Management Exam 3(Liesl Wesson)

Ch. 17, 10, 12, 13

Positive Interpersonal Dynamics

When two parties know each other, have mutual respect and affection, and enjoy interacting with one another.

Negative Interpersonal Dynamics

When two parties dislike one another, do not have mutual respect, and do not enjoy interacting with one another.

Outcomes of Interpersonal Behaviors

1. Satisfaction of social needs

2. Social support

3. Source of organizational synergy

4. Source of conflict

Communication

The process of transmitting information from one person to another.

Effective Communication

The process of sending a message in such a way that the message received is as close in meaning as possible to the message intended.

Types of Communication Networks

1. Wheel(most centralized)

2. Chain

3. Y

4. Circle

5. All Channel(most decentralized)

Nonverbal Communication

Any communication exchange that does not use words, or uses words to carry more meaning than the strict definition of the words themselves.

1. Facial expression(55%)

2. Inflection and tone of voice(38%)

3. Only a small portion of the message content is due to the words in the message(7%)

Individual Barriers to Effective Communication

1. Conflicting or inconsistent signals

2. Credibility about the subject

3. Reluctance to communicate

4. Poor listening skills

5. Predispositions about the subject

Organizational Barriers to Effective Communication

1. Semantics

2. Status or power differences

3. Different perceptions

4. Noise

5. Overload

6. Language differences

Individual Skills(Overcoming barriers to effective communication)

1. Develop good listening skills – most important

2. Encourage two

3. Be aware of language and meaning

4. Maintain credibility

5. Be sensitive to receiver’s perspective

6. Be sensitive to sender’s perspective

Operational Skills(Overcoming barriers to effective communication)

1. Follow up

2. Regulate information flows

3. Understand the richness of media

Key Principles for Effective Communication

1. Maintain and enhance self

2. Listen and respond with empathy

3. Ask for help and encourage involvement

4. Share thoughts, feelings, and rationale

5. Provide support without removing responsibility

More Effective Listening Skills

1. Stay active, focused

2. Pays attention

3. Asks questions

4. Keeps an open mind

5. Assimilates information

Emilia is allowed to approve expenditures under 10,000. If the amount is higher, she needs her boss’s approval, this is an attempt to reduce ____ with the boss

Overload

• Organizing

• Deciding how to best group organizational activities and resources.

• Organization Structure

• The set of building blocks that can be used to configure an organization

Building Blocks for Organizational Structure:

1. Designing Jobs

2. Grouping Jobs: Departmentalization

3. Reporting Relationships

4. Distributing Authority

5. Coordinating Activities

6. Differentiating Between Positions

Job Design

The determination of an individual’s work-related responsibilities.

• Job Specialization (Division of Labor)

The degree to which the overall task of the organization is broken down and divided into smaller component parts.

Benefits of Job Specialization

• Workers can become proficient at a task.

• Transfer time between tasks is decreased.

• Specialized equipment can be more easily developed.

• Employee replacement becomes easier.

Limitations of Job Specialization

• Boredom and dissatisfaction with mundane tasks.

• Anticipated benefits do not always occur

Alternatives to Job Specialization

• Job Rotation

• Job Enlargement

• Work Teams

• Job Enrichment

• Job Characteristics Approach(Moderator)

• Growth-Need Strength

• Work Teams

Job Rotation

Systematically moving employees from one job to another in an attempt to reduce employee boredom.

Job Enlargement

An increase in the total number of tasks workers perform.

Work Teams

An alternative to job specialization that allows the entire group to design the work system it will use to perform an interrelated set of tasks.

Job Enrichment

Increasing both the number of tasks the worker does and the control the worker has over the job. (an application of the job characteristics model)

Job Characteristics Approach(Moderator)

Core Dimensions to Job Characteristics Approach:

• Skill Variety - The number of tasks a person does in a job

• Task Identity - The extent to which the worker does a complete or identifiable portion of the total job

• Task Significance - The perceived importance of the task.

• Autonomy - The degree of control the worker has over how the work is performed

• Feedback - The extent to which the worker knows how well the job is being performed

Growth-Need Strength

The desire for some people to grow, develop, and expand their capabilities that is their response to the core dimensions.

Departmentalization

The process of grouping jobs according to some logical arrangement.

Rationale for Departmentalization

• Organizational growth exceeds the owner-manager’s capacity to personally supervise all of the organization.

• Additional managers are employed and assigned specific employees to supervise.

Functional Departmentalization

Grouping jobs involving the same or similar activities.

Advantages to Functional Departmentalization

• Each department can be staffed by functional-area experts.

• Supervision is facilitated in that managers only need be familiar with a narrow set of skills.

• Coordination inside each department is easier.

Disadvantages to Functional Departmentalization

• Decision making becomes slow and bureaucratic.

