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Solving a Whale of a Problem: Introducing the Four Functions of
Management in a Management Principles Course
Rachel Dolechek, Thomas Lippert, Dr. Robert Lloyd Fort Hays State University, Kansas, USA Edward Vengrouskie Jack Welch Management Institute, Herndon, VA, USA
[Abstract] This paper introduces an experiential exercise that exposes students in a management principles course to the four managerial functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling. The exercise combines the powerful benefits of visual media and humor in a situational scenario designed to enhance the learning opportunities for students to grasp the fundamentals of management education. By connecting experiential learning with the four functions of management in a humorous situational case, students will be better able to develop a grasp of the management functions and understand how they are related. Learning applications allow students to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of these functions of management, as well as how each function is essential and related.
[Keywords] four functions of management, experiential learning, visual media, humor
Introduction
Management is a universal phenomenon. It has been described as a social process involving responsibility for economical and effective planning and regulation of operation for an enterprise in the fulfillment of given purposes (Junega, 2018). Management, according to Terry and Franklin (1977) is a dynamic process consisting of a series of inter-related functions. It is this process by which management creates, operates, and directs purposive organization through systematic, coordinated, and co-operated human efforts. The functions of management were put forth in the early 1900s by Henri Fayol, a management theorist from France (Business Zeal, 2018). Originally, he had proposed five management functions: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. Modern texts have reduced the functions from five to four. They include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Managers who can perform these functions well are extremely valuable to an organization because they create order from what could become chaos (Pride, Hughes, & Kapoor, 2016). Establishing a mastery of these functions of management prepares business students for the higher-level courses as they progress through their business curriculum. As such, the four functions of management are the foundation for management education. The purpose of this paper is to describe an exercise that introduces the four functions of management to students in a management principles undergraduate course. The experiential exercise introduces the students to a fictional problem of a dead whale washing up on a community beach. The students’ role is to solve the problem using the four functions of management. The exercise introduces the concepts of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling and achieves a high level of engagement via two strategies. The commentary provided in the video of the whale washing up on the beach involves humor. In this exercise, the use of humor is essential in engaging students and developing a
connection to the four functions of management. The benefits of humor have been part of a multitude of studies on the positive impacts for group or organizational performance, including development and learning outcomes. Humor has an inexorable connection to learning, as individuals “pay more attention when learning humorous material and also recall it better” (Romero & Pescosolido, 2008, p. 407). Humor creates an environment of open communication, which significantly improves upon and positively influences group effectiveness, by developing group cohesion and motivation (Romero & Pescosollido, 2008).
Theory and Learning Objectives
The theoretical foundation of this exercise is experiential learning theory (ELT). Experiential exercises based on this approach vary in complexity and impact, and researchers have described their effectiveness in the classroom vis-à-vis a variety of delivery mechanisms including role- playing, simulations, case studies, work-based learning, real-world problem solving, field trips, board games, flipped classroom, action-research projects, and civic engagement (Gibson, Ward, Comer, & Rossi, 2015; Lovelace, Eggers, & Dyck, 2016; Dean & Fornaciari, 2002; Nottingham, 2017; Lloyd, Martin, Hyatt, & Tritt, 2019; Arling, Deeter, & Eggers, 2010; Djonko-Moore & Joseph, 2016; Lloyd, 2014; Zhai, Gu, Liu, Liang, & Tsai, 2017; Johannessen, 2015; Gibson & Tavlaridis, 2018; Stovall, 2009; Wright & Gilmore, 2012; Furutan, 2014 ). Despite this variety and scope, each of these experiential learning exercises focuses on a common outcome, which is to allow the learner to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the material and the context in which they are integrating new knowledge (Kayes, 2002). In meeting the objectives of this experiential exercise, students will develop an understanding of the four functions of management. Their task is to create a solution to address a common issue in their role as city manager. After completing this exercise, students should be able to establish a game plan (planning), determine what resources they will need to execute their game plan (organizing), decide which stakeholders need to be included or motivated to buy in to the plan (leading), and finally, create mechanisms to ensure the plan will stay on track or be successful (controlling). Students share their solutions, and the instructor provides feedback and conducts a debrief. Given the importance of the four functions of management as a foundation for the students’ managerial education, this exercise provides a necessary first step to establishing their understanding of the four functions of management. The combination of humor, video media, and the nature of experiential pedagogy should contribute to more effective learning results. The following learning outcomes drive the design of the exercise.
- Develop an understanding of the four functions of management and the activities that each entail
- Articulate how the four functions of management are interrelated
Instructions for Running the Exercise
The exercise is run in three parts, which includes an introduction to the scenario, development of strategies in response to the scenario, and a debriefing session. Students are placed into groups of four before or immediately after the introduction of the scenario. The scenario puts the students in the role of a city manager who has to deal with the problem of a dead whale on the community beach. They are asked a series of questions on how they will respond, and the debrief session
video serves as a transition to the debrief period. The news reporter commentary includes use of humor to describe how the plan to blow up the whale backfires. The video and its use of humor create a new energy in the exercise that the instructor can leverage to lead an effective debrief session.
