MGT 305: Module One

What are three ways in which IT helps improve performance in self-managed work teams?

1. IT provides real-time performance information. 2. IT increases the availability of information. 3. IT allows organizations to utilize their workforce better.

Even if you are not yet a manager, studying management can help you do which two of the following?

1. Lead coworkers 2. Resolve conflicts with coworkers

What two things must be characteristics of a global organization?

1. Operate in more than one country. 2. Compete in more than one country.

Which of the following are pressures exerted by shareholders on top management?

1. Raise dividends 2. Improve profits 3. Boost stock prices

Managers at _____ levels are responsible for performing the four essential managerial tasks of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

All

While the chief executive officer (CEO) is the most senior manager, the manager that has been traditionally groomed for that spot is generally known as the:

Chief Operating Officer

______ managerial skills include the ability to analyze and diagnose a situation and to distinguish between cause and effect.

Conceptual

Because their responsibilities are based around planning and organizing, the most important set of skills for top managers are:

Conceptual skills

A manager who appreciates opportunities and figures out the best direction for the company's future is using ______ skills. When the manager motivates employees to work hard to achieve that vision, she/he is demonstrating _____ skills.

Conceptual; human

When managers monitor the performance of individuals to see if they are meeting desired standards, the managers are performing the ______ function.

Controling

When managers are effective at the essential function of ______, they are able to accurately measure performance for the organization, employees, and even themselves.

Controlling

Global ______ management involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the resources needed to forestall or, if necessary, respond to any type of disaster.

Crisis

Many companies are utilizing ______ to increase the range of skills employees have to perform different tasks.

Cross-training

According to Mintzberg's typology of managerial roles, entrepreneur, negotiator, resource allocator, and disturbance handler make up the category of ______ roles.

Decisional

Henry Mintzberg identified ten kinds of specific roles, which he grouped into three categories:

Decisional, interpersonal, and informational

A(n) ______ is a group of people who work together and possess similar skills or use the same knowledge, tools, or techniques to perform their jobs.

Department

According to Mintzberg's managerial roles, Frank, the manager, makes sure that his employees are well informed about changes taking place in the internal and external environments which may affect them or the organization. Frank is acting in the _______ role.

Disseminator

Managers who value their ______ employees succeed best in promoting performance.

Diverse

Companies improve their ______ when they reduce the quantity of resources required to produce goods or services or use those resources in new and creative ways.

Efficiency

Organizations continually search for new ways to use their resources to improve _____.

Efficiency

When organizations use resources ______ and ______, then both the organization and society benefit.

Efficiently and effectively

______ refers to the expansion of employees' knowledge, tasks, and decision-making responsibilities.

Empowerment

Organizational cultures that ______ risk taking increase the probability of innovation.

Encourage

According to Mintzberg's typology of Managerial Roles, a manager who makes decisions about which new products should be developed or which new countries to enter is acting in the ______ role.

Entrepreneur

True or false: Intense pressure to perform at all levels in organizations always results in negative consequences such as illegal or unethical actions.

False

True or false: Planning is important because it always occurs under conditions of certainty.

False

According to Mintzberg's Managerial Roles typology, a top manager who outlines future organizational goals to employees at company meetings, opens new buildings, or states the company's ethical guidelines is acting in the ______ role.

Figurehead

According to Mintzberg's typology of Managerial Roles, the role of a(n) ______ includes outlining future organizational goals to employees at company meetings and presiding at the groundbreaking ceremony of new corporate buildings.

Figurehead

A(n) ______ manager is responsible for the daily supervision of nonmanagerial employees.

First-Line

When managing a self-managed team, the role of ______ management changes so that the manager is most likely to assume the role of mentor and coach to help self-managed teams find ways to perform their tasks more efficiently.

First-line

Many different countries try to protect their own economic and political interests that tend to increase ______ tensions.

Geopolitical

The responsibilities and tasks of managers have changed substantially in recent years due to changes in:

Global competition and information technology

______ managerial skills are defined specifically by the abilities associated with understanding, altering, leading, and controlling the behavior of other individuals and groups.

Human

What are crises that arise from natural causes?

Hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, famines, and diseases

What are often the results of effective leadership?

1. Highly motivated workforce 2. Committed workforce

The company's most top-level and important manager is known as the:

CEO

A company that can outperform other organizations due to its ability to provide its goods and services more efficiently and effectively is said to have a:

Competitive advantage

The outcome of the ______ process is the accurate measurement of performance.

