Management Skills Final - Rutgers University

power

(Week 9)

the authority to get things done by others

influence

(Week 9)

the ability to create an impact on the beliefs and actions of others without forcing them.

power vs. influence

(Week 9)

Persuasion skills exert far greater influence over others' behaviors than formal power structures do

Interpersonal influence

(Week 9)

Influencing other individuals and/or group members

Procedural influence

(Week 9)

Managing the rules or procedures used to exchange information and aggregate individual preferences

Cialdini's 6 Principles of Influence (interpersonal influence)

(Week 9)

1. Liking

2. Reciprocity

3. Social Proof

4. Consistency

5. Authority

6. Scarcity

- should be used in combination to compound their impact.

- The rules of ethics apply

Liking

(Week 9)

People like those who like them. Individuals are more willing to comply with the requests of friends or other liked individuals

- Similarity and Praise

Reciprocity

(Week 9)

People repay in kind. People feel obligated to give back the form of behavior they receive

ex: Managers can elicit the desired behaviors in coworkers and employees by displaying it first --- modeling the behavior

Social Proof

(Week 9)

People follow the lead of similar others. People feel obligated to comply with a request for behavior if it is consistent with what similar others are thinking or doing (social evidence)

- Persuasion can be extremely effective if it comes from peers

- Influence is best exerted horizontally rather than vertically

Consistency

(Week 9)

People align with their clear commitments. After committing to a position actively (spoken/made explicitly), publicly (shared), and voluntarily (personal ownership>forced), people are more willing to comply with requests for behaviors that are consistent with that position.

Authority

(Week 9)

People defer to experts, more likely to follow the suggestions of someone who is a legitimate authority. Establish your own expertise before attempting to exert influence.

Scarcity

(Week 9)

People want more of what they can have less of. People see items and opportunities as more valuable as they become less available

- Secure those opportunities that are scarce or dwindling

- Frame things not in terms of what can be gained, but what might be lost if people don't act on the information

Interpersonal Influence Additional Tactics

(Week 9)

1. Establish your Credibility

2. Frame for Common Ground

3. Provide Evidence

4. Connect emotionally

5. Build Coalitions

Procedural Influence - Tactics

(Week 9)

1. Controlling what goes on the agenda

2. Influencing group norms

3. Who speaks when

4. Shaping how decisions are made

5. Who sits where

Group Dynamics

(Week 9)

1. Conformity

2. Group Polarization

3. Groupthink

4. Social Loafing

Conformity

(Week 9)

A change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with the group

Group Polarization

(Week 9)

Tendency for decisions and opinions of people in a group setting to become more extreme than their actual, privately held beliefs. (Extreme can be both more positive or more negative)

Groupthink

(Week 9)

Tendency for members of a group to value group consensus and cohesion over the critical evaluation of the decision. Goal is to reach a unanimous decision.

Social Loafing

(Week 9)

Tendency for individual effort to decline as group size increases

Decision Making

(Week 10)

Identifying and choosing alternative solutions that lead to a desired end result

Three Models of Decision Making

(Week 10)

The Rational Model

Bounded Rationality

Garbage Can Model

The Rational Model

(Week 10)

managers use a rational approach to decision making

- Goal is to identify the optimal decision

- Assumes that all information is available and complete

- Identifying and diagnosing the problem > Generating alternative solutions > Evaluating alternative solutions > Making the choice > Implementing the decision > Evaluating the decision

Bounded Rationality

(Week 10)

people are restricted in the information they possess, conduct a limited search for solutions, and settle for less than optimal solutions

- Satisficing - choosing a solution that meets some minimum qualifications, one that is "good enough", suffices

- non-rational model

Garbage Can Model

(Week 10)

decision making is haphazard, chaotic, unpredictable, and sometimes depends on luck

- Decisions result from complex interaction of factors: problems, solutions, participants and choice opportunities - all floating randomly inside an organization.

- non-rational model

Biases

(Week 10)

A preference of inclination for or against someone/something that can inhibit impartial judgment

Heuristics

(Week 10)

rules of thumb or shortcuts that people use to reduce information processing demands. Can help decision makers reduce uncertainty, but can lead to errors that erode the quality of decisions.

Self-serving bias

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making:  Faulty perceptions about ourselves)

(Week 10)

view self in positive light; attribute success to internal qualities and failures to circumstances beyond our control

Egocentric bias

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making:  Faulty perceptions about ourselves)

(Week 10)

see self as contributing more (give ourselves more credit than others give us and more credit than we give others)

False uniqueness

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making:  Faulty perceptions about ourselves)

(Week 10)

see self favorably, as unique from others

Illusion of control

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making:  Faulty perceptions about ourselves)

(Week 10)

tendency to believe that we exert more influence over situations than we actually do

Overconfidence

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making:  Faulty perceptions about ourselves)

(Week 10)

unwarranted confidence in judgment; overestimate accuracy of estimates or forecasts

Halo effect

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making:  Faulty perceptions about others)

(Week 10)

one attractive trait = other attractive traits

Forked tail effect

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making:  Faulty perceptions about others)

