Managemnet exam one ayeee cry

What is management?

“A set of activities directed at an organization’s resources with the aim of achieving organizational goals in an efficient and effective manner.”

What is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?

Efficient: Using resources wisely and in a cost-effective way. You are asking: “Did I use my time, money, materials, and people wisely?” That matches your slide: “Using resources wisely and in a cost-effective way.”

Effective: Making the right decisions and successfully implementing them. resutls “Did I make the right decision and actually accomplish what I was trying to accomplish?”

What are the three levels of management and what responsibilities do they have?

Top managers

• Relatively small group of executives who manage the overall organization.

• Examples: president, vice president, CEO.

• Create organizational goals, overall strategy, and operating policies.

• Officially represent the organization to the external environment.

Middle managers

• Largest group of managers in most organizations.

• Examples: plant manager, operations manager, division head.

• Implement policies and plans developed by top managers.

• Supervise and coordinate lower-level managers.

First-line managers

• Supervise and coordinate operating employees.

• Examples: supervisor, coordinator, office manager.

• Oversee day-to-day operations.

• Hire operating employees.

• Handle routine administrative duties.

• Spend much of their time supervising subordinates.

What are the different types of management found in different areas of the organization?

Marketing managers

• Work in areas related to the marketing function.

• New product development, promotion, and distribution.

Financial managers

• Deal primarily with financial resources.

• Accounting, cash management, investments.

Operations managers

• Create and manage systems that create products and services.

• Production control, inventory control, quality control, plant layout, site selection.

Human resource managers

• Hiring and developing employees.

• HR planning, recruiting/selection, training/development, compensation and benefits.

Administrative managers/general managers

• Not associated with one particular specialty.

• Generalists familiar with all functional areas.

Other managers

• Public relations managers

• R&D managers

• Internal consultants

What are the four functions of management?

1. Planning and decision making

• Planning: Setting organizational goals and deciding how best to achieve them.

• Decision making: Selecting a course of action from alternatives.

2. Organizing

• Determining how to group activities and resources.

3. Leading

• Processes used to get organizational members to work together to further the interests of the organization.

4. Controlling

• Monitoring organizational progress toward goal attainment.

Four = Planning, Organizing, Leading, Controlling.

Be familiar with the seven fundamental management skills?

1. Technical skills: Skills necessary to accomplish or understand the specific kind of work done in an organization.

2. Interpersonal skills: Ability to communicate with, understand, and motivate individuals and groups.

3. Conceptual skills: Ability to think in the abstract; understand the organization and environment, think strategically, see the “big picture.”

4. Diagnostic skills: Ability to visualize the most appropriate response to a situation.

5. Communication skills: Ability to effectively convey ideas/information and effectively receive ideas/information.

6. Decision-making skills: Ability to correctly recognize and define problems and opportunities and select an appropriate course of action.

7. Time-management skills: Ability to prioritize work, work efficiently, and delegate appropriately.

What is the difference between approaching Management as an art or science?

Science of management

• Rational

• Logical

• Objective

• Systematic

• Uses quantitative models and decision-making techniques.

• Technical, diagnostic, and decision-making skills are important.

Art of management

• Decisions/problem solving based on:

  • Intuition

  • Experience

  • Instinct

  • Personal insights

• Relies heavily on conceptual, communication, interpersonal, and time-management skills.

Be familiar with the Classical Perspective on Management including Scientific Management and Administrative Management.

Scientific Management

• Concerned with improving the performance of individual workers.

• Soldiering: Employees deliberately working at a slow pace.

• Frederick W. Taylor implemented a piecework pay system.

Administrative Management

• Focuses on managing the total organization.

• Henri Fayol attempted to systematize management practice to provide guidance and direction to managers.

• Max Weber’s work on bureaucracy laid the foundation for contemporary organization theory.

Classical Perspective Today

• Focused on stable, simple organizations.

• Proposed universal guidelines that do not fit every organization.

• Slighted the role of the individual in organizations.

What is the focus of the Behavioral Perspective on Management? Be familiar with the Hawthorne studies and the human relations movement.

