GMS200 Final

Intellectual capital

Collective brainpower of a workforce that can be used to create value

Resource inputs

People, money, materials, technology, information

Transformation process

Work activities turn resources into outputs

Product outputs

Finished goods and services

Organizations

People working together to achieve a common purpose

Value creation

When an organizations operations add value to the original cost of resource inputs

Specific (task) environment

Organizations, groups, people that organizations interact and conduct business with

Examples of specific (task) environment stakeholders

Customers, suppliers, competitors, regulators, investors, owners

Competitive advantage

A core competency that sets an organization apart from competitors and gives it an advantage over them

Examples of competitive advantages

Cost efficiency, higher quality, better delivery, greater flexibility

Line managers

Responsible for work activities that directly affect organizations outputs

Staff managers

Use technical expertise to advise and support the efforts of line workers

Functional managers

Responsible for a single area of activity

General managers

Responsible for more complex units that include many functional areas

Administators

Work in public and non profit organizations

Accountibility

Requirement of one person to answer to a higher authority for relevant performance results

Quality of work life (QWL)

An indicator of overall quality of human experiences in the workplace

Quality of work life examples

Fair pay, safe working conditions, opportunities to learn and use new skills, room to grow and progress in a career, protection of individual rights, pride in work and the organization

Four functions of management

Planning, organizing, leading, controlling

Planning

Setting performance objectives and deciding how to achieve them

Organizing

Arranging tasks, people, and other resources to accomplish the work

Controlling

Measuring performance and taking action to ensure desired results

Leading

Inspiring people to work hard and achieve high performance

Informational roles

How a manager exchanges and processes information

Interpersonal roles

How a manager interacts with other people

Decisional roles

How a manager uses information in decision making

Technical skill

Ability to apply expertise to perform particular tasks

Human/Interpersonal skill

Ability to work well with others

Emotional intellegence

Ability to manage ourselves and relationships effectively

Conceptual skill

Ability to think critically and analytically to solve complex problems

Knowledge worker

Someone whose value to the organization rests with intellect not physical capabilities

Intellectual captial

Shared knowledge of a workforce that can be used to create wealth

Data

Raw facts and observations

Information

Data made useful for decision making

Intelligence information

Gathered from stakeholders and external environment

Internal information

Flows up down around and across organizations

Public information

Spread to stakeholders and external environment

Information system

Use of the latest IT to collect, organize, and distribute data for decision making

Management information system (MIS)

Designed to meet the information needs of managers in daily decision making

Planning advantages of IT

Timely access to useful information

Organizing advantages of IT

Improved communication, coordination, and integration

Leading advantages of IT

improved communication, clear objectives

Controlling advantages of IT

More accurate performance measuring, real-time solutions

Performance deficiency

Actual performance being less than desired performance

Performance opportunity

Actual performance being better than desired performance

Problem solving

The process of identifying a discrepancy between actual and desired performance and taking action to resolve it

Decision

A choice among possible alternative actions

Problem avoiders

Inactive in information gathering and solving problems

Problem solvers

Reactive in information gathering and solving problems

Problem seekers

Proactive in anticipating problems and taking appropriate action to gain an advantage

Systematic thinking

Approaching problems in a rational, step-by-step, and analytical way

Intuitive thinking

Approaches problems in a flexible and spontaneous way

Multidimensional thinking

Applies both intuitive and systematic thinking

Effective multidimensional thinking

Requires skill at strategic opportunism

Sensation thinkers

Emphasize the impersonal rather than the personal and take a realistic approach to problem solving

Intuitive thinkers

Comfortable with abstraction and tend to be idealistic and spontaneous.

Sensation feelers

Emphasize analysis and human relations and tend to be realistic and prefer facts

Intuitive feelers

Prefer broad and global issues and are comfortable with intangibles

Programmed decisions

Apply solutions that are readily available from past experiences to solve structured problems

Structured problems

Ones that are familiar, straightforward, and clear with respect to information needs

Non-programmed decisions

Develop novel solutions to meet the demands of a unique situation that present unstructured problems

Unstructured problems

Ones that are full of ambiguities and information deficiencies

Crisis

An unexpected problem that can lead to disaster if not resolved quickly

Rules for crisis management

Fgure out what is going on, remember that speed matters, remember that slow counts too, respect the danger of the unfamiliar, value the skeptic, be ready to fight “fire with fire”

-speed matters

-slow counts

-danger of the unfamiliar

-value the skeptic

-fight fire with Fire

3 environments for managerial decision making

Certain environment, uncertain environment, risk environment

-risk environment

-uncertain environment

Certain environment

Alternative courses of action and their outcomes are known to decision maker (programmed)

Risk environment

Decision maker views alternatives and their outcomes in terms of probabilities

Uncertain environment

Decision maker doesn't know all the alternatives and outcomes even as probabilities (non programmed)

Steps in managerial decision making and problem solving

Step 1: find and define problem, Step 2: Generate and evaluate alternative solutions, Step 3: Choose preferred course of action, Step 4: Implement decision, Step 5: Evaluate results: evaluate results and if not satisfied, take corrective actions - decision making is dynamic process, Step 6: Double check ethical reasoning (done in all five steps)

Step 2: generate and evaluate alternative solutions

Step 3: make decision and conduct ethics double check

Step 4: implement the decision

Step 5: evaluate results

Classical model

For structured problems, acting rationally in a certain world, fully informed of all alternatives, make optimizing decision (absolute best solution to problem)

-clearly defined

-certain environment

-complete information

-all alternatives and consequences known

Optimizing decision

Choose absolute best among alternatives

Rationality

Acts in a perfect world

Bounded rationality

Acts with cognitive limitations

Behavioural model

For unstructured problem, act with only partial knowedge about available action alternatives and their consequences to make satisficing decision (first satisfactory alternative that comes to your attention)

-not clearly defined

-uncertain environment

-incomplete information

-not all consequences and alternatives known

Satisficing decision

Choose first satisfactory alternative

1 of the 3 types of heuristics

-availability heuristic

-representativeness heuristic

-anchoring and adjustment heuristic

Availability heuristic

People use information readily available from memory as a basis for assessing a current situation

Representativeness heuristic

People assess the likelihood of something happening based upon its similarity to a stereotyped set of occurrences

Anchoring and adjustment heuristic

People make decisions based on adjustments to a previously existing value or starting point