Management 200 Exam 1

Explain the five conflict-handling styles managers use to resolve conflicts in teams. Under what circumstances is each style appropriate? Give examples of three instances you used any of the three styles in your team.

1) Avoiding: this approach involves managers ignore or suppressing a conflict. It will work when the conflicts are trivial, when people need some time to cool off their emotions. It will also work when the cost of dealing with that conflict outweighs the benefit of resolving the conflict. (2) Accommodating: this approach allows other party in the team to prevail, to ignore their own concerns to satisfy the concerns of other parties. It will work when the conflict is not about anything important, and it's possible to eventually get something back by accommodation. (3) Forcing: this approach is seen when managers rely on their authority to solve the conflicts but ignore others' needs. This approach will work when making an unpopular solution that must be implemented, and when others don't have to be committed to your viewpoint. (4) Compromising: this approach is seen in both parties give up something to gain something. This approach will work when both parties have opposite viewpoint or possess equal powers. (5) Problem solving: managers will confront the issues and identify the problems, generating and weighing alternatives, and selecting a solution. It will works when the conflict involves complex situations and misunderstandings.

What are the three skills that exceptional managers need? Explain and give an example of each one. Which is most important and why?

1. Technical Skills—The Ability to Perform a Specific Job This skill requires a manager to have the job-specific knowledge as well as the proficiency needed to perform well in a specialized field. This skill is more important at the lower levels of management- that is, among employees in their first professional jobs and first line managers. For example, proficiency and knowledge in accounting is required for a management position in a public accounting firm. 2. Conceptual Skills—The Ability to Think Analytically Conceptual skills consist of the ability to think analytically, to visualize an organization as a whole and understand how the parts work together. This skill is important in top management positions since they'll have to deal with problems that are ambiguous but that could have far-reaching consequences. A manager can display good conceptual skills when he or she analyses the problems of the organization and simplifies them. For example, in General Motors, the CEO Mary Barra made designs in product-development more efficient by using the same parts in many models. 3. Human Skills—"Soft Skills," the Ability to Interact Well with People Human skills consist of the ability to work well in cooperation with other people to get things done. In order for manager to work well with others, they need to possess "soft skills". These soft skills include the ability to motivate, inspire trust, and to communicate with others. This skill is important for managers of all levels. A manager displays human skills when he or she can collaborate with employees to identify issues within the company and solve them as a team. All three skills are equally important for a manager to be classified as an exceptional one. However, CEOs and employers tend to value human skills as more important than the other two when recruiting managers since the job of a manager in the 21st century is geared towards asking probing questions and forcing the people beneath them to think and find the right answers. (Management ebook)

What are the seven challenges for managers in the 21st Century? Which two of these seem to be most challenging to your sponsoring organization? How is that evident?

Challenge #1: Managing for Competitive Advantage—Staying Ahead of Rivals Challenge #2: Managing for Diversity—The Future Won't Resemble the Past Challenge #3: Managing for Globalization—The Expanding Management Universe Challenge #4: Managing for Information Technology—Dealing with the "New Normal" Challenge #5: Managing for Ethical Standards Challenge #6: Managing for Sustainability—The Business of Green Challenge #7: Managing for Happiness & Meaningfulness

Name the nine major considerations when building a group into an effective team. Briefly, describe what a manager should do in each area.

Cooperation-managers need to encourage the share of knowledge and learn from one another. Trust-managers need to communicate truthfully, offer support, show respect, show fairness, and show predictability Cohesiveness-managers should encourage face-to-face exchanges at work. Performance Goals & Feedback- managers should set goals measurable performance goals and continually give feedback Motivation through Mutual Accountability-managers allow the teams to hire new members Size-size should be determined by the team's purpose Roles-making sure that each person on the team has a purpose(getting work done vs keeping team together) Norms-set guidelines and rules of behaviors that the team members should follow Groupthink-allow criticism and allow other perspectives

Pretend that you are teaching a class and explain MBO (60 seconds), including the name of the person who created it. After that, explain the four steps in the MBO process and the three things that have to happen for MBO to be successful? What is the purpose of MBO?

First implemented by Peter Drucker in 1954, Management By Objectives is a four-step process in which broad, general company goals into more specific ones. The ultimate objective of MBO is to motivate one's employees as opposed to controlling them. The four steps are as follows: Purpose: Motivate Employees as opposed to controlling.

Describe the stages of group development. What should the leader do to facilitate it? How did this work in your team?