(Week 10)

opposite of halo effect: one undesirable trait = other negative traits

Primacy effect

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making:  Faulty perceptions about others)

(Week 10)

first info we learn alters impression

Negativity effect

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making:  Faulty perceptions about others)

(Week 10)

once we learn negative info about someone, tend to put a lot of weight on that info

Fundamental attribution error

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making:  Faulty perceptions about others)

(Week 10)

attribute behavior to personality traits rather than situational factors

Confirmation bias

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making:  Faulty perceptions about others)

(Week 10)

subconsciously seek information that confirms our expectations and discount information that does not (e.g., reinforce what we already know)

Availability bias

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making: Superficial processing/too little info)

(Week 10)

make decisions based on information readily available

Hindsight bias

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making: Superficial processing/too little info)

(Week 10)

believe something was inevitable after it happened

Base rate fallacy

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making: Superficial processing/too little info)

(Week 10)

choose to rely on single, vivid data point rather than more reliable data

Insensitivity to sample size

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making: Superficial processing/too little info)

(Week 10)

assume small samples not representative

Representativeness

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making: Superficial processing/too little info)

(Week 10)

make judgments on basis of stereotypical cues or information rather than more deliberate processing

Anchoring & Adjustment

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making: Superficial processing/too little info)

(Week 10)

influenced by the first information received, even if it's irrelevant (e.g., first impressions anchor our decisions)

Framing

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making: Superficial processing/too little info)

(Week 10)

tendency to consider risks about gains differently than risks pertaining to losses

Escalation of commitment

(Obstacles to Effective Decision Making: Superficial processing/too little info)

(Week 10)

continue to irrationally invest in an ineffective course of action due to sunk costs.

Three Strategies to Enhance

Decision Making

(Week 10)

1. Decisional Balance Sheet

2. Problem Definition/Framing

3. Pre-Mortem Exercise

Decisional Balance Sheet

(Week 10)

Consideration in four different areas:

Gain/losses for self, Gain/losses for others, Self-approval or disapproval, Approval or disapproval of others. Rank pros and cons of each of them

Bazerman's Problem Definition

(Week 10)

Obtaining a broader perspective of the problem through a wider search of information

Define the problem, Identify the criteria, Weigh the criteria, Generate alternatives Rate each alternative on each criterion, Compute the optimal decision

Realities of Managerial Problem Solving

(Week 11)

risk, uncertainty, lack of structure, conflict

Programmed decisions

(Week 11)

Decisions encountered and made before, having objectively correct answers, and solvable by using simple rules, policies, or numerical computations.

Non programmed decisions

(Week 11)

New, novel, complex decisions having no proven answers.

Stages of Decision Making

(Week 11)

1. Situational Analysis

2. Problem Analysis

3. Solution Analysis

4. Implementation Analysis

Situational Analysis

(Week 11)

Visioning/Exploration, Priority Setting

- Determine the right problem to tackle

- Identify the values and goals involved and which are the most important priorities for action

- Envision what is possible; what is the desired goal

- Trial and error exploration of what's going on in the situation

Problem Analysis

(Week 11)

Information Gathering, Problem Definition

- Understand and define the problem thoroughly

- Gather information, creating scenarios, using the scenarios to gather more info to prove or disprove initial conclusions

- Gather all the necessary information (e.g., talking with people, reviewing data and procedures, brainstorming, etc.)

- Build a model portraying how the problem works

Solution Analysis

(Week 11)

Idea Getting, Decision Making

- Generating ideas about how the problem can be solved and assessing their feasibility

- Creatively searching for ideas and then evaluating them against feasibility

- Identify as many ideas as possible (brainstorming)

- Evaluate ideas against criteria that an effective solution must meet

Implementation Analysis

(Week 11)

Participation, Planning

- Ensuring the solution is successfully implemented

- Work to accomplish the tasks with other people

- Enlist the appropriate involvement of others who are essential to carrying out the problem solution

- Define the tasks, identify individuals, set deadlines, plan for monitoring and evaluation

Kolb Model of Group Problem Solving

(Week 11)

Problem solving does not proceed in a logical, linear fashion from beginning to end. It is more wave like, characterized by expansions and contractions - moving outwardly to gather information and then focus inwardly for analysis/decisions.

Kolb Model of Group Problem Solving Green Mode

(Ch. 11)

Expansive Phases

- Creative imagination

- Sensitivity to the immediate situation

- Empathy with other people

Kolb Model of Group Problem Solving Red Mode

Contraction Phases

- Analysis

- Criticism

- Logical Thinking

- Coping with the External Environment

Consultative

(Group Decision Making in Organizations)

(Week 11)

leader consults with members (one end of spectrum)

Consensus

(Group Decision Making in Organizations)

(Week 11)

leader shares problem and together they generate/evaluate problem/solutions (middle of spectrum)

Democratic

(Group Decision Making in Organizations)

(Week 11)

problem given to group and members empowered to make the decision (other end of spectrum)

Brainstorming

(Group Decision Making Techniques)

(Week 11)

Generating alternative solutions to a problem rapidly

- avoid criticism

- encourage freewheeling

- welcome all ideas

- encourage piggybacking

Nominal Group Technique

(Group Decision Making Techniques)

(Week 11)

Generating and evaluating alternative solutions to a problem

- Introduction/posting of problem

- Silent generation of ideas

- Round-robin recording of ideas.

