The 4 Functions of Management

Introduction/Brief background of the project
1.1 Purpose and Authorisation
The purpose of the report is to identify the characteristics of ‘good management’ for the four functions of management and to describe how ‘good management practices’ impact on organisational success or failure.
The report has been authorised by Gayle Mayes of the University of the Sunshine Coast.   As a management student of the University there is a requirement to answer the question of ‘why some organisations succeed and other fail?’
1.2 Limitations
A constraint of the report is that the word limit is set at 2,200 words.
1.3 Scope of the report
The report will answer ‘what is management?’ as well as defining the four functions of management and good management characteristics.   Once these have been established these will be applied via impact analysis giving good examples and bad examples to help answer the question that is to be answered by the report.   The report will include clear headings, articles and tables to verify the facts presented.
1.4 Method
With the internet being a valuable resource the majority of research will be done via this method.   In addition to this various searches on the proquest database will help compile this report.   Searches will be conducted on the Google search engine for ‘what is management?’, ‘good management characteristics’, ‘impact on business of good management practices’ being the main search topics.

2 What is Management?
Although it is difficult to obtain a precise definition, the word Management stems from the old French word ‘Ménagement’ translated means the ‘art of conducting or directing’ and from Latin ‘Manu Agere’ which means to ‘lead by the hand’.   Management can be simply defined as ‘The creation and maintenance of an internal environment in an enterprise where individuals, working in groups, can perform efficiently and effectively the attainment of group goals’ (Harold Koontz & Cyrill O’ Donnell).  
‘Successful’ managers...