MGT300 Exam 1

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamentals of management, historical perspectives, organizational environments, ethics, and globalization concepts based on lecture notes.

Management

The pursuit of organizational goals efficiently and effectively by connecting people to the environment, purpose, people, and the right resources to achieve productivity and results.

Main Functions of Management

CONNECTIONS (environment, purpose, people, right resources) and CONTROL

Connecting people to environment

It is about helping employees/team members understand the world inside and outside the organization and the importance of these "environments" to the organization

Connecting people to purpose

It is about helping employees/team members understand how their efforts are worthwhile and connected to the organization and creating a sense that they have a role in that relationship (row boat with all people rowing in unison/in the same direction)

Connecting people to people

It is about helping employees/team members create/maintain networks of people (internal/externa) who add value to their work and ultimately value to the organization

Connecting people to the right resources

It is about helping employees/team members manage information, technology, time, etc. to enable them to be high performers and contribute efficiently and effectively to the goals of the organization

The Four Managerial Functions

Planning, Organizing, Leading, Controlling

Planning

The managerial function where managers determine the course of action for an organization, including vision, mission, goals, and strategies.

Organizing

The managerial function involving the coordination of activities and resources, such as grouping activities and developing organizational charts.

Leading

The managerial function focused on supervising and motivating people, championing change, and communicating the vision.

Controlling

The managerial function where managers monitor and evaluate activities.

The Four Managerial Factors

Organizational Performance, Resources, Effectiveness, Efficiency

Effectiveness

Doing the right things, which may sometimes be considered wasteful.

Efficiency

Getting the most out of an organization’s resources; doing things faster, cheaper, and more productively.

Organizational Performance

The organization correctly setting and attaining goals while maximizing the use of its resources

Resources

The organization’s possessions that are combined and utilized to gain a competitive advantage

Manager vs Worker

The major difference is that a manager’s success or failure is directly affected by the performance level of individuals who report to them

Manager’s Job

is to lead the organization and motivate subordinates toward attaining the organization's goals

Manager’s Responsibility

is to lead the organization and motivate subordinates in an ethical fashion

Katz’ Three Basic Skills every successful manager must have

Technical, Conceptual, Human/Interpersonal

Technical Skills

The ability to perform a certain job that is job-specific and allows one to see specific nuances.

Conceptual Skills

The ability to think analytically and see the "big picture."

Human Skills

The ability to interact well with people

Roles of a Manager

Interpersonal (people), Informational (information), Decisional (action)

Figurehead

A symbolic head of an organization.

Leader

The one who sets the goals of the organization and is responsible for achieving them.

Liaison

An interpersonal role where a person acts as a bridge between groups either inside or outside an organization.

Disseminator

An informational role involving the delivery of information regarding policies, initiatives, and strategies.

Monitor

The person who is always on top of current situations through material gathered from various resources.

Spokesperson

The one who communicates on behalf of the organization at meetings, functions, or events.

Entrepreneur

A decisional role where the person resolves conflict, responds to unpredictable situations, and solves problems.

Resource Allocator

The person who distributes the limited resources of an organization to its various groups or departments.

Disturbance Handler

The individual who is constantly seeking out new opportunities to provide viable revenue streams for the organization.

Negotiator

The one who continually discusses and mediates with numerous groups both inside and outside the company to reach agreements and compromises that benefit the organization.

Glass Ceiling

A metaphorical, invisible barrier that prevents women and minorities from gaining equal access to many top managerial positions.

Upper Level Managers

Responsible for developing the mission, vision, strategy, for the entire organization

Consider challenges and opportunities in the current business environment

Middle Level Managers

Responsible for interpreting and implementing organizational policies and coordinating other managers’ activities

Act as sounding boards for upper level managers

Expected to be jack of all trades

Lower Level Managers

Supervise and coordinate activities of non managerial employees

Most likely to interact with customers and employees

Often serve as mediators in employee-customer conflicts

Have high visibility to general public and must be hyper vigilant about their ability to affect firm’s reputation

Organization

A group of individuals working in a structured fashion to achieve particular goals.

For- profit organization

A business whose primary goal is to make money.

Non-profit organization

Public, social, or service organization that pursue goals for the greater good of a particular segment of society and are not focused on making profits.

Effective Leading

Allows organizations to trust workers will be motivated to work efficiently and effectively toward certain objectives

Effective Planning

Allows organizations to maximize performance through effective goal setting and achievement

Domestic System of Production

A system of small-scale production where work is done by hand, often by family members in their own homes, or in local workrooms.

