Principles of Management: Chapter 1

The dean and student groups achieved efficiency because no one was exhausted and spending on the flowers, paint, and mulch came in under budget.

Efficiency

_____ is getting work done with a minimum of effort, expense, or waste.

Efficiency

A manager typically spends the least amount of time:

In quiet reflection alone in his or her office

Here, Max is explaining what Rebecca needs to do to drive a bulldozer. Max is relying on histechnical skills to operate the machinery effectively during the training session.

Technical

Which of the following terms best describe a manager's work? Check all that apply.

Varied (Work changes frequently) Brief (Work occurs in small segments)

In the _____, managers respond to pressures and problems so severe that they demand immediate attention and action.

a. disturbance handler role

Which of the following statements is true of efficiency?

b. Efficiency alone is not enough to ensure an organization's success.

a leader should:

b. motivate workers to work hard to achieve organizational goals.

A common management mistake is:

being unable to delegate

Human skills include the ability to:

d. be sensitive to others' needs and viewpoints.

Midori became a manager at Gloria Summers Inc. about 14 months ago. Her evolution as a manager was typical. After a year of experience, Midori has now come to believe that her primary job is to:

d. manage her employees.

The management function of _____ involves inspiring and motivating workers to work hard to achieve organizational goals.

leading

_____ are the specialized procedures, techniques, and knowledge required to get a job done.

technical

Helen was recently named the account manager of a company's computer programming division. She has a PhD in computer science and twelve years of experience in coding. This scenario illustrates that Helen has high _____.

technical skills

In the context of management functions, identify a true statement about planning.

b. It encourages people to think of better ways to do their jobs.

In the context of managerial roles, in the liaison role, managers:

b. deal with people outside their units.

4. Competitive advantage through people

4. Competitive advantage through people

Which of the following positions is held by a top manager?

Vice president

Rick is a student at Capstone College. He developed a schedule that he thought would let him spend the minimum amount of time studying while still getting good grades. Rick is following his schedule, but he's not getting the grades he hoped he would get. What is the best way to describe Rick's approach to studying?

Efficient but not effective

Imagine you are a world-renowned management consultant. Teddy K., the owner of a sports magazine conglomerate contacts you and asks for your advice about some changes proposed by his management team. Which of the following changes are likely to give Teddy K.'s company a competitive edge? Check all that apply.

Tell employees that they will not be fired without cause and that the organization will not lay off workers to cut costs. Decentralize the organization and give additional authority to the employees who are closest to the customer.

Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest Airlines, talks to a group of reservation agents to acknowledge their contributions to the company's success.

leading By paying a personal visit to the reservation agents, Gary Kelly is helping to motivate them. This is an example of the leading function of management.

Jake is hired by Toix Inc., an online retail store, to head its delivery department. His duties include overseeing the work of the employees and ensuring that they deliver products to the customers on time. Jake's job is related to _____.

management

_____ hold positions such as plant manager, regional manager, or divisional manager.

middle managers

_____ monitor and manage the performance of the subunits and individual managers who report to them.

middle managers

The management function of _____ involves deciding who will work for whom in a company.

organizing

_____ are responsible for the overall direction of an organization.

top managers

Lucia has a discussion with three of her employees who have been taking extended lunch breaks for several weeks. She is usingcontrolling Correct to explain the company's lunch policy and communicate her expectations of her employees moving forward.

CONTROLLING Controlling means monitoring employees' activities, determining whether the organization is moving toward its goals, and making corrections as necessary. Organizing involves assigning tasks, grouping tasks into departments, delegating authority, and allocating resources across the organization. Leading is the use of influence to motivate employees to achieve organizational goals. Planning means identifying goals for future organizational performance and deciding on the tasks and use of resources needed to attain them.

_____ hold positions such as office manager, shift supervisor, or department manager.

First-Line Managers

While describing the company's new reorganization, the CEO uses leading to encourage employees and explain how the reorganization will benefit the company.

LEADING Leading is the use of influence to motivate employees to achieve organizational goals. Leading means creating a shared culture and values, communicating goals to people throughout the organization, and infusing employees with the desire to perform at a high level. Controlling means monitoring employees' activities, determining whether the organization is moving toward its goals, and making corrections as necessary. Organizing involves assigning tasks, grouping tasks into departments, delegating authority, and allocating resources across the organization. Planning means identifying goals for future organizational performance and deciding on the tasks and use of resources needed to attain them.

