Leaders
Essays

¶ … Fire Department Manages Emergencies Like 911 and Katrina

It is hard to think of the words "Middle East" and "nuance" as having anything to do with each other -- much less to conceive of a nuanced position between Zionism and Arab nationalism.

¶ … Treaty of Lisbon is the culmination of many years of negotiations highlighted by heated debates, compromise, and disappointments. All twenty seven members of the European Union signed the agreement with Czech…

The modern day economy is currently facing the biggest challenges it has faced since the Great Depression of the 1929 -- 1933. Much like then, the leaders of today are striving to develop and implement laws and reforms,…

Group work is often used in business and educational settings in order to take advantage of the fact that individual excellence can be optimized by working in a team with others. It is however important to recognize…

Dr. Maria Montessori is considered to one of the greatest -- if not the greatest -- educational innovator of all time. Her work all over the world has left an indelible imprint on how education is viewed and conducted.

The Olmec culture has been the focus of intense discussion and archeological exploration in recent years. It is considered to be one of the most interesting and also one of the mysterious ancient civilizations.

On October 1, 2008, the Food Stamp Program officially became the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which assisted 43 million Americans at that time 2.5 years ago when the program changed.

Research in areas of employee communication and team building suggests that successful communication strategies must include a decisive effort to connect management's vision with employees at every level.

Functions of Management The Four Functions of Management The universally accepted functions of management – whether it is a baseball organization, an opera company, a Fortune 500 corporation or a elementary school in Ireland – include: Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. Professor Paul Allen of Middle Tennessee State University has written a book (Artist Management for the Music Business) in which he elaborates on the four functions of management vis-à-vis the music business, albeit his narrative can apply to many other fields and disciplines. Planning – Allen notes that the difference between failure and success can often be linked to the planning process that was involved in the project. "Luck by itself can sometimes deliver success" (Allen, 2011, p. 5), he explains, but when a well-designed plan is in place the manager is in a great position to "take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves" with or without luck. When the planning process is fully thought out and no stone is left unturned to make the correct preparations, success is quite likely to follow. Leading and Directing – the responsibility of a manager for an organization, for an athlete, a musician or a team is to lead by making certain the "talents and energy of the team are directed toward the career success of the artist" (Allen, 5). There are goals that must be set so the leadership can be directed in a specific direction, not just in some vague direction that is blithely described as "success." Leading dovetails with planning and organizing in obvious ways, but a leader should be an extrovert unafraid to step out into the world of innovation and experimentation. Being too conservative and "safe" in the leadership style can lead to failure at the worst and stagnation at the best. Controlling – Once a manager has established a plan, and put together the pieces in a workable formula, he or she must be firmly in charge at every step along the way. When the resources, the people, the equipment, and the financial resources are all in place and have been assembled properly, "the manager monitors how effectively the plan is being carried out and makes any necessary adjustments" so that there will no wasted resources and the plan will go forward with a positive boost (Allen, 6). The manager can't control everything, so there needs to be some realism, Allen continues, but that implies that he or she must concentrate on being flexible in order to be able to "adjust to the circumstances" (6). Organizing – This is an aspect of management that is closely tied to the planning function, Allen explains (5). It is a matter of "assembling the necessary resources to carry out a plan and put those resources into a logical order" (Allen, 5). More than that, organizing involves carefully laying out the various responsibilities of the team involved, and "managing everyone's time for efficiency" (Allen, 5). Every key player should have his or her time managed well by the organizing person in charge. Part of the responsibility of the organizing manager is to assure that there is funding for the project at hand. One classic example of shrew and effective organizing used by Allen is the example of Lee Iacocca, former chairman of Chrysler Corporation, who lobbied and cajoled and managed to gain a loan of hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government. He saved his company from bankruptcy in the late 1970s and is seen as a genius in hindsight, but it was just good planning and organizing on Iacocca's part that saved the day for tens of thousands of auto workers. Allen notes that managers' part in the organizing process also entails recruiting, hiring and training the labor talent needed to put the project on the map and see it through to its successful conclusion. (there are 1,680 words in this paper)