Commerce: Management Functions: Coordinating

• In our introduction to management, we defined what management is
• In general terms, management is the work of doing work through others
• We also mentioned the fact that management can be defined in terms of its functions/duties that a manager is expected to carry out
• In that regard management can be defined as the organisational or business activity that involves planning, leading/commanding, organising, coordinating and controlling
• These are often referred to as the five functions of management
• You will note that leading and commanding are the same function making them five and not six
• Coordinating is the management function concerned with bringing together the various parts, departments, subsections of the organisation so that they can work in harmony and balance
• It involves resolving conflicts between departments and making sure departments understand that objectives can only be achieved when competing departments work together
• As already said under organising, once plans have been set, the manager breaks these plans into tasks and allocate these tasks to different people
• Coordinating makes sure that that the ship (business) stays on course
• Often there can be departmental rivalry within business especially if its a large business
• Some of these conflicts can be disruptive and it is the manager’s duty to smooth out these rivalries
• Managers also have to make sure that every department is in agreement in terms of overall objectives
• For example, if the sales department working to increase sales through say advertising, the production department has to be informed so it can increase production in anticipation of this increase in sales
• Otherwise, such disharmony would lead to wasted effort, disharmony and a failure to meet objectives

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