MNGT 361 Final Exam

Operations Management is Important because...

(1) it encompasses processes in both service and manufacturing organizations, (2) it's key to effectively and efficiently managing productivity, and (3) it plays a strategic role in an organization's competitive success.

The Seven Part Communication Process of Transferring and Understanding Meaning

(1) the communication source or sender; (2) encoding; (3) the message; (4) the channel; (5) decoding; (6) the receiver; and (7) feedback.

Large Groups

(12 or more members) Better at: - Problem solving -Finding facts -Gaining diverse inputs

Small Groups

(5-7 members) Better At: - Completing tasks faster - Figuring out what to do - Getting the job done

Drawbacks to Global Teams

- Disliking team members - Distrusting team members - Stereotyping - Communication Problems - Stress and Tension

Benefits of Global Teams

- Greater diversity of ideas - Limited groupthink - Increased attention or understanding other's ideas, perspectives, etc.....

Ethical Guideline Questions

- Has the situation been defined fairly and accurately? - Why is the message being communicated? - How will the people who may be affected by the message or who receive the message be impacted? - Does the message help achieve the greatest possible good while minimizing possible harm? - Will this decision that appears to be ethical now seem so in the future? - How comfortable are you with your communication effort? - What would a person you respect think of it?

Cohesiveness and Productivity

- If the goals are favorable, a cohesive group is more productive than a less cohesive group. - However, if cohesiveness is high and attitudes are unfavorable, productivity decreases. - If cohesiveness is low and goals are supported, productivity increases, but not as much as when both cohesiveness and support are high. - When cohesiveness is low and goals are not supported, cohesiveness has no significant effect on productivity.

Written Communication Pros

- It is tangible and verifiable. - It creates a more permanent record for both sender and receiver than a verbal exchange does. - The message can be stored for an indefinite period of time so the content is physically available for later reference, which is particularly important for complex or lengthy communications. - Generally, more care is taken with the written word than with the spoken word so it's more likely to be well thought out, logical, and clear.

Written Communication Cons

- it's time consuming - it does not lend itself to feedback like oral communication does. - Unlike written communication, oral communication allows receivers to respond rapidly to what they thought they heard or to verbally summarize what they understood the sender said.

Important work design elements that enhance team member motivation and increase team effectiveness include:

1. Autonomy 2. Using a variety of skills 3. Being able to complete a whole and identifiable task or product 4. Working on a task or project that has a significant impact on others

Conclusions about how Organizational Processes Must Change

1. Better demand forecasting is necessary and possible because of closer ties with customers and suppliers. 3. Selected functions may need to be done collaboratively with other partners in the value chain. This collaboration may even extend to sharing employees. 4. Finally, new measures are needed for evaluating the performance of various activities along the value chain.

Inherent Rewards

1. Camaraderie 2. Personal development 3. Helping teammates

When Teams are not the right answer.....

1. Can the work be done better by more than one person? 2. Does the work create a common purpose that's more than the sum of individual goals? 3. Is there interdependence between tasks?

Five Team Process Variables to Effectiveness

1. Common plan/purpose 2. Specific goals 3. Team efficacy 4. Task conflict 5. Minimal social loafing

Contemporary Communication Issues

1. Communication management in an Internet world 2. Managing the organization's knowledge resources 3. Communicating with customers 4. Getting employee input 5. Communicating ethically

Four Components of Team Effectiveness

1. Context 2. Team's composition 3. Work design 4. Process variables

Benefits of Value Chain Management

1. Improved procurement (acquiring needed resources) 2. Improved logistics (managing materials, service, and information) 3. Improved product development (close relationships with customers leads to developing products they value) 4. Enhanced customer order management (managing every step to make sure customers are satisfied)

External Rewards

1. Promotions 2. Pay raises 3. Other forms of recognition

Three Skills a Team Needs

1. Technical expertise. 2. Problem-solving and decision-making skills. 3. Interpersonal skills. A team can't achieve its performance potential if it doesn't have or can't develop the right mix of all these skills. However, a team doesn't necessarily need all these skills immediately. Team members commonly take responsibility for learning the skills in which the group is deficient so the team can achieve its full potential.

Contemporary Issues in Managing Operations

1. Technology's role in operations management 2. Quality initiatives 3. Project management

Goals of Value Chain Management

A good value chain is one in which a sequence of participants works together as a team, each adding some component of value—such as faster assembly, more accurate information, or better customer response and service—to the overall process. The better the collaboration among the various chain participants, the better the customer solutions. When value is created for customers and their needs and desires are satisfied, everyone along the chain benefits.

True

A high need to achieve doesn't necessarily lead to being a good manager because high achievers focus on their own accomplishments while good managers emphasize helping others accomplish their goals.

Simplify Communication

A manager should also _______ ____________so it's clear, easily understood, and in language customized to the specific employee or group being addressed.

Does the desire to be accepted as a part of a group leave one susceptible to conforming to the group's norms or exert pressure that's strong enough to change a member's attitude and behavior?

According to the research of Solomon Asch, the answer appears to be yes. Asch's study involved groups of seven or eight people who sat in a classroom and were asked to compare two cards held by an investigator. One card had one line; the other had three lines of varying lengths. The Asch study provides managers with considerable insight into group behaviors. To diminish the negative aspects of conformity, managers should create a climate of openness in which employees are free to discuss problems without fear of retaliation.

True

All feedback isn't equally effective.

Employee Training

Also, the need for flexibility requires a significant investment in ongoing ___________ ___________. Whether the training involves learning how to use information technology software, how to improve the flow of materials throughout the chain, how to identify activities that add value, or how to make better decisions more quickly, managers must ensure that employees have the knowledge and tools they need to do their jobs.

Diversity

Although many view ____________ as desirable, research seems to show the opposite. One review found that studies on diversity in teams from the last 50 years have shown that surface-level differences such as race/ethnicity, gender, and age tend to have negative effects on team performance. However, some evidence does show that the disruptive effects of ________ decline over time, but it doesn't confirm that diverse teams always perform better in the long-run.

