CHAP 1 PRINC OF MGMT

Introduction to Management

Learning Outcomes

After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:

• What do managers do to help organizations achieve top performance?

• What are the roles that managers play in organizations?

• What are the characteristics that effective managers display?

Preamble

• Students may have various preconceptions about management, influenced by personal experiences, part-time jobs, or prominent figures in business.

• Some common misconceptions include:

  • Management is simply common sense.

  • Upcoming managers believe they will not require management skills in their future careers.

What Do Managers Do?

Overview of Managerial Activities

• Traditional Activities: Most management textbooks describe managerial work as consisting of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and controlling.

• Hannaway's Study: Suggested these activities do not accurately describe what managers do in practice, pointing out that managerial work is instead characterized by a complex and fast-paced environment.

The Nature of Managerial Work

• Constant Action: Managers are always engaged in action. They frequently switch tasks and address issues as they arise.

  • Studies of Managers: For instance, Mintzberg observed that CEOs have an average of 36 written and 16 verbal contacts daily, usually addressing different topics in brief conversations that typically last less than nine minutes.

• Interactional Nature of Management: 70-90% of a manager's time is spent interacting with others, including subordinates and external contacts.

• Casual Interactions: Managers often spend around 2/3 of their time in conversation, illustrating how managerial work fundamentally involves communication.

Key Studies on Managerial Work

• Kotter's Study: Found managers spent only 25% of their time alone, primarily when commuting or working at home. Most engaging conversations last less than 10 minutes, covering multiple topics, including unimportant issues.

• Sproull's Observations: Managers participated in an average of 58 different activities during a day, with an average duration of just 9 minutes per activity.

• Stewart's Findings: Managers struggle to work uninterrupted for long periods; they could do so only 9 times in four weeks.

• Management Misconceptions: Contrary to textbook representations, managers rarely engage in solitary planning or decision-making but focus on verbal interactions.

The Roles Managers Play

Core Management Roles (Mintzberg)

• Mintzberg categorized managerial roles into three primary groups:

1. Interpersonal Roles

• Interactions: Managers engage significantly in relationships with others, hosting events, having dinners, hiring interviews, and forming alliances.

• **Key Roles:

  • Figurehead Role: Involves ceremonial duties and representation of the organization (e.g., responding to mail related to status).

  • Leader Role: Involves motivating and influencing team members; leadership effectiveness is critical to success (e.g., examples like Lee Iacocca at Chrysler and Howard Schultz at Starbucks illustrate the importance of leadership).

  • Liaison Role: Involves maintaining contacts outside the chain of command, spending much time with peers and external stakeholders rather than superiors.

2. Informational Roles

• Information Gathering: Managers analyze diverse information, transforming into information centers.

• Monitoring: Constant scanning of the environment; informal information often comes from networks of personal contacts.

• Disseminating: Managers provide privileged information to subordinates, deciding access levels and formats.

• Spokesperson Role: Managers represent the organization externally, communicating with media and the public, emphasizing the importance of public relations and potential risks.

3. Decisional Roles

• Decision-Making: Managers make critical decisions under ambiguous conditions, balancing conflicting interests and outcomes.

• Entrepreneur Role: Managers initiate improvements and innovations in response to market changes and opportunities.

• Disturbance Handler Role: Reacting to crises, whether arising due to mismanagement or unforeseen events.

• Resource Allocator Role: Decisions regarding the distribution of limited resources, including time, personnel, and finances, are critical to operations.

• Negotiator Role: Managers frequently negotiate on budget, labor agreements, and other disputes to maintain organizational harmony.

Major Characteristics of a Manager's Job

Fragmented Work

• Time Management Challenges: Demand for managerial time has increased, complicating the ability to effectively manage tasks and responsibilities.

  • Overburdened Managers: They find themselves overwhelmed with obligations and limited capacity for superficial task management.

Values Compete

• Managers often face conflicting demands from various stakeholders, leading to tensions when addressing everyone's needs.

Job Overload

• Decentralization Trends: Many managers now supervise increased numbers of direct reports, often leading to management inefficiencies.

• Efficiency as Core Skill: In a landscape of increasing responsibilities and expectations, efficiency emerges as critical for success.

Emphasis on Entrepreneurial Roles

• Managers must adapt to changing market landscapes by identifying threats and opportunities, focusing on effective mentorship and leadership within their organizations.

Managerial Responsibilities

Summary of Responsibilities (9 Major Types)

1. Long-range Planning: Involves strategic development for the organization's future.

2. Controlling: Evaluates resource allocation and utilizations.

3. Environmental Scanning: Monitoring external business indicators and adapting accordingly.

4. Supervision: Overseeing the team effectively.

5. Coordinating: Ensuring harmony in tasks and processes across the organization.

6. Customer Relations and Marketing: Engaging with customers and marketing strategies.

7. Community Relations: Building relations with external constituents, government agencies, and communities.

8. Internal Consulting: Applying technical expertise to internal challenges and processes.

9. Monitoring Products and Services: Involvement in overseeing the creation and delivery of the organization's offerings.

Variations in Managerial Work

• Level of Management: Distinction exists between executive, middle, and first-line managers with respect to their focus on strategic vs. operational issues.

• Department Focus: Variations exist in responsibilities based on department or function, such as marketing vs. finance roles where priorities and activities differ significantly.

Types of Managerial Skills

1. Technical Skills: Practical knowledge necessary for specific tasks, e.g., understanding accounting principles or operational management.

2. Human Relations Skills: Ability to foster relationships and understand group dynamics and motivation.

3. Conceptual Skills: Ability to organize and analyze information collectively for improving organizational outcomes.

   • Skill Levels Vary by Hierarchy: Executive positions demand higher levels of conceptual skills, while first-line management prioritizes technical skills across the spectrum.

Conclusion and Reflection

Summary of Learning Outcomes

1. Understanding the diverse activities and performance-enhancing responsibilities of managers.

2. Clarifying the roles within organizations: interpersonal, informational, and decisional roles.

3. Recognizing how manager performance varies with hierarchy and department.

Review Questions

1. Characteristics of successful managers.

2. Considering management as an occupation.

3. Learning methodologies for managers.

4. Discussing Mintzberg's managerial definitions.

5. Managerial responsibilities towards organizational people.

6. Decision-making processes as outlined by John Kotter.

7. Rational decision-making methodologies.

8. Management dynamics related to hierarchical level and functional context.

9. Discussing societal context management.

10. Identifying critical contemporary management issues.

Practical Exercises

Skills Application Exercises

1. Document your competencies through a portfolio for future job interviews.

2. Categorize your time spent into required and discretionary activities, assessing productivity.

Decision-Making Exercises

1. Identifying roles undertaken in various situations.

2. Ranking job types by required managerial skills.

Critical Thinking Case Analysis

• Current events impact corporate cultural standards and influence approaches to misconduct and ethical management.

Questions for Discussion

1. Impact of cultural environment on corporate practices.

2. Positives and negatives of corporate cultures like Netflix's approach.

3. Effects of internal culture on competitive advantage and content delivery.