C483 Principles of Management

Differentiation

A company offers unique products in its industry to create a competitive advantage.

Which type of strategy is the company using?

Vertical Integration

Happy Inc. is a leading provider of family entertainment and BCD is a broadcasting company with news, cable, and entertainment networks. Happy Inc. recently acquired BCD in hopes of boosting its primary business of family entertainment.

Which type of corporate strategy is represented by Happy Inc.'s purchase of their distribution network?

Less than 3.4

How many defects per million are there at Six Sigma, assuming a product or process is defect-free 99.99966% of the time?

Quality Assurance

Process checklists and project audits are components of which management process?

Six Sigma

A company is trying to systematically improve processes by eliminating nonconformity of their products to product specifications. The company believes their continuous effort to reduce variation in their process outputs is key to their business success.

Which quality process is the company utilizing?

Encourage employees to work on informal job assignments

Which activity should management use to encourage intrapreneurship within an organization?

Provide a devil's advocate

What can managers do to encourage useful conflict during a meeting to lessen inhibition about disagreeing and make the conflict less personal?

People respond based on their interpretation of others' intentions.

Why is consideration of intentions important in conflict situations?

Cooperativeness and assertiveness

What describes dimensions of conflict-handling intentions?

Compromising

Two team members disagreed over how to proceed with a new project they were working on together and both felt their positions were valid. Their manager brought them together to discover ways to resolve their disagreement moving forward.

Which conflict-resolution technique did the manager use to help these team members?

Market control

Which type of control system is being implemented when management uses prices, profit centers, and exchange relationships as a control?

Taking corrective action

What is the fourth step of the control process which ensures that operations are adjusted to achieve planned results?

Peer pressure

A corporation recently disbanded its flex time schedule for employees and now requires that all employees work 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. The employees banded together in opposition of the change.

What were the employees of the corporation experiencing?

Negotiation and reward

A corporation offers concrete incentives such as higher wages for cooperation with change.

Which strategy is the corporation using to overcome resistance to change?

A publicly-held company has a policy limiting financial donations to one religious group.

In which situation does religious preference inappropriately affect decision making?

The company will purchase a large computer screen and a Braille keyboard.

A visually-impaired person has been hired to work in the human resources department of a small company.

Which workplace accommodations would be reasonable in this situation?

Differentiation and integration

When selecting an organizational structure, which key elements should be considered?

Virtual organization

Four small, independent organizations, each with its own type of expertise, plan to work together for six months for the sole purpose of developing a new product that will help each of them improve their ability to compete with larger organizations.

Which type of organization does their relationship characterize?

Organic

Which formal structure allows job holders to have broad responsibilities, accommodates decentralized and informal decision making, and values expertise?

Six Sigma Quality

Statistical tools used to analyze the causes of product defects.

Skunkworks

A project team designed to produce a new, innovative product.

Devil's Advocate

A person who has the job of criticizing ideas to ensure that their downsides are fully explored.

Maslow's Need Hierarchy

A conception of human needs organizing needs into a hierarchy of five major types.

Alderfer's ERG Theory

A human needs theory postulating that people have three basic sets of needs that can operate simultaneously.

Unfreezing

Realizing that current practices are inappropriate and that new behavior is necessary.

Force-Field Analysis

An approach to implementing the unfreezing/moving/refreezing model by identifying the forces that prevent people from changing and those that will drive people toward change.

Refreezing

Strengthening the new behaviors that support the change.

Strategic goals

Major targets or end results relating to the organization's long-term survival, value, and growth

Probing

A team strategy that requires team members to interact frequently with outsiders, diagnose their needs, and experiment with solutions

Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory

A relationship-based approach to leadership that focuses on the two-way relationship between leaders and followers. It suggests that leaders develop an exchange with each of their subordinates, and that the quality of these leader-member exchange relationships influences subordinates' responsibility, decisions, and access to resources and performance.

Satisficing

Choosing an option that is acceptable, although not necessarily the best or perfect

Innovation

The introduction of new goods and services; a change in method or technology; a positive, useful departure from previous ways of doing things

Management teams

Teams that coordinate and provide direction to the subunits under their jurisdiction and integrate work among subunits

Controlling

The management function of monitoring performance and making needed changes; takes five steps: 1) set standards, 2) measure performance, 3 compare performance to standards, 4) taking correction.

