MGT 210 Quiz One Study Guide

\n Globalization

* Globalization affects small companies as well as large. Many small companies export their goods. Many domestic firms assemble their products in other countries.  
* And companies are under pressure to improve and lower the price of their products in the face of intense competition from foreign manufacturers. 

\n Technological Change

* Technology both complicates things and creates new opportunities. The challenges come from the rapid rate at which communication, commerce, transportation, information, and other technologies change, for example, after just a couple of decades of widespread desktop use, customers switched to laptop models, which required different accessories, then, users turned into mini-laptops, tablets, smartphones, and smartwatches to meet their mobility technology needs. Good managers anticipate and respond to changing customers’ wants and needs. 
* Instead of people adapting to new technologies as in the past, technology will adapt to people’s preferences. 

 

What is knowledge management

* Knowledge management is the set of practices aimed at discovering and harnessing and organization's intellectual resources—fully using the intellects of the organization’s people/ knowledge management is about finding, unlocking, sharing, and capitalizing on the most precious resources of an organization: people’s expertise, skills, wisdom, and relationships.  

Collaboration across organizational boundaries

* Leveraging knowledge for maximum impact requires people in different departments, divisions, or subunits of the organization to collaborate and communicate effectively. 

Centralized v. decentralized management

Strategic planning, goal setting, budgeting, and talent deployment are typically conducted by a single, senior leader or leadership team.

In contrast, in decentralized organizations, formal decision-making power is distributed across multiple individuals or teams.

Innovation

the introduction of new goods and services. 

* Your firm must adapt to changes in consumer demands and to new competitors. 

quality

can be measured in terms of product performance, customer service, reliability (avoidance of failure or breakdowns), conformance to standards, durability, and aesthetics. 

Management

The process of working with people and resources to accoplish organizational goals. 

Cost Competitiveness

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

Sustainable Growth

Economic growth and development that meets present needs without harming the needs of future generations.

Service

* giving customers what they want or need, when they want it 
* include intangible products such as insurance, hotel accommodations, medical care, and haircuts. 
* the fastest-growing job categories have been almost entirely health care services, and the jobs with the greatest declines are primarily in manufacturing and farming, fishing, and forestry occupations 
* The speed and dependability with which an organization delivers what customers want. 
* cloud computing companies, in addition to providing online access to software, applications, and other computer services, also help their customers store and analyze large amounts of customer and employee data. 


* An important dimension of service quality is making it easy and enjoyable for customers to experience a service or to buy and use products. 

\n Emotional Intelligence

* Searching for and sorting through information about the environment 
* Searching for useful information and interpreting what is important and what is not. 
* Help managers develop competitive intelligence, the information necessary to decide how best to manage in their competitive environments. 

Speed

* Fast and timely execution, response, and delivery of products 

Planning

* Planning is specifying the goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals. 


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

Organizing

* assembling and coordinating the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources need to achieve goals. 
* attracting people to the organization, specifying job responsibilities, grouping jobs into work units, marshaling and allocating resources, and creating conditions so that people and things work together to achieve maximum success. 
* The management function of assembling and coordinating human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals. 

leading

* Leading is stimulating people to be high performers. 
* It includes motivating and communi- cating with employees, individually and in groups. 
* Leading involves connecting directly with people, helping to guide and inspire them toward achieving team and organizational goals. 
* Leading takes place in teams, departments, and divisions as well as at the top of all types of organizations. 


* The management function that involves the manager’s efforts to stimulate high performance by employees. 

controlling

* The fourth function, monitors performance and implements necessary changes. 
* managers make sure the organization’s resources are being used properly and that the organization is meet- ing its goals such as quality and worker safety. 


* The management function of monitoring performance and making needed changes. 

top level managers

* Senior executives responsible for the overall management and effectiveness of the organization. 

middle level managers

responsible for translating the general goals and plans developed by strategic managers into more specific objectives and activities. 

frontline managers

involved with nonmanagement employees, implementing the specific plans developed with middle managers. 

Technical

the ability to perform a specialized task that involves a certain method or process.

you learn in school will provide you with the opportunity to get an entry-level position; they will also help you as a manager.

Conceptual and decision skills

involve the ability to identify and resolve problems for the benefit of the organization and everyone concerned.

