MGMT 340: Introduction to Organizations - Midterm Review (Chapters 1-8)

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering fundamental management concepts, theories, frameworks, and models across Chapters 1 through 8.

Management

The pursuit of organizational goals efficiently and effectively by integrating the work of people through planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the organization's resources.

Efficiency

The means of attaining the organization's goals; using resources (such as people, money, and raw materials) wisely and cost-effectively.

Effectiveness

The ends of attaining organizational goals; achieving results, making the right decisions, and successfully carrying them out to reach the organization's goals.

Four Principal Functions of Management

The core management process consisting of planning (setting goals and deciding how to achieve them), organizing (arranging tasks, people, and resources), leading (motivating, directing, and influencing people), and controlling (monitoring performance, comparing it with goals, and taking corrective action).

Mintzberg's Managerial Roles

Ten organized sets of behaviors played by managers categorized into three types: interpersonal roles (figurehead, leader, liaison), informational roles (monitor, disseminator, spokesperson), and decisional roles (entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator).

Technical Skills

The job-specific knowledge needed to perform well in a specialized field; the ability to perform a specific job.

Conceptual Skills

The ability to think analytically, visualize an organization as a whole, and understand how the various parts work together.

Human Skills

The ability to work well in cooperation with other people to get things done, especially within teams.

Scientific Management

A classical management approach pioneered by Frederick W. Taylor and Frank and Lillian Gilbreth that emphasized the scientific study of work methods and motion studies to improve individual worker productivity.

Administrative Management

A classical management approach concerned with managing the total organization, pioneered by Charles Clinton Spaulding, Henri Fayol, and Max Weber.

Hawthorne Effect

The finding from Elton Mayo's Western Electric Hawthorne plant studies that employees work harder if they receive added attention, believe managers care about their welfare, or have supervisors who pay special attention to them.

Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor's two sets of managerial assumptions about workers: Theory X represents a pessimistic, negative view (workers are irresponsible, dislike work, and must be led), while Theory Y represents an optimistic, positive view (workers accept responsibility, exercise self-control, and are creative).

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow's theory proposing that human motivation is structured across five tiers of needs: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

Systems Viewpoint

A perspective viewing the organization as a set of interrelated parts operating together to achieve a common purpose, distinguished between closed systems (little interaction with the environment) and open systems (continuous interaction, capable of creating synergy).

Contingency Viewpoint

A management perspective emphasizing that a manager's approach should vary according to the individual and the environmental situation, addressing problems on a case-by-case basis.

Triple Bottom Line (TBL)

A framework measuring an organization's social, environmental, and financial performance, representing the 3 Ps: People, Planet, and Profit.

Task Environment

The set of 10 external stakeholder groups that interact with the organization on a regular basis: customers, competitors, suppliers, distributors, strategic allies, employee organizations, local communities, financial institutions, government regulators, and special-interest groups.

General Environment

The set of broad background forces in an organization's surroundings that determine its overall context: economic, technological, legal-political, international, demographic, and sociocultural forces.

Carroll's Global CSR Pyramid

A four-level pyramid outlining corporate social responsibility priorities from base to summit: economic responsibility (be profitable), legal responsibility (obey the law), ethical responsibility (be ethical), and philanthropic responsibility (be a good global corporate citizen).

Ethnocentric Managers

Managers who believe that their native country, culture, language, and behavior are superior to all others; also known as parochialism.

Polycentric Managers

Managers who believe that native managers in foreign offices best understand native personnel and practices, meaning the home office should defer to them.

Geocentric Managers

Managers who accept that there are differences and similarities between home and foreign personnel and practices, using whichever techniques are most effective regardless of origin.

International Expansion Continuum

The spectrum of foreign market entry methods ranging from lowest risk and investment to highest risk and investment: global outsourcing, importing/exporting/countertrading, licensing and franchising, joint ventures, and wholly owned subsidiaries.

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Model

A cross-cultural framework that evaluates national cultures across dimensions including Individualism/Collectivism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Masculinity/Femininity.

GLOBE Project

An ongoing cross-cultural investigation identifying nine cultural dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, institutional collectivism, in-group collectivism, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness, future orientation, performance orientation, and humane orientation.

Mission Statement

A formal statement that expresses the organization's core purpose or 'reason for being.'

Vision Statement

A long-term statement describing what the organization wants to become and where it wants to go strategically; a clear, idealistic, future-oriented, and motivational picture.

Values Statement

A statement expressing what the company stands for, its core priorities, the values its employees embody, and what its products contribute to the world.

Strategic Planning

Planning conducted by top management for the next 1 to 5 years, focusing on broad, general, and long-term organizational goals and direction.

Tactical Planning

Planning conducted by middle management for the next 6 to 24 months, focusing on the actions needed to implement policies and achieve strategic plans.