• Employees narrow their focus to their department and lose sight of broader goals and issues.

• Accountability and performance are difficult to monitor

Product Departmentalization

Grouping activities around products or product groups.

Advantages to Product Departmentalization

• All activities associated with one product are integrated and coordinated.

• Speed and effectiveness of decision making are enhanced.

• Performance of individual products or product groups can be assessed.

Disadvantages to Product Departmentalization

• Managers may focus on their product to the exclusion of the rest of the organization.

• Administrative costs may increase due to each department having its own functional-area experts.

Customer Departmentalization

Grouping activities to respond to and interact with specific customers and customer groups.

Advantage to Customer Departmentalization

Skilled specialists can deal with unique customers or customer groups.

Disadvantage to Customer Departmentalization

A large administrative staff is needed to integrate activities of various departments.

Location Departmentalization

The grouping of jobs on the basis of defined geographic sites or areas.

Advantage to Location Departmentalization

Enables the organization to respond easily to unique customer and environmental characteristics.

Disadvantage to Location Departmentalization

Large administrative staff may be needed to keep track of units in scattered locations

Alternative Groupings Departmentalization

• By specific units of time

• By sequence

• By customer characteristics, products, or services

Other Departmentalization Considerations

• Departments are often called by other names.

  • Divisions, units, sections, and bureaus

Chain of Command

A clear and distinct line of authority among the positions in an organization.

Unity of Command

Each person within an organization must have a clear reporting relationship to one and only one boss.

Scalar Principle

A clear and unbroken line of authority must extend from the bottom to the top of the organization

Span of Control

The number of people reporting to a manager.

• V. A. Graicunas

• Direct—manager’s relationship with each subordinate.

• Cross—among the subordinates themselves.

• Group—between groups of subordinates.

Narrow Versus Wide Spans

• Ralph Davis

• Operative span for lower-level managers of up to 30 workers.

• Executive span for middle and top managers set at 3 to 9.

• Span depends on managers’ jobs, company growth rate, & similar factors

Lyndall Urwick and General Ian Hamilton

Executive span should never exceed six persons.

Factors Influencing the Span of Management:

1. Competence of supervisor and subordinates(greater competence, wider the potential span)

2. Physical dispersion of subordinates(greater dispersion, narrower the potential span)

3. Extent of nonsupervisory work in manager’s job(more nonsupervisory work, narrower the potential span)

4. Degree of required interaction(less required interaction, wider the potential span)

5. Extent of standardized procedures(more procedures, wider the potential span)

6. Similarity of tasks being supervised(more similar the tasks, wider the potential span)

7. Frequency of new problems(higher the frequency, narrower the potential span)

8. Preference of supervisors and subordinates

Tall Organizations

• Are more expensive because of the number of managers involved.

• Foster more communication problems because of the number of people through whom information must pass.

Flat Organizations

• Lead to higher levels of employee morale and productivity.

• Create more administrative responsibility for the relatively few managers.

• Create more supervisory responsibility for managers due to wider spans of control.

Authority

Power that has been legitimized by the organization

Delegation

The process by which managers assign a portion of their total workload to others.

Reasons for Delegation

• To enable the manager to get more work done by utilizing the skills and talents of subordinates.

• To foster development of subordinates by having them participate in decision making and problem.

Problems in Delegation:

• Manager

  • Reluctant to delegate

  • Disorganization prevents planning work in advance.

  • Subordinate’s success threatens superior’s advancement.

  • Lack of trust in the subordinate to do well

• Subordinate

  • Reluctant to accept delegation for fear of failure.

  • Perceives no rewards for accepting additional responsibility.

  • Prefers to avoid any risk and responsibility.

Decentralization

Systematically delegating power and authority throughout the organization to middle- and lower-level managers.

Centralization

Systematically retaining power and authority in the hands of higher-level managers.

Factors Determining Choice of Centralization

• External environment’s complexity and uncertainty

• History of the organization

• Nature (cost and risk) of the decisions to be made

Coordination

The process of linking the activities of the various departments of the organization.

The Need for Consideration

Where departments and work groups are interdependent; the greater the interdependence, the greater the need for coordination.

Pooled interdependence

When units operate with little interaction; their output is simply pooled at the organizational level.

Sequential interdependence

When the output of one unit becomes the input of another unit in sequential fashion.

Reciprocal interdependence

When activities flow both ways between units.

The Managerial Hierarchy

Placing one manager in charge of interdependent departments or units.

Rules and Procedures

Routine coordination of activities using rules and procedures that set priorities and guidelines for actions.

Managerial Liaison Roles

A manager coordinates interdependent units by acting as a common point of contact, facilitating the flow of information

Task Forces

• Used with multiple units when coordination is complex, requiring more than one individual and the need for coordination is acute.

• Disbanded when need for coordination has been met.

