Funeral Service Management
The management cycle
Management in a funeral firm is taught as four functions: planning (setting goals, forecasting case volume, budgeting), organizing (structure, job descriptions, delegation, chain of command, span of control), directing/leading (motivating, supervising, training, communicating), and controlling (measuring results against standards and correcting deviations). Expect questions that ask you to name the function being described. A manager comparing actual case counts to the budget is engaged in controlling, not planning.
Resources and records
Know the forms of ownership (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, LLC) and their liability and tax consequences; human-resource basics (hiring, evaluation, discipline, scheduling, workplace safety and hazard communication); facility and equipment maintenance; inventory and supply control; and records retention - contracts, embalming and cremation authorizations, general price lists, and trust records.
Traps
- Confusing directing with controlling: directing is day-to-day supervision; controlling is comparison to a standard.
- Assuming licensing and operating rules are uniform nationwide - they are state-specific.
- Assuming the FTC Funeral Rule reaches cemeteries and crematories exactly as it reaches funeral providers; it does not.
- Treating a good manager and a good leader as identical - planning and controlling are management; vision and motivation are leadership.
Rule of thumb
Memorize the cycle as P-O-D-C, and for any scenario ask: Is the manager deciding what to do (planning), deciding who does it (organizing), getting it done (directing), or checking that it was done (controlling)?