Introduction to Management

What are the two main categories of organizational members?

1. Nonmanagerial employees work directly on a task and do not oversee the work of others. Examples include a cashier in a home improvement store or someone who takes your order at a coffee store. They may be called associates, team members, or contributors. 2. Managers, who direct and oversee the activities of the people in the organization. A manager's job isn't about personal achievement—it's about helping others do their work. This distinction doesn't mean, however, that managers don't ever work directly on tasks.

How can an organization recruit applicants?

-Internet/social media Reaches large numbers of people; can get immediate feedback 92 percent of recruiters use social media when looking for potential candidates12 Generates many unqualified candidates -Employee referrals Knowledge about the organization provided by current employee; can generate strong candidates because a good referral reflects on the recommender May not increase the diversity and mix of employees -Company Web site Wide distribution; can be targeted to specific groups Generates many unqualified candidates -College recruiting/job fairs Large centralized body of candidates Limited to entry-level positions -Professional recruiting organizations Good knowledge of industry challenges and requirements Little commitment to specific organization

How does a customer-responsive culture look like?

-Type of employee Hire people with personalities and attitudes consistent with customer service: friendly, attentive, enthusiastic, patient, good listening skills -Type of job environment Design jobs so employees have as much control as possible to satisfy customer, without rigid rules and procedures -Empowerment Give service-contact employees the discretion to make day-to-day decision on job-related activites -Role clarity Reduce uncertainty about what service-contact employees can and cannot do by continual training on product knowledge, listening, and other behavioral skills -Consistent desire to satisfy and delight customer Clarify organization's commitment to doing whatever it takes, even if it's outside an employee's normal job requirements

How Does Culture Affect What Managers Do?

Because an organization's culture constrains what they can and cannot do and how they manage, it's particularly relevant to managers. Such constraints are rarely explicit. They're not written down. It's unlikely they'll even be spoken. But they're there, and all managers quickly learn what to do and not do in their organization. In a so-called "ready-aim-fire" culture, managers will study and analyze proposed projects endlessly before committing to them. However, in a "ready-fire-aim" culture, managers take action and then analyze what has been done. If an organization's culture supports the belief that profits can be increased by cost cutting and that the company's best interests are served by achieving slow but steady increases in quarterly earnings, managers are unlikely to pursue programs that are innovative, risky, long-term, or expansionary. In an organization whose culture conveys a basic distrust of employees, managers are more likely to use an authoritarian leadership style than a democratic one. The culture establishes for managers appropriate and expected behavior.

What is contemporary organizational design be like?

Because managers find that the traditional designs often aren't responsive enough to today's increasingly dynamic and complex environment, they find creative, more organic ways to structure and organize work. •In team-based structures, the entire organization is made up of work teams that do the organization's work. •Matrix and project structures assign specialists from different functional departments to work on projects led by a project manager. •Boundaryless structures are organizations with designs that are not defined by, or limited to, the horizontal, vertical, or external boundaries imposed by a predefined structure.

What are the types of power?

Coercive power Power based on fear. Reward power Power based on the ability to distribute something that others value. Legitimate power Power based on one's position in the formal hierarchy. Expert power Power based on one's expertise, special skill, or knowledge. Referent power Power based on identification with a person who has desirable resources or personal traits.

What is stability strategy?

During times of economic uncertainty, many companies choose a stability strategy in which the organization continues to do what it is currently doing, such as serving the same clients by offering the same product or service, maintaining market share, and sustaining the organization's current business operations. The organization doesn't grow, but doesn't fall behind either.

How Do Authority and Power Differ?

Early management writers assumed that the rights inherent in one's position in an organization were the sole source of influence and that the higher a manager's position in the organization, the more influence he or she had. Today, however, management recognizes that you don't have to be a manager to have power. Authority and power are often considered the same thing, but they're not. Authority is a right and its legitimacy is based on an authority figure's position in the organization. Power, on the other hand, refers to an individual's capacity to influence decisions.

What is the connection between technology and structure?

Environment is a constraint on managerial discretion. Environment also has a major effect on an organization's structure: — Stable environment: Mechanistic structure — Dynamic/uncertain environment: Organic structure It helps explain why so many managers today have restructured their organizations to be lean, fast, and flexible.

What is the connection between technology and structure?

Every organization uses some form of technology to convert its inputs into outputs.

What is a compressed workweek?

In a compressed workweek employees work more hours per day but fewer days per week. The most common arrangement is four 10-hour days.

What is the sharing economy?

In a sharing economy asset owners share with other individuals through peer-to-peer service, for a set fee, their underutilized physical assets or their knowledge, expertise, skills, or time.

What Is the External Environment and Why Is It Important?

One of the biggest mistakes managers make today is failing to adapt to the changing world. That's also one of the biggest mistakes you can make as an employee. The term external environment refers to factors, forces, situations, and events outside the organization that affect its performance.

How Does Organizational Culture Affect Managers?

Organizational culture affects managers in two primary ways: •Through its effect on what employees do and how they behave, and •Through its effect on what managers do as they plan, organize, lead, and control.

Who are contingent workers?

The labor force has already begun shifting away from traditional full-time jobs towards contingent workers—temporary, freelance, or contract workers whose employment is contingent upon demand for their services. In today's economy, many organizations have responded by converting full-time permanent jobs into contingent jobs. It's predicted that by the end of the next decade the number of contingent employees will grow from 30 percent to about 40 percent of the workforce.

What is human resource management?

The quality of an organization is, to a large degree, determined by the quality of the people it employs. Staffing and HRM decisions and actions are critical to ensuring that the organization hires and keeps the right people. Getting that done is what human resource management (HRM) is all about.

What is the connection between size and structure?

There is considerable evidence that size (number of employees) affects structure; the magic number seems to be 2,000 employees. LARGE organizations (> 2,000 employees)—mechanistic. When an organization reaches this number, size is less influential; adding more employees has little impact as structure is already fairly mechanistic. Adding a significant number of new employees to a smaller organization that has a more organic structure will force it to become more mechanistic.

What affirmative action?

Trying to balance the "shoulds and should nots" of these laws often falls within the realm of affirmative action programs, which ensure that decisions and practices enhance the employment, upgrading, and retention of members of protected groups, such as minorities and females. Although these regulations have significantly helped to reduce employment discrimination and unfair employment practices, they have also reduced management's control over HR decisions.

What are the Components of the External Environment?

•The economic component encompasses factors such as interest rates, inflation, changes in disposable income, stock market fluctuations, and business cycle stages. • The demographic component includes trends in population characteristics such as age, race, gender, education level, geographic location, income, and family composition. • The technological component focuses on scientific and industrial innovations. • The sociocultural component is concerned with societal and cultural factors such as values, attitudes, trends, traditions, lifestyles, beliefs, tastes, and patterns of behavior. • The political/legal component looks at federal, state, and local laws, as well as other countries' laws and global laws. It also includes a country's political conditions and stability. • The global component encompasses issues associated with globalization and a world economy.

What are the Elements of Organizational Structure?