- Discussion of ideas in order

- Voting and ranking

Delphi Technique

(Group Decision Making Techniques)

(Week 11)

Participants don't engage face-to-face discussions. Their input is solicited by mail/email

- Each member (typically experts) receives same questions

- Anonymous comments, suggestions, solutions

- Information is compiled and redistributed

- Feedback on collective comments

- Repeat steps 3&4 until consensus

Devil's Advocate

(Group Decision Making Techniques)

(Week 11)

assigning someone the role of critic, avoids groupthink

The Dialectic Method

(Group Decision Making Techniques)

(Week 11)

calls for managers to foster a structured debate of opposing viewpoints prior to making a decision

- two groups homogenous within but very different from each other

Conflict

(Week 12)

a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about

Helpful Conflict

(Week 12)

C-type conflict, "cognitive conflict" or "task conflict" is conflict about task-related issues.

- Focuses attention on the often ignored assumptions that may underlie a particular issue

- Encourages innovative thinking and promotes creative solutions to problems

- Builds understanding and commitment to the team's goals and decisions (results in "buy in")

- Improves team effectiveness: MORE focused, creative, integrative and open.

Harmful Conflict

(Week 12)

A-type, "affective conflict" or "relational conflict" is about individual issues. 

- Decision quality declines along with the commitment and understanding necessary to get the decision successfully implemented

- Provokes hostility, distrust, cynicism, and apathy among team members, thereby obstructing open communication and integration

- Decreases the likelihood that people will accept final decisions and work together well in the long-term.

- Decreases team effectiveness: LESS focused, creative, integrative and open.

The Conflict Process

(Week 12)

Stage 1: Potential Opposition

Stage 2: Cognition & Personalization

Stage 3: Intention to Manage Conflict

Stage 4: Behavior

Stage 5: Outcomes

Three Conditions for Conflict

(Week 12)

Communication, Structure, Personal Variables

Personal Barriers

(Conditions for Conflict - Communication)

(Week 12)

any individual attribute that hinders communication ex: different skill levels, variation in processing and interpretation, trust issues, stereotypes, prejudices, egos, poor listening skills, etc.

Physical Barriers

(Conditions for Conflict - Communication)

(Week 12)

physical noise, time zone differences, physical distance, office design, etc.

Semantic Barriers

(Conditions for Conflict - Communication)

(Week 12)

words themselves

- Jargon - language, acronyms, or terminology specific to a profession, group or company

- Buzzwords - overused words, faddish phrases (e.g., "transparency")

Condition for Conflict: Structure

(Week 12)

organization or team structure creates ambiguity in who is responsible for what - conflict between or within groups

Condition for Conflict: Personal Variables

(Week 12)

Different personal styles or personality can create tension:

- Incompatible personality traits

- Differing value systems

Situational Factors of Managing Conflict

(Week 12)

- Importance of Issue to You versus Others

- Importance of Relationship to You versus Others

- Perceptions of Other's Aggressiveness

- Assertiveness (own concerns)

- Cooperativeness (other's concerns)

Assertiveness

(Week 12)

the extent to which the individual attempts to satisfy his or her own concerns.

Cooperativeness

(Week 12)

the extent to which the individual attempts to satisfy the other person's concerns.

Competing

(Stage 3: Intention to Manage Conflict)

(Week 12)

Assertive and uncooperative - own wants are most important

Accommodating

(Stage 3: Intention to Manage Conflict)

(Week 12)

Unassertive and cooperative (the opposite of Competing) - self sacrifice, yielding

Avoiding

(Stage 3: Intention to Manage Conflict)

(Week 12)

Unassertive and uncooperative - avoiding the conflict; withdrawing. lower left corner of graph, opposite of collaborating

Collaborating

(Stage 3: Intention to Manage Conflict)

(Week 12)

Assertive and cooperative (the opposite of Avoiding) - working together to find a solution that fully satisfies the concerns of both. upper right corner of graph

Compromising

(Stage 3: Intention to Manage Conflict)

(Week 12)

Intermediate in both Assertiveness and Cooperativeness - finding a mutually acceptable solution that partially satisfies both parties - seeking a middle ground. very middle of graph

Functional Outcome of conflict

(Week 12)

- Improves the group's performance

- Improves the quality of decisions

- Stimulates creativity and innovations

- Encourages interest and curiosity among group members

- Provides the medium through which problems can be aired and tensions released

- Fosters an environment of self-evaluation and change

Dysfunctional Outcome of conflict

(Week 12)

- Hinders group performance

- Poor communication

- Reduces group cohesiveness

- Ignores group goals

- Infighting between members

- Could lead to the destruction/dissolution of the group