HMGT 320 LESSON LEARNED

International Forum of Teaching and Studies Vol. 15 No. 2 2019

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Solving a Whale of a Problem: Introducing the Four Functions of

Management in a Management Principles Course

Rachel Dolechek, Thomas Lippert, Dr. Robert Lloyd

Fort Hays State University, Kansas, USA

Edward Vengrouskie

Jack Welch Management Institute, Herndon, VA, USA

[Abstract] This paper introduces an experiential exercise that exposes students in a management

principles course to the four managerial functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling.

The exercise combines the powerful benefits of visual media and humor in a situational scenario

designed to enhance the learning opportunities for students to grasp the fundamentals of

management education. By connecting experiential learning with the four functions of

management in a humorous situational case, students will be better able to develop a grasp of the

management functions and understand how they are related. Learning applications allow students

to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of these functions of management, as well as how

each function is essential and related.

[Keywords] four functions of management, experiential learning, visual media, humor

Introduction

Management is a universal phenomenon. It has been described as a social process involving

responsibility for economical and effective planning and regulation of operation for an enterprise

in the fulfillment of given purposes (Junega, 2018). Management, according to Terry and Franklin

(1977) is a dynamic process consisting of a series of inter-related functions. It is this process by

which management creates, operates, and directs purposive organization through systematic,

coordinated, and co-operated human efforts. The functions of management were put forth in the

early 1900s by Henri Fayol, a management theorist from France (Business Zeal, 2018).

Originally, he had proposed five management functions: planning, organizing, commanding,

coordinating, and controlling. Modern texts have reduced the functions from five to four. They

include planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Managers who can perform these functions

well are extremely valuable to an organization because they create order from what could become

chaos (Pride, Hughes, & Kapoor, 2016).

Establishing a mastery of these functions of management prepares business students for

the higher-level courses as they progress through their business curriculum. As such, the four

functions of management are the foundation for management education. The purpose of this paper

is to describe an exercise that introduces the four functions of management to students in a

management principles undergraduate course. The experiential exercise introduces the students to

a fictional problem of a dead whale washing up on a community beach. The students’ role is to

solve the problem using the four functions of management. The exercise introduces the concepts

of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling and achieves a high level of engagement via two

strategies. The commentary provided in the video of the whale washing up on the beach involves

humor. In this exercise, the use of humor is essential in engaging students and developing a

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connection to the four functions of management. The benefits of humor have been part of a

multitude of studies on the positive impacts for group or organizational performance, including

development and learning outcomes. Humor has an inexorable connection to learning, as

individuals “pay more attention when learning humorous material and also recall it better”

(Romero & Pescosolido, 2008, p. 407). Humor creates an environment of open communication,

which significantly improves upon and positively influences group effectiveness, by developing

group cohesion and motivation (Romero & Pescosollido, 2008).

Theory and Learning Objectives

The theoretical foundation of this exercise is experiential learning theory (ELT). Experiential

exercises based on this approach vary in complexity and impact, and researchers have described

their effectiveness in the classroom vis-à-vis a variety of delivery mechanisms including role-

playing, simulations, case studies, work-based learning, real-world problem solving, field trips,

board games, flipped classroom, action-research projects, and civic engagement (Gibson, Ward,

Comer, & Rossi, 2015; Lovelace, Eggers, & Dyck, 2016; Dean & Fornaciari, 2002; Nottingham,

2017; Lloyd, Martin, Hyatt, & Tritt, 2019; Arling, Deeter, & Eggers, 2010; Djonko-Moore &

Joseph, 2016; Lloyd, 2014; Zhai, Gu, Liu, Liang, & Tsai, 2017; Johannessen, 2015; Gibson &

Tavlaridis, 2018; Stovall, 2009; Wright & Gilmore, 2012; Furutan, 2014 ). Despite this variety and

scope, each of these experiential learning exercises focuses on a common outcome, which is to

allow the learner to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the material and the context

in which they are integrating new knowledge (Kayes, 2002).

