The Four Functions of Management To be effective as a manager in today's business environment requires training, a lot of skills and a lot of knowledge. Both women and men in higher-level positions are discovering that it takes more than just the ability to delegate responsibility to make a small department or large company run smoothly. They must be able to come up with new ideas and develop ways to implement them before approaching their superiors with any proposal. They need to know how to inspire their employees' creativity and monitor their progress. An effective manager must also know how to relate to people to keep their subordinates happy. According to Sawyer (1998), “almost every deviation or deficiency encountered by an internal auditor results from the violation of some principle of management or good stewardship in these four areas” (¶3). Therefore, directly linked to the success or failure of a supervisor in any organization is his or her ability to successfully implement the four management functions: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Planning Planning is important when it comes to success in remaining supervisory functions. Bateman and Snell (2007) state planning is the management function in which decisions are made about the actions and objectives that one or all parts of an organization will pursue (Ch. 1 p. 16). Without diligent and conscious planning, all the strengths a manager displays in the other areas necessary to be effective in his role such as the other three functions of management, organizing, leading and controlling, are based on efficient planning. A department currently evolving and undergoing major expansion will undergo extensive planning in its early stages. The manager will have thoroughly analyzed his vision and developed a detailed course of action to achieve it; knowing that he will have to have every aspect of the expansion outlined before seeking approval and that his presentation to the University administration will have to show the proposed path as well as the benefits of this expansion. No matter how much or how efficient the planning may be, there are obstacles that a supervisor does not expect and may not be able to plan for. One thing the department director cannot plan for is how the bureaucracy drags on in providing the staff needed to implement the proposed departments. Organization The ability to organize comes second in importance to planning. After being able to plan a goal and a course of action efficiently, the supervisor must bring this idea to life through the organization.