Management Skills Notes

(Week 9) Bases of Power

Personal - Source of Expertise/Ability & Admiration and Desire to Please

Positional (Formal) - Fear of the negative (threats-coercive)/Hope for the positive (rewards)/Legitimate 

Relational - Sources of resources/Positions in network

Influence Tactics 

Interpersonal - Influencing other individuals and/or group members

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

Interpersonal Influence Principles

Liking - People like those who like them

Reciprocity - People repay in kind.

Social Proof - People follow the lead of similar others

Consistency - People align with their clear commitments

Authority - People defer to experts

Scarcity - People want more of what they can have less of

(Week 10) Models of Decision-Making

The Rational Model - managers use a rational approach to decision-making

The Non-Rational Model

• Simon’s Normative Model - Bounded Rationality -  people are restricted in the information they possess, conduct a limited search for solutions, and settle for less-than-optimal solutions

• Garbage Can Model - decision making is haphazard, chaotic, unpredictable, and sometimes depends on luck

Decision-Making Styles

Analytical - higher tolerance for ambiguity; overanalyze a situation; consider more information

Directive - low tolerance for ambiguity; task and technical concerns; decisive but can be autocratic

Conceptual - high tolerance for ambiguity; focus on people/social aspects of a work situation; long-term

Behavioral - most people-oriented; low tolerance for ambiguity; hard time saying no

Intuition represents judgment, insights, or decisions that "come to mind on their own, without explicit awareness of the evoking cues and, of course, without explicit evaluation of the validity of these cues 

(Week 11) Advantages - Resources, Motivational effects

Disadvantages - Inefficient, Communication problems, Information under-utilization

Pitfalls - Groupthink, Group Polarization, Abilene Paradox

Approaches to decision-making

Leader-Oriented - Consultative: Leader consults with group members

Group Technique - Democratic: Group votes and majority rules

Full Participation - Consensus: Group reaches consensus

(Week 12) Conflict Paradigms

• Traditional view - All conflict is bad

• Interactionist view - Minimal conflict level helps group, but not all conflicts are good

Conflict styles - Competing, Accommodating, Collaborating, Avoiding, Compromising

Conflict stages - Potential Opposition, Cognition & Personalization, Intentions/Conflict Management Styles, Behavior, Outcomes