Major Processes of Office Management

There are five basic functions involved in the management of an; office. They are:

1. Planning: It is a mental exercise requiring the use of imagination, foresight, and sound judgement in determining what, when, where, how and by whom the activities are to be carried out. Planning is nothing but laying down a course of action to realise goals. Planning of office functions involves taking decisions with regard to factors affecting office work. While short-term planning involves the arrangement of office functions to cope with the current situation, the long-range planning includes foreseeing future requirements of the office, such as space, layout, computer application, human resource planning, etc.

2. Organising: The organising function involves setting up of departments, preparing job descriptions, designing the organisation structure with necessary authority and responsibility for each position, and establishing a proper communication system. Providing necessary equipment and furniture for office work is also .a part of the organising function.

3. Staffing: The staffing function relates to personnel matters. The right type of people is to be employed to a man in various positions. For this purpose, suitable personnel must be recruited and provision made for their training for specific jobs. Individuals selected for particular jobs must also be informed about their duties and responsibilities.

4. Directing and Coordinating: Directing includes several sub-functions: Issue of orders and instructions to subordinates, guiding them at work, supervision of day to day operations, and motivating people for better performance. Coordinating refers to the orderly arrangement of individual and group efforts so as to secure the harmony of different activities. It involves synchronisation of different operations and efforts of individuals and groups with regard to the pace, timing and sequence of work so that the planned objectives may be achieved without delay and interruptions.

5. Controlling: Plans, policies and programmes cannot be effective unless there is a control mechanism to guide and direct the execution of work. To control the implementation of planned work, the following steps are required to be taken: (a) establish norms or standards of work, (b) record actual performance (c) compare actual performance with the standards set and (d) adopt corrective measures where necessary. Control basically refers to evaluation and rectification of performance of subordinates .in order to ensure the achievement of planned results.