•Work specialization Work specialization is the division of work activities into separate job tasks. When first introduced, specialization almost always generated higher productivity. But at some point, the human diseconomies—boredom, fatigue, stress, low productivity, poor quality, increased absenteeism, and high turnover—exceed the economic advantages. Most managers today see work specialization as an important organizing mechanism because it helps employees to be more efficient. However, managers also have to recognize its limitations. • Departmentalization Early management writers argued that common work activities needed to be grouped together to get them done in a coordinated and integrated way. How jobs are grouped together is called departmentalization. There are five common forms of departmentalization, although an organization may use its own unique method. 1. Functional departmentalization, or grouping activities by function—such as engineering, accounting, information systems, and human resources—is one of the most popular ways of organizing the workplace. Its major advantage is that it achieves economies of scale by placing people with common skills and specializations into common units. 2. Product departmentalization groups employees based on a corporation's major product areas. Each product is under the authority of a senior manager who is a specialist in, and is responsible for, everything related to his or her product line. The advantage of product grouping is that it increases accountability for product performance because all activities related to a specific product are under the direction of a single manager. 3. Employees can also be grouped by the type of customer an organization seeks to reach. The assumption underlying customer departmentalization is that customers in each department have a common set of problems and needs that can best be met by specialists. 4. Another way to departmentalize is on the basis of geography or territory, which is called geographic departmentalization. The sales function might have western, southern, midwestern, and eastern regions. 5. Process departmentalization groups activities on the basis of work or customer flow. Units are organized around common skills needed to complete a certain process. Still other organizations use cross-functional teams, which are teams comprised of individuals from various departments who tackle complex tasks in which diverse skills are needed. Note also that today's competitive environment has refocused the attention of management on its customers, so many organizations are placing greater emphasis on customer departmentalization. • Authority and responsibility When organizing work, managers need to clarify who reports to whom, which is known as the chain of command—that is, the line of authority extending from upper to lower organizational levels. Authority refers to the rights inherent in a managerial position to give orders and expect those orders to be obeyed. Authority is a major concept discussed by the early management writers, who viewed it as the glue that held an organization together. Each management position had specific inherent rights associated with the position's rank or title. When managers delegate authority, they must allocate commensurate responsibility. That is, when employees are given rights they also assume a corresponding obligation to perform and be held accountable for their performance. Early management writers distinguished between two forms of authority: line authority and staff authority. Line authority entitles a manager to direct the work of an employee according to the chain of command. In the chain of command, every manager is subject to the direction of his or her superior. • Span of control Effective and efficient span depends on: •Employee experience and training (more they have, larger span) •Similarity of employee tasks (more similarity, larger span) •Complexity of those tasks (more complex, smaller span) • Centralization versus decentralization Centralization is the degree to which decision making takes place at upper levels of the organization. Decentralization is the degree to which lower-level managers provide input or actually make decisions. Traditionally, organizations were structured in a pyramid, with power and authority concentrated near the top. Today's organizations are more complex and responsive to dynamic changes in their environments, so many managers believe that decisions need to be made by those individuals closest to the problems. Notice, however, that decentralization doesn't imply that top-level managers no longer make decisions. • Formalization Formalization refers to how standardized an organization's jobs are and the extent to which employee behavior is guided by rules and procedures. In highly formalized organizations, there are explicit job descriptions, numerous organizational rules, and clearly defined procedures covering work processes. Although some formalization is necessary for consistency and control, today many organizations rely less on strict rules and standardization to guide and regulate employee behavior than they did in the past. Employees are given the latitude, for example, to accommodate a customer dropping off a roll of film to develop a half-hour after the store's cutoff time. With low formalization, the employee could calculate that she can develop the film before store closing and thus, demonstrate good customer service and bring in revenue. Of course, there will always be organizational rules that are important for employees to follow—and these rules should be explained so employees understand why it's important to adhere to them.

What is remote work?

Remote work is doing work via virtual devices from any remote location.

What project structure is like?

Instead of a matrix structure, many organizations are using a project structure, in which employees continuously work on projects. Unlike the matrix, a project structure has no formal departments to which employees return at the completion of a project. Instead, employees take their specific skills, abilities, and experiences to other projects. Additionally, all work in project structures is performed by teams of employees.

Where do managers work?

Managers work in organizations.

What are the four specific changes that are increasingly important to organizations and managers everywhere?

-customers Organizations depend on their customers to exist in the marketplace. Until recently, customer focus was thought to be the responsibility of marketing, but organizations are now discovering that employee attitudes and behaviors play a big role in customer satisfaction. Managers are recognizing that delivering consistent high-quality customer service is essential for survival and success in today's competitive environment. -innovation Innovation means doing things differently, exploring new territory, and taking risks. In today's challenging environment, innovation is critical and managers need to understand what, when, where, how, and why innovation can be fostered and encouraged throughout an organization. Managers need to be personally innovative and to encourage their employees to be innovative.. -social media Managers need to understand and manage the power of social media, because employees use them for both personal and work purposes. More and more businesses are turning to social media not just as a way to connect with customers but also as a way to manage their human resources and tap into their innovation and talent. Managers need to remember that social media is a tool that needs to be managed to be beneficial. -sustainability This means not just managing efficiently and effectively, but also responding strategically to environmental and societal challenges. Sustainability can be defined as meeting the needs of people today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. From a business perspective, sustainability refers to a company's ability to achieve its business goals and increase long-term shareholder value by integrating economic, environmental, and social opportunities into its business strategies.

What type of plans are there?

1. Breadth involves strategic plans, which are those that apply to an entire organization and encompass the organization's overall goals, versus tactical plans (also referred to as operational plans), which specify the details of how the overall goals are to be achieved. 2. Time frame refers to the number of months or years used to define short-term and long-term plans. 3. Specificity refers to whether a plan is specific or more general. Due to current environmental uncertainty, managers must be flexible in responding to unexpected changes, so they're more likely to use directional plans that set general guidelines. Managers who engage in planning must weigh the flexibility of directional plans against the clarity that specific plans offer. 4. Frequency of use describes whether plans are ongoing or used only once. Standing plans are ongoing plans that provide guidance for activities performed repeatedly, whereas single-use plans are one-time plans specifically designed to meet the needs of a unique situation.

What does the first phase of the HRM process involve?

1. Employment planning 2. Recruitment and downsizing 3. Selection Employment planning is the process by which managers ensure that they have the right number and kinds of people in the right places at the right times; people who are capable of effectively and efficiently completing those tasks that will help the organization achieve its overall goals. This process translates the organization's mission and goals into an HR plan that allows the organization to achieve those goals by: 1. Assessing current and future human resource needs. Developing a plan to meet those needs.

What identifies organizations? What Three Characteristics Do All Organizations Share?

1. Goals, which express the distinct purpose of a particular organization 2. People, who make decisions and engage in work activities to reach the organization's goals, and 3. A deliberate structure, which systematically defines and limits its members' behavior.

What are the contemporary issues of planning?

1. Planning effectively in dynamic environments, and 2. How managers can use environmental scanning, especially competitive intelligence. In today's changing and uncertain environment, managers should develop plans that are specific but flexible. Managers need to recognize that planning is an ongoing process and that plans serve as a road map—although the destination may change due to dynamic market conditions. The flexibility to change direction is particularly important as plans are implemented. Even when the environment is highly uncertain, it's important to continue formal planning to improve organizational performance. Persistence and practice in planning contributes to significant performance improvement. In dynamic environments, making a flatter hierarchy means lower organizational levels can set goals and develop plans because organizations have little time for goals and plans to flow down from the top. Managers should teach their employees how to set goals and to plan, and then trust them to do it. A manager's analysis of the external environment may be improved by environmental scanning, which involves screening large amounts of information to detect emerging trends. One of the fastest-growing forms of environmental scanning is competitive intelligence, which is accurate information about competitors that allows managers to anticipate competitors' actions rather than merely react to them. Much of the competitor-related information managers need to make crucial strategic decisions is available and accessible to the public. In other words, competitive intelligence isn't organizational espionage. Advertisements, promotional materials, press releases, reports filed with government agencies, annual reports, want ads, newspaper reports, information on the Internet, and industry studies are readily accessible sources of information. Managers do need to be careful about the way information, especially competitive intelligence, is gathered to prevent any concerns about whether it's legal or ethical. Competitive intelligence becomes illegal corporate spying when it involves the theft of proprietary materials or trade secrets by any means.

What is telecommuting?

Telecommuting is a work arrangement in which employees work at home and are linked to the workplace by computer. This arrangement saves the organization overhead and allows employees to save on commuting expenses and time. In this arrangement, managers might be concerned about supervising the productivity of remote employees, keeping employees connected socially, and the security of business information.

What is a competitive strategy?

A competitive strategy is a strategy for how an organization will compete in its business. For a small organization in only one line of business or a large organization with little product or market diversification, the competitive strategy describes how the organization will compete in its primary market. For organizations in multiple businesses, each business has its own competitive strategy that defines its competitive advantage, the products or services it will offer, the customers it wants to reach, and so on. When an organization engages in several different businesses, those single businesses that are independent and formulate their own competitive strategies are often called strategic business units (SBUs). Developing an effective competitive strategy requires an understanding of the organization's competitive advantage, which is whatever sets it apart from the competition. That distinctive edge comes from the organization's core competencies. Competitive advantage also can come from the company's resources—something that the organization has that its competitors don't. 1. Cost leadership strategy 2. Differentiation strategy 3. Focus strategy—involves a cost advantage (or "cost focus") 4. Stuck in the middle Use strategic management to get a sustainable competitive advantage.

What are organizations?

A deliberate arrangement of people brought together to accomplish a specific purpose.

What is the functional organizational design be like?

A functional structure is an organizational design that groups similar or related occupational specialties. For example, Revlon, Inc. is organized around the functions of operations, finance, human resources, and product research and development. The strength of the functional structure is the advantages of economies of scale, minimal duplication of personnel and equipment, and more satisfied employees who speak the same language as their peers. The most obvious weakness of the functional structure is that the organization frequently loses sight of its best interests in the pursuit of functional goals. No single function is totally responsible for results, so members within individual functions become insulated and have little understanding of what people in other functions are doing.

Can ethics be taught?

An increasing number of organizations are setting up seminars, workshops, and ethics training programs to encourage ethical behavior. Critics maintain that people establish their individual value systems when they're young, so later training is pointless. However, proponents note studies that show that: • It's never too late to learn values. • Teaching ethical problem solving increases: - Instances of better ethical behaviors; - Individuals' level of moral development; and - Awareness of ethical issues in business.