Common Plan and Purpose

An effective team has a ___________________________ that provides direction, momentum, and commitment for team members. Members of successful teams put a lot of time and effort into discussing, shaping, and agreeing on a purpose that belongs to them both individually and as a team.

Control

Another cultural attitude that can be an obstacle is the belief that when an organization collaborates with external and internal partners, it no longer controls its own destiny. This is not true. Even with the intense collaboration that's important to value chain management, organizations still control critical decisions such as what customers value, how much value they desire, and what distribution channels are important.

Communities of Practice

Another tool for managing knowledge is to create _______________________ , which are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in that area by interacting on an ongoing basis. To make these ___________________ work, however, it's important to maintain strong human interactions by using tools such as interactive websites, e-mail, and videoconferencing.

Adequate Resources

As part of the larger organization system, a team relies on resources outside the group to sustain it. If it doesn't have _________________________, the team's ability to perform its job effectively is reduced. Resources can include timely information, proper equipment, encouragement, adequate staffing, and administrative assistance.

Watch Non-Verbal Cues

Because actions speak louder than words, it's important to make sure your actions align with and reinforce the words you use to ensure that your nonverbal cues convey the desired message.

Feedback to Assess Understanding

Because many communication problems are directly attributed to misunderstandings and inaccuracies, a manager can ask questions to determine if the message was understood, can ask the receiver to restate the message in his or her own words, and can be alert to nonverbal cues.

Message

Before communication can take place, a purpose, expressed as a ___________ to be conveyed, is needed. The ____________ passes between the sender and a receiver. The __________ is converted to symbolic form—such as a television commercial—and is passed by way of some channel of communication to the receiver, who decodes the ____________.

How to increase Employee Motivation Levels

Clarify each person's role in the organization and show them how their efforts are contributing to improving the company's overall situation. Keep communication lines open and use two-way exchanges between top-level managers and employees to allay fears and concerns. Continually show workers that the company cares about them and give employees a reason to want to come to work.

Customer Service Strategies

Communication is also a part of specific _________________ ____________ ____________ the organization pursues and the individual service provider who is on the front line. The individual provider is often the first to hear about or notice service failures or breakdowns. In these cases, the individual provider must decide how and what to communicate, must listen actively, and must communicate appropriately so the situation is resolved to the customer's satisfaction.

Global Team Processes

Communication issues often arise because not all team members may be fluent in the team's working language. However, research shows that a multicultural global team is better able to capitalize on the diversity of ideas represented if a wide range of information is used. Additionally, managing conflict in global teams isn't easy, especially when those teams are virtual teams. However, research shows that in collectivistic cultures, a collaborative conflict management style can be most effective.

Knowledge Management

Cultivating a learning culture in which organizational members systematically gather knowledge and share it with others.

Legal and Security Issues in Communication

E-mail, blogs, tweets, and other forms of online communication can give rise to potential legal problems if they are used inappropriately—especially because electronic information is potentially admissible in court. But security is a serious concern as well. A survey addressing outbound e-mail and content security found that 26 percent of the companies surveyed saw their businesses affected by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information.

Gender Differences in Communication

Each one has distinct communication styles, so individuals must acknowledge these differences and strive for acceptance, understanding, and a commitment to communicate adaptively with each other.

Conflict

Effective teams also need some of the right kind of ______________, which actually improves team effectiveness.

Motivating Contingent Workers

For the most part, temporary employees are not temporary by choice. Therefore, an involuntarily temporary employee might be motivated by the opportunity to become a permanent employee or an opportunity for training.

Human Resources Requirements

For value chain management are: 1. Flexible approaches to job design. 2. An effective hiring process. 3. Ongoing training.

Encoding

Four conditions affect the encoded message: skill, attitudes, knowledge, and social cultural system. 1. Skill determines a person's total communicative success and includes speaking, reading, listening, and reasoning skills. 2. Attitudes influence our behavior. 3. Knowledge of the subject matter allows us to communicate more clearly or, if our knowledge is quite extensive, to confuse our receiver with overly complex information. Finally, our position in our 4. social cultural system—our beliefs and values—influences each of us as a communicative source.

Two Factor Theory

Frederick Herzberg proposes that intrinsic factors are related to job satisfaction, while extrinsic factors are associated with job dissatisfaction. It was popular from the 1960s to the early 1980s, but it's criticized for being too simplistic. However, it did influence today's approach to job design. Herzberg wanted to know when people felt exceptionally good (satisfied) or bad (dissatisfied) about their jobs. He concluded from people's responses that certain characteristics were consistently related to job satisfaction (as seen on the left side of the exhibit), and other characteristics were related to job dissatisfaction (factors on the right side). When people feel good about their work, they tend to cite intrinsic factors arising from the job itself, such as achievement, recognition, and responsibility. But when they are dissatisfied, they tend to cite extrinsic factors arising from the job context, such as company policy, administration, supervision, interpersonal relationships, and working conditions.

Herzberg

He stated that removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job would not necessarily make that job more satisfying (or motivating). He proposed that a dual continuum existed: The opposite of "satisfaction" is "no satisfaction" and the opposite of "dissatisfaction" is "no dissatisfaction." He believed that the factors that led to job satisfaction were separate and distinct from those that led to job dissatisfaction. Therefore, managers who sought to eliminate factors that created job dissatisfaction could keep people from being dissatisfied, but this would not necessarily lead to satisfaction and motivation. To motivate people, he suggested emphasizing motivators, the intrinsic factors having to do with the job itself.

Direction

High levels of effort lead to favorable job performance when the effort is directed toward, and consistent with, organizational goals. (Element of Motivation)

True

In oral communication, the nonverbal component carries the greatest impact. Research indicates that from 65 to 90 percent of the message of every face-to-face conversation is communicated through body language.

Customers

In value chain management, ______________ are the ones with the power. They define what value is and how it's created and provided. Using VCM, managers seek to find that unique combination in which customers are offered solutions that truly meet their needs and at a price that can't be matched by competitors.

