Management Today - Chapter 1

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key management concepts, organizational roles, managerial functions, and essential skills from Chapter 1: Management Today.

Intellectual Capital

The combined brainpower and shared knowledge of an organization's employees, calculated as: $\text{Commitment} \times \text{Competency} = \text{Intellectual Capital}$.

Knowledge Worker

A worker whose mind is a critical asset to employers and requires ongoing development of multiple skillsets.

Tech IQ

A person's ability to use current technologies at work and in personal life, such as checking inventory, ordering supplies, telecommuting, and operating in virtual teams.

Globalization

The worldwide interdependence of resource flows, product markets, and business competition that characterize our economy.

Job Migration

The process that occurs when firms shift jobs from one country to another.

Reshoring

The shifting of manufacturing and jobs back home from overseas.

Ethics

A code of moral principles that sets standards of conduct of what is "good" and "right", as well as "bad" and "wrong".

Corporate Governance

The oversight system where a board of directors holds top management responsible for organizational performance.

Workforce Diversity

Differences in the workplace with respect to gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and able-bodiedness.

Prejudice

The display of negative, irrational opinions and attitudes toward members of diverse groups.

Discrimination

Unfairly treating members of some groups in the workplace.

Glass Ceiling Effect

An invisible barrier or ceiling that prevents women and minorities from rising to higher levels of organization.

Shamrock Organization

An organizational structure composed of three types of workers: permanent full-time workers, temporary part-time workers, and freelance or contract workers.

Free-Agent Economy

An economic environment in which people change jobs more often and work on flexible contracts rather than having permanent full-time employment.

Self-Management

The ability to assess oneself realistically, recognize strengths and weaknesses, make constructive changes, and manage personal development.

Organization

A collection of people working together to achieve a common purpose by providing goods and services of value to customers and society.

Open System

A system that interacts with its environment by transforming resource inputs (people, money, materials, technology, information) through work activities into product outputs (finished goods and services) guided by consumer feedback.

Value Creation

A core organizational process that occurs when an organization's operations add value to the original cost of resource inputs.

Productivity

An overall measure of the quantity and quality of work performance (outputs) relative to resource utilization (inputs).

Performance Effectiveness

An output measure of task or goal accomplishment.

Performance Efficiency

An input measure of the resource costs associated with goal accomplishment.

Manager

A person who directly supports, supervises, and helps activate the work efforts of others in an organization.

Top Managers

Executive managers responsible for the performance of an organization as a whole or for one of its major parts (e.g., CEO, president, vice president).

Middle Managers

Managers who oversee large departments or divisions (e.g., division manager, regional manager, plant manager).

First-Line Managers

Managers, including supervisors and team leaders, who supervise groups of non-managerial workers.

Line Managers

Managers responsible for work activities that directly affect the organization's outputs.

Staff Managers

Managers who use technical expertise to advise and support the efforts of line workers.

Functional Managers

Managers responsible for a single area of activity, such as finance, marketing, or human resources.

General Managers

Managers who are responsible for more complex units that include many functional areas.

Administrators

Managers who work specifically in public and non-profit organizations.

Accountability

The managerial requirement to show performance results to a supervisor.

Quality of Work Life (QWL)

An indicator of the overall quality of human experiences in the workplace, encompassing respect, fair pay, safe conditions, skill development, career progression, and rights protection.

Upside-Down Pyramid

A perspective of the organization where customers and clients sit at the top served by front-line operating workers, who are supported by team leaders and top managers.

Management

The process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the use of resources to accomplish performance goals.

Planning

The management function of setting performance objectives and deciding how to achieve them.

Organizing

The management function of arranging tasks, people, and other resources to accomplish the work.

Leading

The management function of arousing people's enthusiasm and inspiring them to work hard to achieve high performance.

Controlling

The management function of measuring work performance, comparing results, and taking action to ensure desired results.

Interpersonal Roles

Managerial roles identified by Mintzberg that involve how a manager interacts with other people, including the roles of figurehead, leader, and liaison.

Informational Roles

Managerial roles identified by Mintzberg that involve how a manager exchanges and processes information, including the roles of monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson.

Decisional Roles

Managerial roles identified by Mintzberg that involve how a manager uses information in decision making, including the roles of entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.

Agenda Setting

The process by which managers develop action priorities for accomplishing goals and plans.

Networking

The process of building and maintaining positive relationships with people who can help advance managerial agendas.

Social Capital

The capacity to attract support and help from others based on strong interpersonal connections.

Learning

The change in a behaviour that results from experience.

Lifelong Learning

The process of continuously learning from daily experiences and opportunities.

Conceptual Skills

The ability to think analytically and achieve integrative problem solving, which becomes increasingly important for higher-level managers.

Human Skills

The ability to work well in cooperation with other persons, which includes emotional intelligence and remains consistently important across all management levels.

Technical Skills

The ability to apply expertise and perform a special task with proficiency, which is most critical for lower-level managers.