Controlling

What is a measure of the appropriateness of an organizational goal and the degree to which an organization achieves the goal?

Effectiveness

Organizational performance increases in direct proportion to increases in ______.

Effectiveness and efficiency

_______ is a measure of how well or how productively resources are used to achieve a goal.

Efficiency

True or false: First-line managers closely monitor and supervise self-managed teams to ensure the most efficient allocation of resources.

False

True or false: Outsourcing usually results in overall higher costs for the company.

False

The process of creating new or improved goods or services or finding better ways to produce or provide them is known as:

Innovation

According to Mintzberg's managerial roles, figurehead, leader, and liaison make up the category of ______ roles.

Interpersonal

According to Mintzberg's managerial roles, a manager who provides an example for employees to follow is acting in the _____ role.

Leader

A ______ is someone who is responsible for supervising and making the most of an organization's human and other resources to achieve its goal.

Manager

_______ is an essential task of managers and refers to identifying and selecting the proper goals and courses of action.

Planning

How many steps are involved in the managerial task of planning?

Three

A short, succinct, and inspiring statement of what the organization intends to become and the goals it seeks to achieve is known as an organization's

Vision

Empowerment has been found to ______.

affect performance and profitability in a positive manner

The three primary skills managers need to master are ______, _______, and ________ skills.

conceptual, human, technical

A significant man-made crisis facing organizations is:

pollution

Total quality management is a system used by companies to improve the ______.

quality of production of products, services, and processes

What are two positive outcomes of using self-managed teams?

1. Better utilization of the workforce. 2. Accomplishing tasks more quickly and efficiently.

What are the three steps that are involved in planning?

1. Deciding on the goals to be achieved. 2. Deciding which resources will be needed and how to use them 3. Choosing the strategies to use.

Information technology has positive effects on:

1. Improved quality 2. Increased innovation 3. Increased globalization

What are three potential negative outcomes of restructuring?

1. Reduced morale of remaining employees. 2. Increases in the number of customer complaints. 3. Employees complain about being overworked.

Managers who value their diverse employees:

1. Tend to have better performance 2. Invest in developing these employee's capabilities. 3. Invest in developing these employee's skills.

What are three reasons people study management?

1. To increase one's potential to obtain a well-paying job and satisfying career. 2. In order to be able to use scarce resources more effectively and efficiently. 3. Everyone interacts with managers, so it pays to understand what is required of their position.

To perform the four managerial tasks efficiently and effectively, organizations differentiate their managers in which of the following two ways?

1. Type of skill 2. Level in hierarchy

Leadership involves managers:

1. Using their personality to coordinate groups 2. Encouraging all employees to perform at a high level 3. Using their power to coordinate people

_______ refers to evaluating how well an organization is achieving its goals and taking action to maintain or improve performance.

Controlling

A specific set of departmental skills, knowledge, and experience that allows one organization to outperform its competitors is known as a _________.

Core competency

When organizations use resources ______ and ______, then both the organization and society benefit.

Efficiently and Effectively

Companies engage in turnaround management when they face a crisis resulting from ______.

Inefficient and ineffective policies

Man-made global crises may compound the effects of ______ crises.

Natural

Both education and experience enable managers to recognize and develop the personal skills they need to ______.

Put organizational resources to their best use

______ often involves simplifying, shrinking, or downsizing an organization's operations to lower operating costs.

Restructuring

What are the three levels of managers in most organizations?

Top managers, middle managers, and first-line supervisors

The essential managerial task where managers articulate a clear vision and energize and enable organizational members so that they understand the part they play in achieving organizational goals is known as ______.

Leading

Managers who provide an inspirational vision that energizes employees are _____, and when they identify and select proper goals and actions, managers are ______.

Leading, Planning

The essential or universal tasks of management include:

Leading, controlling, organizing, planning

According to Mintzberg's interpersonal managerial roles, a manager who coordinates the work of managers in different departments is acting in the ______ role.

Liaison

According to Mintzberg's managerial roles, a(n) ______ is a manager who establishes alliances between different organizations to share resources.

Liaison

The ______ a manager's position in the hierarchy, the more time the manager spends ______.

Lower, leading

______ teams are made up of groups of employees who assume collective responsibility for organizing, controlling, and supervising their own activities and monitoring the quality of the goods and services they provide.

