Modern Management: concepts and skills, 14/e

Fundamentals of Influencing

The four basic managerial functions—planning, organizing, influencing, and controlling—were introduced in Chapter 1. Planning and organizing have already been discussed; influencing is the third of these basic functions covered in this text. A definition of influencing and a discussion of the influencing subsystem follow.

Defining Influencing

Influencing is the process of guiding the activities of organization members in appropriate directions. Appropriate directions, of course, are those that lead to the attainment of management system objectives. Influencing thus involves focusing on organization members as people and dealing with such issues as morale, arbitration of conflicts, and the development of good working ...