Book 1 - Exploring Management

Question 1

Who published the seminal study, ‘The Reflective Practitioner’?

Answer 1

Donald Schön (1983)

Question 2

In Schöns’ (1983) work what were the discrepancies found?

Answer 2

Professionals provided different accounts from their practice and they do carry it out. This varied between the formal, rational dimensions of their working methods and the less formal, more intuitive and emotional dimensions.

Question 3

Reflection in & on action is from which Author

Answer 3

Donald Schön (1983) - Reflective The Reflective Practitioner

Question 4

Who developed the idea of management science?

Answer 4

Frederick Taylor in the 1920’s

Question 5

5 Elements (Functions) of Henri Fayol (1841-1925) “Father of Modern Management”

Answer 5

1. Technical Activities 2. Commercial Activities 3. Financial Activities 4. Security Activities 5. Accounts Activities 6. Managerial Activities

Question 6

Name a drawback of Fayol - 5 Elements (Functions)

Answer 6

TCFSAM is not up to date. It does not reflect today organisation environments. Many small and medium businesses are adopting more flexible approaches to functional management.

Question 7

Explain the Fayol (1917) POCCC management elements?

Answer 7

1. Planning
2. Organising
3. Commanding
4. Co-ordinating
5. Controlling

Question 8

Explain the 3 pulls of role definition.

Answer 8

The roles that people play in organisations are shaped by three different pulls (see Figure ). They are,

1. Task
2. Organisation’s expectation
3. The person

Question 9

(Mintzberg, 1975) explains what about management roles.

Answer 9

If you ask a manager what he does, he will most likely tell you that he plans, organizes, coordinates and controls. Then watch what he does. Don’t be surprised if you can’t relate what you see to these four words.

Question 10

Mintzberg identified the chief characteristics of management activity as…

Answer 10

• a fast pace of work
• many interruptions
• brevity, variety and fragmentation of activities
• lots of verbal (rather than written) contacts (note: Mintzberg’s observation occurred before email existed)
• much time in scheduled meetings.

Question 11

Mintzberg (1975) went on to identify a range of roles that managers were required to play.

The work of a manager is described in terms of ten roles or clusters of behaviours associated with a position. What are they?

Answer 11

The strength of Mintzberg’s work is not so much the precise lists of roles he suggests, but that he points to the fact that managers are expected to perform a set of very different sorts of behaviours at different times. They have to be able to adjust their roles and their relationships depending on circumstances. Mintzberg recognised that the ability to draw appropriately on a diverse repertoire of roles is key to effective management.

Question 12

What is Freemans (1984) explanation of a stakeholder?

Answer 12

Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the performance of the achievement of the organization’s objectives.

(Freeman, 1984, p. 46)

Question 13

What are the 9 C’s in the stakeholder checklist?

Answer 13

• Commissioners

Those who pay the organisation to do things

• Customers

Those who acquire and use the organisation’s products

• Collaborators

Those with whom the organisation works to develop and deliver products

• Contributors

Those from whom the organisation acquires content for products

• Channels

Those who provide the organisation with a route to a market or customer

• Commentators

Those whose opinions of the organisation are heard by customers and others

• Consumers

Those who are served by the organisation’s customers, e.g. end users

• Champions

Those who believe in and will actively promote the project

• Competitors

Those working in the same area who offer similar or alternative services

Question 14

Describe Power versus interest from Johnson et al., 2008

Answer 14

• Low/Low - Minimal Effort
• Low/High - Keep informed
• High/Low - Keep Satisfied
• High/High - Key Players

Question 15

Explain Price (2009) identifies four categories of stakeholder analysis.

Answer 15

Question 16

Highlight some weaknesses of Johnson et al (2008) and Price (2009)

Answer 16

Both matrices encourage a proactive approach to the management of stakeholders. However, we should note that such categorisation presupposes that stakeholder positions are fixed, whereas in fact they are dynamic and may shift according to the issue at hand, so stakeholder vigilance is crucial.

Question 17

What is Scholes 9 Stakeholder Map? State the positions

Answer 17

Question 18

Scholes’ nine stakeholder maps, explain each stakeholder state. 1 - 5

Answer 18

Question 19

Explain Scholes 9 Stakeholder map. 6 - 9

Answer 19

Question 20

Explain Stacey’s (2000) model of political activity and conflict

Answer 20

Divergent objectives simply mean that individuals and/or departments can have different agendas and want different things from each other. All too often in organisations people and/or departments are explicitly rewarded for achieving different things, even where this means that as an (unintended) consequence, competition is promoted instead of cooperation.

Question 21

What is power?

How does (Giddens, 1984, p. 14), explain power?

Answer 21

An agent ceases to be such if he or she loses the capability to ‘make a difference’, that is to exercise some sort of power.