What are the Criticisms of Formal Planning?

Although it makes sense for an organization to establish goals and direction, critics have challenged some of the basic assumptions of planning. Planning may create rigidity with goals and a timetable that are set under the assumption that the environment won't change. Managers need to remain flexible and not be tied to a course of action simply because it's the plan. 1. Formal plans cannot replace intuition and creativity. Planning should enhance and support intuition and creativity, not replace it. 2. Planning focuses managers' attention on today's competition, not on tomorrow's survival. Formal planning tends to focus on how best to capitalize on existing business opportunities instead of ways to reinvent the industry. Instead of focusing on today, managers should plan with an eye to untapped opportunities. 3. Formal planning reinforces success, which may lead to failure. It's difficult to shift from the comfort of what works to the uncertainty of the unknown. However, managers may need to face that unknown and do things in new ways to be even more successful.

How does culture affect managerial decisions?

An organization's culture, especially a strong one, influences and constrains the way managers plan, organize, lead, and control. For example, the culture influences managerial planning about the degree of risk that plans should contain, whether plans should be developed by individuals or teams, or the amount of environmental scanning in which management will engage. With organizing activities, culture influences how much autonomy should be designed into employees' jobs, whether tasks should be done by individuals or in teams, and the degree to which department managers interact with each other. When it comes to leading, organization culture helps determine the degree to which managers try to increase employee job satisfaction, appropriate leadership styles, and whether all disagreements—even constructive ones—should be eliminated. Finally, the culture influences managers' controlling activities: for example, whether they impose external controls or to allow employees to control their own actions, which criteria should be emphasized in employee performance evaluations, and the repercussions for exceeding one's budget.

What is an orientation?

An orientation process introduces new hires to the organization. The major goals are to: •Reduce the initial anxiety all new employees feel as they begin a new job. •Familiarize new employees with the job, the work unit, and the organization as a whole. •Facilitate the outsider-insider transition. • Job orientation expands on the information the employee obtained during the recruitment and selection stages, clarifies the new employee's specific duties and responsibilities as well as how his or her performance will be evaluated, and corrects any unrealistic expectations new employees might hold about the job. Orientation is the time to correct any unrealistic expectations new employees might hold about the job. Work unit orientation familiarizes an employee with the goals of the work unit, makes clear how his or her job contributes to the unit's goals, and provides an introduction to his or her coworkers. Organization orientation informs the new employee about the organization's goals, history, philosophy, procedures, and rules. This information includes relevant HR policies such as work hours, pay procedures, overtime requirements, and benefits, and often a tour of the organization's physical facilities. Managers are responsible for making the integration of a new employee into the organization as smooth and anxiety-free as possible.

What is flexitime?

Another alternative is flextime (also known as flexible work hours), which is a scheduling system in which employees are required to work a specific number of hours a week but are free to vary those hours within certain limits.

What boundaryless organizations are like?

Another contemporary organizational design is the boundaryless organization, which is an organization with a design that is not imposed by a predefined structure. Many of today's most successful organizations find that they operate most effectively by remaining flexible and unstructured. There are two types of boundaries: (1) Internal boundaries are the horizontal ones imposed by work specialization and departmentalization, and the vertical ones that separate employees into organizational levels and hierarchies. (2) External boundaries are those that separate the organization from its customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. To minimize or eliminate these boundaries, managers might use virtual or network structural designs. • A virtual organization consists of a small core of full-time employees and outside specialists temporarily hired as needed. By relying on freelancers, an organization enjoys a network of talent without unnecessary overhead and structural complexity. • A network organization (or modular organization) uses its own employees to do some work activities and networks of outside suppliers to provide other needed product components or work processes.

What is job sharing?

Another type of job scheduling is called job sharing, which is the practice of having two or more people split a full-time job. Organizations might offer job sharing to professionals who want to work but don't want the demands of a full-time position. Many companies use job sharing during economic downturns to avoid employee layoffs.

What are the Current Organizational Design Challenges?

As managers seek organizational designs that best support and facilitate employees to work efficiently and effectively, they face such challenges as: 1. Keeping employees connected. 2. Managing global structural issues. 3. Building a learning organization. 4. Designing flexible work arrangements. Keeping widely dispersed and mobile employees connected to the organization and more productive is a major structural design challenge. In the last decade, technology has provided a variety of solutions to connecting remote employees, such as: •Handheld devices to log into corporate databases and company intranets. •Videoconferencing. •Key fobs with changing encryption codes that let employees access email and company data from any computer. •Cell phones that switch seamlessly between cellular networks and corporate Wi-Fi connections. There are also global differences in organizational structures. Researchers have concluded that the structures and strategies of organizations worldwide are similar, although the behavior within them maintains a cultural uniqueness. This means that managers need to think about the cultural implications of certain design elements. For instance, one study showed that formalization—rules and bureaucratic mechanisms—may be more important in less economically developed countries but less important in more economically developed countries where employees may have higher levels of professional education and skills.

Why Study Management?

Because we interact with them every day of our lives and an understanding of management offers insights into many organizational aspects. Studying management provides knowledge about manager skills and responsibilities, how organizations function, and how people behave in the workplace. If you plan to be a manager, you'll form a foundation on which to build your management skills and abilities. Even if you don't see yourself managing, you're still likely to have to work with managers. And the reality is, that if you plan to work for a living, you'll probably have some managerial responsibilities even if you're not a manager.

What is demographics?

Demographics refers to the characteristics of a population used for purposes of social studies. It has a significant impact on how managers manage and include such factors as age, income, sex, race, education level, ethnic makeup, employment status, geographic location, and more. Age is a particularly important demographic for managers because the workplace often encompasses different age groups. • Baby Boomers are those individuals born between 1946 and 1964. The sheer number of people in that cohort means they've had a significant impact on every aspect of the external environment (from the educational system to entertainment/lifestyle choices to the Social Security system and so forth) as they've gone through various life-cycle stages. • Gen X is used to describe those individuals born between 1965 and 1977. It followed the baby boom and is one of the smaller age cohorts. • Gen Y (or the "Millennials") encompasses those individuals born between 1978 and 1994. From technology to clothing styles to work attitudes, Gen Y is impacting organizational workplaces. Then, there is Gen Z—the youngest identified age group, born between 1995 and 2010. This group is the most diverse and multicultural of any generation in the United States. Their primary means of social interaction is online. Demographic age cohorts are important to our study of management because large numbers of people at certain stages in the life cycle can constrain decisions and actions taken by businesses, governments, educational institutions, and other organizations.

What is environmental uncertainty?

Environmental uncertainty refers to the degree of change and complexity in an organization's environment. This matrix shows these two aspects. • The first dimension of uncertainty is the degree of unpredictable change; that is, a stable environment experiences minimal change and a dynamic environment experiences frequent change. For example, a stable environment might have no new competitors, few technological breakthroughs by current competitors, little pressure from groups trying to influence the organization, and so on. • • The other dimension of uncertainty describes the degree of environmental complexity, which looks at the number of components in an organization's environment and the knowledge that the organization has about those components. • Therefore, an organization with few competitors, customers, suppliers, or government agencies to deal with, or an organization that needs little information about its environment, has a less complex and more certain, stable environment, as seen in Cell 1.

What are ethics?

Ethics commonly refers to a set of rules or principles that defines right and wrong conduct. To better understand what's involved in managerial ethics, let's look at three different perspectives on how managers make ethical decisions. • The utilitarian view of ethics says that ethical decisions are made solely on the basis of their outcomes or consequences. The goal of utilitarianism is to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people. • In the rights view of ethics, individuals are concerned with respecting and protecting individual liberties and privileges such as the right of free consent, the right to privacy, and the right of free speech. Under this view, making ethical decisions is simple because the goal is to avoid interfering with the rights of others who might be affected by the decision. • Lastly, under the theory of justice view of ethics, an individual is equitable, fair, and impartial in making decisions. For instance, such a manager would pay individuals of similar skill, performance, or responsibility level the same wage and wouldn't base that decision on gender, personality, or favoritism. Whether a manager or employee acts ethically or unethically depends on several factors: • Morality • Values • Experience • The organization's culture • Ethical issue being faced. Ambiguity over what is ethical can be a problem for managers. Managers can do a number of things if they're serious about encouraging ethical behavior: hire employees with high ethical standards, establish codes of ethics, lead by example, link job goals and performance appraisal, provide ethics training, and implement protective mechanisms for employees who face ethical dilemmas. Three ways in which managers can encourage ethical behavior and create a comprehensive ethics program include: 1. Establishing a code of ethics 2. Providing ethical leadership 3. Offering ethics training A code of ethics should be specific enough to guide organizational members in what they're supposed to do, yet loose enough to allow for freedom of judgment. •The effectiveness of such codes depends heavily on whether management supports them and ingrains them into the corporate culture, and on how individuals who break the codes are treated. •If management considers the codes to be important, regularly reaffirms their content, follows the rules themselves, and publicly reprimands rule breakers, ethics codes can be a strong foundation for an effective corporate ethics program.

