Hello everyone, in the previous topic we were talking about Staffing in Management. Today we are going to talk about Directing in management, its importance, characteristic, principle and elements.

What is Directing?

INTRODUCTION

In the ordinary sense, Directing means giving instructions and guiding people in doing work. In our daily life, we come across many situations like a hotel owner directing his employees to complete certain activities for organizing a function, a teacher directing his student to complete an assignment, a film director directing the artists about how they should act in the film etc. In all these situations, we can observe that directing is done to achieve some predetermined objective.

In the sense of management of an organization, Directing refers to the process of instructing, guiding, counseling, motivating and leading people in the organization to achieve its objectives.

We can observe here that directing is not a mere issue of communication but encompasses many elements like supervision, motivation and leadership. It is one of the key managerial functions performed by every manager. Directing is a managerial process which takes place throughout the life of an organization.

IMPORTANCE OF DIRECTING

 The importance of directing can be understood by the fact that every action in the organization is initiated through directing only. Directing guides towards achievement of common objectives.

Through directing, managers not only tell the people in the organization as to what they should do, when they should do and how they should do but also see that their instructions are implemented in proper perspective.

Very often, this becomes an important factor in the efficient and effective functioning of the organization. The points which emphasize the importance of directing are presented as follows-

1. Directing helps to initiate action by people in the organization towards attainment of desired objectives. For example, if a supervisor guide their subordinates and clarifies their doubts in performing a task, it will help the worker to achieve work targets given to them.

2. Directing integrates employee’s efforts in the organization in such a way that every individual effort contributes to the organizational performance. Thus, it ensures that the individuals work for organizational goals.

For example, a manager with good leadership abilities will be in a position to convince the employees working under them that individual efforts and team effort will lead to achievement of organizational goals.

3. Directing guides employees to fully realize their potential and capabilities by motivating and providing effective leadership. A good leader can always identify the potential of their employees and motivate them to extract work up to their full potential.

4. Directing facilitates introduction of needed changes in the organization. Generally, people have a tendency to resist changes in the organization. Effective directing through motivation, communication and leadership helps to reduce such resistance and develop required cooperation in introducing changes in the organization.

For example, if a manager wants to introduce new system of accounting, there may be initial resistance from accounting staff. But, if manager explains the purpose, provides training and motivates with additional rewards, the employees may accept change and cooperate with manager.

5. Effective directing helps to bring stability and balance in the organization since it fosters cooperation and commitment among the people and helps to achieve balance among various groups, activities and the departments.

CHARACTERISTIC OF DIRECTING

1. Directing initiates action– Directing is a key managerial function. A manager has to perform this function along with planning, organizing, staffing and controlling while discharging his duties in the organization. While other functions prepare a setting for action, directing initiates action in the organization.

2. Directing takes place at every level of management– Every manager, from top executive to supervisor performs the function of directing. The directing takes place wherever superior subordinate relations exist.

3. Directing is a continuous process– Directing is a continuous activity. It takes place throughout the life of the organization irrespective of people occupying managerial positions. We can observe that in organizations like Infosys, Tata, BHEL, HLL and the managers may change but the directing process continues because without direction the organizational activities cannot continue further.

4. Directing flows from top to bottom– Directing is first initiated at top level and flows to the bottom through organizational hierarchy. It means that every manager can direct their immediate subordinate and take instructions from their immediate boss.

PRINCIPLE OF DIRECTING

Providing good and effective directing is a challenging task as it involves many complexities. A manager has to deal with people with different background, and expectations. This complicates the directing process. Certain guiding principles of directing may help in directing process. These principles are briefly explained below-

1. Maximum individual contribution-

This principle emphasizes that directing techniques must help every individual in the organization to contribute to their maximum potential for achievement of organizational objectives. It should bring out untapped energies of employees for the efficiency of organization.

For example, a good motivation plan with suitable monetary and non-monetary rewards can motivate an employee to contribute their maximum efforts for the organization as he or she may feel that their efforts will bring them suitable rewards.

2. Harmony of objectives-

Very often, we find that individual objectives of employees and the organizational objectives as understood are conflicting to each other. For example, an employee may expect attractive salary and monetary benefits to fulfill their personal needs.

The organization may expect employees to improve productivity to achieve expected profits. But, good directing should provide harmony by convincing that employee rewards and work efficiency are complimentary to each other.

3. Unity of Command-

This principle insists that a person in the organization should receive instructions from one superior only. If instructions are received from more than one, it creates confusion, conflict and disorder in the organization. Adherence to this principle ensures effective direction.

4. Appropriateness of direction technique-

According to this principle, appropriate motivational and leadership technique should be used while directing the people based on subordinate needs, capabilities, attitudes and other situational variables. For example, for some people money can act as powerful motivator while for others promotion may act as effective motivator.

5. Managerial communication-

Effective managerial communication across all the levels in the organization makes direction effective. Directing should convey clear instructions to create total understanding to subordinates. Through proper feedback, the managers should ensure that subordinate understands their instructions clearly.

6. Use of informal organization-

A manager should realize that informal groups or organizations exist within every formal organization. They should spot and make use of such organizations for effective directing.

7. Leadership-

While directing the subordinates, managers should exercise good leadership as it can influence the subordinates positively without causing dissatisfaction among them.

8. Follow through-

Mere giving of an order is not sufficient. Managers should follow it up by reviewing continuously whether orders are being implemented accordingly or any problems are being encountered. If necessary, suitable modifications should be made in the directions.

ELEMENTS OF DIRECTION

The process of directing involves guiding, coaching, instructing, motivating, leading the people in an organization to achieve organizational objectives. Here we are going to understand this by taking an example-

1. A supervisor explains a worker about operations to be carried by them on a lathe machine.
2.  A mining engineer explains about safety precautions to be followed while working in a coal mine.
3.  A Managing Director declares share in the profits to the managers for their contribution to enhance profits of the company.
4.  A manager inspires their employees by playing a lead role in performing a work.

All these examples and many other activities related to directing may broadly be grouped into four categories which are the elements of directing. The elements are Supervision, Motivation, Leadership and Communication.

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