Understanding the Management Process in Food Service Units

Ever walked into a café during the morning rush and marveled at how smoothly everything works? The barista is calling out names, the kitchen is churning out orders, and the cashier is greeting new customers, all like a perfectly choreographed dance. Now, think about the opposite: a time you’ve been to a restaurant where the host was flustered, the servers were lost, and your food took an hour. The difference between these two experiences isn’t just luck or good staff. It’s management. In the fast-paced, high-pressure world of food service, management isn’t just a title; it’s a dynamic, essential process that acts as the business’s central nervous system.

But what does “management” actually mean in this context? It’s far more than just being “the boss.” It’s the art and science of achieving specific goals-like amazing customer satisfaction, profitability, and low staff turnover-by guiding and using the resources you have. It’s the unseen framework that turns a collection of ingredients, people, and equipment into a successful dining experience.

What is management in food service, anyway? 🔗

At its core, management in a food service unit is the process of coordinating and integrating resources to meet organizational objectives. That sounds a bit academic, but think of it this way: a manager is like a chef, and the “management process” is their master recipe. The chef doesn’t just throw ingredients in a bowl; they follow a series of steps-planning, organizing, directing-to create a finished dish.

Similarly, a food service manager can’t just hope for a good outcome. They must actively *manage*. This involves a whole host of activities, from designing a menu that is both delicious and profitable, to creating a staff schedule that ensures you’re covered for the Saturday night rush without being overstaffed on a slow Tuesday. Early management theorists, like Luther Gulick, gave us a handy way to remember these functions, and it’s still incredibly relevant today.

The seven pillars of management: Unpacking POSDCORB 🔗

One of the most enduring frameworks for understanding the management process is the acronym POSDCORB. Developed by Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick, it breaks down a manager’s work into seven key functions. Let’s see how each one applies directly to running a food service unit.

Planning 🔗

This is the foundation. Planning is the process of thinking through and deciding *in advance* what you want to achieve and how you’re going to do it. It’s the “blueprint” for your restaurant or café. In food service, this includes:

• Menu Planning: What dishes will you serve? How will you source the ingredients? How will you price each item to ensure a profit (food costing)?
• Financial Planning: What are your sales goals for the month? What is your budget for labor, food, and overhead?
• Operational Planning: What are the opening and closing procedures? What’s the protocol for handling a customer complaint?

Without a solid plan, you’re not managing; you’re just reacting to problems as they happen. A good plan anticipates these problems and sets a clear direction.

Organizing 🔗

Once you have a plan, you need to build a structure to execute it. Organizing involves establishing the formal structure of authority and workflow. It’s about creating a “skeleton” for your business. This means:

• Creating an Org Chart: Who reports to whom? Is there a clear line from the dishwasher to the prep cook, to the sous chef, to the head chef?
• Defining Roles: Who is responsible for what? Is the server responsible for just taking orders, or also for bussing their own tables and restocking the server station? Clearly defined roles prevent confusion and ensure accountability.
• Designing the Physical Layout: Even the layout of the kitchen and dining room is an “organizing” function. A well-organized kitchen workflow minimizes steps and speeds up service.

Staffing 🔗

This pillar is all about people. Staffing covers the entire lifecycle of your employees, from hiring to firing (and everything in between). Given the food service industry’s notoriously high turnover rate, this function is critical. It includes:

• Recruiting & Hiring: Finding the right people who have both the skills and the right attitude for your team.
• Training & Development: You can’t just throw a new cook on the line. Staffing involves creating a training program to teach them your standards, your recipes, and your way of doing things.
• Scheduling & Compensation: Fairly scheduling shifts and paying a competitive wage that motivates employees to stay.

Directing 🔗

This is the most “active,” hands-on part of management. Directing is the day-to-day work of making decisions, issuing instructions, and, most importantly, leading your team. It’s the human side of management. When a manager holds a 10-minute “pre-shift” meeting to get the team excited for the night, that’s directing. When they make the call to “86” (remove) a menu item that’s running low, that’s directing. It’s about providing clear guidance and motivation to keep the team moving toward the common goal.

Coordinating 🔗

We’ll dive deeper into this one shortly, but in short, coordinating is the act of interlinking all the different parts of the operation to work together in harmony. A manager is like a symphony conductor, ensuring the “string section” (front-of-house) and the “percussion section” (back-of-house) are playing from the same sheet music and at the same tempo. It’s the function that binds all the other functions together to create a seamless experience.