How can an organization handle layoffs?

Firing Permanent involuntary termination Layoffs Temporary involuntary termination; may last only a few days or extend to years Attrition Not filling openings created by voluntary resignations or normal retirements Transfers Moving employees either laterally or downward; usually does not reduce costs but can reduce intraorganizational supply-demand imbalances Reduced workweeks Having employees work fewer hours per week, share jobs, or through furloughs perform their jobs on a parttime basis Early retirements Providing incentives to older and more-senior employees for retiring before their normal retirement date Job sharing Having employees, typically two part-timers, share one full-time position

Is it worth to plan?

First, the data generally support the position that organizations should have formal plans and that these plans generally translate into higher profits, higher return on assets, and other positive financial results. Second, the quality of the planning process and appropriate implementation of the plan probably contribute more to high performance than the extent of planning does. Finally, in organizations in which formal planning did not lead to higher performance, the constraints of the environment—such as governmental regulations and unforeseen economic challenges—reduced the impact of planning on the organization's performance.

What is globalization and what are its impacts?

For years, India was the cashew capital of the world. Thousands of Indians were employed in the highly labor-intensive industry, prompting the Indian government to enact specific labor laws and regulations to protect them. By the 1990s, India was the king of cashews as it accounted for a solid 80 percent of the global cashew market. However, almost 2,000 miles away, Vietnamese cashew processors were investing in automated equipment and becoming much more efficient than those labor-intensive Indian processors, thus creating a significant competitive threat to India's market domination. Ironically, the laws intended to protect Indian workers most likely ended up harming them as cashew processing switched to the more efficient Vietnamese businesses. Even in something as seemingly simple as cashew processing, the forces and impacts of globalization don't and won't stay the same. Now, much of the cashew processing appears to be shifting to countries in Africa. And that's the reality—and challenge—of today's global environment where your product, your competition, and even your workforce can be found anywhere and at any time. Although the world is still a global village, how managers do business in that global village is changing. To be effective in this boundaryless world, managers need to adapt to this changed environment, as well as continue to foster an understanding of cultures, systems, and techniques that are different from their own. And what's more, even if you don't ever anticipate working internationally, you need to learn all you can about globalization so you can recognize opportunities and threats that have the potential to impact your career.

What is traditional goal setting like?

Goals provide the direction for all management decisions and actions, and form the criterion against which actual accomplishments are measured. Everything members of the organization do should be oriented toward achieving goals, which can be set either through a process of traditional goal setting or by using management by objectives. In traditional goal setting, goals set by top managers flow down through the organization and become sub goals for each organizational area, as seen in Exhibit 5-5, and are passed down to each succeeding organizational level. Then, at some later time, performance is evaluated to determine whether the assigned goals have been achieved. A problem with traditional goal setting is that when top managers define the organization's goals in broad terms—such as achieving "sufficient" profits—these ambiguous goals have to be stated more specifically as they flow down through the organization. Managers at each level define the goals and apply their own interpretations and biases as they make them more specific. When the hierarchy of organizational goals is clearly defined, it forms an integrated network of goals, or a means-ends chain. Higher-level goals (or ends) are linked to lower-level goals, which serve as the means for their accomplishment.

What is growth strategy?

Growth strategy is a corporate strategy in which an organization expands the number of markets served or products offered, either through its current business or through new business. Because of its growth strategy, an organization may increase revenues, number of employees, or market share. Organizations grow by using concentration, vertical integration, horizontal integration, or diversification. •An organization that grows by using concentration increases the number of products offered or markets served in its primary business. •A company can also grow by vertical integration, either backward, forward, or both. In backward vertical integration, the organization becomes its own supplier. In forward vertical integration, the organization becomes its own distributor. •In horizontal integration, a company grows by combining with competitors. Horizontal integration may be regulated so that one company does not monopolize the market. •Finally, an organization can grow through diversification, either related or unrelated. Related diversification is when a company combines with other companies in different, but related, industries. Unrelated diversification is when a company combines with firms in different and unrelated industries.

What is reliability and validity?

If a test is reliable, any individual's score should remain fairly stable over time, assuming that the characteristic being measured is also stable. To be effective predictors, selection devices must possess an acceptable level of consistency. Any selection device that a manager uses must also demonstrate validity. Federal law prohibits managers from using any selection device that cannot be shown to be directly related to successful job performance. This constraint applies to entrance tests, too. Managers must be able to demonstrate that, once on the job, individuals with high scores on such a test outperform individuals with low scores. Consequently, the burden is on the organization to verify that any selection device it uses to differentiate applicants is related to job performance.

What is team structure be like?

In team structure, employee empowerment is crucial because there is no line of managerial authority from top to bottom. Instead, employee teams design and work in the way they think is best, but are held responsible for all work performance results in their respective areas. In large organizations, the team structure complements what is typically a functional or divisional structure to allow the organization to have the efficiency of a bureaucracy with the flexibility of teams. For instance, companies such as Amazon, Boeing, Hewlett-Packard, and Xerox extensively use employee teams to improve productivity. Note that employees must be trained to work on teams, receive cross-functional skills training, and be compensated accordingly. Without a properly implemented team-based pay plan, many of the benefits of a team structure could be lost.

What matrix structure is like?

In the matrix structure, specialists from different functional departments work together to complete an assigned project. When it is accomplished, they return to their functional departments. Another unique aspect of the matrix structure is that it creates a dual chain of command since employees have two managers who share authority: their functional area manager and their product or project manager. The authority over the functional members who are part of his or her project team in areas related to the project's goals. However, any decisions about promotions, salary recommendations, and annual reviews typically remain the functional manager's responsibility. To work effectively, both managers have to communicate regularly, coordinate work demands, and resolve conflicts together. The primary strength of the matrix is that it can facilitate coordination of multiple complex and interdependent projects while still retaining the economies that result from keeping functional specialists grouped together. The major disadvantages of the matrix are the confusion it creates and its propensity to foster power struggles. Dispensing with the chain of command and unity of command principles significantly increases confusion over who reports to whom, which triggers power struggles.

What approaches are there to planning?

In the traditional approach, planning is done entirely by top-level managers who often are assisted by a formal planning department, which is a group of planning specialists whose sole responsibility is to help write the various organizational plans. Then the plans flow down through other organizational levels and are tailored to the particular needs of each level. Although this approach makes managerial planning thorough, systematic, and coordinated, too often the focus is on developing "the plan" which is later not implemented. Another planning approach involves the input of organizational members at the various levels and in the various work units who participate in developing the plans to meet their specific needs.

What strategic weapons are there?

In today's intensely competitive and chaotic marketplace, organizations are looking for whatever "weapons" they can use to do what they're in business to do and to achieve their goals. We think six strategic "weapons" are important in today's environment: customer service, employee skills and loyalty, innovation, quality, social media, and big data/digital tools. We've covered customer service in previous chapters and now we'll look at quality, social media, and big data. Many organizations employ quality practices to build competitive advantage and attract and hold a loyal customer base. If implemented properly, quality is a way for an organization to create a sustainable competitive advantage. If a business is able to continuously improve the quality and reliability of its products, it may have a competitive advantage that can't be taken away. Incremental improvement is something that becomes an integrated part of an organization's operations and can develop into a considerable advantage. To promote quality, managers in diverse industries—such as health care, education, and financial services—are discovering the benefits of benchmarking, which is the search for the best practices among competitors and noncompetitors that lead to their superior performance. Successful social media strategies should (1) help people—inside and outside the organization—connect; and (2) reduce costs or increase revenue possibilities or both. As managers look at how to strategically use social media, it's important to have goals and a plan. Big data can be an effective counterpart to the information exchange generated through social media. All the enormous amounts of data collected about customers, partners, employees, markets, and other quantifiables can be used to respond to the needs of these same stakeholders. With big data, managers can measure and know more about their businesses and "translate that knowledge into improved decision making and performance." Managers make sense of the vast amount of data available using digital tools —technology, systems, or software that allow users to collect, visualize, understand, or analyze data. Three of the most prevalent digital tools in use today are data visualization tools, cloud computing, and internet of things.

What is management by objectives?