Equity Theory

Individuals compare the rewards (outcomes) they have received from the inputs or efforts they have made with the inputs-outcomes ratio of relevant others. If inequities exist, the effort expended may be influenced.

Load Chart

Instead of listing activities on the vertical axis, load charts list either whole departments or specific resources. This information allows managers to plan and control for capacity utilization. In other words, load charts schedule capacity by workstations. If everyone is fully scheduled, the executive editor might decide not to accept any new projects, to accept some new projects and to delay others, to ask the editors to work overtime, or to employ more production editors.

True

It's estimated that some 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies have at least half of their employees on teams, and more than 70 percent of U.S. manufacturers use work teams.

Ethical Communication

It's particularly important today that a company's communication efforts be ethical. This means that the communication includes all relevant information, is true in every sense, and is not deceptive in any way. Unethical communication often distorts the truth or manipulates audiences—for example, by omitting essential information, selectively misquoting, misrepresenting numbers, distorting visuals, or failing to respect privacy or information security needs. Managers encourage ethical communication by establishing clear ethical guidelines for behavior and business communication.

National Culture

It's well adapted to North American countries because its main ideas align reasonably well with those cultures. It assumes that subordinates will be reasonably independent (not a high score on power distance), that people will seek challenging goals (low in uncertainty avoidance), and that performance is considered important by both managers and subordinates (high in assertiveness). Managers cannot expect goal setting to lead to higher employee performance in countries with cultural characteristics different from these.

True

Managers need to ensure that they're specific about the relationship between an individual's pay and his or her expected level of performance and understand exactly how performance—theirs and the organization's—translates into dollars on their paychecks.

Open-Book Management

Many organizations of various sizes involve their employees in workplace decisions by opening up the financial statements (the "books") so that employees will be motivated to make better decisions about their work and be better able to understand the implications of what they do, how they do it, and the ultimate impact on the bottom line.

Trust

Members of effective teams _________ each other and their leaders, which facilitates cooperation, reduces the need to monitor each other's behavior, and bonds members around the belief that others on the team won't take advantage of them

Theory X (Douglas McGregor)

Negative View of People. - Little ambition - Dislike work - Avoid responsibility - Must be closely controlled

Decode

Note that just as the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and social culture of the sender affect the sender's ability to encode a message, the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and social culture of the receiver to whom the message is directed affect his or her ability to _______________ the message.

Team Roles

On many teams, individuals may play multiple roles. It's important for managers to understand the individual strengths a person brings to a team and to select team members with those strengths to ensure that these roles are filled.

Online Information Databases

One way organizations can manage knowledge resources is to build _________________________ so employees can communicate, access research, and learn from other staff how to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently.

Value

Organizations must provide that ________ to attract and keep customers. _________ is defined as the performance characteristics, features and attributes, and any other aspects of goods and services for which customers are willing to give up resources (usually money).

Informal Channels

Personal or social messages follow the ______________ ______________ in the organization.

Theory Y (Douglas McGregor)

Positive View of People - Enjoy work - Seek and accept responsibility - Exercise self-direction These assumptions should guide management practice and proposed that participation in decision making, responsible and challenging jobs, and good group relations would maximize employee motivation.

Conformity

Research suggests that Asch's findings on _____________ are culture-bound. As might be expected, ______________ to social norms tends to be higher in collectivistic cultures than in individualistic cultures.

True

Status systems are important factors in understanding behavior. Status is a significant motivator that has behavioral consequences when individuals see a disparity between what they perceive their status to be and what others perceive it to be.

Operations Management

Successful organizations recognize the crucial role that ______________ __________________ plays as part of the overall organizational strategy to achieve and maintain global leadership.

JCM

Task characteristics (job design) influence job motivation in two areas. First, jobs that are designed around the five job dimensions are likely to lead to higher actual job performance because the individual's motivation will be stimulated by the job itself and because there will be a clear link between effort and performance. Second, jobs that are designed around the five job dimensions also increase an employee's control over key elements in his or her work.

Team Composition includes.....

Team member abilities Personality Role allocation Diversity Size of teams Member flexibility Member preferences

Performance Evaluation and Reward System

Team members have to be accountable both individually and jointly. Therefore, in addition to evaluating and rewarding employees for their individual contributions, managers should consider group-based appraisals, profit-sharing, and other approaches that reinforce team effort and commitment.

New Business Model

The dynamic, competitive environment facing contemporary global organizations demands new solutions. Understanding how and why value is determined by the marketplace has led some organizations to experiment with a _________ ______________ __________ —that is, a strategic design for how a company intends to profit from its broad array of strategies, processes, and activities.

People

The final obstacles to successful value chain management can be an organization's __________. Without their unwavering commitment to do whatever it takes, value chain management won't succeed. In addition, value chain management takes an incredible amount of time and energy on the part of an organization's employees. Motivating such high levels of effort isn't easy for managers to do.

Performing Stage

The fourth stage where the group structure is in place and accepted by group members. Their energies have moved from getting to know and understand each other to working on the group's task. This is the last stage of development for permanent work groups.

Achievement Need

The high achiever isn't motivated by the organization's assessment of his or her performance or organizational rewards; hence the jump from effort to individual goals for those with a high nAch.

Status

The importance of ___________ varies between cultures. Countries differ on the criteria that confer ________. For instance, in Latin America and Asia, ________ tends to come from family position and formal roles held in organizations. In contrast, while ________ is important in countries like the United States and Australia, it tends to be given based on accomplishments. Managers must understand who and what holds _______ when interacting with people from a culture different from their own.

Leadership

The importance of _______________ to value chain management is clear—from top organizational levels to lower levels, managers must support, facilitate, and promote implementation and ongoing practice of value chain management.

True

The key to expectancy theory is understanding an individual's goals and the links between effort and performance, between performance and rewards, and between rewards and individual goal satisfaction.

