Principles of Management: Goal Setting

• Management is essentially the process of directing resources, like people, money, and time, towards achieving a specific goal.

Basic Components of Management

• It is necessary to establish a goal first to discuss management
• Without a goal, one cannot determine how and for what purpose resources should be managed

Goal

• A goal signifies a point to be reached in the future
• Goals can be sales figures, the number of branches, or the number of employees
• A goal is not arbitrarily determined and must possess certain characteristics to be successful
• Goals should be attainable, achievable with existing resources, if goals cannot be achieved with available resources, the business will fail
• Goals need to be clear, precise, and understandable to others, especially employees as incomprehensible goals will not lead to success
• Goals require boundaries, determining how and in what amount resources will be directed for efficient operation
• Goals should be flexible as external and internal environmental conditions may change over time
• Goals should be consistent and reasonable

Resources

• Resources are the means necessary to achieve goals and are managed accordingly
• Human resources: Employees and partner organizations
• Financial resources: Assets of the business such as property and receivables
• Time resources: The time to be used for production and reaching the goal
• Natural resources: Land, water, the sea, sand, and sunlight

Manager

• The manager is a decision-maker
• Successful management involves making correct and timely decisions

Functions of Management

• Planning
• Organizing
• Directing
• Coordinating
• Controlling and Feedback

Planning

• Planning is the process of pre-determining how resources (money, time, and people) are directed to achieve set goals
• In hotel operations, customers pay attention to comfort, cleanliness, lighting, room size, and quality of fixtures

Plans in terms of Time

• Short-term plans include plans for up to one year
  • Example: determining the personnel needs of the housekeeping department for the next year
• Medium-term plans range from one to five years
  • Example: aiming to increase a hotel's capacity in five years to achieve a 5-star rating
• Long-term plans last more than five years
  • Example: A local travel agency aiming to expand into the Middle Eastern market in 10 years

Plans in terms of Content

• Strategic plans: Macro plans involving setting long-term goals, created by top management, and are abstract
• Tactical plans: Detail how strategic plan objectives can be achieved at the departmental level through practices and tactics

Benefits of Planning

• Facilitates thinking about goals and actions, enabling proactive measures for crisis management
• Supports creativity, allowing brainstorming among decision-makers
• Enables pre-determination of departmental needs, preventing excessive and incorrect use of materials
• Contributes to successful matching of tasks and individuals through consideration
• Enables performance control by checking whether the planning goals are achieved
• Identifies and prevents managerial and implementation errors, preventing recurrence
• Ensures a more successful and organized operation

Characteristics of Planning

• Planning should be feasible and not require unattainable practices
• Planning should be flexible, adapting to changing conditions and allowing its boundaries to be changeable
• Planning should not leave questions unanswered and should be reliable leading to results
• Planning should be suitable for current conditions
• Planning should be achievable and implementable with current business resources
• Planning should minimize ambiguity and risk

Organizing

• Involves matching tasks with individuals
• Misplacement of an employee in a hotel operation and dissatisfaction with their job can lead to failure

Directing

• Directing involves guiding human resources towards goals and plans
• Applying motivation techniques such as training, rewards, and incentives increases success

Coordinating

• Coordinating denotes harmonious operation
• It means individuals and departments working together smoothly

Controlling and Feedback

• After implementation, each stage is individually checked to measure the success level
• Mistakes are corrected if found, referred to as feedback