Instead of using traditional goal setting, many organizations use management by objectives (MBO), a process of setting mutually agreed-upon goals and using those goals to evaluate employee performance. A manager using this approach would sit down with each member of his or her team to set goals and periodically review whether progress is being made toward achieving those goals. MBO programs have the four elements listed on the slide. MBO uses goals both to make sure employees are doing what they're supposed to be doing and to motivate them. Studies show that actual MBO programs can increase employee performance and organizational productivity, and that goal setting can effectively motivate employees.

How can you close the deal?

Interviewers who only expose an organization's positive characteristics are likely to have a workforce that is dissatisfied and prone to high turnover. During the hiring process, every job applicant acquires a set of expectations about the company and job for which he or she is interviewing. When the information is inflated, mismatched applicants don't self-eliminate and new hires are apt to become disillusioned, less committed, mistrustful, and to resign earlier. To increase job satisfaction among employees and reduce turnover, managers should consider a realistic job preview (RJP), which includes both positive and negative information about the job and the company. For managers, realistic job previews offer a major insight into the HRM process: It's just as important to retain good people as it is to hire them in the first place.

How to build a learning organization?

It is an organizational mindset or philosophy that has significant design implications. In a learning organization, employees continually acquire and share new knowledge and apply that knowledge when making decisions or performing their work. Some theorists say this may be the only sustainable source of competitive advantage. The important characteristics of a learning organization revolve around organizational design, information sharing, leadership, and culture. Leadership plays an important role as an organization moves toward becoming a learning organization. Leaders should facilitate the creation of a shared vision for the organization's future and keep organizational members working toward that vision. They should also support and encourage the collaborative environment that's critical to learning. Finally, the organizational culture is an important aspect of a learning organization, where everyone agrees on a shared vision and recognizes the inherent relationships among the organization's processes, activities, functions, and external environment. Organizational culture also fosters a strong sense of community, caring, and trust.

What is the primary environmental force that affects an organization?

It is the legal environment. HRM practices are governed by laws, which vary from country to country, and further vary within states or provinces. As a manager, it will be important for you to know what you legally can and cannot do. The primary U.S. Laws affecting HRM are which reflects the federal government's expansion of influence over HRM since the mid-1960s in the areas of equal employment opportunity and discrimination, compensation and benefits, and health and safety. Since the mid-1960s, many state laws have added to the provisions of the federal laws. Therefore, today's employers must ensure that equal employment opportunities exist for job applicants and current employees. Decisions regarding who will be hired, or which employees will be chosen for a management training program, must be made without regard to race, sex, religion, age, color, national origin, or disability.

What Is Planning?

It is the primary management function since it establishes the basis for all the other things managers do as they organize, lead, and control. Planning is deciding on the organization's objectives or goals and getting the job done by establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals and developing a comprehensive hierarchy of plans to integrate and coordinate activities. Planning can be informal or formal. Smaller businesses often use informal planning where little is verbalized or written down and the planning is general and lacks continuity. Formal planning, however, defines specific goals that are to be met in a specific time period. They are written down and made available to organization members. Then managers develop specific plans that clearly define what the organization will do to move from where it is to where it wants to be.

What types of global organizations are there?

MNC: Any type of international company that maintains operations in multiple countries. Three types are: 1. Multidomestic corporation: Management and other decisions are decentralized to the local country in which it is operating. Relies on local employees to manage the business, tailors strategies to each country's unique characteristics, and is used by many consumer product companies. 2. Transnational (borderless) organization: An MNC where artificial geographical boundaries are eliminated. Country of origin or where business is conducted becomes irrelevant; increases efficiency and effectiveness in a competitive global marketplace. 3. Global corporation: An MNC in which management and other decisions are centralized in the home country. World market is treated as an integrated whole; focus is on control and global efficiency.

What Is Management?

Management is the process of getting things done effectively and efficiently, with and through people. Efficiency and effectiveness have to do with the work being done and how it's being done. Efficiency means doing a task correctly ("doing things right") and getting the most output from the least amount of inputs. Effectiveness means "doing the right things" by doing those work tasks that help the organization reach its goals. As illustrated here, while efficiency is concerned with the means of getting things done, effectiveness is concerned with the ends, or attainment of organizational goals. Good management is concerned with both attaining goals (effectiveness) and doing so as efficiently as possible.

How do managers conduct an employee assessment?

Managers conduct an employee assessment by first reviewing the current human resource status through generating a human resource inventory, which generally lists the name, education, training, prior employment, languages spoken, capabilities, and specialized skills of each employee in the organization. Another part of the assessment is job analysis, a process in which workflows are analyzed and the skills and behaviors necessary to perform jobs are identified. The job analysis helps determine the kinds of skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed to successfully perform each job. This information is then used to develop or revise job descriptions and job specifications. A job description is a written statement that describes what a job holder does, how it's done, and why it's done. It typically includes job content, job environment, and conditions of employment. The job specification states the minimum qualifications that a person must possess to perform a given job successfully. It identifies the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to do the job effectively. The job description and job specification are important documents as managers begin recruiting and selecting. They focus the manager's attention on the list of necessary qualifications, assist in determining whether candidates are qualified, and help ensure that the hiring process does not discriminate.

What Titles Do Managers Have?

Managers in an organization can have a variety of titles. Managers are usually classified as top, middle, first-line, or team leaders. Top managers are those at or near the top of an organization who make decisions about the direction of the organization and establish policies and philosophies that affect all organizational members. Titles include: president, vice president, chancellor, managing director, or chief executive officer. Middle managers fall between the lowest and highest levels of the organization. They often manage other managers and sometimes nonmanagerial employees, and are responsible for translating the goals set by top managers into specific detailed tasks that lower-level managers oversee. Titles include: agency head, unit chief, division manager, or project leader. First-line managers are responsible for directing the day-to-day activities of nonmanagerial employees. Titles include: supervisor, shift manager, or unit coordinator. Team leaders are a special category of lower-level managers that have become more common as organizations have moved to using employee work teams to do work. They typically report to a first-line manager.

What are the steps in goal setting?

Managers should follow six steps when setting goals: 1. Review the organization's mission and the employees' key job tasks. Goals should reflect the mission, and managers need to clearly define what they want employees to accomplish as they do their tasks. 2. Evaluate available resources. Goals should be challenging but realistic with regards to available resources. 3. Determine the goals individually or with input from others. The goals reflect desired outcomes and should be congruent with the organizational mission and goals in other organizational areas. These goals should be measurable, specific, and include a time frame for accomplishment. 4.Make sure goals are well-written and then communicate them to all who need to know. 5.Build in feedback mechanisms to assess goal progress. If goals aren't being met, change them as needed. 6.Link rewards to goal attainment. Once the goals have been established, written down, and communicated, managers are ready to develop plans for pursuing them.

What are the reasons for planning?

Managers should plan for at least four reasons: 1. Planning establishes coordinated effort. It gives direction to both managers and nonmanagerial employees so each knows what he or she must contribute—individually and as a group—to reach the organization's goals. Planning stimulates intra- and inter-department coordination of activities, which fosters teamwork and cooperation. 2. Planning reduces uncertainty. It forces managers to look ahead, anticipate change, consider the impact of change, and develop appropriate responses. It also clarifies the consequences of the actions managers might take in response to change. 3. Planning reduces overlapping and wasteful activities. Coordination before the fact is likely to uncover waste and redundancy. 4. Finally, planning establishes the goals or standards that facilitate managerial control. To ensure that the plans are carried out and the goals are met.

What Factors are Reshaping and Redefining Management?

Managers today are dealing with changing workplaces, a changing workforce, global economic and political uncertainties, and changing technology. Distributed labor companies are changing the face of temporary work. More and more businesses are relying on apps and mobile-enhanced Websites to run their businesses. Managers everywhere are likely to have to manage in changing circumstances, which means that how managers manage is changing.

What selection devices are there?

Managers use a number of selection devices to reduce accept and reject errors. The best-known include written tests, performance-simulation tests, and interviews. Evidence shows that tests of intellectual ability, spatial and mechanical ability, perceptual accuracy, and motor ability are moderately valid predictors for many semiskilled and unskilled operative jobs in industrial organizations. However, an enduring criticism of written tests is that intelligence and other tested characteristics may not necessarily be good indicators of an applicant's job performance. This criticism has led to an increased use of performance-simulation tests, which are made up of actual job behaviors. The best-known performance-simulation tests are work sampling (a miniature replica of the job) and assessment centers (which simulate real problems one may face on the job). The former is suited to persons applying for routine jobs; the latter to managerial personnel. Because its content is essentially identical to job content, performance simulation should be a better predictor of short-term job performance than written tests and should minimize potential employment discrimination allegations. Additionally, well-constructed performance-simulation tests are valid.

What does the Harris Interactive Poll say about economic inequality?

