The Four Functions Of Management

A manager's role is to lead the organization to a clearly stated objective. Management in a company has to be able to reach the goals set in an organized way by being as efficient and effective as possible. In doing so the manager must gather all the resources in a concise and organized manner. Management can be defined as the process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals. The four functions of management are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. My primary objective is to define the four functions of management and how each function relates to my own organization which is Pace.

Pace is the suburban public transit agency for Chicagoland's six-county metropolitan region. As the 6th largest bus agency in the U.S., Pace operates fixed bus routes, vanpools and paratransit services in nearly 250 municipalities consisting of 5.2 million residents. Pace was created by reform legislation in late 1983, and began operating throughout Chicago's six-county suburbs in mid-1984. Pace is the suburban bus division of the Regional Transportation Authority. Since Pace has several different type of services I will discuss the paratransit services at Pace.

On July 29, 2005, the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) Act was amended by the Illinois General Assembly. The Act stipulates that Pace is responsible for the provision of all ADA paratransit services that are required under the ADA by no later than July 1, 2006â„-. Pace would assume control over all ADA paratransit service on July 1, 2006. Pace would now be responsible for the entire region.

The first function of management is planning and it is defined as the management function of systematically making decisions about goals and activities that an individual, a group, a work unit, or the overall organizations will pursueІ. Pace's planning objective is to develop strategies that will lead to a more coordinated and regional approach to the delivery of ADA paratransit services. Pace has established an objective plan to continue to provide mobility for people with disabilities. Pace is to significantly increase ridership while maintaining the overall financial performance.

The second function of management is organizing and is defined as the management function of assembling and coordinating human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goalsІ. The purpose of the organizing function at Pace is to make the best use of the organization's resource to achieve organizational goals. Pace fulfills this function by securing additional public funding as well as system generated revenue. It will also implement new technologies, pursue an aggressive program of capital facilities improvements, develop additional creative services, and restructure existing services.

The third function of management is leading which is defined as the management function that involves the manager's efforts to stimulate high performance by employeesІ. Pace formed two committees which are the Transition and Ad Hoc Committee to help guide the development of the Regional ADA Paratransit Plan.

The Transition committee began meeting in August 2005 on a bi-weekly basis. Representatives from RTA, CTA, Pace, CATS, and IDOT participated on the committee. Issues that were discussed in