1. Introducing Management Flashcards
What sets great managers apart from mediocre or poor ones?
High performers achieve success because they are better than their competitors at getting extraordinary results from the people working for them.
What are the ultimate foundations of organizational performance?
People and their talents - what they know, what they learn, and what they do with it.
What is intellectual capital?
The collective brainpower or shared knowledge of a workforce that can be used to create value.
What is the (somewhat abstract) formula for intellectual capital
Intellectual capital = Competency X Commitment
What are today’s workplaces dominated by?
Knowledge workers
What are knowledge workers?
Someone whose mind, not just their physical capabilities, is a critical asset to employers.
What does workforce diversity describe?
Differences among workers in gender, race, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and able-bodiedness.
What sets the stage for diversity bias?
Prejudice
What is prejudice?
The display of negative, irrational attitudes toward members of diverse populations.
What does prejudice become?
Discrimination
What does discrimination resulting from prejudice do?
Discrimination actively denies minority members the full benefits of organizational membership.
What is the glass ceiling effect?
An invisible barrier limiting career advancement of women and minorities.
What is globalization?
The worldwide interdependence of resource flows, product markets, and business competition.
How is globalization described as?
A process in which improvements in technology combine with the deregulation of markets and open borders to bring about vastly expanded flows of people, money, goods, services, and information.
What is the main consequence of the unprecedented recent advances in technology in terms of globalization?
Physical distance hardly matters anymore.
What do ethics set?
Ethics set the moral standards of what is “good” and “right”, as opposed to “bad” and “wrong” in one’s behavior.
Which 3 things do ethical organizations show great respect for?
- Sustainable development and protection of the natural environment
- Protection of consumers through product safety and fair practices
- Protection of human rights in all aspects of society, including employment.
Describe how British scholar Charles Handy uses the analogy of the shamrock to discuss career patterns characteristic of the new economy.
Each of three leaves represents a type of worker in an organization. In one leaf are the core workers, in the second leaf are contract workers, in the third leaf are part-time workers.
Describe the core workers according to the Shamrock organization.
Core workers are full-time employees who pursue traditional career paths. With success and the maintenance of critical skills, they can advance within the organization and may remain employed for a long time.
Describe the contract workers according to the Shamrock organization.
Independent contractors perform specific tasks as needed by the organization and are compensated on a fee-for-services basis rather than by a continuing wage or salary. They sell a skill or service on contract with many different employers over time.
Describe the part-time workers according to the Shamrock organization.
Part-time temporaries are hired only as needed and for as long as needed. Employers expand and reduce their part-time staffs as business needs rise and fall.
How should you prepare to prosper in any of the shamrock’s three leaves?
By being a portfolio worker
What’s a portfolio worker?
Someone who has up-to-date skills that allow for job and career mobility.
How does being a portfolio worker help you prepare to prosper in any of the shamrock’s three leaves
It’s likely that you will be changing jobs and employers over time, so your skills must be portable and always of value.
What are the 6 early career survival skills?
- Mastery
- Networking
- Entrepreneurship
- Love of Technology
- Marketing
- Passion for Renewal
Describe how mastery is an early career survival skill.
You need to be good at something; you need to be able to contribute something of value to your employer.
Describe how networking is an early career survival skill.
You need to know people; links with peers and others within and outside the organization are essential to get things done.
Describe how entrepreneurship is an early career survival skill.
You must act as if you are running your own business, spotting ideas and opportunities and stepping out to embrace them.
Describe how a love for technology is an early career survival skill.
You have to embrace technology; you don’t have to be a technician, but you must be willing and able to fully utilize information technology.
Describe how marketing is an early career survival skill.
You need to be able to communicate your successes and progress, both yours personally and those of your work group.
Describe how a passion for renewal is an early career survival skill.
You need to be continuously learning and changing, always updating yourself to best meet future demands.
What is an organization?
A collection of people working together to achieve a common purpose
Why are organizations so important?
Because the organization is a unique social phenomenon that enables its members to perform tasks far beyond the reach of individual accomplishment.
Which broad purpose do all organizations share?
Providing goods and services of value to customers.
What is an important source of organizational strength and performance advantage?
A clear sense of purpose tied to “quality products and services” and “customer satisfaction”.
What kind of system are organizations?
Organizations are open systems that interact with their environments in the continual process of obtaining resource inputs and then transforming them into outputs in the form of finished goods and services for their customers.