Self-managed

While responsiveness to customers' needs is important in all organizations, it is particularly important in ______ organizations.

Service

Two elements that can cause companies to win or lose the competitive race are ______ (the ability to get products to market quickly) and ______ (the ability to change).

Speed; flexibility

A plan involving a cluster of decisions about what goals to pursue, what actions to take, and how to use resources to achieve these goals is known as a ______.

Strategy

Organizational ______ refers to the formal system of task and reporting relationships that coordinates and motivates organizational members so that they work together to achieve organizational goals.

Structure

The four building blocks of competitive advantage are:

Superior Efficiency, Innovation, Responsiveness to Customers, and Quality

Managers who have excellent _______ skills have job-specific knowledge and know the techniques and technology needed to perform their jobs.

Technical

Conceptual skills are most important at the ______ level of management.

Top

Success or failure of the company ultimately rest with ______ managers.

Top

Which level of management has cross-departmental responsibility?

Top

Which management level devotes most of their time to planning and organizing the tasks crucial to determining an organization's long-term performance?

Top

A group composed of the CEO, COO, the president, and the heads of the most important departments is known as the:

Top Management Team

True or false: Information technology is being used to empower employees by expanding the employee's job knowledge and scope of responsibility.

True

True or false: Organizing employees into self-managing work teams can contribute to increased efficiency for an organization.

True

What type of management refers to 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 to allow it to survive and prosper?

Turn-around

Self managed teams:

allow companies to utilize their workforce more efficiently.

Innovation is generally provided ______.

by small groups or teams

The issue that centers on deciding what obligations a company has toward the people and groups affected by the organization's activities is referred to as:

social responsibility

Launching advertising campaigns is an example of acting in the _______ role, according to Mintzberg's typology.

spokesperson

The four building blocks of competitive advantage are:

superior efficiency, quality, speed, flexibility, innovation, and responsiveness to customers

When employees are organized so as to find new and better ways to perform their jobs and are asked to monitor and evaluate the products and services they produce in order to improve product or service quality, the company is using:

total quality management

Which management level supervises first-line managers and is responsible for finding the best way to organize human and other resources to achieve organizational goals?

Middle

While first-line managers act more as mentors with self-managed teams, utilizing information technology ______ managers monitor the activities of these teams to determine the most efficient resource allocation.

Middle

A manager who tracks environmental changes that may affect the future of the organization is acting in the ______ role in Mintzberg's typology.

Monitor

What are the two main categories of global crises or disasters facing managers?

Natural causes and human causes

According to Mintzberg's managerial roles, a manager who helps arrange input and output pricing and labor contracts is acting in the ______ role.

Negotiator

Paul's department, along with five others, compose the _____, a collection of people who work together and coordinate their actions to achieve a wide variety of goals.

Organization

______, one of the four tasks of management, is a way of creating structured work relationships that allows organizational members to achieve organizational goals.

Organizing

_______ involves contracting with another company, usually in a low-cost country abroad, to have it perform a work activity previously done by the parent company.

Outsourcing

The measure of how efficiently and effectively a manager uses resources to satisfy customers and achieve organizational goals is known as organizational ______.

Performance

Managers typically engage in:

Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

According to Mintzberg's managerial roles, a manager who makes decisions as to which individuals and units receive which resources is acting in the ______ role.

Resource allocator

Restructuring has increased in recent years because ______ has improved efficiency enabling fewer workers to do the same amount of work.

Information Technology

According to Mintzberg's managerial roles, the ______ category of roles is composed of monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson roles.

Informational

According to Mintzberg's typology of Managerial Roles, a(n) ______ provides an example for employees to follow and motivate employees to work towards organizational goals.

Leader

Which is an essential managerial task that managers perform when they articulate a clear vision and energize members to achieve organizational goals?

Leading

According to Mintzberg's managerial roles, a(n) ______ is a manger who establishes alliances between different organizations to share resources.

Liason

If a manager chooses the wrong goals to pursue and makes poor use of resources, the result (in terms of efficiency and effectiveness) is:

Low Efficiency and Low Effectiveness

The planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of human and other resources to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively is known as _______.

Management

Millions of ______ jobs that have been lost overseas will be replaced by higher paying United States jobs in the ______ sector.

Manufacturing; service

Which level of management is responsible for finding the best way to organize resources to achieve organizational goals?

Middle