordinate and provide assistance on sustainable developmental projects as well as co-operate with other NGOs and governmental institutions in an effort to set-up viable strategic programs of activities.
Also to coordinate the relevant stakeholders to achieve conservation of natural resources and to improve grassroots community livelihoods through the following approaches:-

(i) Conserving the environment and natural resources still available on the slopes of Mt. Meru, through appropriate projects and involving the indigenous population in conservation instead of relying on the enforcement of the state laws.
(ii) Establishing and coordinate activities or projects directed to promote community development and centered on the environment conservation, such as bee-keeping, energy, solar power and ‘wind mills,’ herbal medicines etc.

(iii) Enabling opportunities for the entire community participate in assessing natural resources uses, potential problems trends, and management at different levels i.e villages, wards, district, regional and national.

OSOTWA ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

The main organs of the organization are:-
The general assembly, the Board of Directors, the committee, the administrative staff (office bearers), and members. See diagram below:-

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE OF OSOTWA MT. MERU CBCO.
MEMBERS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
GENERAL ASSEMBLY









EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
MANAGEMENT TEAM
OPERATIONAL
STAFF









The organizational structure of OSOTWA functions as it appears in the diagram. The general assembly is the supreme organ on the organization whose decisions shall be final and binding on other organs and members.
The board of Directors has the duty to evaluate from time to time, the functioning and performance of the organization. The executive committee has the main duty of formulating plans to carry out organizational programs. The management team is responsible in planning as well as managing day to day operations of the organization and ensuring achievement of planned goals.
The operational staff; carry out implementation of planned activities.

DEFINITION OF KEY CONCEPTS:
Management:-

Management is best defined as a process of coordinating all resources, of an organization in order to achieve organizational objectives. Also management is defined as a process, which should be followed in a systematic manner to be able to attain some specific objectives. The management process is made up of four major discrete functions. i.e
(a). Planning (b). Organizing (c). Leading and (d). Controlling.

*Planning:
Plans are blue prints for action they are guidelines that enable members of an organization to work purposefully together to achieve a worth while end. Planning is considered primary of all managerial functions like leadership, controlling, organizing, all are outcomes of planning function.

*Organizing:
This is the structuring of work and results for the sake of Roles creation and guide people behavior in performing towards attainment of planned outcomes. In this case the structure must reflect objectives and plans because organization activities are derived from these. Also the structure must reflect the authority available and this depends on the nature of the organization in question the structure must be designed to work, to permit contributions by members of the organization.

*Leading
Implies influencing others to willingly and effectively perform their roles assigned to them in order to achieve overall organizational goal. Leading also goes beyond willingness to work, but to work with zeal and confidence. Leaders act to help organizations achieve objectives with maximum application of capabilities. Leaders do not stand behind a group to push, but they place themselves before the group and facilitate progress and inspire the group to accomplish organizational goals.

*Controlling
Is the measurement and correction of the performance of activities of subordinates in order to make sure that organizational objectives and the plans devised to attain are being accomplished. Controlling is the function of every manager in the organization, from president to supervisor. In order for managers to effectively pursue the control function, special standards must be established to enable performance evaluation.