Substitute product

Uses a different technology to try to solve the same economic need as an existing product.

Opportunity analysis

A description of the good or service, an assessment of the opportunity, an assessment of the entrepreneur, specification of activities and resources needed to translate your idea into a viable business, and your source(s) of capital

Domain selection

Entering a new market or industry with an existing expertise

Strategic leadership

Behavior that gives purpose and meaning to organizations, envisioning and creating a positive future

Entrepreneurial venture

A new business having growth and high profitability as primary objectives

Cost competitiveness

Keeping costs low to achieve profits and be able to offer prices that are attractive to consumers

Teaming

A strategy of teamwork on the fly, creating many temporary, changing teams

Instrumentality

The perceived likelihood that performance will be followed by a particular outcome

After-action review

A frank and open-minded discussion of four basic questions aimed at continuous improvement

Intermediary model

Charging fees to bring buyers and sellers together

Organizational behavior modification (OB mod)

The application of reinforcement theory in organizational settings

Situational analysis

A process planners use, within time and resource constraints, to gather, interpret, and summarize all information relevant to the planning issue under consideration

High-involvement organization

A type of organization in which top management ensures that there is consensus about the direction in which the business is heading

Organizational behavior modification (OB mod)

The application of reinforcement theory in organizational settings

Parading

A team strategy that entails simultaneously emphasizing internal team building and achieving external visibility

Feedback control

Control that focuses on the use of information about previous results to correct deviations from the acceptable standard

Framing effects

A decision bias influenced by the way in which a problem or decision alternative is phrased or presented

Strategic management

A process that involves managers from all parts of the organization in the formulation and implementation of strategic goals and strategies

Planning

The management function of systematically making decisions about the goals and activities that an individual, a group, a work unit, or the overall organization will pursue

Utilitarianism

An ethical system stating that the greatest good for the greatest number should be the overriding concern of decision makers

Philanthropic responsibilities

Additional behaviors and activities that society finds desirable and that the values of the business support

Alderfer's ERG theory

A human needs theory postulating that people have three basic sets of needs that can operate simultaneously (Existence, Relatedness and Growth)

Benchmarking

The process of comparing an organization's practices and technologies with those of other companies

Centralized organization

An organization in which high-level executives make most decisions and pass them down to lower levels for implementation

Level 5 leadership

A combination of strong professional will (determination) and humility that builds enduring greatness

Maslow's need hierarchy

A conception of human needs organizing needs into a hierarchy of five major types

Matrix organization

An organization composed of dual reporting relationships in which some employees report to two superiors—a functional manager and a divisional manager

Sarbanes-Oxley Act

An act passed into law by Congress to establish strict accounting and reporting rules in order to make senior managers more accountable and to improve and maintain investor confidence

SWOT analysis

A comparison of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that helps executives formulate strategy

Two-factor theory

Herzberg's theory describing factors that impact work satisfaction and dissatisfaction

Universalism

The ethical system stating that all people should uphold certain values that society needs to function

Porter's Five Forces Analysis

A tool for analyzing competition of a business, including 1) threat of new entrants, 2) bargaining power of suppliers, 3) threat of substitutes, 4) bargaining power of buyers, and 5) industry rivals.

Deming's 14 Points of Quality Management

1. Create constancy of purpose for improving products and services.

2.Adopt the new philosophy.

3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality.

4. End the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier.

5. Improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production and service.

6. Institute training on the job.

7. Adopt and institute leadership.

8. Drive out fear.

9. Break down barriers between staff areas.

10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the workforce.

11. Eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management.

12. Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate the annual rating or merit system.

13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.

14. Put everybody in the company to work accomplishing the transformation.

Conflict resolution techniques

Problem Solving, Superordinate Goals, Expansion of Resources, Avoidance, Smoothing, Compromise, Authoritative Command, Altering the Human Variable, Altering the Structural Variables

Abilene Paradox

A group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of most of the individuals in the group.

Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model

A model that is based on the idea that the workplace task itself is key to employee motivation. Specifically, a boring and monotonous job stifles motivation to perform well, whereas a challenging job enhances motivation