Management Exam

total quality management (TQM)

A concept that focuses on managing the total organization to deliver quality to customers. 4 elements of TQM: -Employee involvement -Focus on the customer -Benchmarking -Continuous improvement

bottom of the pyramid (BOP)

A concept that proposes corporations can alleviate poverty and other social ills, as well as make significant profits, by selling to the world's poor.

short-term orientation

A concern with the past and present and a high value on meeting social obligations.

infrastructure

A country's physical facilities that support economic activities.

ethnocentrism

A cultural attitude marked by the tendency to regard one's own culture as superior to others.

masculinity

A cultural preference for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, work centrality, and material success.

femininity

A cultural preference for relationships, cooperation, group decision making, and quality of life.

political risk

A company's risk of loss of assets, earning power, or managerial control due to politically based events or actions by host governments.

system

A set of interrelated parts that function as a whole to achieve a common purpose.

high-performance culture

A culture based on a solid organizational mission or purpose that uses shared adaptive values to guide decisions and business practices and to encourage individual employee ownership of both bottom-line results and the organizational's cultural backbone.

high-context culture

A culture in which communication is used to enhance personal relationships.

low-context culture

A culture in which communication is used to exchange facts and information.

adaptability culture

A culture that is characterized by values that support a company's ability to interpret and translate signals from the environment into new behavior responses.

involvement culture

A culture that places high value on meeting the needs of employees and values cooperation and equality.

consistency culture

A culture that values and rewards a methodical, rational, orderly way of doing things.

hero

A figure who exemplifies the deeds, character, and attributes of a strong corporate culture.

long-term orientation

A greater concern for the future and high value on thrift and perseverance.

quantitative perspective

A management perspective that emerged after WWII and applies math, statistical techniques, and other computer technology to facilitate management decision making, particularly for massive and complex problems.

classical perspective

A management perspective that emerged during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that emphasized a rational, scientific approach to the study of management and sought to make organizations efficient operating machines.

human resources perspective

A management perspective that suggests jobs should be designed to meet higher-level needs by allowing workers to use their full potential.

interim manager

A manager who is not affiliated with a specific organization, but works on project-by-project basis or provides expertise to organizations in a specific area.

cultural leader

A manager who uses signals and symbols to influence corporate culture.

exporting

A marketing entry strategy in which the organization maintains its production facilities within its home country and transfers its products for sale in foreign countries.

human relations movement

A movement in management thinking and practice that emphasizes satisfaction of employees' basic needs as the key to increased worker productivity.

story

A narrative based on true events and repeated frequently and shared among organizational employees.

cultural intelligence (CQ)

A person's ability to use reasoning and observation skills to interpret unfamiliar gestures and situations and devise appropriate behavioral responses.

slogan

A phrase or sentence that succinctly expresses a key corporate value.

ceremony

A planned activity at a special event that is conducted for the benefit of an audience.

individualism

A preference for a loosely knit social framework in which individuals are expected to take care of themselves.

collectivism

A preference for a tightly knit social framework in which individuals look after one another and organizations protect their members' interests.

achievement culture

A results-oriented culture that values competitiveness, personal initiative, and achievement.

hawthrone studies

A series of experiments on worker productivity, begun in 1924 at the Hawthorne plant of Western Electric Company in Illinois, which attributed employees' increased output to managers' better treatment of them during the study.

role

A set of expectations for one's behavior.

euro

A single European currency that replaced the currencies of 16 European nations.

organization

A social entity that is goal directed and deliberately structured.

bureaucratic organizations

A subfield of the classical management perspective that emphasizes management on an impersonal, rational basis through such elements as clearly defined authority and responsibility, formal record-keeping, and separation of management and ownership.

scientific management

A subfield of the classical management perspective that emphasizes scientifically determined changes in management practices as the solution to improving labor productivity.

administrative principles

A subfield of the classical management perspective that focuses on the total organization rather than the individual worker, delineating the management functions of planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling.

