Imagine that you are the manager of a housekeeping service. Specifically describe how you would use the four functions of management to run your services for the next week.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Planning is setting goals and deciding how to achieve them. The manager of a housekeeping service must set goals for how many houses the company will clean each month and how the company will go about getting (and keeping) clients.

Organizing is arranging tasks, people, and other resources to accomplish the work. The manager of the housekeeping service must hire qualified and trustworthy employees to do the work, and must then schedule them accordingly.

Leading is motivating, directing, and otherwise influencing people to work hard to achieve the goals. The manager of the housekeeping service should not sit behind a desk all the time; he or she should get out and meet the customers and visit housekeeping sites to talk with employees about the challenges they face and how they can contribute to the company.

Controlling is monitoring performance, comparing it to goals, and taking corrective action as needed. The manager of the housekeeping service will need to monitor the amount of time it takes each team to clean a house and whether each employee is pulling his or her share of the weight. If any employee is not performing up to expectations, the manager needs to take corrective action (perhaps a warning, perhaps an assignment to a different aspect of the job).