Improvement of Productivity

The late W. Edwards Deming, a renowned quality expert, believed that managers, not workers, were the primary source of increased productivity. He outlined 14 points for improving management's productivity through such practices as: planning for the long-term future, never being complacent with the quality of your product, dealing with the best and fewest number of suppliers, training your employees to understand statistical methods, and making top managers responsible for implementing these principles.

PERT

The program evaluation and review technique—usually called PERT, or the PERT network analysis—was originally developed in the late 1950s for coordinating the more than 3,000 contractors and agencies working on the Polaris submarine weapon system. This project was incredibly complicated, involving hundreds of thousands of activities that had to be coordinated. PERT is reported to have cut two years off the completion date for the Polaris project. A PERT network is a diagram like a flow chart that depicts the sequence of activities needed to complete a project and the time or costs associated with each activity. With a PERT network, a project manager must think through what has to be done, determine which events depend on one another, and identify potential trouble spots, as seen in Exhibit 15-7. PERT makes it easy to compare the effects alternative actions will have on scheduling and costs, and allows managers to monitor a project's progress, identify possible bottlenecks, and shift resources as necessary to keep the project on schedule.

Operations Management

The system takes inputs—such as people, technology, capital, equipment, materials, and information—and transforms them through various processes, procedures, and work activities into finished goods and services. These processes, procedures, and activities take place throughout the organization so that department members in marketing, finance, research and development, human resources, and accounting produce outputs such as sales, increased market share, high rates of return on investments, innovative products, motivated employees, and accounting reports. As a manager, you'll need to be familiar with operations management concepts to achieve your goals more effectively and efficiently.

Project Management

The task of getting project activities done on time, within budget, and according to specifications.

True

The truly effective organization will increase productivity by successfully integrating people into the overall operations system.

Achievement Need

The view that a high achievement need acts as an internal motivator presupposes two cultural characteristics: a willingness to accept a moderate degree of risk and a concern with performance. This combination is found in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain but is rare in countries such as Chile and Portugal.

Three-Needs Theory (David McClelland)

These three needs include: 1. The need for achievement (nAch) 2. The need for power (nPow) 3. The need for affiliation (nAff) People with a high need for achievement strive for personal achievement rather than rewards. They have a desire to do something better or more efficiently than it's been done before. They prefer jobs that offer personal responsibility for finding solutions, like to receive rapid and unambiguous performance feedback to tell whether they're improving, and to set moderately challenging goals. High achievers avoid what they perceive to be very easy or very difficult tasks.

Team Leadership and Structure

To function properly, a team needs to agree on the specifics of work and how all the team members' individual skills fit together. This requires __________________________________, which can come from the organization or from the team itself. Even in self-managed teams, a manager's job is to be a coach supporting the team's efforts and managing outside (rather than inside) the team.

Trust

Too much _________ can also be a problem. Nearly all organizations are vulnerable to theft of intellectual property—that is, proprietary information that's critical to an organization's efficient and effective functioning and competitiveness.

Does a group become more effective as it progresses through the first four stages?

Usually, but not always. Of course, some groups don't get much beyond the forming or storming stages. These groups may have serious interpersonal conflicts, turn in disappointing work, and get poor performance reviews. The assumption that a group becomes more effective as it progresses through the first four stages may be generally true, but what makes a group effective is complex. Under some conditions, high levels of conflict are conducive to high levels of group performance. There might be situations in which groups in the storming stage outperform those in the norming or performing stages.

Capabilities

We know that value chain partners need numerous _____________. Several of these—coordination and collaboration, the ability to configure products to satisfy customers and suppliers, and the ability to educate internal and external partners—aren't easy to attain. However, they're essential to capturing and exploiting the value chain.

Member Selection is Key

When hiring team members, managers should check whether applicants have the technical skills required to successfully perform the job and whether they have the interpersonal skills to fulfill team roles.

Constrain Emotions

When they are upset, managers should __________ _______________. Strong emotions make it easier to misconstrue incoming messages and more difficult to communicate outgoing messages clearly and accurately.

The Group Development Model

a general framework that underscores the fact that groups are dynamic entities. Managers need to know the stage a group is in so they can understand the problems and issues that are most likely to surface.

Specificity of the Goal

acts as an internal stimulus. For instance, when a sales rep commits to making eight sales calls daily, he has a specific goal to try to attain. Interestingly, setting one's own goals sometimes elicited superior performance; in other cases, individuals performed better when their manager assigned goals. However, when employees might resist accepting difficult challenges, participation in goal setting is probably more effective than assigning goals.

Word Meaning

age, education, and cultural background are three obvious variables that influence the language a person uses and the definitions he or she applies to words. Additionally, specialists in specific fields of work or departments develop their own jargon (or technical language) as do employees spread across different geographic locations.

Teleconferencing Meetings

allow people to confer simultaneously by telephone, e-mail, or video screens. Participants don't need to be in the same physical location to share information and collaborate. This technology saves travel money.

Electronic Data Interchange

allows organizations to exchange business transaction documents—such as invoices or purchase orders—using direct computer-to-computer networks. This saves time and money by eliminating printing and handling of paper documents.

Strong Service Culture

already values taking care of customers — finding out what their needs are, meeting those needs, and following up to make sure that their needs were met satisfactorily. Each of these activities involves communication, whether face-to-face, by phone or e-mail, or through other channels.

Coordination and Collaboration

among all members of the chain is absolutely necessary to achieve its goal of meeting and exceeding customers' needs and desires. To successfully collaborate, all partners must identify things that their customers value, share information, and be flexible as far as who does what.

Norms

are acceptable standards shared by the group's members. Although each group has its own unique set of ________, common classes of ________ appear in most organizations. These ________ focus on: Effort and performance. This is probably the most widespread ________ and it can be extremely powerful in affecting an individual employee's performance. Dress codes dictate what's acceptable to wear to work.

Organizational Barriers

are among the most difficult to handle. These barriers include refusal or reluctance to share information, reluctance to shake up the status quo, and security issues. Without shared information, close coordination and collaboration is impossible. And the reluctance or refusal of employees to shake up the status quo impedes efforts toward value chain management and prevents its successful implementation. Finally, because value chain management relies heavily on a substantial information technology infrastructure, system security and Internet security issues need to be addressed.