This method of working evolved over the 1800s and 1900s due to the Industrial Revolution (this also led to factories).

Fredrick Taylor

Development of a true science of management

Main contributions: Soldiering & Principles of Scientific Management

Fredrick Taylor’s Story of Schmidt

At Bethlehem Steel (around 1898–1901), workers loaded pig iron onto rail cars, moving about 12.5 tons per day for $1.15.Taylor calculated through scientific timing that an optimized laborer should be able to load 47 to 48 tons a day without harming themselves, provided they rested at precise intervals

Taylor singled out a worker (whose real name was Henry Noll, disguised under the pseudonym "Schmidt")

Taylor approached Schmidt, promising his daily pay would jump 60% (from $1.15 to $1.85) if he strictly followed management's precise directions on when to lift, walk, and rest

Schmidt successfully loaded 47 tons a day—quadrupling his output—and earned the higher wage

Revealed how rigorous measurement, direct instruction, and financial incentives could radically increase manual labor output—specifically showing that a worker could quadruple pig-iron loading rates by strictly following capitalist efficiency metrics

Four Principles of Scientific Management

1) Replace ‘Rule of Thumb’ with scientific methods (replace one best way)

2) Scientifically select workers with the right abilities then teach, train, and develop them; do not leave them to passively train themselves (standardization)

3) Management/worker cooperation to ensure that all work is done in accordance with the principles (incentive pay)

4) Use scientific methods to divide the work nearly equally between management and workers; management takes over work for which they are better fitted (division of labor-manager plans, prepares, inspects, worker does the actual work)

Soldiering

When workers deliberately work slower than their full capacity or restrict their output to protect their own self-interest.

Therblig

System for analyzing the motions involved in performing a task.

Max Weber

Created the Bureaucratic Theory of Management

Main contribution: coined the term ‘bureaucracy’

Clear division of labor (job descriptions)

Hierarchy of positions

Focus on managers

Formal selection (i.e. employment/promotion based on technical competence; not based on family connections)

Formal rules and regulations

Impersonality

Weber’s 3 Types of Bases of Authority

1) Traditional: authority owed to the person in a position of power because they have inherited the post rather than obeying the rules

2) Charismatic: authority based on virtue of personal trust in a leader, heroism, or exemplary qualities of a leader

3) Rational-legal: authority based on law – the impersonal order of a person in a position of authority within the defined area of legitimate power

Frank & Lillian Gilbreth

Colleagues of Taylor; coined the term “Therblig”

Their early motion study technique (bricklaying example - scaffolding) first relied on a visual study of the work, laid out in detailed pictures and notes

Main contribution: used photography and eventually motion picture film and cameras to record the entire sequence of work activity; they are best known for the use of motion picture to study hand and body motions

Therblig

A system for analyzing the motions involved in performing a task, coined by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth.

Bureaucracy

A management theory by Max Weber involving a clear division of labor, hierarchy, formal selection based on competence, and impersonality.

Illumination Study 1926

Researchers tested if changing factory lighting levels affected worker productivity; they found that output rose even when lighting was dimmed, leading to the famous idea of the "Hawthorne effect"—where people work harder just because they are being watched.

Hawthorne Effect

The phenomenon where performance increases due to sympathetic supervision or the mere fact that workers are being watched.

Hawthorne Studies

Conducted in 1920s-1930s at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company

These brought to light the importance of informal groups as an important context for work; while individuals are unique; they are also group members who influence and are influenced by group norms and behaviors

Studies such as the bank writing room study and the relay assembly room study highlighted the influence of informal groups in the workplace

Relay Assembly Room Study showed that employees value cooperation and participation at work

Total Quality Management (TQM)

A comprehensive approach to quality that integrates quality control and quality assurance with a focus on the customer and continuous improvement.

W. Edward Deming

Founding father of TQM; devised 14 points that he believed were critical to achieve quality throughout the production process.

Management Science

Applies quantitative techniques to management-started during WWI

Management science (uses mathematics to aid problem solving/decision making)

Operations management (focus is on the production/delivery of products/services more effectively)

Example: McDonald’s

Abraham Maslow

Created a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization

Main contribution: Hierarchy of Needs

Munsterburg

Focused research on psychological issues that existed in industry in order to inform management practices and policies; used experimental psychology to examine whether individual differences in things like mental traits or abilities have implications for work-related processes outcomes

Laid the groundwork for scholarly approaches to studying organizations but also to an increased emphasis on scientific logic to understand what shapes behavior in organizations

Parker Follet

A welcomed focus on the interaction of management and workers within organizational settings and a need to adopt a holistic or total view of management

Importance of coordination with employees and the value of participatory management rather than over-managing employees

Importance of cooperation between employees and managers

The Juran Trilogy

A framework for quality consisting of three parts: quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement.

