Who's Going to Do It?

The act of managing a Street Department can be a multifaceted and challenging experience. Street Department managers are tasked with managing under varied and often less than ideal conditions. Managers must contend with weather and the changing seasons, traffic pattern extremes, resource availability, and public pressure to name but a few of the variables.
The process of management is not a series of separate functions; rather it is a composite process made up of the individual functions: Planning, Organizing, Directing, and Controlling. Not one of these functions can be performed without involving the others.
Every manager must, to some extent, make plans for the future. Plans may vary from the operational to strategic and from the simple to the involved. Planning is not a function reserved exclusively for upper management. Every manager, regardless of organizational level, must plan and this is certainly true for the management of a Street Department. For successful managers, planning is part of every day.
All managerial acts are laced with varying degrees of planning. When one considers the level of service required of the Street Department in general and particularly the maintenance work area, along with the many variables and often complex nature of the required tasks, one can readily understand the need to plan. Without proper planning, the operations become confused, ineffective and more often than not, cost prohibitive. It is a fact, that careful, well thought planning can advance an organization from a level of mediocre existence to one of leadership.
Managers must constantly organize - organize personnel, organize materials, organize time, organize activities. Organizing brings order out of chaos and introduces system into the environment. Organizing consists of: 1. determining what activities or tasks need to be done to reach the organizational goal/plan; 2. grouping and assigning the activities to subordinates, and 3. delegating the required authority to the subordinates to carry out the assigned tasks.
Like planning, organizing is an inseparable part of the management cycle. A manager must plan prior to organizing, but generally in a composite manner - such that neither function is separately discernable, but both intermixed in the whole management function. Organizing the Street Department activities is a daily requirement of the Street Superintendent. Each day's planned activities must be organized to insure the optimum efficiency and use of resources.
Directing is the managerial function that relates to those activities that deal directly with influencing, guiding, and supervising subordinates. The single most important ingredient of directing is communication. The Superintendent's communicative skills (all forms) will dictate the success that manager has with directing.
A manager cannot knowingly direct without also planning and organizing. An unplanned, disorganized directive is certainly a meaningless accumulation of words. Street Department supervisors, at each level, from the Superintendent to the Foreman are involved in directing. Like planning and organizing, directing cannot stand alone and is performed in conjunction with the other management functions.
Whenever people are joined together in a common undertaking or task, some form of control is always necessary. The control function of management consists of those activities which are undertaken to force events to conform to the prearranged plans. Thus we see that planning is necessary for control. Whenever planned objectives are not reached, the manager must implement a control action to remedy the situation.
Managers must often direct subordinates to follow a planned and necessary action. This is the control function of management and like the functions of planning, organizing, and directing, control cannot exist alone. The Superintendent utilizes the control function daily and each level of management implements control to varying degrees.
Applying management principles to Street Department operations recognizes that many street activities can be planned, scheduled and accomplished in a defined manner. Maintenance management provides a framework for developing maintenance plans, tracking work accomplishment and preparing reports that compare planned and actual performance. Beginning with a basic framework for management which includes planning, organizing, directing and controlling, an overview of maintenance management can be presented as:
Planning – determining the organization’s goals and deciding how best to achieve them. Planning involves choosing tasks that must be performed and how and when they will be performed. Planning outlines how to be successful. It takes time, coordination, expertise, and objectivity. Effective planning takes much effort and the ability to take a broad objective view. Decision making is also included with planning because it involves selecting the best course of action to achieve success.
Planning maintenance activities based upon the street features to be maintained, the resources (labor, equipment & materials) needed to provide maintenance and the level of service to be provided by the maintenance. This includes preparing budgets based upon maintenance performance standards to define the specific types and amounts of maintenance work.