_____ are responsible for setting objectives consistent with top management's goals and for planning and implementing subunit strategies for achieving those objectives.

Middle managers

Scenario:

Mumford, Campion, and Morgeson studied approximately 1,000 managers, spread across junior, midlevel, and senior-level positions. They were interested in knowing how different levels of managers used four types of skills: cognitive, interpersonal, business, and strategic. The following graph shows the results of their study.

On your first day as a driver for Road-O-Rama Freight, you realize that something just isn't right. Trucks go out half full, and drivers often get the wrong addresses so freight doesn't arrive at its destination. When telling a friend about your new job, how would you describe this company's operations?

Neither effective nor efficient Road-O-Rama Freight is neither effective nor efficient. Sending trucks out half-full wastes resources, and when the trucks don't arrive at their destinations, the company does not achieve its goal of delivering products to customers. Efficiency means getting work done with a minimum of effort, expense, or waste. Effectiveness is accomplishing tasks that help fulfill organizational objectives.

Julia uses planning Correct to determine how many focus groups will need to be conducted in order to accomplish the company's research goals.

PLANNING Planning means identifying goals for future organizational performance and deciding on the tasks and use of resources needed to attain them. Controlling means monitoring employees' activities, determining whether the organization is moving toward its goals, and making corrections as necessary. Organizing is deciding where decisions will be made, who will do what jobs and tasks, and who will work for whom. Leading is the use of influence to motivate and inspire employees to achieve organizational goals.

Your school will be hosting a regional educational conference in a few weeks and the dean has asked several student groups to help get the campus ready. He asks the service fraternity to plant flowers outside of the student union. The dean asks the student government members to paint the benches around campus and he asks the marching band to place mulch around the trees on campus.

Thanks to the dean's excellent planning and the student groups' hard work, effectiveness is achieved. The campus looks beautiful for the educational conference. EFFECTIVENESS

What can management researchers infer based on this study? Check all that apply.

The need for all four types of skills rises as management levels rise. The difference between the levels of skills needed for junior versus senior managers is greatest for business and strategic skills.

Management in Life Your school will be hosting a regional educational conference in a few weeks and the dean has asked several student groups to help get the campus ready. He asks the service fraternity to plant flowers outside of the student union. The dean asks the student government members to paint the benches around campus and he asks the marching band to place mulch around the trees on campus.

Unfortunately, it rained the entire week leading up to the educational conference and the student government members lacked EFFECTIVENESS because they were unable to paint all of the benches on campus. Effectiveness is accomplishing tasks that help fulfill organizational goals. In this scenario, the task was not accomplished due to the weather. The student government members lacked effectiveness in completing the task. Efficiency is getting work done with a minimum of effort, expense, or waste.

Conceptual skills include the ability to:

a. recognize, understand, and reconcile multiple complex problems and perspectives.

Which of the following is a common management mistake?

being overly-ambitious

Which of the following statements is true of the management function of controlling?

c. It involves taking corrective action when progress is not being made.

According to Linda Hill's study, which of the following is true of managers' initial expectations about their job?

c. They believe that their job is to exercise formal authority.

Managers must strive to achieve _____ to ensure organizational success.

c. efficiency and effectiveness

Managers spend most of their time

communicating

The ability to see an organization as a whole is a component of _____.

conceptual

Managerial Skills

conceptual skills, human skills, technical skills Effective managers know how to combine both the art and science of management to address the broad range of issues they encounter in their jobs. The art of management taps into a manager's intuition, experience, instincts, and personal experience; the science of management utilizes a manager's ability to approach problems in a rational, logical, objective, and systematic way. As a result, managers need to have a wide variety of skills to perform their jobs successfully.

The basic _____ process involves setting standards to achieve goals, comparing actual performance to those standards, and then making changes to return performance to those standards.

control

Jessica Lee, director of global employer brand and communications at Marriott International, realizes the mobile app created by a vendor does not integrate with the company's existing software.

controlling Controlling involves monitoring organizational activities and ensuring that they match expectations. Lee quickly realized that months of development on the app were wasted because it didn't work with existing software. Lee was performing the controlling function of management.