Systems Perspective

Tthe organization is composed of a set of interrelated and interdependent parts; scanning for threats and opportunities, being attuned to the organization’s external environment.

Closed vs Open Mentoring Systems

Individuals in an open system learned and grew so much more and increases in their salary; closed system does not get information from the outside.

Contingency Perspective

Manager’s approach should vary according to the individual/environmental situation…”it depends” and not just “one best way”

Douglas McGregor

Based on Maslow’s work, believed in Theory Y

Main contribution: Theory X and Theory Y

Managers have a preset view of their employees’ work habits, and this view affects how they treat and motivate their workers

Theory X

The management assumption that workers are lazy and must be controlled.

Theory Y

The management assumption that physical and mental effort at work is natural and that workers are self-directed if committed.

Learning Organization

An organization that actively creates, acquires, and transfers knowledge within itself and modifies its behavior to reflect new knowledge.

Peter Senge

Coined the term learning organization

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990)

Founder of the Society for Organizational Learning

Knowledge Management

Refers to management’s efforts to leverage information and intellectual capital within organizations

Can be viewed as managing the knowledge people hold (human capital), the knowledge that is shared among individuals in groups or organizations (social capital), and the knowledge that is retained by the organization in routines, patents, manuals, structures and processes (organizational capital)

Explicit Knowledge

Textbook knowledge that is easily expressed and shared, such as information found in training manuals or policies.

Tacit Knowledge

"Tricks of the trade" that are difficult to express and are learned from experience; they exist within employees, suppliers, and customers.

Project Management

Systematic process of managing a work-related project from its inception to conclusion and consists of 5 steps

Initiation

Planning/design

Execution

Monitor/control

Completion/disbandment

Organizational Environment

Factors, forces, and groups both inside and outside an organization that impact everyday activities.

Internal Stakeholders

Elements that occur within an organization, such as strategy, culture, technology, policies, procedures, and intellectual capital

Components: corporate strategies, organizational culture, technology, policies and procedures, intellectual capital

External Environment

Factors, forces, and groups outside the boundary of an organization that may impact everyday activities.

External Stakeholders

Those individuals that are outside an organization’s environment who have an interest in the organization.

Task Environment

A group of sectors that directly and immediately impact the organization daily, such as customers and competitors.

General Environment

Includes broad external forces that indirectly affect all firms in an industry, such as economic, technological, sociocultural, political conditions, and special interest groups.

Buffering

Absorbing uncertainty from the environment so the organization can perform its primary roles efficiently

Boundary Spanning

Use of big data to find patterns; scanning environment to detect information organizations believe is important to their business.

Forecasting

Using quantitative & qualitative data to predict the future benchmarking comparison.

Benchmarking

Making comparisons between an organization’s performance and the performance of competitors.

Labor Union

Legal representation of a group of workers

Union Security Agreement

An agreement that forces new members of an organization to join a union

Right-to-work Laws

State laws forbidding union security agreements, thereby disallowing union membership as a requirement for employment

Ethics

Code of moral principles that governs whether a person’s behavior is right or wrong; social phenomena and learned (not innate)

Ethical Egoism

An ethical perspective that asks "What is good for me?" and promotes others' interests only if it satisfies one's own self-interest.

Utilitarian Approach

What is good for the greatest number of people?

Act Utilitarianism

Focuses on achieving the greatest utility; form of situational ethics; ‘yield’ sign

Rule Utilitarianism

Focuses on achieving the greatest utility; focuses on broadly applying general rules that transcend situations; advocates for conformity, ‘stop’ sign

The Moral-Right Approach

What action respects the moral rights of everyone involved?; views ethical behavior as that which is in compliance with universal principles, regardless of consequences

Kant’s Categorical Imperative

The ethical principle that a person should consistently take the same morally right action regardless of the consequences.

Relativist Perspective

What you believe is good for you, is good for you. What I believe is good for me, is good for me; includes one’s cultural beliefs

Virtue Ethics

What would an ethical person do? (Aristotle); views certain traits as praiseworthy; ethical behavior is that which would be enacted by someone possessing these characteristics

Justice Approach

Is it fair? (what is fair is also different per person)

Distributive Justice

A principle referring to individual perceptions of the fairness of outcomes people receive for what they do.