The Debrief
The most critical component to the exercise is the debriefing section. The instructor should lead a discussion about the strategies chosen by the students as they relate to the four functions of management. The discussion should also include a focus on how the concepts are interrelated. What would happen if the students skipped one of the steps? How do each of the questions complement each other? The debrief should go beyond merely connecting their strategies to the four functions. The instructor should challenge the students in their assumptions, to make sure they think through the implications of their decisions. For example, many students decide that they are going to remove the whale (the planning function) using a crane (the organizing function) and involve a tugboat company (the leading function) to have the whale towed out into the ocean. In this scenario, they will answer the fourth question by stating they are going to confirm when the tow company will show up, coordinate the timing of the crane to show up, which would be a controlling function. The instructor should challenge these assumptions by asking questions. Table 1 contains some of the more common strategies and related probing or challenging questions for the instructor to pose, should students need some direction.
The purpose of the challenge session is to provide students with a more in-depth understanding and a higher level of critical thinking of how each of the functions of management are necessary and interrelated. During the debrief, students should be able to respond to the challenges posed by the instructor. In addition, the class collectively discusses a more robust solution to include health officials to deal with toxicity issues, Army Corps of Engineers or mining companies if they had decided to blow up the whale, local universities for research, and engineering consultants to ensure the equipment they chose has the capacity for their given solution. Summation may also include analysis of logic applied and how data was used, or ignored, during the planning process.
Expanding the Exercise
The instructor may choose to expand the exercise in several ways, adding additional class time for completion of the exercise. For instance, the video is especially helpful in showing how a plan can go wrong and the importance of control. For each of the students’ solutions to the problem, the instructor should identify a contingency or emergency that the students have to address. For example, if the solution is to use a crane to load onto a truck, create a contingency by indicating that either the crane or the truck becomes stuck in the sand. If the solution is hauling the whale into the ocean using a tugboat, indicate that there are unusual tides that might affect this strategy. Expanding the exercise requires the instructor to introduce these idiosyncrasies to the plans the students formulate.
Conclusion
The four functions of management are integral for every Management Principles undergraduate student to understand. This exercise provides students experience in developing strategies to respond to a scenario. Bolstered by the empirically tested benefits of video media and humor, this exercise creates an engaged and energized classroom and likely increases the ability to recall the four functions of management in further course activities. The exercise provides an impactful learning experience for students and should lead to a more comprehensive understanding of future Management Principles coursework, such as organizational learning.
References
Arling, P., Deeter, C., & Eggers, H. (2010). A systems analysis experiential case study: Repeatable real-world problem solving. Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 8 (2), 417-422. Bates, A., & Poole, G. (2003). Effective teaching with technology in higher education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Business Zeal. (2018). Learn about management concepts and its four functions. Retrieved from https://businesszeal.com/four-functions-of-management-concepts Dean, K., & Fornaciari, C. (2002). How to create and use experiential case-based exercises in a management classroom. Journal of Management Education, 26 (5), 586-603. Dixon, P. N., Wingham, W., Strano, D.A. & Chandler, C.K. (1989). Sense of humor as a mediator during incidental learning of humor-related material. Psychological Reports , 64 , 851-855. Djonko-Moore, C., & Joseph, N. (2016). Out of the classroom and into the city: The use of field trips as an experiential learning tool in teacher education. SAGE Open, 6 (2),1-13.
Society, 20( 1), 198-210.
Biography
Rachel Dolechek is an instructor of Business Education in the Department of Applied Business Studies in the Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Fort Hays State University. Her research interests include pedagogy, business communication, and classroom innovation.
Thomas Lippert is an instructor of Management in the Department of Management in the Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Fort Hays State University. He previously served as postmaster general for the US Postal Service and infuses practitioner perspectives into the classroom activities. Research interests include pedagogy and management practice.
Edward Vengrouskie serves as a full professor at the Jack Welch Management Institute. As an academic-practitioner, he brings 40 years of leading others, including senior-level management and leadership careers within the Department of Defense, Fortune 50 corporations, and small entrepreneurial start-ups. His employers include; the U.S. Army, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, The Boeing Company, Raytheon, Falcon Logical Support Services LLC, and HDT Global. Research interests include entrepreneurship and small business intrapreneurship practices.
Dr. Robert Lloyd teaches Management courses at Fort Hays State University in Hays, KS, USA. In addition to teaching management courses, he has also led students on travel courses to Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. His research focus is on human resource management and big data. Dr. Lloyd brings eleven years of industry experience to higher education. In addition to private-industry consulting, he also managed his own fertilizer merchandising firm and real estate investments. He worked for six years as a commodities marketer for Koch Industries in Wichita, KS, spent several summers on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska as an outdoor adventure guide and manager, and served one season as auxiliary staff at McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