After a product quality test, Meena determines that the latest batch of pens are not meeting quality specifications. Meena will use the _________ function to determine why the pens are not meeting specifications and how to fix the problem.

controlling Controlling means monitoring employees' activities, determining whether the organization is moving toward its goals, and making corrections as necessary. Organizing is deciding where decisions will be made, who will do what jobs and tasks, and who will work for whom. Leading is the use of influence to motivate and inspire employees to achieve organizational goals. Planning means identifying goals for future organizational performance and deciding on the tasks and use of resources needed to attain them.

Which of the following can increase employee satisfaction and commitment in companies?

d. Decentralization of authority

According to Stanford University business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, which of the following ideas is used by managers in top-performing companies?

d. Selective hiring

Dean is a manager in the research department of Infinity Inc. One of the chief engineers in the research department delivers a set of key product test results to Dean. Dean passes that information on to the marketing and branding departments so that they can create a marketing campaign. He then writes a summary of the test results for the head of his department. In this scenario, Dean has taken up the _____.

d. disseminator role

Mary is a baker who makes the most beautiful and delicious cakes in town. Unfortunately, her cakes are also very expensive because for every finished cake she produces, she throws away three cakes that aren't just right. What is the best way to describe Mary's work?

effective but not efficient

Woodwox Inc. is a famous online furniture store known for its high-quality furniture. To achieve 100% customer satisfaction, it has recently introduced a scheme wherein customers can custom design their own furniture by choosing from a range of base frames, fabrics, designs, and colors listed on the company's website. Woodwox is trying to achieve _____.

effectiveness

When managers adapt themselves, their subordinates, and their units to change, they are taking up the _____.

entrepreneur role

Primavia Textiles Inc. is opening a new manufacturing facility. Cathy, a manager, has to deliver a speech at the opening ceremony of the facility about the goals that the company hopes to achieve through this new facility. She also has to greet clients who would be attending the ceremony. In this scenario, Cathy will be performing the _____.

figurehead role

Jonathan is a shift supervisor at Carlton Inc. He is responsible for managing and monitoring the performance of entry-level employees. He is also responsible for short-term planning. This scenario illustrates that Jonathan is a _____.

first line manager

If those skills make up a majority of the skills he needs on the job, Max is probably afirst-line manager .

first line manager First-line managers typically need to have technical skills, because they must help individual employees learn to do their jobs. For example, a new employee for a solar power company may ask the foreman how to install solar panels, but the CEO is not likely to get this kind of question.

Management

getting work done through others

The job of a manager is to:

help others do their work.

_____ refer to the ability to work well with others.

human skills

Juan, who manages the marketing unit of a company, is responsible for deciding what roles each of his subordinates will play within the unit. He decides who will take charge of each team and who will be in charge of interacting with customers. In this scenario, which of the following management functions is Juan performing?

organizing

A construction project manager from Iron Horse Construction uses a team of experts to design the development of a new property on the top of a very steep ridge. The team includes geotechnical consultants, erosion control specialists, and contractors.

organizing The project manager in this example is gathering the resources he needs to accomplish his goals and distributing work to them. Thus, he is involved in the organizing function of management.

Jim is CEO for a company that produces filing cabinets and office furniture. He usesplanning when determining that in order to increase production by 20% next year, the company will need to hire 10 new employees.

planning

The management function of _____ involves determining organizational goals and a means for achieving them.

planning

Author Simon Rich spends time every day reading. He says, "I try to read about subjects that I'm interested in, and that usually helps me come up with ideas for stories and characters and jokes."

planning Because Rich is essentially setting goals for his future works, his reading serves as a planning process.

As production manager, part of Jennifer's job is to determine what raw materials will be needed to meet production needs. Sales forecasts may help Jennifer with this _____ function of management.

planning Planning means identifying goals for future organizational performance and deciding on the tasks and use of resources needed to attain them. Controlling means monitoring employees' activities, determining whether the organization is moving toward its goals, and making corrections as necessary. Organizing involves assigning tasks, grouping tasks into departments, delegating authority, and allocating resources across the organization. Leading is the use of influence to motivate employees to achieve organizational goals.

Management Functions

planning, organizing, leading, controlling

During a press conference, a manager at Ruskin Welt Inc. makes a major announcement about the company's new product line. In this scenario, the manager has taken up the _____.

spokesperson

When Westborough Software Inc. laid off 300 employees last week, the chief executive officer of the company, Diane Wagner, called a press conference to announce the company's actions to the media. In doing so, Diane took up the _____.

spokesperson role

Which of the following is one of the responsibilities of first-line managers?

teaching and training