Chapter 1 Terms

Five Major Challenges Stand out for managers in todays world:

1. Building a Competitive Advantage 2. Maintaining Ethical Standards 3. Managing a Diverse Workforce 4. Utilizing New Information Systems and Technologies 5. Practicing Global Crisis Management.

Education and Experience help managers acquire and decelope three types of skills

1. Conceptual 2. Human 3. Technical

Three Steps to Planning

1. Deciding which goals the organization will pursue. 2. Deciding what strategies to adopt to obtain these goals. 3. Deciding how to allocate resources to pursue the strategies and obtain the goals.

Four Buildingblocks to Competitive Advantage are superior:

1. Efficiency 2. Quality 3. Speed 4. Flexibility and innovation

Three Levels of Management

1. First Line Manager 2. Middle Manager 3. Top Manager

Two Major Factors leading to changes in Managers responisbility

1. Global Competition 2. Advances in Information Technology

Strategy

A cluster of decisions about what goals to pursue, what actions to take and how to use resources to achieve goals.

Organizational Structure

A formal system of task and reporting relationships that coordinates and moticates organizational members so they work together to achieve organizational goals.

Self Managed Team

A group of employees who assume responsibility for orangizing, controlling and supervising their own activities and monitoring the quality of the goods and services they provide.

Department

A group of people who work together and posess similar skills or use the same knowledge, tools or techniques to perform their jobs.

Top Manager

A manager who establishes organizational goals, decides how departments should interact, and monitors the performance of middle managers. Responsible for performance in all departments.

Middle Manager

A manager who supervisers first line managers and is responisble for finding the best way to use resources to achieve organizational goals.

Organizational performance

A measure of how efficiently and effectively a manager uses resources to satisfy customers and achieve organizational goals. It increases in direct proportion to increases in effieciency and effectiveness.

Efficiency

A measure of how productively resources are used to achieve a goal.

Effectiveness

A measure of the appropriateness of the goals an organization is pursuing and the degree to which the organization achieves those goals.

Leading

Articulating a clear vision and energizing and enabling organizational members so they understand the part they play in achieving organizational goals.

Organizations

Collections of people who work together and coordinate their actions to achieve a wide variety of goals or desired future outcomes

Outsourcing

Contracting with another company, usually abroad, to have it perform an activity the organization perviously performed itself. It increases efficiency by lowering operating costs.

Restructuring

Downsizing an organization by eliminating the jobs of large numbers of top, middle, and first line managers and nonmanegerial employees.

Mintzberg: Decisional

Entrepreneur, Disturbamce handler, Resource allocator, negotiator.

Controlling

Evaluating how well an organization is achieving its goals and taking action to maintain or omprove performance.

Mintzberg: Interpersonal

Figurehead, Leader, Liason.

Top Management Team

Group composed of the CEO, COO, the president and the heads of the most importanct departments.

Outcome of Leadership

Highly motivated and committed work force.

Mintzbergs Typology

Identified 10 specific roles/job responibilities that capture the dynamic nature of manegerial work.

Planning

Identifying and selecting the appropriate goals.

Mintzber: Informational

Monitor, Disseminator, Spokesperson.

First Line Manager

Often called supervisors. Responsible for the daily supervision of non managerial employees.

Global Organizations

Organizations that operate and compete in more than one country.

Organizing

Structuring working relationshops in a way that allows organizatiopnal members to work together to achieve organizational goals. The outcome of organizing is the creation of an Organizational Structure.

Competitive Advantage

The ability of one organization to out perform other organizations because it produces desired goods or services more efficiently and effectively than they do.

Conceptual Skills

The ability to analyze and diagnose a situation and to distinguish between cause and effect.

Human Skills

The ability to understand, alter, lead and control the behavior of other individuals and groups.

Turnaround Management

The creation of a new vision for a struggling company based on a new approach to planning and organizing to make better use of a companies resources to allow it to survive and prosper.

Empowerment

The expansion of employees knowledge, tasks, and decision making responsibilities.

Essential Managerial Tasks

The job of management is to help an organization make the best use of its resources to achieve its goals. They do so by performing four essential managerial tasks: Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controling.

Technical Skills

The job specific knowledge and techniques required to perform an organizational role.

Management

The planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of human and other resources to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively

Innovation

The process of creating new or improved goods and services or developing better ways to produce or provide them.

Core competency

The specific set of departmental skills, knowledge and experience that allows one organization to outperform another. To give themselves a competitive advantage.

Mintzberg Grouped the Roles

according to whether the reponsibility was primarily decisional, interpersonal, or informational.

Organizations Group their Managers in two ways

by level in hierarchy and by type of skill.

Vision

is a short, succinct, and inspiring statement of what the organization intends to become and the goals it is seeking to achieve- its desired future state.

Leadership Involves

managers using their power, personality, performance, influence, persuasion and communication skills to coordinate people and groups so their activities and efforts are in harmony.

Outcome of Controlling Proccess

the ability to measure performance accurately and regulate organizational efficiency and effectiveness.