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Management Perspective
Managing an event is a difficult task. A lot of resource collaboration is needed to deliver a successful event.
Therefore, the concept of management is utilized to sustain the growth of the meetings, incentives,
conventions, and expositions (MICE) industry.
Management is a set of principles relating to the functions of planning, organizing, leading, controlling, and
applying these principles in harnessing physical, financial, human, and informational resources efficiently and
effectively to achieve organizational goals. Management is getting work done through others.
Functions of Management
Management has four (4) functions:
1. Planning. This is the first function of management. This involves determining organizational goals and the
means for achieving them. It encompasses formulating policies, establishing targets, and scheduling
actions, as well as choosing a goal and developing a method or strategy to achieve that goal.
Effective planning and preparation are crucial to the success of an event. Numerous elements are involved
in it, such as understanding the purpose of the event, considering its timing and location, establishing the
organizing committee or events management team, creating and following an event checklist, accounting
the sources of income and all costs, securing sponsorships, and applying applicable promotion and
publicity, while getting the approval and/or permits or licenses required by the property owners or
managers.
2. Organizing. This management function organizes the activities and resources as in identifying the tasks,
classifying them, assigning duties to subordinates, and allocating the resources required. It means deciding
where decisions will be made, who will do what jobs and tasks, and who will work for whom in the
company. This is where organizational structure, process, and departmentalization take place. An events
organization creates its own structure based on its operational needs and does a lot of coordination with
various suppliers, sponsors, and partners.
3. Leading. This management function involves inspiring and motivating workers to work hard to achieve
organizational goals. Events management needs two (2) types of leadership: strategic and visionary.
Strategic leadership is the ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, think strategically, and work
with others to initiate changes that will create a positive future for an organization. Visionary leadership
creates a positive image by motivating members of the organization and providing them a direction for
future planning and goal setting.
An events organization is led by an events manager who must have strategic and visionary leadership.
4. Controlling. This management function monitors progress toward goal achievement and taking corrective
action when there is little to no progress. Feedback control is a good mechanism for gathering information
about performance deficiencies of the event after they occur. This information is then used to correct or
prevent such deficiencies in the future, which is extremely useful in managing events. By contrast, control
loss occurs when behavior and work procedures do not conform to set standards. Feedback is critical in
events management for the organization’s continual improvement and sustainability.
Managerial Roles and Skills
Not all managerial jobs are the same. The demands and requirements placed on the President of STI are
significantly different from those placed on the manager of a local McDonald’s restaurant or an events
management company. To differentiate, here are the four (4) kinds of managers:
• Top managers – chief executive officer (CEO) and other executives
• Middle managers – general managers and regional managers
• First-line managers – shift supervisors and department managers

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• Team leaders – group facilitators and committee heads.

Regardless of the size of the organization, these leaders do not only engage in the management functions but
also play specific roles. Based on a study by Henry Mintzberg, a business author and a professor at McGill
University in Canada, the managerial roles evident among the American CEOs he observed are interpersonal,
informational, and decisional roles.
• Interpersonal roles – These are what managers play when they interact or communicate face-to-face with
others. These are the interpersonal subroles:
o Figurehead – performs ceremonial duties such as greeting company visitors, speaking at the opening
of a new facility, or representing the company at a particular event
o Leader – motivates and encourages people to accomplish organizational goals
o Liaison – deals with people outside their units.
• Informational roles – These are what managers do when they share or obtain information from different
sources. These are the informational subroles:
o Monitor – scans the environment for information
o Disseminator – shares information with others in their departments or companies
o Spokesperson – shares information with people outside their departments or companies.
• Decisional roles – These are what managers perform after communicating with others and obtaining
information from them. These are the decisional subroles:
o Entrepreneur – adapts themselves, their subordinates, and their units to change
o Disturbance handler – responds to severe pressure and problems that demand immediate action
o Resource allocator – decides who gets what resources and in what amounts
o Negotiator – negotiates schedules, projects, goals, outcomes, resources, and employee raises.
Good managers are team players. They do not just function by the roles they have, but they must also have
the right skills to deal with whatever is on their plates. As such, here are three (3) skills most companies look
for in their people who may eventually become managers:
• Technical skills – These include specialized procedures, techniques, and knowledge required to get the
job done. Such skills are needed for troubleshooting problems that staff cannot handle.
• Human skills – These refer to the ability to work effectively with others. Managers with such skills
encourage others to express their thoughts and feelings, are sensitive to others’ needs and viewpoints,
and are good listeners and communicators.
• Conceptual skills – These refer to the ability to see the organization as a whole, understand how the
different departments affect each other, and recognize how the company fits into or is affected by its
external environments such as the local community, social and economic forces, clients, and the
competition.
Kinds of Teams
The creation and placement of teams or working groups vary depending on a company’s operational needs
and objectives. Teams can be classified in several ways, but studies indicate that the amount of autonomy
possessed is the key difference among teams. Autonomy is the degree to which workers have the discretion,
freedom, and independence to decide how and when to accomplish their jobs. Figure 1 shows how the
following kinds of teams differ in terms of autonomy.
• Traditional workgroups – People work together to achieve a shared goal. In these groups, workers are
responsible for doing the work or executing the task, but they do not have direct responsibility or control
over their work. They report to managers who are, in turn, responsible for their performance.