Behavioral Management Perspective

• Emphasizes individual attitudes, behaviors, and group processes.

Hawthorne Studies

• One study manipulated illumination for one group and compared productivity with a group whose illumination did not change.

• Another introduced a piecework incentive plan for nine men assembling terminal banks.

• Scientific management predicted maximum output, but the group informally established an acceptable level.

• Overproducers were called rate busters; underproducers were called chiselers.

Human Relations Movement

• Workers respond primarily to the social context of the workplace, including:

  • Social conditioning

  • Group norms

  • Interpersonal dynamics

What is the focus of the Quantitative Perspective on Management?

Quantitative Management Perspective

• Focuses on:

  • Decision making

  • Cost-effectiveness

  • Mathematical models

  • Use of computers

Management Science

• Focuses specifically on developing mathematical models.

Operations Management

• Concerned with helping an organization produce its products or services more efficiently.

What is the difference between Management Science and Operations Management?

Quantitative Management Perspective

• Focuses on:

  • Decision making

  • Cost-effectiveness

  • Mathematical models

  • Use of computers

Management Science

• Focuses specifically on developing mathematical models.

Operations Management

• Concerned with helping an organization produce its products or services more efficiently.

Be familiar with the systems perspective of management. What is the difference between a universal and contingency perspective on management?

Systems Perspective

System: Interrelated set of elements functioning as a whole.

Open system: Interacts with its environment.

Closed system: Does not interact with its environment.

Subsystem: System within a broader system.

Synergy: Two or more subsystems working together produce more than they might produce working alone.

Entropy: Normal process leading to system decline.

Universal Perspective: Attempts to identify the one best way to do something.

Contingency Perspective: Appropriate managerial behavior depends on, or is contingent upon, the unique elements of the situation.

What are some challenges contemporary managers face?

• Globalization — both a challenge and opportunity

• Business scandals involving unethical conduct

• Quality

  • Basis for competition

  • Improving quality tends to increase productivity

  • Enhancing quality lowers costs

• Shift toward a service economy

• Economic recession of 2008–2010 and slow recovery in 2011–2017

• Changing workplace

• Management of diversity

• Changing ethnic composition of the workplace

• Changing demographic composition

• Organizational change

• Negative impact of social media in business

What is the difference between a Theory X and Theory Y perspective on workers?

Theory X

• Pessimistic/negative view of workers.

• People dislike work and try to avoid it.

• Managers must control, direct, coerce, and threaten employees.

• People prefer direction, avoid responsibility, want security, and have little ambition.

Theory Y

• Positive view.

• People do not naturally dislike work.

• People can be internally motivated.

• People can seek and accept responsibility.

• People can be innovative.

• People's potential is often underutilized.

What is the psychological contract and what is the relationship between contributions and inducements?

Psychological contract: Overall set of expectations held by an individual about what they will contribute to the organization and what the organization will provide in return.

Contributions: What the individual provides to the organization.

Inducements: What the organization provides to the individual.

Examples of inducements:

• Pay and career opportunities = tangible

• Job security and status = more intangible

Person-job fit: Extent to which an individual's contributions match the inducements offered by the organization.

What is personality? Be familiar with the Big Five and Myers-Briggs frameworks and the other seven traits discussed in the text.

Personality: Relatively permanent set of psychological and behavioral attributes that distinguish one person from another.

Big Five

Agreeableness: Ability to get along with others.

Conscientiousness: Number of things a person can effectively work on at one time.

Neuroticism: Extent to which a person is poised, calm, resilient, and secure.

Extraversion: Comfort level with relationships.

Openness: Rigidity of beliefs and range of interests. High openness means greater willingness to consider new ideas and adjust beliefs based on new information.

Myers-Briggs

Four dimensions:

• Extraversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)

• Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)

• Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)

• Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)

MBTI is used to assess personality types and can help determine communication styles and interaction preferences.

Seven other personality traits

The slides DO contain all seven:

1. Locus of control: Degree to which someone believes their behavior directly impacts its consequences.

• Internal

• External

2. Self-efficacy: Beliefs about one's capabilities to perform a task.

3. Authoritarianism: Extent to which someone believes power and status differences are appropriate in hierarchical social systems.

4. Machiavellianism: Behavior directed at gaining power and controlling others.

5. Self-esteem: Extent to which a person believes they are worthwhile and deserving.

6. Risk propensity: Degree to which someone is willing to take chances and make risky decisions.

7. Emotional intelligence (EQ): Extent to which people are self-aware, manage emotions, motivate themselves, express empathy, and possess social skills.

EQ dimensions:

• Self-awareness

• Managing emotions

• Motivating oneself

• Empathy

• Social skill

What are attitudes? What is cognitive dissonance? Be familiar with the five job attitudes discussed in the text.

Attitudes: Complexes of beliefs and feelings people have about specific ideas, situations, or other people.

Three components:

• Affective

• Cognitive

• Intentional

Cognitive dissonance: Caused when an individual has attitudes that conflict with their behaviors.

The five work-related attitudes/affect concepts presented in these slides are:

1. Job satisfaction/dissatisfaction: Extent to which an individual is gratified or fulfilled by work.

2. Organizational commitment: Identification with and attachment to the organization.

3. Organizational engagement: Extent to which employees see themselves as part of the organization, actively seek ways to contribute, and participate in multiple ways.

4. Positive affectivity: Tendency to be upbeat and optimistic, have a sense of well-being, and see things positively.

5. Negative affectivity: Tendency to be downbeat and pessimistic and see things negatively.

What is perception and how does it impact people’s behavior? What is the difference between selective perception and stereotyping?

Perception: Processes through which an individual becomes aware of and interprets information about the environment.

Selective perception: Screening out information that makes us uncomfortable or contradicts our beliefs.

Stereotyping: Categorizing or labeling people based on a single attribute.

Common attributes listed:

• Race

• Gender

• Age

What is attribution? What basic attributions can we make? What helps us to make an attribution?

Attribution: Process of observing behavior and determining what causes it.

Two basic attributions:

• Internal

• External

The basic framework uses:

• Consensus

• Consistency

• Distinctiveness

What is stress? What must be present for a demand to become a stressor?

Stress: A person's response to a strong demand, called a stressor.

For the demand to become a stressor, the person must:

1. Perceive that the demand is important, AND

2. Have some doubt about whether the demand can be me

Be familiar with the General Adaptation Syndrome as it relates to stress?

Ir represents the normal process by which we react to stressful events.

Stage 1 - alarm - we feel panic and alarm

Stage 2 - resistance-represents out efforts to confront and control the stressful circumstances

Stage 3 - exhaustion-and just give up or quit

What is the role of Type A and B personalities in experiencing stress?

Type A: Extremely competitive, very devoted to work, strong sense of time urgency.

Type B: Less competitive, less devoted to work, weaker sense of time urgency.

The slide specifically says Type B people aren't necessarily more or less successful than Type A people, but they are less likely to experience stress.

What are some potential organizational stressors and some consequences of stress? What are some ways that individuals and organizations can manage stress?

Consequences of stress

• Behavioral

• Psychological

• Medical

• More likely to call in sick

• More likely to leave organization

• Burnout: Feeling of exhaustion that may develop after too much stress for an extended period.

Individual stress management

• Exercise

• Relaxation

• Time management

• Support groups

Organizational stress management

• Help employees cope with stress

• Wellness/stress programs

• Classes/programs involving tai chi, biofeedback, meditation, yoga, muscle relaxation, guided imagery, cognitive restructuring

What is creativity and why is it important in organizations? What are some influences that will lead some people to be more or less creative?

7. Creativity

Creativity: Ability to generate new ideas or conceive new perspectives on existing ideas.

Background: Many creative people were raised in environments where creativity was nurtured.

Traits associated with creativity

• Openness

• Attraction to complexity

• High energy

• Independence/autonomy

• Strong self-confidence

Cognitive abilities: Ability to think intelligently and analyze situations/data effectively.

• Intelligence may be a precondition for individual creativity.

• Most creative people are highly intelligent, but not all intelligent people are necessarily creative.

• Creativity is linked with both divergent and convergent thinking

Creativity is linked with:

• Divergent thinking

• Convergent thinking

What is the difference between convergent and divergent thinking?

Divergent thinking = a skill that allows people to see differences among situations, phenomena, or events.

Convergent thinking = a skill that allows people to see similarities among situations, phenomena, or events.

Creative people are generally very skilled at both divergent and convergent thinking.

What are the different type of behavior that may be found in the workplace?

Workplace behavior: Pattern of action by organizational members that directly or indirectly influences organizational effectiveness.

Performance behaviors: Work-related behaviors the organization expects someone to display.

Withdrawal behaviors

• Absenteeism: Not showing up for work.

• Turnover: Quitting one's job.

Organizational citizenship: Individual behavior that makes a positive overall contribution to the organization.

Dysfunctional/counterproductive behaviors: Behaviors that detract from organizational performance.

Examples:

• Theft

• Sabotage

• Sexual and racial harassment

• Politicized behavior

• Intentionally misleading others

• Malicious rumors

• Incivility/rudeness

• Workplace violence

What are the four stages of the creative process and what can organizations due to promote creativity in the workplace?

1. Preparation

• Formal training/education

• Post-training job experiences can contribute.

2. Incubation

• Less intense conscious concentration while knowledge and ideas mature/develop.

• Often aided by pauses in focused rational thought.

3. Insight

• Spontaneous breakthrough creating a new understanding.

• Scattered thoughts and ideas from incubation come together.

4. Verification

• Determines validity/truthfulness of insight.

• Marketplace is the ultimate test when a product/service is developed

• Organizations promote creativity by

  • Making creativity part of organizational culture, often through explicit goals.

  • Rewarding creative successes.

  • Being careful not to punish creative failures.

What are ethics? Managerial ethics? What are some ethical considerations regarding the interaction between organizations, its employees and other economic agents?

Ethics: Personal beliefs about whether a behavior, action, or decision is right or wrong.

Ethical behavior: Conforms to generally accepted social norms.

Unethical behavior: Does not conform to generally accepted social norms.

Managerial ethics: Standards of behavior guiding individual managers in their work.

Three relationship areas:

How the organization treats employees

• Hiring/firing

• Wages

• Working conditions

• Employee privacy/respect

How employees treat the organization

• Conflicts of interest

• Company secrets

• Honesty

• Confidentiality

How employees/organization treat other economic agents

• Customers

• Competitors

• Stockholders

• Suppliers

• Dealers

• Unions

• Financial reporting

• Bribes/side payments

What are some contributing factors to the level of ethical behavior in organizations?

The slides list four:

• Actions of peer managers and top managers

• Organization's culture

• Organizational practices

• Organization's environment

Be familiar with the three step model to apply ethical judgements. What are the four ethical norms that will guide these decisions? Know the difference between the four types of organizational justice.

Three-step model

1. Understand relevant factual information.

2. Determine the most appropriate moral values.

3. Make an ethical judgment based on the rightness/wrongness of the proposed activity or policy.

Four ethical norms

• Utility

• Rights

• Justice

• Caring

Four types of organizational justice

Distributive justice: Fairness with which rewards and other valued outcomes are distributed.

Procedural justice: Fairness of procedures used to determine outcomes.

Interpersonal justice: Fairness experienced in how people are treated by others.

Informational justice: Perceived fairness of information used to arrive at decisions.

What are three emerging ethical issues that organizations need to address?

Ethical leadership

• Helps set organizational tone.

• Establishes norms/culture reinforcing ethical behavior.

• Sarbanes-Oxley requires CEOs/CFOs to personally vouch for truthfulness and fairness of financial disclosures.

Corporate governance

• Board ensures business is properly managed.

• Senior-management decisions should serve shareholders and other stakeholders.

• Governance standards can separate board and CEO authority.

Information technology

• Privacy rights

• Potential abuse of IT

• Privacy policies

• Ability to review/correct collected information

• AI raises ethical issues that may be difficult to foresee.

What is social responsibility?

Social responsibility: Obligations an organization has to protect and enhance the societal context in which it functions.

What are some arguments for and against focusing on social responsibility?

What are the four approaches to social responsibility?

Obstructionist stance: Does as little as possible to solve social/environmental problems; firms crossing ethical/legal boundaries may deny or avoid responsibility.

Defensive stance: Does everything legally required but nothing more.

Accommodative stance: Meets legal and ethical obligations and goes beyond them in selected cases.

Proactive stance: Views itself as a citizen of society and proactively seeks opportunities to contribute.

How does the government influence social responsibility? How does an organization address these influences?

Direct regulation

• Government establishes laws/rules dictating what businesses can and cannot do.

Indirect regulation

• Government influences organizations through tax codes.

Organizations can address governmental pressures through four methods:

1. Personal contacts

2. Lobbying

3. Political Action Committees (PACs)

4. Favors

How do organizations manage social responsibility?

Formal organizational actions

Legal compliance: Extent to which organization complies with local, state, federal, and international laws.

Ethical compliance: Extent to which organization/members follow basic ethical standards.

Philanthropic giving: Giving funds or gifts to charities or worthy causes.

Informal organizational actions

Organization leadership and culture

• Leadership and culture shape the organization's social-responsibility stance.

Whistle-blowing

• Employee disclosure of illegal or unethical conduct by others in the organization.

• May involve higher-level managers or an ethics committee.

Evaluation

Corporate Social Audit: Formal, thorough analysis of the effectiveness of a firm's social performance.

Organization must:

• Define social goals

• Assess resource allocation

• Evaluate progress

• Recommend areas for improvement

What is a stakeholder? What are examples of stakeholders, particularly the three primary stakeholders?

Organizational stakeholder: Person or organization directly affected by an organization's practices and having a stake in its performance.

The three primary stakeholders specifically listed are:

1. Customers

2. Employees

3. Investors

What are the three components of the general environment?

1. Economic dimension = the overall health and vitality of the economic system in which the organization operates.

2. Technological dimension = the methods available for converting resources into products or services.

3. Political-legal dimension = government regulation of business and the relationship between business and government

The political-legal dimension is important because:

• The legal system partially defines what an organization can and cannot do.

• Pro- or anti-business sentiment in government influences business activity.

• Political stability has ramifications for planning.

What I would memorize:

Economic → health of economy
Technological → methods for converting resources into products/services
Political-legal → government regulation + business/government relationship

What are the five components of the task environment?

The task environment consists of specific external organizations or groups that influence an organization.

1. Competitors: Organizations that compete with other organizations for resources. Competition also occurs between substitute products.

2. Customers: Whoever pays money to acquire an organization’s products or services. Companies face critical differences among customers as they expand internationally.

3. Suppliers: Organizations that provide resources for other organizations. Businesses should avoid relying solely on one supplier.

4. Regulators: Bodies that have the potential to control, legislate, or otherwise influence an organization’s policies and practices. Regulatory agencies are created by government to regulate business activities (EPA, SEC, FDA, EEOC). Interest groups are organized by their members to attempt to influence business.

5. Strategic partners/strategic allies: Organizations that work together with one or more other organizations in a joint venture or similar arrangement. They can help companies obtain expertise they lack, spread risk, and open new market opportunities.

What I would memorize: Competitors – Customers – Suppliers – Regulators – Strategic Partners

What are the four components of the internal environment?

The internal environment consists of conditions and forces within an organization.

1. Owners: Whoever can claim property rights to an organization. Examples include an individual who establishes and runs a small business, partners who jointly own a business, individual investors who buy stock, and other organizations.

2. Board of Directors: Governing body elected by a corporation’s stockholders and charged with overseeing the general management of the firm to ensure it is being run in a way that best serves stockholders’ interests.

3. Employees: The workforce is becoming more diverse in gender, ethnicity, age, and other dimensions. Many firms have also increased their reliance on temporary workers.

4. Physical Work Environment: The actual physical environment of the organization and the work that people do. Employee safety and health regulations have caused organizations to pay more attention to their internal environments.

What I would memorize: Owners – Board of Directors – Employees – Physical Work Environment

What are the various levels of activity that organizations can engage in to compete internationally? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Exporting: Making a product in the firm’s domestic marketplace and selling it in another country.

Importing: Bringing a good, service, or capital into the home country from abroad.

Licensing: An arrangement whereby one company allows another company to use its brand name, trademark, technology, patent, copyright, or other assets in exchange for a royalty based on sales.

Strategic alliance: A cooperative arrangement between two or more firms for mutual gain.

Joint venture: A special type of strategic alliance in which partners share in the ownership of an operation on an equity basis.

Direct investment: When a firm builds or purchases operating facilities or subsidiaries in a different country from the country where it has its headquarters. Maquiladoras are light assembly plants built in northern Mexico near the U.S. border that receive special tax breaks from the Mexican government.

Method	Advantages	Disadvantages
Importing/Exporting	Small cash outlay; little risk; no adaptation necessary	Tariffs and taxes; high transportation costs; government restrictions
Licensing	Increased profitability; extended profitability	Inflexibility; competition
Strategic Alliances/Joint Ventures	Quick market entry; access to materials and technology	Shared ownership limits control and profits
Direct Investment	Enhanced control; existing infrastructure	Complexity; greater economic and political risk; greater uncertainty

What I would memorize: Import/Export → Licensing → Strategic Alliance/Joint Venture → Direct Investment

What are the three control methods on international trade?

1. Export Restraint Agreements: Accords reached by governments in which countries voluntarily limit the volume or value of goods they export to or import from one another.

2. Tariff: A tax collected on goods shipped across national boundaries. Import tariffs protect domestic companies by raising the cost of foreign goods.

3. Quota: A limit on the number or value of goods that can be traded. Helps domestic competitors maintain a certain market share.

What I would memorize: Export restraint = voluntary limit | Tariff = tax | Quota = limit

What are the three economic communities/agreements mentioned in the text?

An economic community is a set of countries that agrees to markedly reduce or eliminate trade barriers among member nations—a formalized market system.

1. European Union (EU): The first important international market system.

2. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): Agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico designed to promote trade with one another.

3. United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA): Revised and amended NAFTA to provide greater incentives for Mexico to increase its imports from the United States.

What I would memorize: EU = first important international market system | NAFTA = U.S., Canada, Mexico | USMCA = revised/amended NAFTA

What are the roles of the GATT and the WTO?

GATT — General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade: A trade agreement intended to promote international trade by reducing trade barriers and making it easier for all nations to compete in international markets. A key component is the most favored national (MFN) principle.

WTO — World Trade Organization: The slides state that the WTO includes 164 member nations and 25 observer countries and requires members to open their markets to international trade and follow WTO rules.

The WTO has three basic goals:

1. Promote trade flows by encouraging nations to adopt nondiscriminatory and predictable trade policies.

2. Reduce remaining trade barriers through multilateral negotiations.

3. Establish impartial procedures for resolving trade disputes among members.

What I would memorize: GATT = reduce trade barriers/promote international trade | WTO = promote trade flows + reduce barriers + resolve disputes

What is organizational culture? How does it develop and maintained? How does it impact the organization

Organizational culture: A set of values, beliefs, behaviors, customs, and attitudes that helps members of the organization understand what it stands for, how it does things, and what it considers important.

Importance/impact: Culture determines the feel of the organization. The same culture is not necessarily found throughout an organization. Companies that develop and maintain a strong culture tend to be more effective than companies that have trouble doing so.

How culture develops: It develops and blossoms over a long period of time. Its starting point is often the organization’s founder. Corporate success and shared experiences also shape culture.

How culture is maintained: Managers should understand the current culture and decide whether it should be maintained or changed. Culture can be maintained by rewarding those who align with it and promoted through slogans, ceremonies, and similar methods. Managers must balance maintaining a functional culture with changing a dysfunctional culture. Culture problems can arise from mergers and the growth of rival factions within an organization.

What I would memorize: Culture = values + beliefs + behaviors + customs + attitudes | Develops = time + founder + success/shared experiences | Maintained = rewards + slogans + ceremonies | Strong culture = tends to be more effective