Integrating Departments

• Permanent organizational units that maintain internal integration and coordination on an ongoing basis.

• May have authority and budgetary controls.

Electronic Coordination

Use of information technology and electronic systems to link different parts of an organization so they can share information, communicate, and coordinate activities efficiently

Structural Coordination Techniques

• The Managerial Hierarchy

• Rules and Procedures

• Managerial Liaison Roles

• Task Forces

• Integrating Departments

• Electronic Coordination

Line Positions

Positions in the direct chain of command responsible for the achievement of an organization’s goals.

Staff Positions

• Positions intended to provide expertise, advice, and support to line positions.

  • Have advisory authority; can give compulsory advice.

  • Have functional authority to enforce compliance with organizational policies and procedures.

Administrative Intensity

The degree to which managerial positions are concentrated in staff positions.

Organization Change

Any substantive modification to some part of the organization (e.g., work schedules, machinery, employees).

Forces to Change

• External forces in the general and task environments can force the organization to alter the way it competes.

• Internal forces inside the organization cause it to change its structure and strategy; some internal forces are responses to external pressures.

Planned Change

Is designed and implemented in an orderly and timely fashion in anticipation of future events.

Reactive Change

Made to address problems, threats, or opportunities after they arise, in order to adapt and maintain performance.

• Steps in the Change Process (Lewin Model)

• Unfreezing

  • Individuals must be shown why the change is necessary.

• Implementing change

  • The change itself is implemented.

• Refreezing

  • Involves reinforcing and supporting the change so that it becomes a permanent part of the system

People resist change because of

• Uncertainty about the extent and effects of change.

• Threats to self-interests and power and influence.

• Different perceptions of change effects and outcomes.

• Fear of loss of social networks, power, security, and familiar procedures.

Overcoming Resistance to Change

• Encourage active participation in the change process.

• Provide education and communication about the change process.

• Facilitate the change process

  • Making only necessary changes

  • Announcing changes in advance

  • Allowing time to adapt to change

Reengineering

The radical redesign of all aspects of a business to achieve major gains in cost, service, or time.

Why Is Reengineering Necessary?

Entropy occurs as the maintenance of status quo puts an organization out of synch with its environment, and it starts consuming its own resources.

Approaches to Reengineering

• Recognizing the need for change and acting on it with a sense of urgency.

• Starting with a clean slate helps open up the process

• Using a blend of top-down and bottom-up involvement

Organization Development

A planned, organization-wide effort, managed from the top, that is intended to increase organizational effectiveness and health through interventions in it’s processes using behavioral science knowledge.

Organization Development Assumptions

• Employees desire to grow and develop.

• Employees have a strong need to be accepted.

• Individuals will influence the organization and the organization will influence individuals.

Organization Development Techniques

• Diagnostic Activities - Questionnaires, Surveys

• Education - Role Playing

• Coaching and Counseling - 360 Degree Feedback

• Team Building, Survey Feedback, Intergroup Activities, Third-Party Peacemaking

• Technostructural Activities, Process Consultation, Life and Career Planning, Planning and Goal Setting

Advantages to 360 Degree Feedback

• Richer array of information about performance

• Aids in employee development

• Improves productivity

• Increases engagement with stakeholders

• Fosters continuous improvement

Disadvantages to 360 Degree Feedback

• Takes considerable time

• Can breed fear and mistrust in the workplace

• Differences among raters can present a challenge

• Bias can be rooted in customers subordinates and peers

• Lack of accountability of sources can affect the ratings

• Issues of confidentiality and anonymity

Organizational Development Notes

• The effectiveness of OD varies.

• It focuses on updating employee skills on a continual basis, rather than reaching a point where the obvious need for change exists.

• OD’s goal is to minimize the magnitude of future changes by recognizing small changes that can take place over time.

• Rule of one-eighth

  • 1/21/21/2 = 1/8

  • Connection between people and profits

  • Multiple things to do something about it

  • Stay long enough for the benefits

Innovation

The managed effort of an organization to develop new products or services or new uses for existing products or services.

Radical Innovation

• Fundamentally changes the nature of competition in an industry.

  • A new product, service, or technology developed by an organization that completely replaces the existing product, service, or technology in an industry.

Incremental Innovation

• Does not significantly affect competition in an industry.

  • A new product, service, or technology that modifies an existing one

Technical innovation(Ex. Fiber Optics)

Changing the physical appearance or performance of a product or service, or the physical processes through which a product or service is manufactured.

Managerial innovation(Ex: Reengineering)

Changing the management processes by which products and services are conceived, built, and delivered to customers.

Product Innovation

A change in the physical characteristics or performance of existing products or service or the creation of brand-new products or services.

Process Innovation

A change in the way a product or service is manufactured, created, or distributed

Reasons for Failing to Innovate

Lack of resources, failure to recognize opportunities, resistance to change