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Business Concepts: Exploring Careers in Business

ZTC resource for Business Concepts Course

Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling

POLC Framework - The Functions of Management

POLC Framework chart -information repeated in text below.

Exhibit 2b.1. Shows the POLC Framework -  four major functions of management and the activities attributed to each function.  "Framework for Disney." Essays.io 

Four Major Functions

The four major functions at the heart of management comprise the POLC Framework are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. They serve as an effective framework for classifying the activities managers engage in as they attempt to achieve organizational goals. 

A manager’s primary challenge is to solve problems creatively. To help managers respond to the challenge of creative problem solving, principles of management have long been categorized into the four major functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (the P-O-L-C framework). The four functions are highly integrated when carried out in the day-to-day realities of running an organization. Therefore, you should not get caught up in trying to analyze and understand a complete, clear rationale for categorizing skills and practices that compose the whole of the P-O-L-C framework.

Planning
  • Vision
  • Mission
  • Strategy
Organizing
  • Human Resources
  • Management
Leadership
  • Leadership Style
  • Decision-Making
Controlling
  • Financial controls
  • Operational controls
  • Communication

Assess Your Knowledge

  1. Review the four functions of management.
  2. Can you define and explain the four functions of management?

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