Task Groups

are composed of individuals brought together to complete a specific job task, they are often temporary because when the task is completed the group disbands.

Command Groups

are determined by the organization chart and composed of individuals who report directly to a given manager.

Self-managed Teams

are essentially independent. In addition to their own tasks, they take on traditional managerial responsibilities such as hiring, planning and scheduling, and evaluating performance.

Formal Channels

are established by the organization, transmit job-related messages, and traditionally follow the authority network within the organization.

Internal Rewards

are obtained when an employee learns that he or she personally has performed well on a task he or she cares about.

Problem-Solving Teams

are teams from the same department or functional area involved in efforts to improve work activities or to solve specific problems. Members share ideas or offer suggestions on how work processes and methods can be improved, but they're rarely given the authority to implement any of their suggested actions.

Pay-For-Performance Programs

are variable compensation plans that pay employees on the basis of some performance measure. Piece-rate pay plans, wage incentive plans, profit-sharing, and lump sum bonuses are examples. These performance measures might include such things as individual productivity, team or work group productivity, departmental productivity, or the overall organization's financial performance. From a motivation perspective, making some or all an employee's pay conditional on some performance measure focuses his or her attention and effort toward that measure and then reinforces the continuation of the effort with a reward. If the employee, team, or organization's performance declines, so does the reward.

Maslow

argued that each level must be substantially satisfied before the next need becomes dominant; an individual moves up the hierarchy from one level to the next. Lower-order need are satisfied predominantly externally, while higher-order needs are satisfied internally.

Maslow's Need Hierarchy

argues that people start at the physiological level and then move progressively up the hierarchy in order. In countries such as Japan, Greece, and Mexico, where uncertainty avoidance characteristics are strong, security needs would be on top of the need hierarchy. Countries that score high on nurturing characteristics—such as Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, and Finland—would have social needs on top.

Cross-functional Teams

bring together the knowledge and skills of individuals from various work areas, or are groups whose members have been trained to do each other's jobs.

Communication

can be thought of as a process or flow that transfers understanding and meaning from one person to another.

Employee Recognition Programs

can motivate employees by providing personal attention and expressions of interest, approval, and appreciation for a job well done. A survey of organizations found that 84 percent had some type of program to recognize worker achievements and that employees respond well to such programs.

Feedback

checking to see how successfully a message has been transferred.

Communication Differences Based on Culture

communication differences arise from language: the three different languages that individuals use to communicate and the _________ of which they're a part. The style of communication also differs for countries that are highly individualistic (like the United States) and those that are collectivist (such as Japan). U.S. managers rely heavily on memoranda, announcements, position papers, and other formal forms of communication to state their positions, whereas the Japanese use face-to-face meetings at which discussion is followed by consensus, at which point a formal document is written.

Cross-Functional Teams

defined as a work team composed of individuals from various specialties. For example, ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company, uses cross-functional teams of scientists, plant managers, and salespeople to review and monitor product innovations.

Equity Theory

developed by J. Stacey Adams, proposes that employees compare what they get from a job (outcomes) to what they put into it (inputs) and then compare their inputs-outcomes ratio with the inputs-outcomes ratios of relevant others. If an employee perceives her ratio to be equitable in comparison to those of relevant others, there's no problem. However, if the ratio is perceived to be inequitable, she views herself as underrewarded or overrewarded.

Voicemail System

digitizes a spoken message, transmits it over the network, and stores the message for the receiver to retrieve later. This capability allows information to be transmitted even though a receiver may not be physically present to take the information. Receivers can save, delete, or route the message to other parties. A downside to this is no immediate feedback for the caller.

Team Efficacy

emerges when teams believe in themselves and in their members, and believe that they can succeed.

Unsupportive Cultural Attitudes

especially attitudes toward trust and control—can also be obstacles to value chain management. To be effective, partners in a value chain must trust each other. There must be a mutual respect for, and honesty about, each partner's activities all along the chain.

Specific Goals

facilitate clear communication and help teams maintain their focus on getting results.

Group Development Stages

forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning

Social Loafing

has a Western bias and is consistent with individualistic cultures like the United States and Canada, which are dominated by self-interest. It's not consistent with collectivistic societies such as China and Israel, in which individuals are motivated by group goals and actually performed better in a group than when working alone.

Equity Theory

has a relatively strong following in the United States, which is not surprising given that U.S.-style reward systems are based on the assumption that workers are highly sensitive to equity in reward allocations. However, recent evidence suggests that in collectivist cultures, especially in the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, employees expect outcomes to be greater than their inputs, which suggests that U.S.-style pay practices may need to be modified to be perceived as fair by employees.

Information Technology

has radically changed the way organizational members communicate. IT, - Improves managers' ability to monitor individual and team performance, - Allows employees to have more complete information to make faster decisions, - Provides employees more opportunities to collaborate and share information, and - Allows employees to be fully accessible 24/7.

Forming Stage

has two phases. The first phase is when people first join the group and the second phase is when they define the group's purpose, structure, and leadership. The latter phase involves a great deal of uncertainty as members "test the waters" to determine acceptable behaviors and is complete when members begin to think of themselves as part of a group.

Inexpensive Ways to Keep Employees Motivated

holding meetings with employees to keep the lines of communication open; getting employee input on issues; establishing a common goal, such as maintaining excellent customer service to keep everyone focused; creating a community feel so employees can see that managers care about them and their work; and giving employees continuing opportunities to learn and grow.

Self-generated Feedback

in which an employee monitors his or her own progress—has been shown to be a more powerful motivator than feedback coming from someone else.

Esteem Needs

include internal esteem factors such as self-respect, autonomy, and achievement, and external esteem factors such as status, recognition, and attention.

Written Communications

include memos, letters, email, and other forms of digital communication, organizational periodicals, bulletin boards, or any other device that transmits written words or symbols.

Self-actualization Needs

includes growth and achieving one's potential.