APPLICABILITY OF FUNCTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF MANAGEMENT IN OSOTWA MT MERU COMMUNITY BASED CONSERVATION ORGANISATION:
*Planning
This management function of planning in Osotwa Mt. Meru community based conservation organization is carried out by the management team, the coordinator, the chairman and the financial controller of the organization. This implies that the planning process in Osotwa organization is not participatory, rather is the responsibility of top managers. The executive committee is just a rubber stamp of the plans as they are not involved in formulating the organizational plans, but they are informed about the plans during the executive committee meeting, and in most cases they are not interested in spending much of their time analyzing each and every plan submitted before them, rather they are interested in snacks and bites and sitting allowances.
It is important for Osotwa to change its fashion of plans formulation i.e up down and adopt down up fashion of which participation is encouraged. All levels of the organization should be given chance and encouraged to contribute to plans formulation. Participation of all levels of the organization is a key element in making the plans to succeed and realized the organization objective. In many organization who practice participation in planning process, excellent results were achieved.
*Organizing:
The organizational structure of Osotwa does not provide clear lines of authority and responsibilities. The team of Osotwa’s subordinates/operational workers has no detailed job descriptions as well as specific tasks and authority lines. Authority in Osotwa is centralized to the top managers. For the sake of improving efficiency in implementing organization plans, the Ostwas top managers must delegate/decentralize authority to subordinates or operational staff; though the top managers must retain some authority, particularly over decisions of company wide impact, and at least enough to view the plans and performance of subordinates. They should also make sure that subordinates do use the authority given in proper way and for the purpose intended, not to be used to frustrate other staff moral. Osotwa organization structure also ignore or do not have departmental units.
This makes it difficult to formulate chain of command as well as functional authority delegation. Lack of departmental units can lead of accountability. The organizational structure of Osotwa shows vague authority associated with inappropriate or misunderstood communication lines. Osotwa needs a clearly defined chart which spells out clearly what organizational positions have the authority for approving actions involving commitments and where final approval lies as well as which managers are to exercise functional authority.

Leading:
Because of poor organizing interpersonal relationship between managers and non-managers or subordinate is also poor. A clearly structured organization facilitate easy communication, which in turn enable easy leadership. Lack of departmentation also makes it difficult for Osotwa’s top management to effectively leads the lower top level staff as they are pre-occupied with wide range of decision making and have less time to monitor performance at lower levels. This could have been easily done by departmental managers or supervisors. The Osotwa organization is also likely to be faced the problem of off-goal execution of tasks by operational staff, if there is no supervisor or department manager who is closely monitoring execution of tasks and report back to the top manager if there is any serious deviation, which will lead to failure in goal achievement. It is of suggestion that ,Osotwa organization should think of developing a simple but clear organizational structure which is capable of defining peoples positions, their line of authority, roles and responsibilities, to be able to effectively and efficiently accomplished their organizational objectives
.
Organizing:
In order for people to work effectively toward accomplishing goals a structure of roles must be designed and maintained. Roles are designed for people to fill. Osotwa as a formal organization it must have a roles. Osotwa organization structure should be designed to clarify the environment so that everyone knows who is to do what and who is responsible for what results; this is important to remove obstacles to performance caused by confusion and uncertainly of assignment and to furnish a decision making communications network and supporting organizational objectives. In the logical sense of organizing; one can not organize if there is no formalized intentional structure of roles or positions. Osotwa Mt. Meru cbco if it will adapts efficient organizational structure its objectives will be met more easily, and managers and employees interest to the organization will also shoot-up. This is to say Osotwa Mt. Meru cbco, through organizing will succeed in changing chaotic and adhoc way of operation to an orderly and satisfying way of tasks execution, leading to removing conflicts between people over work or responsibilities and establishes an environment suitable for team work.

Controlling:
In essence the managerial function of controlling is the measurement and correction of the performance of activities of subordinates in order to make sure that organization objectives and the plans devised to attain them are being accomplished. In view of Osotwa Mt. Meru cbco, top and upper level control is practiced; ignoring the need of control even at lower levels. This puts the organization at greater risks of too late rectification of off plans events, leading to misery in terms of financial loses and future sustainability of the organization. For effective and efficient achievement of organizational objectives, the aspect of control has to be instituted at all levels of an organization.
The major pre-requisite of control is the existence of organization structure; the clearer, more complete and more integrated this structure is, the more effective control action can be. Osotwa Mt. Meru cbco, organization structure lacks, the above pre-requisites. This weakness can affect all other managerial functions i.e (Planning, Leading organizing and controlling). If something , is going wrong in the organization, it is difficult to know exactly who is responsible for the trouble. For example – in one company or organization, reports shows that inventory was millions of dollars above the level deemed necessary and when inquiry was made about who was responsible for inventory planning and control it was disclosed that no one below the president of the company had this responsibility, and that because of his other demanding duties he could not personally control inventories. This is the typical situation of what is happening in Osotwa Mt. Meru cbco, due to lack of concrete and clear organizational structure. Control also requires the establishment of standards. Standards may be of many kinds. Among the best are verifiable goals or objectives whether started in quantitative or qualitative terms this is regularly set in a well established systems of managing by objectives. The problem facing many organizations, Osotwa Mt. Meru cbco included is the setting of clear and easily verifiable goals/objectives. This situation leads to difficulty in setting performance standards, which in turn hampers efficient control.
Control function in management can also be summarized as feedback system.