Reporting 🔗

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Reporting is the function of keeping yourself and your superiors (like an owner or regional manager) informed about what’s going on. This is done through records, inspection, and research. In a restaurant, this looks like:

• Daily Sales Reports: How much did you sell? What were the best-selling items?
• Inventory Logs: Tracking food usage to calculate your food cost percentage.
• End-of-Shift Notes: A manager logging that “Table 12 complained about the music volume, and the walk-in freezer is making a weird noise.”

This data is crucial for the “Planning” function, creating a continuous feedback loop.

Budgeting 🔗

This function encompasses all financial activities. It’s about fiscal planning, accounting, and control. A manager might not set the *entire* annual budget, but they are almost always responsible for controlling it. This means:

• Managing Food Cost: Ensuring that chefs are using proper portion sizes and that waste is minimized.
• Controlling Labor Cost: Sending staff home when it’s slow to avoid unnecessary payroll expenses.
• Approving Invoices: Checking that the bill from the vegetable supplier is accurate before paying it.

A restaurant can be packed every night and still go bankrupt if the budgeting function fails.

Why coordination is the secret sauce 🔗

If POSDCORB is the list of ingredients, coordination is the cooking technique that blends them all. You can be great at planning and staffing, but if those parts don’t *coordinate*, you have chaos. The food service industry is a business of perfect synchronization.

Think about the journey of a single dinner order.

1. The host (Staffing) seats the table.
2. The server (Directing) takes the order and puts it into the POS system.
3. The POS system (Organizing) sends the drink order to the bar and the food order to the kitchen.
4. The line cook (Staffing) must time that order with three other orders.
5. The head chef or expediter (Directing/Coordinating) must ensure the steak (10 min cook time) and the salmon (6 min cook time) for the same table are finished at the *exact same time*.
6. The server must be watching and ready to pick up the food the moment it hits the window.

A failure at any one of these hand-offs results in a cold meal or a long wait. The most common point of failure in restaurants is the gap between the Front-of-House (FOH) and the Back-of-House (BOH). Great managers build systems-like a shared language, clear rules, and mutual respect-to act as bridges. Coordination is the hard, daily work of maintaining those bridges.

The ‘six ms’: Your food service management toolkit 🔗

To successfully perform all those POSDCORB functions, a manager needs resources. A classic way to categorize these resources is the “Six Ms.” These are the “levers” a manager can pull.

Man (Human resources) 🔗

This is your team-their skills, their morale, their training, and their numbers. It’s often considered the most important and most difficult “M” to manage.

Money (Financial resources) 🔗

Your capital. This is the cash flow, the budget for payroll and inventory, and the line of credit you have. Every decision, from buying a new oven to scheduling an extra server, is a “Money” decision.

Material (Physical resources) 🔗

This is your inventory. It’s the raw food, the beverages, the to-go containers, the napkins, and the cleaning chemicals. Managing materials means controlling food cost, reducing waste, and ensuring quality.

Machines (Technological resources) 🔗

This refers to your equipment and technology. In a modern food service unit, this is a huge category: ovens, freezers, dishwashers, but also your Point-of-Sale (POS) system, reservation software, and online ordering tablets. When the credit card machine goes down, you see how vital this “M” is.

Minutes (Time resources) 🔗

Time is the one resource you can never get back. In a restaurant, “Minutes” are everything. How long does it take to flip a table (get it cleared, reset, and seated)? What’s the “ticket time” for an order? Managing time is managing efficiency.

Markets (Customer and market resources) 🔗

This is your customer base, your brand’s reputation, and your understanding of what the “market” wants. Are you in a business district that needs a quick lunch? Are you in a neighborhood that wants more vegan options? Understanding your market guides your “Planning” and “Budgeting” decisions.

Ultimately, the management process is about a leader skillfully blending all these functions and resources, day after day, to create a restaurant that doesn’t just survive, but thrives.

What do you think? Which of the seven POSDCORB functions do you think is the *most* challenging for a new food service manager to master? And which of the “Six Ms” do you think is the easiest to overlook, even though it’s critical?

References

1. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/five-functions-management-2085.html
2. https://www.toolshero.com/management/posdcorb-framework/
3. https://hbr.org/2012/05/the-new-science-of-building-great-teams
4. https://guides.ucf.edu/hospitality/management
5. https://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs/marketing-theories-the-6ms-of-resource-management/