Organizing - assigning tasks to various individuals or groups; puts plan into action. People are given work assignments that contribute to achieving the goals. Organizing involves using your resources appropriately to reach the organization’s goals. Organizing is the primary way managers activate their plans. Organizing involves knowing your organization and your people. Some identify five steps in the organizing process: 1) reflect on plans and objectives; you must keep these plans and objectives in mind at all times. They guide you through the entire management process; 2) establish major tasks; determine what are the major responsibilities or tasks; 3) divide major tasks into subtasks; this is a critical step to help you get to the details; 4) allocate resources; determine how many people and other resources must be devoted to each area; you may have to form work groups, committees, or teams to accomplish the tasks; make sure they have the proper resources to be successful; and 5) evaluate the results of your strategy; take a critical and objective look at the results.
Street Department organizing coordinates the people, organizations, material, equipment, facilities, and information resources to ensure that planned maintenance activities can be accomplished with the budget available. Coordinating activities and efforts are crucial to your efficiency and effectiveness as a manager. This helps you organize and manage your resources better. Encouraging initiative and responsibility, while maintaining discipline and defined duties are important aspects of organizing.
Of all the resources already mentioned, the hardest to manage might be the people aspect. It is a known fact that most project problems are caused by people, not technology. This is why the “people” aspect of management is key to the success of a manager.
Directing – guiding the activities of the organization’s members. Over the years, directing has been referred to as motivating, leading, or influencing. Leading seems to be the term used most frequently these days. Regardless of the term you use, they all mean the same as applied to the management process. The ultimate goal for directing people is to achieve the organization’s goals. Whether those goals are to increase productivity, or to make more money, or to safe lives, a manager must lead employees to accomplish the goals and missions of the organization.
One way to direct people is through effective communication. Your skill as an effective communicator is a great tool for accomplishing your organization’s goals. If you agree that communicating is the sharing of information then you realize that both verbal and written communications are vital to leading your employees. Good managers realize that employees need information to do their jobs and good managers aren’t afraid to share that information. Good managers also realize that everything they do communicates, whether it is verbal or non-verbal. Good managers also know the value of feedback. Keep a door open and allow for feedback from your employees.
Controlling – within the context of management, is making things happen as planned. Controlling is the continuing process of monitoring the progress being made by your workers. Managers must make sure that the organization is performing as planned and will accomplish its goals. Controlling involves gathering information and measuring performance. The performance must be measured against some standard and then managers must be willing and ready to take corrective action as necessary to get back on track. When thinking about controlling managers must realize that there are many, many different activities within their responsibility. A manager not only has employees, but also a physical plant or building, inventory, and finances to consider. There are many variables involved with controlling. And, of course controlling is certainly a continuing process.
Controlling is a vital part of being an effective manager. Circumstances seem to change more frequently than ever before. Systems are more complex and turbulent and that impacts on organizations. Good managers will have planned and be ready when changes occur. However, sometimes circumstances are beyond a manager’s control and the manager must still be ready to make quick, good decisions.
If a manager has established standards and has measured performance then that manager is ready to evaluate and act. One area where managers must have strength of conviction is in the area of taking corrective action. These changing circumstances are going to happen and a manager must control what must be done. Indecision can ruin an organization. Flexibility and objectivity are important here. A manager must look at his or her resources objectively and then realize that the control system must be flexible enough to handle the changes.
Two principles need to be singled out because of their relevance to small local governments. These are important concepts in any organization, but especially in an organization like the City. Span of Control has been a concern of organizations for many years. It refers to the number of individuals a manager supervises. It also implies how many a manager can supervise effectively. If a manager has too many people working for them they can lose their effectiveness and this definitely hurts the organization. Productivity would be decreased as well as interpersonal relationships. There is no magic number for the exact amount of people one manager can supervise, but years ago six was the average number and more recently 3-9 has been used, but again that depends on both the workers and the manager. The importance of this concept is that it is a crucial factor in structuring an organization and has huge impact on the organization.
Unity of Command means that an individual should only have one boss. Unity of Command can keep responsibilities from overlapping and thus hold down confusion. Additionally, too many bosses giving orders can be very frustrating and confusing for a worker. This would certainly cause inefficiencies and ineffectiveness.