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Administrative process is the continuous and interrelated flow of planning, organization, management and control activities, developed to achieve a common objective: take advantage of human, technical, material and any other type of resources, which the organization has to make it effective for its stakeholders and society.
Concept
First of all, what is the process?
Process : Set of the successive phases of a natural phenomenon or an artificial operation.
And what is meant by administration?
Administration : Social science that pursues the satisfaction of institutional objectives through a structure and through a coordinated human effort.
Understood this, you have then that:
The administrative process is the tool that is applied in organizations to achieve their objectives and meet their lucrative and social needs. If the administrators or managers of an organization properly carry out their work through efficient and effective management, the organization is much more likely to achieve its goals; therefore, it can be said that the performance of managers or administrators can be measured according to the degree to which they comply with the administrative process.
Origin
The paradigm of the administrative process and functional areas was developed by Henri Fayol (1916). Although it is still discussed whether the administration is a science or, on the contrary, it is art, from a functionalist perspective it is stated that the basic function of the administration, as a practice, is to select appropriate objectives and direct the organization towards its achievement . This implies defining the administration as a process that, as such, requires the execution of a series of functions. Fayol described administrative activities as composed of the functions of planning, organizing, directing, coordinating and controlling.
Phases
There are two phases in the administrative process, one mechanic and another dynamic.
In the first, mechanical phase, it is sought to establish what to do and the necessary structure to do it is prepared, including planning and organization activities.
The second, dynamic phase, refers to how that social organization that has been structured and understands management and control activities is managed.
Activities that compose it
As already mentioned, the administrative process consists of 4 basic stages or functions: planning, organization, management and control . Here is a brief introduction to each one.
1. Planning
It consists of knowing what is going to be done in advance, what is going to be the direction that is going to be taken to achieve the objectives in the most efficient way. What do you want to achieve (objectives)? What will be done to achieve it? Who and when will you do it? How will you do it (resources)? Planning tries to create a desired future.
Planning encompasses the definition of the organization’s goals, the establishment of a general strategy to achieve those goals and the development of a thorough hierarchy of plans to integrate and coordinate activities. Setting goals serves to keep track of the work that will be done and for the members of the organization to focus their attention on the most important things.
2. Organization
The organization is a system that allows a balanced use of resources whose purpose is to establish a relationship between the work and the personnel that must execute it. It is a process where it is determined what must be done to achieve an established or planned purpose, dividing and coordinating activities and providing resources.
Organizing is arranging work to achieve the goals of the organization. Organizing includes determining what tasks need to be done, who does them, how they are grouped, who is accountable to whom and where decisions are made.
3. Address
The address is the function that is through interpersonal influence, to ensure that everyone involved in the organization contribute to the achievement of its objectives. It is exercised through three sub-functions: leadership, motivation and communication.
The direction is the process to direct and influence the activities of members of a whole group or organization, with respect to a task. Management reaches the bottom of managers’ relationships with each of the people who work with them.
4. Control
The control is the function that performs the measurement of the results obtained compared with the expected (planned) in order to seek continuous improvement.
That control is the follow-up activity aimed at correcting deviations that may occur with respect to the objectives. The control is exercised with reference to the plans, through regular and systematic comparison of the forecasts and the consequent realizations and the valuation of the deviations made with respect to the objectives. The control, then, contrasts what was planned and what was achieved to trigger the corrective actions, which maintain the regulated system, that is, oriented to its objectives.
There are some other activities or functions that have been added by various authors, including:
5. Integration
Integrating, with what and who is going to be done, consists in selecting and obtaining the financial, material, technical and human resources considered necessary for the proper functioning of a social organism., The integration groups communication and the harmonic meeting of the elements human and material, training selection and compensation of staff.
6. Forecast
To foresee, what can be done, consists in the diagnosis of the available information and data, in such a way that the anticipation or construction of the context in which the organization will be found becomes possible.