Excerpt from Essay :

In terms of human relations skills, some examples in this sense include the ability to understand human behavior or the abilities to communicate and motivate.

c) Organizing

Similar to control, the organizing function is addressed through the gradual completion of four distinct processes: identification of activities, departmentally organizing the activities, classifying the authority and coordinating authority and responsibility. In the case of organizing the resources for instance, it would be necessary to identify the overall and departmental requirements. Then, the responsible people would be assigned and their tasks would be outlined.

Each of these actions requires several special skills. For instance, at the level of activities identification, the manager has to possess the ability to identify necessary activities and prioritize them. At the level of departmental organization of activities, there is the need for the ability to combine similar activities and form groups with them, but also the ability to divide groups and assign them to special departments.

Third, in terms of classifying the authority, the skills requirements refer to the ability to establish the levels of delegation and responsibility and assigning them the adequate power and authority. Finally, at the level of coordination of authority and responsibility, the required skill is that of the ability to balance authority and responsibility.

d) Planning

Finally, the planning function of management refers to the need of understanding the repercussions of the current actions and decisions. It often happens that the need for planning is only understood when damage is incurred. Planning is crucial for a manager and it also impacts the other functions. "The organizing, staffing, leading and controlling functions stem from the planning function. The manager is ready to organize and staff only after goals and plans to reach the goals are in place. Likewise, the leading function, influencing the behavior of people in the organization, depends on the goals to be achieved. Finally, in the controlling function, the

The planning function provides the goals and standards that drive the controlling function" (Erven, 1999).

In order for a managers to be able to complete these complex roles, they need to posses at least the ability to foresee the future based on past trends, as well as a wide array of strategic skills, such as the ability to comprehend various complexities, create and implement a strategic purpose and implement the strategic plan (Colenso, 1998).

3. Conclusions

The modern day manager is faced with incremental challenges. Due to elements such as globalization, incremental competition or modifying customer demands, the organizational leader has to continually develop new skills.

At a general level, it is accepted that the manager has to accomplish four specific functions, as follows -- control, leadership, organization and planning. Each of these functions is however complex and can only be completed when specific skills are possessed by the manager.

At the most simplistic level, a good manager has to possess both technical as well as human behavior skills in order to successfully complete his job. An important division of the skills is offered by Gitman and McDaniel (2008), who argue that there are in fact three categories -- technical, human relations and conceptual. Each of them is however compulsory for the completion of the managerial tasks.

Out of the four managerial functions, the one which requires innate, human behavioral, skills is the leadership function. The rest of three functions require technical expertise, which can be developed along the years.

References:

Colenso, M., 1998, Strategic skills for line managers, Butterworth-Heinemann

Erven, B.L., Planning, Ohio State University, 1999, http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~mgtexcel/Planning.html last accessed on November 16, 2010

Gitman, L.J., McDaniel, C., 2008, the future of business: the essentials, 4th edition, Cengage Learning

McShane, S.L., Travaglione, T., 2005, Organizational behavior on the Pacific rim, McGraw-Hill

Teicher, J., Holland, P., Richard, G., 2005, Employee relations management: Australia in a global context, Pearson Prentice Hall

White, B., Ten relationship traits and skills for good leadership, Ezine Articles, http://ezinearticles.com/?Ten-Relationship-Traits-and-Skills-for-Good-Leadership&id=61353 last accessed on November 16, 2010

Yulk, G.A., 2006, Leadership in organizations, Prentice Hall

2009, Organizing function of management, Management Study Guide, http://www.managementstudyguide.com/organizing_function.htm last accessed on November 16, 2010

2010, Control function of management, Say Economy, http://www.sayeconomy.com/control-function-of-management / last accessed on November 16, 2010