Most survey respondents believed that it is either a major problem (57 percent) or a minor problem (23 percent). Why has this issue become so sensitive? In the United States, that gap between the rich and the rest has been much wider than in other developed nations. As economic growth has languished and sputtered, and as people's belief that anyone could grab hold of an opportunity and have a decent shot at prosperity has wavered, social discontent over growing income gaps has increased. The bottom line is that business leaders need to recognize how societal attitudes in the economic context may also create constraints as they make decisions and manage their businesses.

Does Social Involvement Affect Economic Performance?

Numerous studies have examined this issue, and though most found a small positive relationship, no generalizable conclusions can be made because these studies have shown that the relationship is affected by various contextual factors such as firm size, industry, economic conditions, and regulatory environment. Other researchers have questioned causation. If a study showed that social involvement and economic performance were positively related, this didn't necessarily mean that social involvement caused higher economic performance. It could simply mean that high profits afforded companies the "luxury" of being socially involved. One study found that if the flawed empirical analyses in these studies were "corrected," social responsibility had a neutral impact on a company's financial performance. Another found that participating in social issues not related to the organization's primary stakeholders had a negative effect on shareholder value. Despite all these concerns, after reanalyzing several studies, other researchers have concluded that managers can afford to be (and should be) socially responsible.

How to be an ethical leader?

Of critical importance is ethical leadership, which sets the tone for employee behavior. Managers must be good ethical role models both in words and, more importantly, in actions, which send even stronger signals to employees. Therefore, if managers take company resources for their personal use, inflate their expense accounts, or give favored treatment to friends, they imply that such behavior is acceptable from all employees. When an employee does something unethical, managers must punish the offender and make the outcome visible to everyone in the organization. Here we see suggestions for being an ethical leader: • Be a good role model by being ethical and honest. • Tell the truth always. • Don't hide or manipulate information. • Be willing to admit your failures. • Share your personal values by regularly communicating them to employees. • Stress the organization's or team's important shared values. • Use the reward system to hold everyone accountable to the values. Remember, what you do is far more important than what you say in getting employees to act ethically.

What Does It Mean to Be "Global"?

Organizations are considered global if they exchange goods and services with consumers in other countries. Capital globalization is the most common approach to being global. Many organizations are considered global because they use managerial and technical employee talent from other countries. One factor that affects talent globalization is immigration laws and regulations. Managers must be alert to changes in those laws. An organization can be considered global if it uses financial sources and resources outside its home country, which is known as financial globalization. As might be expected, the global economic slowdown severely affected the availability of financial resources globally.

What is parochialism?

Parochialism is a narrow focus in which managers see things only through their own eyes and from their own perspectives—not recognizing that countries have different values, morals, customs, political and economic systems, and laws—which can affect how a business is managed. The most important differences for managers to understand relate to a country's social context or culture. For example, status is perceived differently in different countries. In France, status is often the result of factors important to the organization, such as seniority, education, and the like. In the United States, status is more a function of what individuals have accomplished personally.

What are the two important aspects of planning?

Planning involves two important aspects: goals, which are objectives, and plans, which are desired outcomes or targets. Plans guide managers' decisions and form the criteria against which work results are measured. They usually include resource allocations, budgets, schedules, and other necessary actions to accomplish multiple goals. Most company's goals can be classified as either strategic or financial. Financial goals are related to the financial performance of the organization, while strategic goals are related to all other areas of an organization's performance. Stated goals are official statements of an organization's goals, which it wants its stakeholders to believe. But if you want to know an organization's real goals—those goals an organization actually pursues—observe what organizational members are doing. Actions define priorities.

What Is Strategic Management?

Reasons why strategic management is so important include: 1. It can make a difference in how well an organization performs. Research has found a generally positive relationship between strategic planning and performance. 2. It prepares managers in organizations of all types and sizes to cope with continually changing situations and to examine relevant factors in planning future actions. 3. Each part of an organization needs to work together to achieve the organization's goals; strategic management helps accomplish this. For example, with more than 2.1 million employees worldwide working in various departments, functional areas, and stores, Walmart uses strategic management to help coordinate and focus employees' efforts on what's most important. Strategic management isn't just for business organizations. Organizations such as government agencies, hospitals, educational institutions, and social agencies also need strategic management. For example, the skyrocketing costs of a college education, competition from for-profit companies offering alternative educational environments, cuts to state budgets, and cutbacks in federal aid for students and research have led many university administrators to assess their colleges' aspirations and identify a market niche in which they can survive and prosper.

Why is strategic management important?

Reasons why strategic management is so important include: 1. It can make a difference in how well an organization performs. Research has found a generally positive relationship between strategic planning and performance. 2. It prepares managers in organizations of all types and sizes to cope with continually changing situations and to examine relevant factors in planning future actions. 3. Each part of an organization needs to work together to achieve the organization's goals; strategic management helps accomplish this. For example, with more than 2.1 million employees worldwide working in various departments, functional areas, and stores, Walmart uses strategic management to help coordinate and focus employees' efforts on what's most important. Strategic management isn't just for business organizations. Organizations such as government agencies, hospitals, educational institutions, and social agencies also need strategic management. For example, the skyrocketing costs of a college education, competition from for-profit companies offering alternative educational environments, cuts to state budgets, and cutbacks in federal aid for students and research have led many university administrators to assess their colleges' aspirations and identify a market niche in which they can survive and prosper.

What are the Steps in the Strategic Management Process?

STEP 1 of the strategic management process is to identify the organization's current mission, goals, and strategies. The mission is a statement of the organization's purpose. Defining the mission forces managers to identify what the organization is in business to do. Target customers, markets, and goals and strategies, and each should be assessed to see if managers should change any of them. In STEP 2, managers conduct an external analysis so they can: 1. Know what the competition is doing, how pending legislation might affect the organization, and how stable the local labor supply is in locations where it operates. 2. Examine all components of the environment—that is, economic, demographic, political/legal, sociocultural, technological, and global—to see the trends and changes. 3. Pinpoint opportunities that the organization can exploit and threats that it must counteract. In STEP 3, managers conduct an internal analysis, which provides critical information about an organization's specific resources and capabilities. An organization's resources are its assets—financial, physical, human, and intangible—that it uses to develop, manufacture, and deliver products to its customers. In comparison to assets, its capabilities are its skills and abilities in doing the work activities needed in its business. The major value-creating capabilities of the organization are known as its core competencies. Both resources and core competencies determine the organization's competitive weapons. After completing an internal analysis, managers should be able to identify organizational strengths and weaknesses. Any activities the organization does well or any unique resources that it has are called strengths. Weaknesses are activities the organization doesn't do well or resources it needs but doesn't possess. The combined external and internal analyses are called the SWOT analysis because, together, they are an analysis of the organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. STEP 4 is formulating strategies. As managers formulate strategies, they should consider the realities of the external environment and their available resources and capabilities to design strategies that will help their organization achieve its goals. Managers typically formulate three main types of strategies: corporate, business, and functional. We'll describe each shortly. STEP 5 involves implementing strategies. Once strategies are formulated, they must be implemented. No matter how effectively an organization has planned its strategies, performance will suffer if the strategies aren't implemented properly. STEP 6 is evaluating results. This is the final step in the strategic management process, where managers ask, "How effective have the strategies been at helping the organization reach its goals? What adjustments are necessary?"

What is social responsibility?

Social responsibility refers to a business's intention, beyond its legal and economic obligations, to do the right things and act in ways that are good for society. Social responsibility adds an ethical imperative to do those things that make society better and to avoid those things that could make it worse. Social obligations are activities a business engages in to meet certain economic and legal responsibilities. It does the minimum that the law requires and only pursues social goals to the extent that they contribute to its economic goals. Social responsiveness is characteristic of the business firm that engages in social actions in response to a popular social need. Managers in these companies are guided by social norms and values and make practical, market-oriented decisions about their actions. The importance of corporate social responsibility surfaced in the 1960s when social activists questioned the singular economic objective of business. Managers regularly confront decisions that have a dimension of social responsibility, such as philanthropy, pricing, employee relations, resource conservation, product quality, and doing business in countries with oppressive governments.

What are stakeholders?

Stakeholders are any constituencies in an organization's environment that are affected by that organization's decisions and actions. These groups have a stake in, or are significantly influenced by, what the organization does. In turn, these groups can influence the organization. These stakeholders include both internal and external groups because both groups can affect what an organization does and how it operates. Managers benefit from good management of stakeholder relationships because stronger relationships can improve the predictability of environmental changes, lead to more successful innovations, foster a greater degree of trust among stakeholders, and increase organizational flexibility to reduce the impact of change. Stakeholder management can affect organizational performance. Management researchers who have looked at this issue are finding that managers of high performing companies tend to consider the interests of all major stakeholder groups as they make decisions. Another reason for managing external stakeholder relationships is that it's the "right" thing to do. Because an organization depends on these external groups as sources of inputs (resources) and as outlets for outputs (goods and services), managers should consider the interests of stakeholders as they make decisions. For example, think of the groups that might be affected by the decisions and actions of Starbucks—coffee bean farmers, employees, specialty coffee competitors, local communities, and so forth. Some of these stakeholders also, in turn, may impact decisions and actions of Starbucks' managers.