Social Needs

including affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship.

Information Overload

individuals' finite capacity for processing data is overwhelmed by the onslaught of modern communication. The result is lost information and less effective communication.

Instant Messaging

interactive, real-time communication among computer users who are logged on to the computer network at the same time. It's instantaneous communication, without having to wait for colleagues to read email. But users must be logged on a the same time and there are potential network and data security breaches.

Performing Well in a Team

involves a set of behaviors that can be learned from training specialists who conduct workshops that can cover such topics as team problem solving, communications, negotiations, conflict resolution, and coaching skills. They also remind employees that it takes teams longer to do some things—such as making decisions—than employees acting alone would.

Energy

is a measure of intensity or drive where the quality of the effort is considered along with its intensity. (Element of Motivation)

Gantt Chart

is a planning tool developed around the turn of the century by Henry Gantt. It's essentially a bar graph, with time on the horizontal axis and the activities to be scheduled on the vertical axis. The bars show output, both planned and actual, over a period of time. The Gantt chart visually shows when tasks are supposed to be done and compares the assigned date with the actual progress on each.

Status

is a prestige grading, position, or rank within a group. As far back as scientists have been able to trace human groupings, they've found _______ hierarchies between tribal chiefs and their followers, nobles and peasants, and the haves and the have-nots.

Six Sigma

is a quality standard that establishes a goal of no more than 3.4 defects per million units or procedures. Although it's an extremely high standard to achieve, many quality-driven businesses are using it and benefiting from it. Although manufacturers seem to make up the bulk of Six Sigma users, service companies—such as financial institutions, retailers, and health care organizations—are also beginning to apply it.

ISO 9000

is a series of international quality management standards established by the International Organization for Standardization, which set uniform guidelines for processes to ensure that products conform to customer requirements. These standards cover everything from contract review to product design and delivery, and have become the internationally recognized standard for evaluating and comparing companies in the global marketplace. In fact, this type of certification can be a prerequisite for doing business globally.

Organizational Extranet

is an organizational communication network using Internet technology that allows authorized organizational users to communicate with certain outsiders such as customers or vendors. It allows for faster and more convenient communication but there are concerns about network and data security breaches.

Organizational Intranet

is an organizational communication network using Internet technology that's accessible only to organizational employees. It allows users to share information and collaborate on documents and projects. It provides access to company policy manuals and employee-specific materials. There are, however, possible network and data security breaches.

Cohesiveness

is another group structural element that may create special challenges for managers because global teams exhibit higher levels of mistrust, miscommunication, and stress.

Motivating Professionals

is different from motivating nonprofessionals. Professionals have a strong and long-term commitment to their field of expertise, they need to keep current and regularly update their knowledge, and, because of their commitment to their profession, they work beyond a 40-hour week. Money and promotions tend to be low motivators for professionals, but job challenge tends to rank high. Professionals' chief reward is the work itself but they value support and want others to think that what they're working on is important. Professionals tend to be focused on their work as their central life interest, whereas nonprofessionals typically have outside interests that can compensate for needs not met on the job.

Value Chain Management (VCM)

is externally oriented and focuses on both incoming materials and outgoing products and services. _________ is effectiveness oriented and aims to create the highest value for customers. This is a contrast to supply chain management, which is efficiency oriented (its goal is to reduce costs and make the organization more productive) and internally oriented by focusing on efficient flow of incoming materials (resources) to the organization.

Storming Stage

is named because it is the period of intragroup conflict about who will control the group and what the group needs to be doing. This stage is complete when a relatively clear hierarchy of leadership and agreement on the group's direction is evident.

Technology Investment

is necessary to restructure the value chain to better serve end users. According to experts, the key tools include a supporting enterprise resource planning software (ERP) system that links all of an organization's activities, sophisticated work planning and scheduling software, customer relationship management systems, business intelligence capabilities, and e-business connections with trading network partners.

Norming Stage

is one in which close relationships develop and the group becomes cohesive and demonstrates a strong sense of group identity and camaraderie. This stage is complete when the group structure solidifies and the group has assimilated a common set of expectations regarding member behavior.

Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory

is one of the most widely known theories of motivation. Maslow was a psychologist who proposed that within every person is a hierarchy of five needs: 1. Physiological needs 2. Safety needs 3. Social needs 4. Esteem needs 5. Self-actualization needs

Reinforcement Theory

is seen in the model where the organization's rewards reinforce the individual's performance.

Equity

is the concept of fairness and comparable treatment when compared with others who behave in similar ways. There's considerable evidence that employees compare themselves to others and that inequities influence how much effort they exert.

Feedback

is the degree to which carrying out the work activities required by the job results in the individual's obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance.

Instrumentality or performance-reward linkage

is the degree to which the individual believes that performing at a particular level is instrumental to attaining the desired outcome.

Task Significance

is the degree to which the job affects the lives or work of other people.

Skill Variety

is the degree to which the job requires a variety of activities, allowing the worker to use a number of different skills and talents.

Task Variety

is the degree to which the job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work.

Valence or attractiveness of reward

is the importance that the individual places on the potential outcome or reward that can be achieved on the job. Valence considers both the goals and needs of the individual.

E-Mail

is the instantaneous transmission of messages on linked computers. It's fast, cheap, efficient, and convenient. It allows messages to be read at the reader's convenience, and print if needed. On the down side, e-mail is slow and cumbersome.

Expectancy or effort-performance linkage

is the probability perceived by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to a certain level of performance.

Value Chain Management

is the process of managing the sequence of activities and information along the entire value chain. It is externally oriented and focuses on both incoming materials and outgoing products and services. ________ _________ _______________ is effectiveness oriented and aims to create the highest value for customers.

Message

is the purpose to be conveyed in the communication.

Global Business Environment

managers can't assume that motivational programs that work in one geographic location are going to work in others. Most current motivation theories were developed in the United States by Americans and about Americans.