In meeting the objectives of this experiential exercise, students will develop an

understanding of the four functions of management. Their task is to create a solution to address a

common issue in their role as city manager. After completing this exercise, students should be able

to establish a game plan (planning), determine what resources they will need to execute their game

plan (organizing), decide which stakeholders need to be included or motivated to buy in to the plan

(leading), and finally, create mechanisms to ensure the plan will stay on track or be successful

(controlling). Students share their solutions, and the instructor provides feedback and conducts a

debrief.

Given the importance of the four functions of management as a foundation for the students’

managerial education, this exercise provides a necessary first step to establishing their

understanding of the four functions of management. The combination of humor, video media, and

the nature of experiential pedagogy should contribute to more effective learning results. The

following learning outcomes drive the design of the exercise.

1) Develop an understanding of the four functions of management and the activities that each entail

2) Articulate how the four functions of management are interrelated

Instructions for Running the Exercise

The exercise is run in three parts, which includes an introduction to the scenario, development of

strategies in response to the scenario, and a debriefing session. Students are placed into groups of

four before or immediately after the introduction of the scenario. The scenario puts the students in

the role of a city manager who has to deal with the problem of a dead whale on the community

beach. They are asked a series of questions on how they will respond, and the debrief session

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serves as a means to connect the students to their use of the four functions of management.

Logistics

This exercise should take place in the context of a classroom where the instructor has access to

video media display and a whiteboard. Before the class beginning, the instructor should pre-load

the video entitled “Oregon’s Exploding Whale,” which can be found at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBgThvB_IDQ. The video should be minimized from the screen

at this time, but ready to play at a later point in the exercise. Additionally, the instructor should

bring an image on the screen of a dead whale on the beach. As the students enter the classroom,

this image should be the first visual they will see. Next, the students should be placed in groups of

four. Maximum classroom size for this project is about thirty to forty students. This size allows

for a good discussion and encourages everyone to articulate their strategy and feedback on the

exercise. The exercise takes approximately 50 minutes.

Step-by-Step Instructions

The instructor begins by communicating the scenario to the students. This can be done via either

handout or storytelling. This should be left to the instructor’s discretion, given their strengths and

pedagogical preference. The scenario is as follows:

“You are the city manager of a seaside town on the Oregon coast. You have just been

notified that a dead whale has washed up on your municipal, public access beach. Citizens are

complaining about the smell and are demanding you do something. To deal with this issue, you

need to answer four questions:

1) What is your game plan to address this whale? 2) What resources and people do you need to execute your plan? 3) What style of leadership would be best to help you execute your plan, ensuring

motivation and cohesiveness?

4) How will you make sure that your plan is going to work, or that it will stay on track?”

The students should then be given twenty minutes to formulate answers to the questions of

the scenario. This step is followed by allowing students to share their strategies and the instructor

should facilitate a discussion regarding the effectiveness and legitimacy of their chosen strategies.

The instructor should divide the whiteboard into four sections for planning, organization, leading,

and controlling, being sure to not yet label these sections. As the students share their answers in

each of the areas, the instructor should write a brief summary of their answers in the appropriate

section of the whiteboard. After the students have shared their strategies and answers to the

questions, the instructor should go to each of the sections on the whiteboard and write the word

“plan” over the section where the students strategies are written, “organize” over the section where

they describe their resources, “lead” over the section where they describe the people needed to

execute their strategy, and “control” over the section where they describe how they will stay on

track.

Once respective groups share strategies, the instructor should briefly preface the video. It

is important to note that some students may be sensitive to the situation of a dead whale washing

up on a beach. It is possible some may feel sorrow or pity for the whale, and the instructor should

provide commentary on the sensitivity of the situation. After any discussion on this matter, the

instructor should play the video of the exploding whale, which takes about three minutes. This

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video serves as a transition to the debrief period. The news reporter commentary includes use of

humor to describe how the plan to blow up the whale backfires. The video and its use of humor

create a new energy in the exercise that the instructor can leverage to lead an effective debrief

session.