Example:- Feedback system - Management Control:
Comparison of Actual Against standards
Measurement of Actual
performance
Actual
performance
Identification of deviations

Analysis of cause of deviation
Program of corrective action
Implementation of corrections
Devised performance




The sooner managers in all levels of the organization know that activities for which they are responsible are not proceeding in accordance with plans, the faster they can take action to make corrections.

SKILLS REQUIRED TO ACHIEVE ORGANISATIONAL GOALS:
In sense effective managers need different skills and the relative importance of skills may vary with the level in the organization. Robert L. Katz identified three kinds of skills for administrators 2.

1. Technical skills pertains to knowledge and proficiency in activities involving methods, processes, and procedures. Thus it involves working with tools and specific techniques. For example accountants apply specific techniques in doing their jobs.
2. Human skills is the ability to work with people; it is cooperative effort it is team work; it is creation of an environment in which people feel secure and free express their opinions.
3. Conceptual skill-refers to the ability to see the “big picture” to understand relationships among the elements.

NB: The relative importance of these skills may differ for various levels in the
organizational structure. Technical skills are of greatest importance at the supervisory
level. Human skills are also important in the frequent interactions with subordinates.
Conceptual skills – important at the middle management conceptual and human skills
are of critical importance, but there is relatively little need for technical abilities.

The differences in skill requirements have important implications for the selection of managers and other staff in all levels of organization.

For managers, the most generally appreciated and emphasized skills are analytical and problem solving abilities. Managers must be able to identify problems, analyze complex solutions solving the problem uncounted, exploit the opportunities brought about by the problem. But problem identification and analysis are not enough; also the will to implement the solution is equally important this requires recognition of the emotions, need and motivation of the people involved in initiating the required change.

Apart from various skills that effective managers are thought to need several PERSONAL character are thought to need, several personal characteristics are also important:-
(1) Desire to Manage (2) Ability to communicate with empathy. (3) Integrity and Honest. The
person’s experience his/her past performance as a manager, is another added advantage for a good and effective Manager

Osotwa Mt. Meru Cbco as a not for profit organization, but established to achieve specific objectives; needs to have the three types of skills in order to be able to successfully achieve its goals:-
(1) Technical skills (2) Human skills and (3) conceptual skills. For the time being the organization is seriously lacking technical skills and the Human skills and conceptual skills need also to be improve
CONCLUSION
All sorts of organizations, be business/profit oriented, not for profit, or faith organizations has specific goals/objectives to achieve during its life- time. Obviously for any of the organization to be able to successfully accomplish its goals the knowledge of the basic principles and techniques of Management is of significant importance. Because every organization small or big, for profit or not for profit all looking towards a particular goal/objective; it is suggestive that the style of managing by objective could lead to high level of success. Managing by objective is a result oriented planning. It forces managers to think of planning for results, rather than merely planning activities or work.

Other benefits of management by objective are as follows:-
* It forces clarification of organizational roles and structures. Organizations that have embarked
on managing by system have often discovered organizational deficiencies .

* Management by objective elicits commitment for performance. People in the organization no
longer do work following instructions, guidance and decisions but they do with clearly
defined purpose.

*Management by objective – helps to develop effective controls and sparks more effective
planning.














REFERENCE

1. Koontz H; O’Donnell C. and Welirich H. (1980), Management, McGraw Hill International Book Company

2. Henry L. and Williams J. (1981) Management and organization, Southern – Western Publishing Company; Cincinnati Ohio.

3. Dennis Lock (1983), Project Management; Grower Publishing Company Ltd, Groft Road, Aldershot, Hants Gull 3 Hr, England