Motivating a Diverse Workforce

managers need to think in terms of flexibility. For instance, studies tell us that: Men place more importance on having autonomy in their jobs than women do. The opportunity to learn, convenient and flexible work hours, and good interpersonal relations are more important to women than to men. Having the opportunity to be independent and to be exposed to different experiences is important to Gen Y employees, whereas older workers may prefer highly structured work opportunities. A diverse array of rewards is needed to motivate employees with such diverse needs. Many of the work-life balance programs that organizations have implemented are a response to the varied needs of a diverse workforce. But do flexible work arrangements motivate employees? Although such arrangements might seem highly motivational, both positive and negative relationships have been found. For example, one study of the impact of telecommuting on job satisfaction found that job satisfaction initially increased as the extent of telecommuting increased, but as the number of hours spent telecommuting increased, job satisfaction started to level off, decreased slightly, and then stabilized.

Encoding

means converting a message into symbolic form.

Decoding

means translating a received message.

Virtual Teams

members collaborate online with tools such as wide-area networks, videoconferencing, fax, email, or Web sites where the team can hold online conferences. These teams can do all the things that other teams can—share information, make decisions, and complete tasks. However, they lack the normal give-and-take of face-to-face discussions. That's why virtual teams tend to be more task-oriented, especially if the team members have never personally met.

Goal Commitment

most likely when goals are made public, when the individual has an internal locus of control, and when the goals are self-set rather than assigned.

Team Member Preferences

need to be considered, too, because some people just prefer not to work on teams, which can create a direct threat to the team's morale and to individual member satisfaction.

Effective Teams

need to work together and take collective responsibility for completing tasks.

Reward System

needs to encourage cooperative efforts rather than competitive ones. For instance, Lockheed Martin's aeronautics division organized some 20,000 employees into teams and structured rewards to return a percentage increase in the bottom line to the team members on the basis of achievements of the team's performance goals. Promotions, pay raises, and other forms of recognition should be given to employees who are effective collaborative team members.

Role Conflict

occurs when an employee has conflicting role expectations.

Personal Interaction

one critical communication challenge posed by the Internet age is the lack of personal interaction. Therefore, some companies have banned e-mail on certain days and others have simply encouraged employees to collaborate more in person. When you think about how difficult even face-to-face communication can be, it can be even more challenging to achieve understanding and collaboration on work when communication takes place in a virtual environment.

Networked Computer System

organizational computers are linked through compatible hardware and software, creating an integrated organizational network. Employees communicate with each other and get information wherever they are.

True

people do better if they get feedback on how well they're progressing toward their goals because it helps identify discrepancies between what they've done and what they want to do.

Service Organizations

produce nonphysical outputs such as medical and health care services, transportation services, entertainment services, and so on.

Manufacturing Organizations

produce tangible, physical goods such as cars, cell phones, and food products.

Selective Perception

receivers in the communication process selectively see and hear based on their needs, motivations, experience, background, and other personal characteristics. Receivers also project their interests and expectations onto communications as they decode them.

Social loafing

reducing effort because dispersion of responsibility encourages individuals to slack off. When a group's results can't be attributed to any single person, individuals may be tempted to become "free riders" and coast on the group's efforts because they think their contributions can't be measured.

Self-Efficacy

refers to an individual's belief that he or she is capable of performing a task. In difficult situations, people with low ___________ are likely to reduce their effort or give up altogether, whereas those with high ____________ will try harder to master the challenge. Also, individuals with high ____________ seem to respond to negative feedback with increased effort and motivation, whereas those with low ____________________ are likely to reduce their effort.

Role

refers to behavior patterns expected of someone who occupies a given position in a social unit. Individuals play multiple roles and adjust their roles to the group to which they belong at the time. In an organization, employees attempt to determine what behaviors are expected of them. They read their job descriptions, get suggestions from their bosses, and watch what their coworkers do.

Body Language

refers to gestures, facial configurations, and other movements of the body. Hand motions, facial expressions, and other gestures can communicate emotions or temperaments such as aggression, fear, shyness, arrogance, joy, and anger.

Operations Management

refers to the design, operation, and control of the transformation process that converts resources such as labor and raw materials into goods and services that are sold to customers.

Verbal Intonation

refers to the emphasis someone gives to words or phrases, and can make a statement sound defensive or friendly. The adage "it's not what you say but how you say it" is something managers should remember as they communicate.

Autonomy

refers to the freedom, independence, and discretion given to the individual for scheduling the work and for determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out.

Motivation

refers to the process by which a person's efforts are energized, directed, and sustained toward attaining a goal. Individuals differ in motivational drive and their overall motivation varies from situation to situation.

Job Design

refers to the way tasks are combined to form complete jobs. Managers should design jobs deliberately and thoughtfully to reflect the demands of the changing environment, the organization's technology, and employees' skills, abilities, and preferences. When jobs are designed this way, employees are motivated to work hard.

Fitering

refers to the way that a sender manipulates information so that it will be seen more favorably by the receiver. For example, when a manager tells his boss what he feels the boss wants to hear, he is ___________ information.

Goal-Setting Theory

says that specific goals increase performance and that difficult goals result in higher performance than easy goals. That means that: (1) Working toward a goal is a major source of job motivation, and (2) specific and challenging goals are superior motivating forces.

Job Characteristics Model (JCM)

seen here was developed by J. Richard Hackman and Greg R. Oldham. This model can help managers design jobs that motivate. According to Hackman and Oldham, any job can be described in terms of the following five core job dimensions: 1. Skill variety 2. Task identity 3. Task significance 4. Autonomy 5. Feedback

Work Groups

share information and make decisions to help each member do his or her job more efficiently and effectively. They do not engage in collective work that requires joint effort.

Personality

significantly influences individual and team behavior. Research shows that three of the Big Five dimensions are relevant to team effectiveness: agreeableness and high levels of both conscientiousness and openness to experience. These qualities tend to lead to better team effectiveness.

Informal Groups

social groups that occur naturally in the workplace and tend to form around friendships and common interests.