Managers use these skills when they consider the organization’s overall strategy, the interactions among its different parts, and the role of the business in its external environment.

As you acquire greater responsibility, you will use your skills with increasing frequency. Much of this book is devoted to enhancing your skills, but experience also plays an important part in their development. 

\n Interpersonal and communication skills

influence the managers ability to work well with people.

These skills are often called people skills.

Managers spend the great majority of their time interacting with people, 100 and they must develop their abilities to lead, motivate, and communicate effectively with those around them. 

Open systems

Organizations that are affected by, and that affect, their environment. 

Inputs

Goods and services organizations take in and use to create products or services. 

Outputs

The products and services organizations create. 

External Environment

All relevant forces outside a firm’s boundaries, such as competitors, customers, the government, and the economy. 

competitive environment

The immediate environment surrounding a firm; includes suppliers, customers, rivals, and the like. 

substitute

a potential threat; customers use it as an alternative, buying less of one kind of product but more of another. 

complement

customers buy more of a given product if they also demand more of the complementary product. 

Suppliers

* The resources they supply may be outstanding or defective. 
* They can provide excellent or poor-quality service. 
* can raise their prices.
* Dependence also results from high switching costs—the fixed costs buyers face if they change suppliers. 

Supply chain management

also known as the extended enterprise, we mean the managing of the entire network of facilities and people that obtain raw materials from outside the organization, transform them into products, and distribute them to customers. 

customers

purchase its goods or services, a company won’t survive. 

can be intermediate (wholesalers and retailers) or final (end users), depending on where they are in the value chain. 

* You are a final consumer when you upgrade to new iPhone or eat lunch at Panera Bread. 

Environmental uncertainty

the uncertainty of the state of the environment, the inability to predict the impact of environmental change, and the inability to predict the consequences of response choices

\n Environmental scanning

* Searching for and sorting through information about the environment 
* Searching for useful information and interpreting what is important and what is not. 
* Help managers develop competitive intelligence, the information necessary to decide how best to manage in their competitive environments. 

Scenerios

* A narrative that describes a particular set of future conditions. 

Forecasting

* Whereas environmental scanning identifies important influences, and scenario development generates alternative pictures of the future
* a single prediction about the future 

benchmarking

* Identifying the best-in-class performance by a company in a given area, say, product development or customer service, and then comparing your processes to theirs 
* The process of comparing an organization’s practices and technologies with those of other companies. 

* Strategic maneuvering 

* An organization’s conscious efforts to change the boundaries of its task environment. 

domain selection

* Entering a new market or industry using an existing expertise. 

Diversification

* A firm’s investment in a different product, business, or geographic area. 

\n Divestiture

* A firm selling one or more businesses. 

Defenders

* Companies that stay within a stable product domain as a strategic maneuver. 

protectors

* Companies that continuously change the boundaries for their task environments by seeking new products and markets, diversifying and merging, or acquiring new enterprises. 

Organization culture

* the set of important assumptions about the organization and its goals and practices that members of the company share. 

\n Organizational climate

consists of the patterns of attitudes and behaviors that shape people’s perceptions of an organization 

\n Economy

* The economic environment affects managers’ ability to function effectively and influences their strategic choices. Interest and inflation rates affect the availability and cost of capital, growth opportunities, prices, costs, and consumer demand for products. 
* Economic conditions change over time and are difficult to predict. 

Technology

* Technological advances create new products and ser- vices, more efficient production and delivery techniques, and better ways of managing and communicating. 
* As technologies evolve, new industries, markets, and competitive niches develop. 


* New technologies provide new ways to manage and communicate. 

Laws and regulations

* The government can affect business opportunities through tax laws, economic policies, and international trade rulings. 

\n Demographics

* Measures of various characteristics of the people who make up groups or other social units 
* The education and skill levels of the workforce are another crucial demographic factor that managers must consider. 

Social issues

Societal trends have major implications for management of the labor force, corporate social actions, and strategic decisions about products and markets.

The Competitive Environment Model

The immediate environment surrounding a firm; includes suppliers, customers, rivals, and the like. 

Micheal Porter

finds that successful managers do more than simply react to the environment;

they act in ways that actually shape or change the organization’s environment