Forming-allow time for people to become acquainted and to socialize Storming-encourage members to suggest ideas, voice disagreements, and work through their conflicts and tasks and goals. Norming-emphasize unity and help them identify team goals and values Performing-allow members the empowerment they need to work on tasks Adjourning-help the transition by using ritual celebrations like parties and award ceremonies. And emphasize valuable lessons learned in group dynamics for their future.

Identify the differences between the Rational Decision- Making and Non-Rational Decision- Making Approaches to Problem Solving. In the Challenger Incident, which approach prevailed?

From Chapter 7 Decision Making Rational decision making- Takes more thinking 1) Identify the problem or opportunity 2) Think up alternative solutions 3) Evaluate alternatives and select solution 4) Implement and evaluate the solution Non-rational: use for daily or repetitive actions Satisficing Intuition

Identify and explain the nine symptoms of Groupthink. What symptoms of Groupthink have you observed within your group or sponsoring organization? What recommendations would you make as to how Groupthink could be mitigated or avoided?

Invulnerability- provides confidence or degree of reassurance about obvious dangers and leads them to become over optimistic and willing to take risk. Rationale- victims of groupthink ignore warnings. Discount warnings and forms of negative feedback. Sometimes avoiding the opposite perspective Morality- groups members are inclined to ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions due to inherent morality in the group. Negative things can come out of it. Ex: Things left left unsaid in group meetings Stereotypes- stereotyped views of the leaders of enemy groups. Causing it to be impossible to bring up another viewpoint Pressure- direct pressure applied to an individual expressing doubts or questions the argument Self-censorship- members avoid deviating from the group consensus. They keep silent about doubts and lower the importance of their doubts or misgivings. Unanimity- the thought that if an individual remains silent during any part of the discussion is in full agreement with what others are saying. Individuals are more likely to agree if the whole group is in agreement Mindguards- victims of groupthink sometimes appoint themselves as mindguards to protect the leader or fellow members from information that might break the agreement, effectiveness, or morality of the decision. Within the group, I have noticed unanimity, pressure, and self-censorship. Groupthink can be avoided by initially stating norms and encouraging team members to speak up. A leader can also ask each member their opinion before a decision or make up a process to receive opinions anonymously if a member feels uncomfortable.

Explain the five conversations and give an example of how you might use each in your future career.

Look Act Speak Think Feel

While Group Think was one of the decision making errors committed in the Challenger Exercise, other decision making biases were evident. Which of the nine common decision making biases contributed to the decision to launch the Challenger? What are some of the ways to minimize such biases?

One of the common biases that led to the launch of the Challenger was the overconfidence bias. The group had successfully run the preflight test 19 times before their unsuccessful launch and because of that the team launching the challenger thought since their successful history that they would be successful in the future. Some ways to minimize this type of bias is to take every test the same as all the others, not allowing your previous work to cloud your judgement on future plans.

What are the five basic behaviors to help you better handle conflict? Explain each one.

Openness- stating your views openly and honestly. Look at the conflict as a better way of understanding Equality - treat others ideas as equal to yours allowing them to express their opinions. Evaluate fairly Empathy- try to experience the other person's feelings Supportiveness- let the other person know you want to find a compromising solution. Describe your difficulty of understanding without judging. Positiveness- be positive about the other person and express willingness to find a solution

Explain the three principal kinds of conflict and give two examples of how each one may occur.

Personality Conflicts-when people's' personality clash & when their is a pressure of time Intergroup Conflicts-goals are inconsistent & when job boundaries are unclear Multicultural Conflicts-when companies or teams merge or do a joint ventures. Caused by different norms of how to think and act.

List the four benefits of planning. What observations do you have about how your sponsoring organization realized these benefits? Or, what were the missed opportunities?

Planning helps you check your progress Planning helps you coordinate your activities Planning helps you think ahead Planning helps you cope with uncertainty

Define the four management functions. Assess your non-profit supervisor with regard to his/her effectiveness on these four functions. What specific suggestions do you have for how he/she can improve?

Planning is defined as setting goals and deciding how to achieve them. Carmen displayed some lack of planning when she was unable to provide us with a clear schedule for the rehearsals towards the play on the 24th of October. Perhaps we would have been able to make arrangements to attend rehearsals earlier if she had planned a schedule earlier. Organizing is defined as arranging tasks, people, and other resources to accomplish the work. The organization's supervisor seems to have a strong sense of organization since she has managed to gather practically all the resources required for the success of the play on the 24th. Leading is defined as motivating, directing, and otherwise influencing people to work hard to achieve the organization's goals. Carmen did well directing us to prepare for our project when she gave us handouts that gave us more details about the organization. She also motivated us when she gave us a speech about the cause and convinced us to put our hearts into the project. Controlling is defined as monitoring performance, comparing it with goals, and taking corrective action as needed. Since we are still in the developing stages of the project, we haven't had the opportunity to assess our supervisor on her controlling skills. (management ebook) Example: in the future, carmen can give us feedback on plans we come up with, providing us feedback can stand as corrective action

Define the components of the acronym SMART in goal setting. Provide an example of a SMART goal and demonstrate that it meets all criteria.