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• Employee-involvement teams – They meet on company time either weekly or monthly to provide advice
or raise suggestions to management concerning specific issues such as occupational safety, customer
relations, or product quality.
• Semi-autonomous workgroups – Not only do these groups provide advice and suggestions to
management, but they also have the authority to make decisions and solve problems related to the major
tasks required to produce a product or service. These groups regularly receive information about budgets,
work quality and performance, and competitors’ products.
• Self-managing teams – Team members manage and control all of the major tasks directly related to the
production of a product or service without getting approval from management first. This includes
managing and controlling the acquisition of materials, making a product or providing a service, and
ensuring timely delivery.
• Self-designing teams – They have all the characteristics of self-managing teams, but they can also control
and change the design of the teams themselves, the tasks they do, how and when they do them, and the
membership of the teams.

Traditional Employee Semi-Autonomous Self-Managing Self-Designing

Responsibilities
Work Groups Involvement Groups Work Groups Teams Teams
Control design of
• Team
• Tasks
• Membership
Production/Service tasks
• Make decisions
• Solve problems
Major production/service tasks
• Make decisions
• Solve problems
Information
Give advice / Make suggestions
Execute task

Figure 1. Team Autonomy Continuum

Source: MGMT 9: Principles of Management, 2017. p. 203

Events management teams are self-designing teams because they control the design of teams, tasks, and
membership. Nowadays, companies increasingly use special kinds of teams that cannot easily be categorized
in terms of autonomy. These are the following:
• Cross-functional teams – These are intentionally composed of employees from different functional areas
of the organization to perform a related task or brainstorm for a particular project. With the members
having different functional backgrounds, education, and experience, they usually attack problems from
multiple perspectives and generate more ideas and alternative solutions.
• Virtual teams – These are groups of geographically or organizationally dispersed coworkers who use a
combination of telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task.
Members of such teams rarely meet face to face; instead, they use e-mail, videoconferencing, and group
communication software. They are also highly flexible in terms of working with each other regardless of
physical location or time zones.