What are GLOBE findings?

The GLOBE research team, using data from more than 17,000 managers in 62 societies around the world, has identified nine dimensions in which national cultures differ: •Assertiveness is the extent to which a society encourages people to be tough, confrontational, assertive, and competitive versus modest and tender. (The United States ranks high; Egypt ranks moderate; and Sweden ranks low.) •Future orientation indicates the extent to which a society encourages and rewards future-oriented behavior such as planning, investing in the future, and delaying gratification. (Canada ranks high; Slovenia ranks moderate; and Russia ranks low.) •Gender differentiation captures the extent to which a society maximizes gender role differences. (South Korea ranks high; Italy ranks moderate; and Denmark ranks low.) •Uncertainty avoidance is a society's reliance on social norms and procedures to alleviate the unpredictability of future events. (Germany ranks high; Israel ranks moderate; and Hungary ranks low.) •Power distance is the degree to which members of a society expect power to be unequally distributed. (Thailand ranks high; England ranks moderate; and South Africa ranks low.) •Individualism and collectivism is the degree to which individuals are encouraged to integrate into groups within organizations and society. (Greece is highly individualistic; Hong Kong is moderately individualistic; and Singapore is collective.) • In-group collectivism encompasses the extent to which members of a society take pride in their membership in small groups such as their family and circle of close friends and the organizations by which they are employed. (China ranks high; Qatar ranks moderate; and New Zealand ranks low.) • Performance orientation refers to the degree to which a society encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence. (Taiwan is high; Spain is moderate; and Greece is low.) •Humane orientation is the degree to which a society encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others. (Indonesia ranks high; Hong Kong ranks moderate; and France ranks low.)

What is the divisional organizational design be like?

The divisional structure is an organizational structure made up of separate business units or divisions. Each division has limited autonomy and has a division manager who has authority over his or her unit and is responsible for performance. In divisional structures, the parent corporation typically acts as an external overseer to coordinate and control the various divisions, and often provides such support services as financial and legal. The chief advantage of the divisional structure is that it focuses on results. Division managers have full responsibility for a product or service. The divisional structure also frees the headquarters staff from day-to-day operating details so that they can focus on long-term and strategic planning. The major disadvantage of the divisional structure is duplication of activities and resources. Each division, for instance, may have a marketing research department. Because of the duplication of functions, the organization's costs increase and efficiency decreases.

What are the 8 important HRM activities?

The first three activities in the HRM process address employment planning: adding staff through recruitment, reducing staff through downsizing, and the selection process. Once you select competent people, you need to help them adapt to the organization and ensure that their job skills and knowledge are kept current—which is accomplished by the next two activities in the HRM process: orientation and training. The last steps in the HRM process identify performance goals, correct performance problems if necessary, and help employees sustain a high level of performance over their entire work lives. The activities involved include performance appraisal, compensation and benefits. Notice that the entire process in Exhibit 8-1 is influenced by the external environment. Many of the factors introduced in Chapter 2 directly affect all management practices, but their effect is felt most in managing the organization's human resources because whatever happens to an organization ultimately influences what happens to its employees.

What makes an interview effective?

The interview is the most universal selection device, along with the application form. Interviews can be reliable and valid selection tools when structured, well organized, and limited to relevant questioning. Research shows that potential biases can creep into interviews if they're not well structured and standardized. The following are highlights from this research: •The interviewer tends to hold a stereotype of what represents a good applicant. •The interviewer tends to favor applicants who share his or her own attitudes. •The order in which applicants are interviewed will influence evaluations. •The order in which information is elicited during the interview will influence evaluations. Managers can make interviews more valid and reliable by reviewing the job description and job specification to help assess the applicant; preparing a structured set of questions to ask all applicants for the job; reviewing an applicant's résumé before meeting him or her; asking questions and listening carefully to the applicant's answers; and writing an evaluation of the applicant while the interview is still fresh. In behavioral or situation interview, applicants are observed not only for what they say but also for how they behave. Applicants are presented with situations and are asked to "deal" with the situation. Research shows that these behavioral interviews are nearly eight times more effective for predicting successful job performance than traditional interviews are.

What are the two generic organization structure models?

The mechanistic organization (or bureaucracy)—Rigid and tightly controlled structure that combines traditional aspects of all six elements of organization structure. Combines traditional aspects of all six elements of organization structure: high specialization, rigid departmentalization, clear chain of command, narrow spans of control leading to taller structure, centralization, and high formalization. In contrast, the organic organization—Highly adaptive and flexible structure, which allows it to change rapidly as required. Collaboration (both vertical and horizontal), adaptable duties, few rules, informal communication, decentralized decision authority, and wider spans of control leading to flatter structures. Based on the work of Alfred Chandler structure should facilitate goal achievement. • Simple strategy means simple structure and elaborate strategy means more complex structure. • Certain structural designs work best with different organizational strategies. • Passionate pursuit of innovation is associated with an organic structure, while a passionate pursuit of cost control is associated with a mechanistic organization.

How Does Culture Affect What Employees Do?

The more employees accept the organization's key values and the greater their commitment to those values, the stronger the culture is. Most organizations have moderate to strong cultures; that is, there is relatively high agreement on what's important, what defines "good" employee behavior, what it takes to get ahead, and so forth. The stronger a culture becomes, the more it affects what employees do and the way managers plan, organize, lead, and control. The stronger an organization's culture, the less managers need to be concerned with developing formal rules and regulations. Instead, those guides will be internalized in employees when they accept the organization's culture. If, on the other hand, an organization's culture is weak—if no dominant shared values are present— its effect on employee behavior is less clear.

How does an organization determine its future employment needs?

The organization's strategic direction determines future human resource needs. Demand for employees comes from the demand for the organization's products or services. Generally, managers attempt to establish the number and mix of people needed to reach that revenue by estimating total revenue. One exception is when there is a scarce supply of qualified candidates. This could limit the number of products produced or services provided—which decreases the amount of incoming revenue. After assessing both current capabilities and future needs, managers can estimate shortages—both in number and in kind—and highlight areas in which the organization is overstaffed. Then they can develop a plan that matches these estimates and projects future employee needs and availability. Once managers know their current staffing levels they can respond. If job openings exist, they can begin recruitment—that is, the process of locating, identifying, and attracting capable applicants. In contrast, if employment planning indicates a surplus, managers may want to reduce the labor supply and initiate downsizing or restructuring activities.

How does an organization select applicants?

The selection process seeks to predict which applicants will be successful if hired. Any selection decision can result in the four possible outcomes shown in Exhibit 8-5. A decision is correct when: 1.The applicant who was hired proved to be successful on the job, or 2.When the applicant who was not hired would not have been able to do the job. ● When we reject applicants who would have performed successfully (called reject errors) or if we hired applicants who performed poorly (called accept errors). Reject errors mean increased selection costs because more applicants have to be screened but can also open the organization to charges of employment discrimination. Accept errors cost the organization in wasted training, the costs generated or profits forgone because of the employee's incompetence, severance, and the additional recruiting and selection screening. The major intent of any selection activity is to reduce the probability of making reject errors and accept errors while increasing the probability of making correct decisions. We do this by using reliable and valid selection procedures.

What is organizational culture?

The shared values, principles, traditions, and ways of doing things that influence the way organizational members act. 1. Culture is perceived. It's not something that can be physically touched or seen, but employees perceive it on the basis of what they experience within the organization. 4. Culture is descriptive. It's concerned with how members perceive or describe the culture, not with whether they like it. 3. Culture is shared. Even though individuals may have different backgrounds or work at different organizational levels, they tend to describe the organization's culture in similar terms. The dimensions of culture range from low (not typical of the culture) to high (especially typical of the culture). • Provide a composite picture of the organization's culture. • May emphasize one cultural dimension more than the others, essentially shaping the organization's personality and the way organizational members work. An organization's culture generally reflects the vision or mission of its founders, who establish the early culture by projecting an image of what the organization should be and what its values are. Employees most commonly learn an organization's culture through its stories, rituals, material symbols, and language.

How Does External Environment Affect Managers?

There are three ways that the external environment affects managers: 1. Its impact on jobs and employment. 2. The amount of environmental uncertainty. 3. The nature of stakeholder relationships. ● As external environmental conditions change, managers face the impact of these changes on jobs and employment. Such readjustments create challenges for managers who must balance work demands with having enough people with the right skills to do the organization's work. Changes in external conditions not only affect the types of jobs available but they also affect how the jobs are created and managed. For example, many employers use flexible work arrangements and contract freelancers or temporary workers.