Specific: a team should have a specific goal rather than a vague one, avoiding use general and big word to describe the goal. · Measureable: goals should also be measurable, or quantifiable, which means there will be a way to measure the degree of which goal has been reached. · Attainable: though the goals should be challenging, they should also be realistic, which means they are possible to reach the goals with team's resource and within the scope of time. · Result-oriented: goals should support the organization's vision. · Target dates: Goals should specify the target dates or deadline dates when they are to be attained.

Discuss subordinate imposed time? What is it and why does it happen? What are three specific examples of this from the "Case of Missing Time"? How can it be avoided? Give an example of an instance where you experienced it? What was the outcome? What could have been done differently?

Subordinate Imposed Time- Time spent performing tasks that were initially the responsibility of other employees that a manager takes on him/herself instead of helping the employee find a way to accomplish that goal on their own. Three Examples- 1. When Al, the stockroom foreman, asked Chet to find him a new man because one of his did not arrive to work 2. When Marilyn, the office manager, asked Chet if he could suggest another clerical operator for the sealing machine to replace the regular operator 3. The "heart-to-heart" conversation with a press helper who seemed to need frequent reassurance Subordinate Imposed Time can be avoided by improving time management skills and properly delegating responsibilities to employees in order for the manager to accomplish their goals as well. Poor planning results in difficulty to balance all life's obligations. An example would be overworking yourself in a group project by allowing yourself to take on the most responsibility. This can be a result of a lack of trust in your group's ability to accomplish certain tasks. The outcome typically is stress and work below average because of a lack of trust exhibited throughout the team. In order to achieve the most, group members should have trust in one another's ability and be able to help one another when needed.

According to this article, what are the four myths and realities? For each of the four realities, discuss the strategy to manage effectively and give an example.

The four myths are authority, control, managing one on one, and keeping the operation in working order. The four realities: Interdependency "It's humbling that someone who works for me could get me fired." "Everything but" "Folks were wary, and you really had to earn it." Commitment "Compliance does not equal commitment." Leading the team "I need to create a culture that will allow the group to fulfill its potential." Making changes that will make the team perform better "I am responsible for initiating changes to enhance the group's performance. Interdependence shows that you can do your own work and take responsibility for the work you submit. Commitment is when you show that you are for the team in your work environment and common goals may trump individual achievements for the greater good. Leading the team shows that you can take up a role in your company and show others what the right way to do things is and be the role model for the people looking up at you. Making changes that will make the team perform better is a way of saying you have situational awareness and that when things aren't working, you know when to change things up and how to do it.

What is the planning/control cycle and how does it apply to your service learning project.

The planning-control cycle: (1) make the plan. (2)Carry out the plan. (3)Control the direction by comparing results with the plan. (4)Control the direction by taking corrective action in two ways-namely (a) by correcting deviations in the plan being carried out or (b) by improving future plans.

According to Buckingham (What Great Managers Do) what are the three things (levers) you need to know about someone to manage them well? Demonstrate your understanding by giving examples of each one. How do they relate to "playing chess"?

To manage someone well you must know their current strengths, their triggers to those strengths, and how they learn. To know someone's strengths you must put them in situations that they either will succeed or fail. I terms of knowing how to trigger someone's strengths you must be able to know whether that person needs to learn how to do something, or possible needs a partner to eliminate weakness and show their strengths. As for knowing how someone learns, this helps managers figure out how they want to allow their employees to grow. Because a good manager will put someone in a position where their strengths will keep growing because they are in an environment they learn well in. Playing chess- know the strengths of each piece( the employees) and knowing where to put the piece (the employee) to win the game (be efficient in the company)

Explain the different types of planning for the different levels of management. Include the typical time frame for which each plan is created.

Top Management performs Strategic Planning, which outlines the company's goals over the next one to five years. Middle Management performs Tactical Planning, which outlines the company's goals over the next six months to two years. First Line Management performs Operational Planning, which can outline a company's goals as short as week-to-week, anytime up to one year.