Expectancy Theory (Victor Vroom)

states that an individual tends to act in a certain way based on the expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual. This explanation of motivation can be summed up in the following questions: How hard do I have to work to achieve a certain level of performance, and can I actually achieve that level? What reward will performing at that level get me? How attractive is the reward to me, and does it help me achieve my own personal goals?

Non-Verbal Communications

such as a loud siren, red flashing light, the size of a person's office and desk, or someone's clothing—convey messages to others. The best-known areas of this are body language and verbal intonation.

Physiological Needs

such as food, drink, shelter, sex, sleep, and other physical requirements.

Safety Needs

such as security and protection from harm as well as assurance that physical needs will continue to be met.

Supportive Organizational Culture and Attitudes

such as sharing, collaborating, openness, flexibility, mutual respect, and trust. These attitudes encompass not only the internal partners in the value chain but also external partners.

Wireless Communication

systems, people can be connected without being physically "plugged in" at work. Mobile technology is extremely popular, with the payoff being an improvement in the way you work. This means that people don't have to be physically "at the office" in order to communicate, collaborate, and share information with managers and colleagues. Managers and employees can "keep in touch" using smartphones, tablet computers, notebook computers, and mobile pocket communication devices. And wireless communication works. Anywhere on the planet. People can send and receive information from anywhere. From the summit of Mt. Everest to the remotest locations.

Contingent Workers

temporary part-time and contract workers who don't have security or stability, don't identify with the organization, don't display the commitment that other employees do, and receive few or no benefits such as health care or pensions.

Groupthink

tends to be less of a problem in global teams because members are less likely to feel pressured to conform to the ideas, conclusions, and decisions of the group.

Organizational Processes

that is, the way the organization's work is done. Managers must critically evaluate all organizational processes by looking at the organization's unique skills, capabilities, and resources. They must then determine where value is being added and eliminate non-value-adding activities. For each process, all participants should ask questions such as "Where can internal knowledge be leveraged to improve flow of material and information?", "How can we better configure our product to satisfy both customers and suppliers?", "How can the flow of material and information be improved?", and "How can we improve customer service?"

True

that jobs that possess autonomy give the employee a feeling of personal responsibility for the results and that if a job provides feedback, the employee will know how effectively he or she is performing.

Group Cohesiveness

the degree to which members are attracted to one another and share the group's goals.

The need for affiliation (nAff)

the desire for friendly and close interpersonal relationships.

The need for achievement (nAch)

the drive to succeed and excel in relation to a set of standards.

Adjourning Stage

the final stage is the ___________________ in which the group prepares to disband. Attention is focused on wrapping up activities instead of task performance.

Channel

the medium by which a message travels.

Team Size

the most effective teams have five to nine members, but experts suggest using the smallest number of people who can do the task.

The need for power (nPow)

the need to make others behave in a way that they would not behave otherwise.

The Referent

the other persons, systems, or selves individuals compare themselves against in order to assess equity—is an important variable in equity theory. Each of the three categories are important. 1. "Persons" category includes others with similar jobs, friends, neighbors, etc. 2. "System" category includes organizational pay policies, procedures, and allocation. 3. "Self" category refers to past personal experiences and contacts.

Reciever

the recipient of the communication.

Sender

the source of the communication.

Grapevine

the unofficial way that communications take place in an organization and it's neither authorized nor supported by the organization. In the ______________, information is spread by word of mouth—and even through electronic means. Good information travels quickly, but bad information travels even more quickly. Information is not always accurate.

Job Enrichment

the vertical expansion of a job by adding planning and evaluation responsibilities. Individuals with low growth need don't tend to achieve high performance or satisfaction by having their jobs enriched.

Task Conflicts

those based on disagreements about task content—can be beneficial because they may stimulate discussion, promote critical assessment of problems and options, and lead to better team decisions. Note that relationship conflicts are almost always dysfunctional.

Internet Based Voice/Video Communication

through services such as Skype, Viber , FaceTime, Vonage, and Yahoo!. It allows for fast and convenient communication, but as with so many of these options, there are concerns about network and data security breaches.

Fax Machines

transmit documents containing both text and graphics over ordinary telephone lines. On the plus side they allow organization users to quickly and easily share a printed form of information. On the down side, privacy can be compromised.

Group

two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who come together to achieve specific goals.

Customer Service

what communication takes place and how it takes place has a huge impact on a customer's satisfaction with the service and the likelihood of the customer's repeat business. Managers must ensure that employees communicate appropriately and effectively with customers by recognizing the three components in any service delivery process: the customer, the service organization, and the individual service provider. Each plays a role in whether communication is working. While managers don't have control over what or how the customer communicates, they can influence the other two processes.

Persistence

where employees keep putting forth effort to achieve those goals. (Element of Motivation)

Feedback Loop

which checks how successfully we've transferred our messages and whether we have achieved understanding. Given the cultural diversity of today's workforce, effective feedback is critical.

Team Effectiveness

which includes objective measures of a team's productivity, managers' ratings of the team's performance, and aggregate measures of member satisfaction.

Self-Managed Team

which is a formal group of employees who operate without a manager and are responsible for a complete work process or segment. This type of team is responsible for getting the work done and for managing itself, which usually includes planning and scheduling work, assigning tasks to members, collective control over the pace of work, making operating decisions, and taking action on problems.

Active Listening

which is listening for full meaning without making premature judgments or interpretations. Demands total concentration, and is enhanced by developing empathy with the sender. Active listeners use eye contact, affirmative nods, and appropriate facial expressions; appear attentive and ask questions; avoid interrupting the speaker; and make smooth transitions between being a speaker and a listener.

Distributive Justice

which is the perceived fairness of the amount and allocation of rewards among individuals and which has a greater influence on employee satisfaction.

Procedural Justice

which is the perceived fairness of the process used to determine the distribution of rewards, and tends to affect an employee's organizational commitment, trust in his or her boss, and intention to quit.

Formal Group

work groups that are defined by the organization's structure and have designated work assignments and specific tasks directed at accomplishing organizational goals.

Work Teams

work intensely on a specific, common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills.