Lecture 8/26

Management is about Organizations

The key is organizations’ “very productive way of getting things done”

• Division of Labor

  • Leverage resources

  • Social creatures

Superior Performance is not automatic

Organizations come with challenges

• Individual, Team, and Firm Levels

People are complex

Motivations

Personalities

Decision-Making

Understanding Organisations (Individual, Team, and Firm)

Why are the degrees we offer useful?

• They work in any organization

  • Analysts, consultants, and managers all require a broad understanding of the organizational structure

Lecture 8/28

What is Management?

The pursuit of organizational goals efficiently and effectively by connecting people to

• Purpose

  • other people

  • the right resources to achieve competitive advantage (doing something better, results and performance)

Organizational Goals Provide

Purpose and Direction

• Set goals and you determine how to achieve them

  • Arrange tasks/people and motivate people to achieve those goals

    • Goals lead to better performance

Control

• compare performance with goals

Effectiveness

Doing the Right Things

• make the right decisions and carry them out to achieve

Efficiency

Doing Things Right

• to use resources (people, money, raw materials) without waste, using the minimum amount possible

Connecting People to Purpose

Helping employees/team members understand how their efforts are worthwhile and connected to the organization

• Creating a sense that employees have a role in the organization

Connecting People to Resources

Giving employees tools so they can be as productive as possible

• Machinery, education, tools to manage information, technology, their time

Connecting People to People

Helping employees create and maintain internal and external networks that add value to their work and ultimately value to the organization

Competitive Advantage

Weak firms die in competitive markets

• Need to maximize finite resources

Beyond Managing for Competitive Advantage

Sustainability

• Economic development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

Ethical Standards

• Ethics and profits do not always go hand in hand (e.g., minimum wage, pollution, working conditions abroad VS. profits)

Levels and Areas of Management

Top Managers

• make long-term decisions about the overall direction of the organization and establish the objectives, policies, and strategies for it

Middle Managers

• implement the policies and plans of top managers and supervise and coordinate the activities of the first-line managers below them

Front-Line Managers

• make short-term operating decisions, direct the daily tasks of non-managerial personnel

Team Leader

• a manager who is responsible for facilitating team activities toward achieving key results

Functional Manager

• responsible for just one organizational activity

General Manager

• responsible for several organizational activities

Skills Managers Need

Technical skills

• the job-specific knowledge needed to perform well in a specialized field

Conceptual skills

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

​​Human / Soft skills

• the ability to work well in cooperation with other people to get things done

  • the ability to motivate, inspire trust, and communicate with others

Three Types of Managerial Roles

Interpersonal roles

• managers interact with people inside and outside their work units figureheads, leaders, liaison

Informational roles

• managers receive and communicate information

  • monitor, disseminator, spokesperson

Decisional roles

• managers use the information to make decisions to solve problems or take advantage of opportunities entrepreneurs, disturbance handlers, resource allocators, negotiator

What is Entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship

• process of taking risks to try to create a new empire

Entrepreneur

• someone who sees a new opportunity for a product or service and launches a business to try to realize it

Being an entrepreneur is what it takes to start a business, Being a manager is what it takes to run abusiness

Types of Organizations

For-Profit Organizations: For Making Money

Nonprofit Organizations: For Offering Services

Mutual-Benefit Organizations: For Aiding Members

Lecture 9/4