What is the process of plan development influenced by?

Three contingency factors that affect the choice of plans are: 1. Organizational level. 2. Degree of environmental uncertainty. 3. Length of future commitments. For the most part, lower-level managers do operational (or tactical) planning while upper-level managers do strategic planning. The second contingency factor is environmental uncertainty. When uncertainty is high, plans should be specific but flexible. Managers must be prepared to change or amend plans as they're implemented. The third contingency factor relates to the time frame of plans. The commitment concept says that plans should extend far enough to meet commitments made when the plans were developed. But planning for too long or too short a time period is inefficient and ineffective. For example, when organizations increase their computing capabilities, many have found their "power-hungry computer" generated so much heat that the electric bills have skyrocketed because of the increased need for air conditioning. This illustrates the commitment concept: When organizations expand their computing technology, they're "committed" to whatever future expenses are generated by that plan.

What are the 2 perspectives on management?

Two perspectives on management: The omnipotent view of management argues that managers are directly responsible for an organization's success or failure, while the symbolic view of management suggests that much of an organization's success or failure is due to external forces outside managers' control.

What is renewal strategy?

When an organization is in trouble, however, managers need strategies called renewal strategies, which address declining performance. There are two main types of renewal strategies: 1. A retrenchment strategy is a short-run strategy used for minor performance problems. This strategy helps it stabilize operations, revitalize organizational resources and capabilities, and prepare to compete once again. 2. When an organization's problems are more serious, they need to use the turnaround strategy. While managers cut costs and restructure organizational operations in either renewal strategy, these measures are more extensive than in a retrenchment strategy. In both renewal strategies, managers can (1) cut costs and (2) restructure organizational operations but actions are more extensive in turnaround strategy.

How Do Organizations Go Global?

When organizations go global, they often use different approaches, as we see here. •Managers who want to enter a global market with minimal investment usually start with global sourcing (also called global outsourcing), which means purchasing materials or labor from the cheapest source in order to maintain a competitive edge. For instance, Massachusetts General Hospital uses radiologists in India to interpret CT scans. •Moving beyond global sourcing involves more investment and risk for the organization. Exporting and importing entail less investment and risk than other steps in globalization. - Exporting an organization's products involves making products domestically and selling them abroad. - Importing involves acquiring products made abroad and selling them domestically. •Managers may also choose licensing or franchising to further their global penetration. Both licensing and franchising involve one organization giving another organization the right to use its brand name, technology, or product specifications in return for a lump sum payment or a fee that is usually based on sales. - Licensing is most often used by manufacturing organizations that make or sell another company's products. For example, Anheuser-Busch licenses the right to brew and market Budweiser beer to foreign brewers such as Labatt in Canada and Kirin in Japan. - Franchising is primarily used by service organizations that want to use another company's name and operating methods, such as KFC and Dunkin' Donuts. •With experience in international markets, managers may next make a more direct investment through a global strategic alliance, which is a partnership between an organization and a foreign company partner created to share resources and knowledge in developing new products or building production facilities. Honda Motor and General Electric, for example, teamed up to produce a new jet engine. - A joint venture is a type of strategic alliance in which the partners form a separate, independent organization for a business purpose. For example, Hewlett-Packard has initiated joint ventures with various global suppliers to develop different components for its computer equipment. •Managers may also directly invest in a foreign country by setting up a foreign subsidiary as a separate and independent facility or office. For example, United Plastics Group built three injection-molding facilities in China to become a global supplier to its global accounts.

What is the traditional organizational design be like?

Within traditional organizational design, there are three structures: simple, functional, and divisional, all of which tend to be mechanistic in nature. Here in Exhibit 6-9 we see a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of each. Since most companies start as entrepreneurial ventures, they use a simple structure, which is an organizational design with low departmentalization, wide spans of control, authority centralized in a single person, and little formalization. The simple structure is most widely used in smaller businesses and it's fast, flexible, inexpensive to maintain, and has clear accountability. However, as an organization grows, there are few policies to guide operations, which creates information overload at the top and slows decision making. As more employees are added, most small businesses tend to become more specialized and formalized. Rules and regulations are introduced, work becomes specialized, departments are created, levels of management are added, and the organization becomes increasingly bureaucratic. Two of the most popular bureaucratic design options grew out of functional and product departmentalization. They are called the functional and divisional structures.

How to create an innovative culture?

• Challenge and involvement: Are employees involved in, motivated by, and committed to the long-term goals and success of the organization? • Freedom: Can employees independently define their work, exercise discretion, and take initiative in their day-to-day activities? • Trust and openness: Are employees supportive and respectful of each other? • Idea time: Do individuals have time to elaborate on new ideas before taking action? • Playfulness/humor: Is the workplace spontaneous and fun? • Conflict resolution: Do individuals make decisions and resolve issues based on the good of the organization versus personal interests? • Debates: Are employees allowed to express opinions and suggest ideas to be considered and reviewed? • Risk taking: Do managers tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity, and are employees rewarded for taking risks?

What are the ways to look at what managers do?

•4 Functions Approach Managers perform certain activities, tasks, or functions as they direct and oversee others' work. This approach was first proposed by French Industrialist Henri Fayol. He said managers engaged in five management activities: plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control (POCCC). His choice of these five functions was based on his own observations of the mining industry, not from a formal survey. Today, those management functions have been condensed to the following four: 1. Planning includes defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing plans to coordinate activities. 2. Organizing includes determining which tasks need to be done and by whom, how tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and who will make decisions. 3. Leading includes motivating employees, selecting the most effective communication channel, and resolving conflicts. 4. Controlling includes monitoring performance, comparing it with goals, and correcting any significant deviations. •Management Roles Approach In the late 1960s, Henry Mintzberg dispelled long-held notions that managers were reflective thinkers who carefully processed information before making decisions. His empirical study of 5 chief executives showed that managers perform ten different but highly interrelated roles. He categorized these actions around the following three general categories: 1. Interpersonal relationships: Figurehead, leader, and liaison. 2. Informational transfer: Monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson. 3. Decision-making: Entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. •Skills and Competencies Another way to describe what managers do is by looking at the skills they need for managing. Management researcher Robert L. Katz and others describe four critical skills: 1. Conceptual skills: Analyzing and diagnosing complex situations to see how things fit together and to facilitate making good decisions. 2. Interpersonal skills: Working well with other people both individually and in groups by communicating, motivating, mentoring, and delegating. 3. Technical skills: Job-specific knowledge, expertise, and techniques needed to perform work tasks. (For top-level managers − knowledge of the industry and a general understanding of the organization's processes and products; For middle- and lower-level managers − specialized knowledge required in the areas where they work—finance, human resources, marketing, computer systems, manufacturing, information technology). 4. Political skills: Building a power base and establishing the right connections so they can get needed resources for their groups.

How to create a learning culture?

•Creating a learning culture starts with buy-in at the top. -Organizational leaders must understand what it takes for a learning culture to work and be committed to it.

How to create a sustainability culture?

•Get everyone involved in defining what sustainability means to the organization •Get employees involved in finding ways to be more sustainable. •Create rituals to reinforce the importance of sustainability. •Use rewards.

What are the factors that managers' job depends on?

•Level in the Organization Although a supervisor and the CEO of a company may not do exactly the same things, the differences are of degree and emphasis but not of activity. All managers regardless of level, make decisions and plan, lead, organize, and control. But the amount of time a manager gives to each activity is not necessarily constant. •Profit vs. Not-for-profit The most important difference between the two is how performance is measured. Not-for-profit organizations don't have such a universal measure, making performance measurement more difficult. But even not-for-profit organizations need to make money to continue operating. •Size of the Organization For the purposes of our discussion, a small business is an independent business having fewer than 500 employees that doesn't necessarily engage in any new or innovative practices and has relatively little impact on its industry. The most important role of a small business manager is that of spokesperson, performing externally in meeting with customers, arranging financing with bankers, searching for new opportunities, and stimulating change. The actions of a manager in a large organization, however, are directed internally, deciding which organizational units get which and how much of the available resources. •Management Concepts and National Borders Research shows that while concepts transfer easily among many English-speaking countries, management concepts will likely need to be modified when dealing with countries with economic, political, social, or cultural environments that differ from those of the so-called free-market democracies.

How do well-written goals look like?

•Written in terms of outcomes rather than actions •Measurable and quantifiable •Clear as to a time frame •Challenging yet attainable •Written down •Communicated to all necessary organizational members

What is an ethical culture like?

•one in which the shared concept of right and wrong behavior in the workplace reflects the core values of the organization and influences the ethical decision making of employees.