How does feedback from the environment indicate how well an organization is doing?
The external environment is both the supplier of resources and the source of customers. When customers stop buying a firm’s products, it will be hard to stay in business for long unless something soon changes for the better.
What is productivity?
The quantity and quality of work performance, with resource utilization considered.
Which two common performance measures describe productivity?
Performance effectiveness
Performance efficiency
What is performance effectiveness?
An output measure of task or goal accomplishment.
What is performance efficiency?
An input measure of resource cost associated with goal accomplishment.
In the textbook, there is a figure describing productivity, describe it briefly.
Goal attainment on the y-axis (representing effectiveness) with a “high” and “low” quadrant.
Resource utilization on the x-axis (representing efficiency) with a “poor” and “good” quadrant.
Describe the first quadrant of the figure describing productivity.
Effective but not efficient.
- Goals achieved
- Resources wasted
Describe the second quadrant of the figure describing productivity.
Effective and efficient (High productivity)
- Goals achieved
- No wasted resources
Describe the third quadrant of the figure describing productivity.
Efficient but not effective
- No wasted resources
- Goals not achieved
Describe the fourth quadrant of the figure describing productivity.
Neither effective nor efficient
- Goals not achieved
- Resources wasted
Describe the list of 8 organizational trends and transitions relevant to your study of management.
- Priorities on sustainability
- Valuing human capital
- Demise of “command-and-control”
- Emphasis on teamwork
- Pre-eminence of technology
- Importance of networking
- New workforce expectations
- Focus on speed
Describe how Priorities on sustainability is important to your study of management.
Social values show more attention to the preservation of natural resources for future generations and understanding how work affects human well-being.
Describe how Valuing human capital is important to your study of management.
Demands of the new economy place premiums on high-involvement and participatory work settings that rally the knowledge, experience, and commitment of all members.
Describe how Demise of “command-and-control” is important to your study of management.
Traditional hierarchical structures with “do as I say” bosses are proving too slow, conservative, and costly to do well in today’s competitive environments.
Describe how Emphasis on teamwork is important to your study of management.
Today’s organizations are less vertical and more horizontal in focus; they’re increasingly driven by teamwork that pools talents for creative problem solving.
Describe how Pre-eminence of technology is important to your study of management.
New opportunities appear with each development in computer and information technology; they continually change the way organizations operate and how people work
Describe how Importance of networking is important to your study of management.
Organizations are networked for intense, real-time communication and coordination, internally among parts and externally with partners, contractors, suppliers, and customers.
Describe how New workforce expectations is important to your study of management.
A new generation of workers brings to the workplace less tolerance for hierarchy, more informality, and more attention to performance merit than to status and seniority and for work-life balance.
Describe how Focus on speed is important to your study of management.
Everything moves fast today; in business, those who get products to market first have an advantage, and in any organization, work is expected to be done well and in a timely manner.
What 5 environments are present in an organization’s general environment?
- Economic environment
- Legal-political environment
- Technological environment
- Socio-cultural environment
- Natural environment
Which economic conditions should managers be especially concerned with?
Those that influence consumer spending, resource supplies, and investment capital.
Why are things like the overall health of the economy in terms of financial markets, inflation, income levels, gross domestic product, unemployment, and job outlook are always important for managers to watch?
Because they affect the amount of wealth available to consumers, which in turn affects product markets and spending patterns?
Which legal-political conditions should managers be especially concerned with?
Existing and proposed laws and regulations, government policies, and the philosophy and objectives of political parties.
Why do corporate executives follow political debates and developments closely?
To monitor trends that can affect the regulation and oversight of their businesses.
What is an important legal-political development abroad which could be of particular interest to executives?
Internet censorship
What is internet censorship?
The deliberate blockage and denial of public access to information posted on the internet.
Why must managers stay abreast of the latest technologies?
For their work applications and their work implications.
The socio-cultural conditions of a society or region take meaning in the form of…
Norms, customs, and social values on such matters as ethics, human rights, gender roles, and lifestyles. They also include environmental trends in education and related social institutions, as well as demographic patterns.
Why do business executives go to great lengths to track demographic and social trends?
To anticipate shifting values that will affect customer tastes and preferences.
What does a sustainable business do?
Sustainable business both meets the needs of customers and protects the well-being of our natural environment.