Chapter 1: The Management Process Today

Strategy

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

Middle Manager

A manager who supervises first-line managers and is responsible for finding the best way to use resources to achieve organization goals

Organizational performance

A measure of how effectively and efficiently a manager uses resources to satisfy customers and achieve organizational goals

Leading

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

Planning

Identifying a selecting appropriate goals

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 company's resources and allow it to survive and prosper

Organizational Structure

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

Top management team

A group composed of the CEO, the COO, and the Vice Presidents of the most important departments of a company

self-managed team

A group of employees who assume responsibility for organizing, 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 posses 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

First-Line Manager

A manager who is responsible for the daily supervision of managerial employees

Efficiency

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

Organization

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 previously performed itself

Controlling

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

Global orgnaizations

Organizations that operate and compete in more than one country

The Four Tasks of Management

Planning Organizing Leading Controlling

Organizing

Structuring working relationships so organizational members work together to achieve organizational goals

Competitive Advantage

The ability of one organization to outperform other organizations because it produces desired goods or service more efficiently and effectively than they do

Conceptual Skills

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

Empowerment

The expansion of employees' knowledge, tasks, and decision-making responsiblities

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

Effectiveness

a measure of the appropriateness of the goals an organization is pursuing and the degree to which the organization achieves goals

Restructuring

downsizing by eliminating the jobs of large numbers of top, middle, and first-line managers and non managerial employees

Human Skills

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

Technical Skills

the job-specific knowledge and techniques required to perform an organizational role

Core competency

the specific set of departmental skills, knowledge, and experience that allows one organization to outperform another