CH1: The Management Process Today

Question 1

Organizations

Answer 1

Collections of people who work together and coordinate their actions to achieve a wide variety of goals or desired future outcomes.

Question 2

Management

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Organizational Performance

Answer 3

A measure of how efficiently and effectively a manger uses resources to satisfy customers and achieve organizational goals.

Question 4

Efficiency

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Effectiveness

Answer 5

A measure of the appropriateness of the goals an organization is pursuing and the degree to which the organization achieves those goals.

Question 6

Four Essential Managerial Tasks

Answer 6

Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling

Question 7

Planning

Answer 7

Identifying and selecting appropriate organizational goals and courses of action to best achieve those goals. 1 of the 4 principal tasks of management.

Question 8

3 Steps in Planning

Answer 8

1. Deciding which goals the organization will pursue
2. Deciding what strategies to adopt to attain those goals.
3. Deciding how to allocate organizational resources to pursue the strategies that attain those goals.

Question 9

Strategy

Answer 9

A cluster of decisions about what goals to pursue, what actions to take, and how to use resources to achieve those goals.

Question 10

Organizing

Answer 10

Structuring working relationships in a way that allows organizational members to work together to achieve organizational goals. 1 of the 4 principal tasks of management.

Question 11

Organizational Structure

Answer 11

A formal system of task and reporting relationships that coordinates and motivates organizaional members so they work together to achieve organizational goals.

Question 12

Leading

Answer 12

Articulating a clear vision and energizing and enabling organizational members so they understand the part they play in achieving organizational goals. 1 of the 4 principal tasks of management.

Question 13

Controlling

Answer 13

Evaluating how well an organization is achieving its goals and taking action to maintain or improve performance. 1 of the 4 principal tasks of management.

Question 14

Department

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Three Levels of Management

Answer 15

1. First-Line Managers (Supervisors)
2. Middle Managers
3. Top Managers

Question 16

First-line Manager

Answer 16

A manager who is responsible for the daily supervision of nonmanagerial employees.

Question 17

Middle Manager

Answer 17

A manager who supervises first-line managers and is responsible for finding the best way to use resources to achieve organizational goals. (Help first-line managers and nonmanagerial employees)

Question 18

Middle Manager

Answer 18

A manager who supervises first-line managers and is responsible for finding the best way to use resources to achieve organizational goals. (Help first-line managers and nonmanagerial employees; Developing & fine-tuning skills)

Question 19

Top Manager

Answer 19

A manager who establishes organizational goals, decides how departments should interact, and monitors the performance of middle managers. (Establish organizational goals)

Question 20

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Answer 20

Most senior and important manager. (Vice president)

Question 21

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Answer 21

Company’s top manager. (Vice president)

Question 22

Top Management Team

Answer 22

A group composed of the CEO, the COO, and the vice presidents of the most important departments of a company.

Question 23

Conceptual Skills

Answer 23

The ability to analyze and diagnose a situation and to distinguish between cause and effect.

Question 24

Human Skills

Answer 24

The ability to understand, alter, lead, and control the behavior of other individuals and groups.

Question 25

Technical Skills

Answer 25

The job-specific knowledge and techniques required to perform an organizational role.

Question 26

Core competency

Answer 26

The specific set of departmental skills, knowledge, and experience that allows one organization to outperform another.

Question 27

Entrepreneur

Answer 27

An individual who notices opportunities and decides how to mobilize resources necessary to start a new business venture.
- Openness to experience
- Internal locus of control
- Self-esteem
- Need for achievement

Question 28

Entrepreneurship

Answer 28

The mobilization of resources to take advantage of an opportunity to provide customers with new or improved goods and services.

Question 29

Intrapreneur

Answer 29

An employee who works inside an organization who notices opportunities to develop new or improved products and services and mobilizes the organization’s resources to try to create them.

Question 30

Global Organizations

Answer 30

Organizations that operate and compete in more than one country.

Question 31

Competitive Advantage

Answer 31

The ability of one organization to outperform other organizations because it produces desired goods or services more efficiently than they do.

Question 32

4 Building Blocks of Competitive Advantage

Answer 32

1. Efficiency
2. Quality
3. Innovation
4. Responsiveness

Question 33

Innovation

Answer 33

The process of creating new or improved goods and services or developing better ways to produce or provide them.

Question 34

Turnaround Management

Answer 34

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 and allow it to survive and prosper.

Question 35

Scientific Management

Answer 35

The systematic study of relationships between people and tasks to increase efficiency.

Question 36

Bureaucracy

Answer 36

A formal system of organization and administration designed to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

Question 37

Authority

Answer 37

The power to hold people accountable for their actions and to allocate organizational resources.

Question 38

Rules

Answer 38

Formal written instructions that specify actions to be taken under different circumstances to achieve specific goals.

Question 39

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)

Answer 39

Specific sets of written instructions about how to perform a particular task.

Question 40

Norms

Answer 40

Unwritten, informal codes of conduct that prescribe how people should act in particular situations and that are considered important by most members of a group or an organization.

Question 41

Hawthorne Effect

Answer 41

Workers’ productivity is affected more by observation or attention recieved than by physical work setting.

Question 42

Human Relations Movement

Answer 42

Advocates behavior and leadership training of supervisors to elicit worker cooperation and improve productivity.

Question 43

Ratebusters

Answer 43

Performed above the norm.

Question 44

Chiselers

Answer 44

Who performed below the norm.

Question 45

Informal Organization

Answer 45

The system of behavioral rules and norms that emerge in work groups.

Question 46

Organizational Behavior

Answer 46

The study of factors that impact how workers respond to and act in an organization.

Question 47

Theory X

Answer 47

The assumption that workers will try to do as little as possible and avoid further responsibility unless rewarded or punished for doing otherwise.

Question 48

Theory Y

Answer 48

The assumption that workers will do what is best for an organization if given the proper work setting, opportunity, and encouragement.