Key Concepts in Management and Organizational Behavior

Organizing

Determining the best allocation of people and resources.

Leading

Motivating and supervising workers assigned to a task.

Planning

Deciding upon business goals and the methods to achieve them.

Controlling

Analyzing metrics during business activities to ensure completion of tasks and identify areas for improvement.

Group/team dynamics

The way in which a team or group interacts affects whether and how their goal is completed and is affected by group size, diversity, communication, tenure, and individual factors such as personality and motivation.

Leadership

Strategic focus on the organization's needs, establishing goals and the strategic direction, establishing principles, empowering and mentoring the team to lead them to their goals, and risk engagement and overall identification.

Motivation

Internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal.

Motivation factors

Results from the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors such as (1) intensity of desire or need, (2) incentive or reward value of the goal, and (3) expectations of the individual and peers.

Communication

Two-way process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchange information but also create and share meaning.

Managing diversity

The management and leadership of a workforce with the goal of encouraging productive and mutually beneficial interactions among the employees of an organization.

Human resource management

The process of hiring and developing employees so that they become more valuable to the organization.

Core qualities of HR management

Extensive knowledge of the industry, leadership, and effective negotiation skills.

Operations Management

The administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization.

Operations management focus

Concerned with converting materials and labor into goods and services as efficiently as possible to maximize the profit of an organization.

Operations design

Realization of a concept or idea for production into a configuration, drawing, model, mold, pattern, plan, or specification.

Operations execution

Successful completion of a variety of tasks related to the production strategy of the firm such as scheduling, delivery, inventory tracking, manufacturing, packaging, and delivery of goods.

Total quality management

A competitive approach to long-term success that's derived from a dedication to customer satisfaction.

Strategy and policy

Strategic management is the management of an organization's resources to achieve its goals and objectives.

Strategic analysis

Careful examination of the internal and external environment of a firm so as to determine areas of advantage and disadvantage both now and in the future.

Policy determination

After firms analyze their position and their various options, one plan or strategy or policy must be adopted for implementation.

International/cross-cultural management

The factors and activities that determine differences in management across cultural or political borders.

Entrepreneur/Entrepreneurship

An entrepreneur is an individual who starts and runs a business with relatively limited financial and planning resources.

Entrepreneurial ventures

Such ventures target high returns with an equally high level of uncertainty.

Risk in entrepreneurship

The entrepreneur is willing to risk his or her financial security and career, spending time as well as capital on an uncertain venture.

Entrepreneurial control

Marketing, sales and distribution are other important aspects which are controlled by the entrepreneur.

Outsourcing in entrepreneurship

Even if some of these functions are outsourced, the risk is still carried by the entrepreneur.

Difference in entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is different from inheriting and/or running an existing business, working for a startup or entrepreneur for a salary, being a commissioned agent, or selling already available goods or services as a franchisee or dealership.