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• Project teams – These are created to complete specific, one-time projects or tasks within a limited time.
These teams are often used to develop new products, improve existing products significantly, roll out new
information systems, or build new offices.
Events management organizations are a mix of special kinds of teams. For example, a small or new events
management team can also be organized as a cross-functional (different functions), virtual (geographically
dispersed; planning and coordination can be done via Skype, FaceTime, etc.) team, even for a one-time or one-
day event (project).
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning for an organization, and specifically for MICE, is a critical business activity. This process
serves as the road map to achieve the goals and objectives of the event while aligning with the organizational
vision and direction. Strategic planning is an organization’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and
making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. It helps the organization to match its
resources to its changing environment and, in particular, its markets, customers, and clients to meet
stakeholder expectations (Fenich, 2015).
Strategic Planning Process
There are multiple formats and approaches to strategic planning. Depending on the objectives and
circumstances, the process may take a day, several months, or even longer. Like any process, the organization
needs to answer the following:
• Where is our organization heading over the next year (short-term)?
• What is our organization’s direction in the next 3–5 years (long-term)?
• What should our organization’s vision be in 10 years? 20 years and beyond?
Whether the approach is answering a long-term or short-term question, the systematic process intends to
envision a desired future, translate the vision into a specific goal, and define objectives that detail how to
achieve them.
There are four (4) steps in the strategic planning process:
 Step 1: Where are we now? – Analysis of the situation and feasibility study
 Step 2: Where do we want to get to? – Determining the future direction
 Step 3: How are we going to get there? – Strategy development
 Step 4: How will we know when we have gotten there – Measuring success
Depending on the scope of analysis, a situational and feasibility investigation of the organization’s MICE
activities should take place. Below are some areas to consider:
• Using objective data, provide a picture of how the organization’s MICE portfolio is performing.
o Are the events exceeding the organization’s and attendees’ expectations?
o How have MICE activities contributed to the success of the organization over the years?
o Did the organization’s event respond to a major trend or paradigm shift?
o Did the organization’s event change the culture or direction of the organization due to an
internal or external factor?
• Who are the organization’s stakeholders?
o Which stakeholders are directly involved in MICE activities?
o Who are the key decision-makers?
• Where has the organization committed to allocating resources?
o How is the organization performing compared with their peers or competitors?
o How much staff, time, and money are dedicated to ensuring the events are successful?
To answer these questions, the events organization may use several tools to analyze the current situation and
predict the feasibility or future success of the planned event.

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Tools in Situation and Feasibility Analysis

The following tools are used to analyze MICE industry’s current situation and predict future success of a
planned event:
• SWOT analysis. To present a clear picture of MICE activities, using the SWOT tool is a common practice for
organizations in analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This can be a powerful
exercise to review the state of the organization’s planned events critically.
Stakeholders should be asked to complete the matrix to ensure inclusion of multiple perspectives and
organizational insight. This process will potentially reveal the areas of investment of resources and
roadblocks that need to be addressed. See Table 1 for a sample SWOT tool.
• PESTELI trends analysis. This exercise explores the organization’s planned events by looking at the
external environment. PESTELI stands for political, economic, social, technological, environmental, legal,
and industry. Looking at each of these areas may provide additional insights on the SWOT analysis and
explain its components. See Table 2 for a sample PESTELI trends analysis.
Internal Forces External Forces
Strengths (+) Opportunities (+)
What are we doing well? Any outside forces or trends that would be beneficial for us to
• Experienced events management team take advantage of it?
• Delivering high-quality education and training • New sponsors or donors interested in contributing
opportunities • A local artist who was recently awarded major art prize,
• Growing audience base bringing increased media interest to the town
Weaknesses (-) Threats (-)
What needs to be addressed, changed, or removed? Any outside forces or trends that we need to be able to defend
• Limited sponsorship success ourselves from?
• Remote location • Participants do not have financial or managerial support
• Poor late-night transport to travel more than three (3) days for a meeting or event
• Lack of marketing and media expertise • Popularity of virtual events
• Lack of quality accommodation for visitors
Table 1. SWOT – Internal Look at the Organization
Source: Planning and Management of MEEC, 2015, page 31

Factor/Aspect Indicators
Increase tax rates on hotel and rental cars
Political
Health insurance changes that may affect hiring of new employees
High unemployment rate
Economic Corporations cutting travel and professional development funding
Concern with consumer confidence
MICE attendees are connecting differently
Impact of social media and mobile technology
Social
Different generations in the workforce
Different expectations of those attending MICE activities
Power of social media on marketing
Technological Introduction of new technology products to assist in planning and project management
Effect of mobile technology
Importance of sustainability
Environmental Introduction of best practices in green meeting and events
Change in sourcing and procurement selections based on supplier commitment to environment
Legal Changes in pharmaceutical events based on regulations
Industry Emphasis on the value of MICE based on outside drivers
Table 2. PESTELI – External Scan of the Environment
Source: Planning and Management of MEEC, 2015, page 32

References:
Fenich, G. (2015). Planning and management of meetings, expositions, events, and conventions. Essex, UK: Pearson Education Limited.
Williams, C. (2017). MGMT 9: Principles of management. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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