The Debrief

The most critical component to the exercise is the debriefing section. The instructor should lead a

discussion about the strategies chosen by the students as they relate to the four functions of

management. The discussion should also include a focus on how the concepts are interrelated.

What would happen if the students skipped one of the steps? How do each of the questions

complement each other? The debrief should go beyond merely connecting their strategies to the

four functions. The instructor should challenge the students in their assumptions, to make sure they

think through the implications of their decisions. For example, many students decide that they are

going to remove the whale (the planning function) using a crane (the organizing function) and

involve a tugboat company (the leading function) to have the whale towed out into the ocean. In

this scenario, they will answer the fourth question by stating they are going to confirm when the

tow company will show up, coordinate the timing of the crane to show up, which would be a

controlling function. The instructor should challenge these assumptions by asking questions. Table

1 contains some of the more common strategies and related probing or challenging questions for

the instructor to pose, should students need some direction.

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The purpose of the challenge session is to provide students with a more in-depth

understanding and a higher level of critical thinking of how each of the functions of management

are necessary and interrelated. During the debrief, students should be able to respond to the

challenges posed by the instructor. In addition, the class collectively discusses a more robust

solution to include health officials to deal with toxicity issues, Army Corps of Engineers or mining

companies if they had decided to blow up the whale, local universities for research, and

engineering consultants to ensure the equipment they chose has the capacity for their given

solution. Summation may also include analysis of logic applied and how data was used, or ignored,

during the planning process.

Expanding the Exercise

The instructor may choose to expand the exercise in several ways, adding additional class time for

completion of the exercise. For instance, the video is especially helpful in showing how a plan can

go wrong and the importance of control. For each of the students’ solutions to the problem, the

instructor should identify a contingency or emergency that the students have to address. For

example, if the solution is to use a crane to load onto a truck, create a contingency by indicating

that either the crane or the truck becomes stuck in the sand. If the solution is hauling the whale

into the ocean using a tugboat, indicate that there are unusual tides that might affect this strategy.

Expanding the exercise requires the instructor to introduce these idiosyncrasies to the plans the

students formulate.

Conclusion

The four functions of management are integral for every Management Principles undergraduate

student to understand. This exercise provides students experience in developing strategies to

respond to a scenario. Bolstered by the empirically tested benefits of video media and humor, this

exercise creates an engaged and energized classroom and likely increases the ability to recall the

four functions of management in further course activities. The exercise provides an impactful

learning experience for students and should lead to a more comprehensive understanding of future

Management Principles coursework, such as organizational learning.

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Biography

Rachel Dolechek is an instructor of Business Education in the Department of Applied Business

Studies in the Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Fort Hays State

University. Her research interests include pedagogy, business communication, and classroom

innovation.

Thomas Lippert is an instructor of Management in the Department of Management in the

Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship at Fort Hays State University. He previously

served as postmaster general for the US Postal Service and infuses practitioner perspectives into

the classroom activities. Research interests include pedagogy and management practice.

Edward Vengrouskie serves as a full professor at the Jack Welch Management Institute. As an

academic-practitioner, he brings 40 years of leading others, including senior-level management

and leadership careers within the Department of Defense, Fortune 50 corporations, and small

entrepreneurial start-ups. His employers include; the U.S. Army, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace,

The Boeing Company, Raytheon, Falcon Logical Support Services LLC, and HDT

Global. Research interests include entrepreneurship and small business intrapreneurship

practices.

Dr. Robert Lloyd teaches Management courses at Fort Hays State University in Hays, KS,

USA. In addition to teaching management courses, he has also led students on travel courses to

Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. His research focus is on human resource management

and big data. Dr. Lloyd brings eleven years of industry experience to higher education. In

addition to private-industry consulting, he also managed his own fertilizer merchandising firm

and real estate investments. He worked for six years as a commodities marketer for Koch

Industries in Wichita, KS, spent several summers on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska as an outdoor

adventure guide and manager, and served one season as auxiliary staff at McMurdo Station in

Antarctica.

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