Operational Planning

Planning conducted by first-line managers for the next 1 to 52 weeks, directing daily tasks and routine procedures tied to tactical plans.

Operating Plan

A plan that breaks long-term output into short-term targets or goals, turning strategic plans into actionable short-term goals and action plans.

Action Plan

A document defining the specific course of action (tactics) needed to achieve a stated goal, including project completion dates for each tactic.

SMART Goals

Goals that satisfy five criteria: Specific, Measurable, Attainable (or Achievable), Results-oriented (or Relevant), and Target Date (or Time-Bound).

Planning/Control Cycle

A four-step management feedback loop consisting of two planning steps (1: Make the plan; 2: Carry out the plan) and two control steps (3: Control the direction by comparing results with the plan; 4: Control direction by correcting deviations or improving future plans).

Strategic Positioning

An approach that attempts to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by preserving what is distinctive, based on three principles: creating a unique and valuable position, making trade-offs, and creating 'fit' among activities.

SWOT Analysis

A strategic assessment examining an organization's internal Strengths and Weaknesses along with external Opportunities and Threats.

VRIO Framework

A tool used to evaluate a firm's internal resources and capabilities to determine competitive strategic potential based on Value, Rarity, Imitability, and Organization.

BCG Matrix

A portfolio evaluation tool developed by the Boston Consulting Group that plots strategic business units by market growth rate and market share into four categories: Stars, Question Marks, Cash Cows, and Dogs.

Vertical Integration

A corporate strategy wherein a firm expands into businesses that provide the supplies needed to make its products (backward integration) or that distribute and sell its products (forward integration).

Porter's Five Competitive Forces

Michael Porter's business-level model that attributes industry competitiveness to five external forces: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services, and rivalry among existing competitors.

Cost-Leadership Strategy

A competitive strategy focused on keeping costs and prices below those of competitors while targeting a wide market (e.g., Walmart).

Differentiation Strategy

A competitive strategy focused on offering unique and superior value compared to competitors while targeting a wide market (e.g., Apple).

Cost-Focus Strategy

A competitive strategy focused on keeping costs and prices low targeting a narrow market (e.g., Aldi).

Focused-Differentiation Strategy

A competitive strategy focused on offering unique and superior value targeting a narrow market (e.g., Ferrari).

Rational Model of Decision Making

A prescriptive classical model explaining how managers should make decisions logically and optimally across four stages: Stage 1 (Identify the problem or opportunity), Stage 2 (Think up alternative solutions), Stage 3 (Evaluate alternatives and select a solution), and Stage 4 (Implement and evaluate the solution chosen).

Bounded Rationality

The concept that suggests the ability of decision makers to be rational is strictly limited by numerous constraints such as time, complexity, skills, and cognitive limits.

Satisficing Model

A nonrational decision-making approach where managers seek alternatives only until they find one that is satisfactory rather than optimal ('satisfactory is good enough').

Ethical Decision Tree

A flowchart framework used by managers to evaluate whether a proposed business action is legal, maximizes shareholder value, and is ethical towards stakeholders.

Decision-Making Styles

Styles reflecting how individuals perceive and respond to information across two dimensions (value orientation and tolerance for ambiguity): Directive (task-focused, low ambiguity tolerance), Analytical (task-focused, high ambiguity tolerance), Conceptual (social-focused, high ambiguity tolerance), and Behavioral (social-focused, low ambiguity tolerance).

Availability Bias

The cognitive bias where decision makers use information readily available from memory to make judgments.

Confirmation Bias

The cognitive bias where people seek out information that supports their existing point of view and discount data that contradicts it.

Sunk-Cost Bias

The tendency to justify continuing a project simply because of the money or resources already invested in it.

Escalation of Commitment Bias

The tendency of decision makers to increase their commitment to a failing project despite receiving negative information about its progress.

Three Levels of Organizational Culture

The framework distinguishing organizational culture into three layers: observable artifacts (visible physical manifestations like dress and ceremonies), espoused values (explicitly stated norms and values), and basic assumptions (unobservable core beliefs and deeply held values).

Competing Values Framework (Four Culture Types)

A model classifying organizational cultures based on internal versus external focus and flexibility versus stability: Clan (internal, flexible; collaborate), Adhocracy (external, flexible; create), Hierarchy (internal, stable; control), and Market (external, stable; compete).

Organizational Socialization

The process by which individuals learn the values, norms, and required behaviors that permit them to participate fully as members of an organization.

Span of Control

A fundamental feature of organizational design referring to the number of direct subordinates who report to a given manager.

Matrix Structure

A traditional organizational design structure where employees report to two chains of command simultaneously, typically functional and divisional.

Hollow Structure

A boundaryless network design where an organization keeps a core set of key functions and outsources noncore business processes to outside vendors.