behavioral sciences approach

A supfield of humanistic management perspective that applies social science in an organizational context, drawing from economics, psychology, sociology, and other disciplines.

uncertainty avoidance

A value characterized by people's intolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity, and resulting support for beliefs that promise certainty and conformity.

joint venture

A variation of direct investment in which an organization shares costs and risks with another firm to build a manufacturing facility, develop new products, or set up a sales and distribution network.

organizational environment

All elements existing outside the organization's boundaries that have the potential to affect the organization.

contingency view

An extension of the humanistic perspective in which the successful resolution of organizational problems is thought to depend on managers identification of key variations in the situation at hand.

pressure group

An interest group that works within the legal-political framework to influence companies to behave in socially responsible ways.

symbol

An object, act, or event that conveys meaning to others

market entry strategy

An organizational strategy for entering a foreign market.

economic forces

Forces that affect the availability, production, and distribution of a society's resources among competing users.

outsourcing

Contracting out selected functions or activities of an organization to other organizations that can do the work more cost efficiently.

global outsourcing

Engaging in the international division of labor so as to obtain the cheapest sources of labor and supplies regardless of country; also called offshoring.

political instability

Events such as riots, revolutions, or government upheavals that affect the operations of an international company.

culture shock

Feelings of confusion, disorientation, and anxiety that result from being immersed in a foreign culture.

competitors

Other organizations in the same industry or type of business that provide goods or services to the same set of customers.

subsystems

Parts of a system that depend on one another for their functioning.

customers

People and organizations in the environment that acquire goods or services from the organization.

suppliers

People and organizations that provide the raw materials the organization uses to produce its output.

international dimension

Portion of the external environment that represents events originating in foreign countries, as well as opportunities for U.S. companies in other countries.

systems thinking

Seeing both the distinct elements of a system or situation and the complex and changing interaction among those elements.

customer relationship management (CRM)

Systems that help companies keep in close touch with customers, collect and manage customer data, and collaborate with customers to provide the most valuable products and services.

social forces

The aspects of a culture that guide and influence relationships among people- their values, needs, and standards of behavior.

management

The attainment of organizational goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, organizing, leading, and controlling organizational resources.

countertrade

The barter of products for other products rather than their sale for currency.

internal environment

The environment that includes the elements within the organization's boundaries.

globalization

The extent to which trade and investments, information, ideas, and political cooperation flow between countries.

merger

The combining of two or more organizations into one.

synergy

The concept that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

power distance

The degree to which people accept inequality in power among institutions, organizations, and people.

effectiveness

The degree to which the organization achieves a stated goal.

sociocultural dimension

The dimension of the general environment representing the demographic characteristics, norms, customs, and values of the population within which the organization operates.

economic dimension

The dimension of the general environment representing the overall economic health of the country or region in which the organization operates.

natural dimension

The dimension of the general environment that includes all elements that occur naturally on earth, including plants, animals, rocks, and natural resources such as air, water, and climate.

legal-political dimension

The dimension of the general environment that includes federal, state, and local government regulations and political activities designed to influence company behavior.

technological dimension

The dimension of the general environment that includes scientific and technological advancements in the industry and society at large.

Humanistic perspective

The humanistic perspective on management emphasized the importance of understanding human behaviors, needs, and attitudes in the workplace, as well as social interactions and group processes. There are three primary subfields based on the humanistic perspective: -Human Relations -Human Resources -Behavioral Sciences

political forces

The influence of political and legal institutions on people and organizations.

general environment

The layer of the external environment that affects the organization indirectly.

task environment

The layer of the external environment that directly influences the organization's operations and performance.

international management

The management of business operations conducted in more than one country.

performance

The organization's ability to attain its goal by using resources in an efficient and effective manner.

labor market

The people available for hire by the organization.

culture

The set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and norms that members of an organization share.

efficiency

The use of minimal resources- raw materials, money, and people-to produce a desired volume of output.