BUS 100: Chapter 6: Managing for Business Success

Management

Process of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals.

Planning

Process of setting goals and determining the best way to achieve them.

Strategic Planning

establishing an overall plan or course of action for an organization.

SWOT Analysis

Matching the strengths of your business with the opportunities available to it. Analyzing an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Goals

Major accomplishments that the company wants to achieve over a long period

Objectives

Shorter-term performance targets that direct the activities of the organization toward the attainment of a goal.

Tactical Plans

The overall plan is broken down into more manageable short-term components

Operational Plans

The tactical plan is broken down into various components that provide detailed steps to be taken by individuals or groups

Contingency Planning

Managers identify aspects of the business that are most likely to be negatively affected by change and develop alternative courses of action in case the anticipated change does occur.

Crisis Management

Preparing in advance how to respond to a crisis before it occurs

Organizing

Management process of allocating resources to achieve a company’s plans.

Top Managers

Responsible for the health and performance of the organization.

Middle Managers

Report to top management, oversee first-line managers, develop and implement activities, and allocate the resources needed to achieve top management’s objectives.

First-Line Managers

supervise employees and coordinate their activities to make sure that the work performed throughout the company is consistent with the plans of both top and middle management.

Organizational Structure

an arrangement of positions that’s most appropriate for your company at a specific point in time.

Restructuring

Altering existing organizational structures to become more competitive under conditions that have changed.

Specialization

organizing activities into clusters of tasks that can be handled by certain groups

Departmentalization

Grouping specialized jobs into meaningful units

Functional Organization

groups together people who have comparable skills and perform similar tasks

Divisional Organization

made up of several small self-contained units who are accountable for their own performance

Product Division

a company is structured according to its product lines

Customer Division

a company groups its employees around specific customer types

Process Division

different groups are responsible for specific steps of production

Geographical Division

allows companies that operate in several locations to be responsive to customers at a local level

The Organization Chart

a diagram showing the interrelationships of positions within the organization.

Chain of Command

authority relationships of people working at different levels of the organization

Span of Control

number of direct reports a manager or supervisor is responsible for overseeing in an organization

Delegation

The process of entrusting work to subordinates

Centralization

most decision making is concentrated at the top

Decentralization

spreads decision making throughout the organization

Directing

providing focus and direction to others and motivating them to achieve organizational goals.

Leadership style

Particular approach used by a manager to interact with and influence others.

Autocratic style

making decisions without asking for input from subordinates

Democratic style

seeking input from subordinates while retaining the authority to make the final decisions.

Laissez-faire style

“hands-off” approach and provide little direction to subordinates.

Transactional leaders

exercise authority based on their rank in the organization

transformational leaders

mentor and develop subordinates, providing them with challenges, working one-on-one to help them meet their professional and personal needs, and encouraging people to approach problems from new perspectives.

Controlling

Management process of comparing actual to planned performance and taking corrective actions when necessary.

technical skills

Skills needed to perform specific tasks.

Interpersonal Skills

Skills used to get along with and motivate other people.

Conceptual Skills

The ability to reason abstractly and analyze complex situations.

Time-Management Skills

Efficiently prioritize tasks, create routines, no procrastination, sticking to an agenda

Decision-Making Skills

Identifying a problem and analyzing the possible solutions to select the best outcome