# Planning Organizing Leading Controlling (POLC) > Traditional management theory describes four core functions of management in any industry: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. SEE ALSO: [[Adizes Four Management Styles]], [[Three Modes of Governance]], [[_FUNCTIONS|Ten Functions of Arts Management]] In 1917, engineer/executive/author Henri Fayol offered a general theory of management that described five primary functions: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. These have been compressed to four functions in most management textbooks (definitions below drawn from Bateman and Snell 2022): - Planning: "specifying the goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals." - Organizing: "assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals." - Leading: "stimulating people to be high performers." - Controlling: "monitoring performance and making needed changes." While it can be useful to divide the work of a manager into distinct categories, the realities of managing are rarely so distinct. Further, this framework implies a linear, logical, knowable, and reasonably stable world that rarely appears in the wild. Also, while many management textbooks encourage individuals to master all four functions, other approaches (such as [[Adizes Four Management Styles|PAEI]]) argue that no single individual can excel in functions that are naturally in tension – emphasizing the need for diverse teams with an array of strengths instead a single person. SOURCES - Bateman, Thomas S., and Scott A. Snell. *Management: Leading & Collaborating in a Competitive World*. 15th edition. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2022. - Fayol, Henri. *Administration industrielle et générale; prévoyance, organisation, commandement, coordination, controle*. Paris: H. Dunod et E. Pinat, 1917. --- ## Tags (click to view related pages) #frameworks #functions/people_operations #functions/accounting #functions/governance