Chapter 7

Question 1

Management

Answer 1

The process of achieving organizational goals through people and other resources.
- Combine human and technical resources in the best way possible to achieve the company long and short term goals.
- Make strategic decisions on how to allocate limited resources for the most effective outcomes.
- Accomplished through the four functions of management, Planning, Organizing, Directing (Leading), Controlling.

Question 2

Top Management

Answer 2

• Develop long-range plans for their organizations.
• Inspire executives and employees to achieve their vision for the company’s future.

Question 3

Middle Management

Answer 3

• Focus on specific operations, products or customer groups within an organization.
• Responsible for developing detailed plans and procedures to implement for the firm’s strategic plans.

Question 4

Supervisory Management

Answer 4

• Implement the plans developed by middle managers.
• Responsible for non-manager employees.
• Motivate workers to accomplish daily, weekly, and monthly goals.

Question 5

Technical Skills

Answer 5

Ability to understand and use the techniques, knowledge tools, and equipment of a specific departments or areas of study.

Question 6

Human Skills

Answer 6

Interpersonal skills to work effectively with people. Ability to communicate with, motivate, collaborate, and lead employees to compete their assigned activities.

Question 7

Conceptual Skills

Answer 7

• Help a manger see the organization as a single unit and understand how each part of the overall organization interacts with other parts.
• Allows a manager to see the big picture by acquiring, analyzing, and interpreting information and understanding how the contributions of each individual unit impacts the organization as a whole.

Question 8

Managerial Functions

Answer 8

1. Planning: Process of anticipating future events/conditions and deciding on courses of action for achieving company goals.
2. Organizing: The process of blending humans and material resources through a formal structure of tasks and authority.
3. Directing: Guiding and motivating employees to accomplish organizational goals.
4. Controlling: The function of assessing and organization’s performance against its goals.

Question 9

Vision

Answer 9

• Ability to perceive marketplace needs and what an organizations must do to satisfy them.
• Sets the targets for a company’s actions, helping to direct it toward opportunities and differentiate from competitors.
• Must be focused and flexible enough to adapt to changes in the business environment.

Question 10

Ethical Standards

Answer 10

• Long-term success is tied to the high ethical standards that the top management team sets.
• These standards can also encourage, motivate, and inspire employees.
• Provides boundaries for plans and strategies to achieve goals.

Question 11

Types of Planning

Answer 11

Takes place at every organizational level to align efforts from the mission statement down to daily operations.
- Can be categorized by scope, or how widely it affects other factors with each step fitting into the overall plan.
1. Broad/long-range: mission statement, objectives and goals.
2. Narrow/short-range: functional plans for specific employees/areas.
- Outlines the steps in meeting company goals and objectives.

Question 12

1. Defining a mission

Answer 12

A mission statement is a written description of an organization’s overall business purpose and aims. It is a statement of a firm’s reason for being.

Question 13

2. Assessing competitive position

Answer 13

During the strategic planning process, the organization must assess its competitive position. It must examine the factors that my help or hinder the organization. (SWOT)

Question 14

3. Setting organizational objectives

Answer 14

Objectives are the guideposts by which managers define the organization’s desired performance.

Question 15

4. Creating strategies for competitive differentiation

Answer 15

Map the strategies on how to compete with other companies pursuing similar missions and objectives.

Question 16

5. Implementing the strategy

Answer 16

Managers put the plans into action. The middle managers or supervisors are often the people who actually implement a strategy.

Question 17

6. Assessing the results and refining the plan

Answer 17

Monitoring requires matching performance with expectation by adapting plans when performance fails.

Question 18

SWOT

Answer 18

Stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- By assess all four factors one by one, a firm can then develop the best strategies for gaining and competitive advantage.

Question 19

Decision Making

Answer 19

The process of seeing a problem or opportunity, assessing possible solutions, selecting and carrying out the best-suited plan, and assessing the results.

Question 20

Programmed decision

Answer 20

Involves simple, common, and frequently-occuring problems that already have solutions.

Question 21

Non-programmed decision

Answer 21

involves a complex and unique problem or opportunity with important results for the organization.

Question 22

Leadership

Answer 22

The ability to direct or inspire people to reach goals.
- Involves the use of influence or power.
- Three traits are common among many leaders:
1. Empathy
2. Self-awareness
3. Objectivity in dealing with others

Question 23

Leadership Styles

Answer 23

1. Autocratic leadership: centred on the boss; makes decisions on their own without consulting employees
2. Democratic leadership: Includes subordinates in decisions and centres on employee contributions.
3. Free-rein leadership: Involves minimal supervision and allows employees to make most of their own decisions.

Question 24

Corporate culture

Answer 24

An organization’s collection of principles, beliefs, and values.
- Influenced by the leadership style of its managers, the way the firm communicates, and the overall work environment.
- Managers use symbols, rituals, ceremonies, and stories to strengthen corporate culture.

Question 25

Organization

Answer 25

A structured group of people working together to achieve common goals.
- Three key elements:
1. Human interaction
2. Goal-directed activities
3. Structure

Question 26

Departmentalization

Answer 26

The process of dividing work activities into units with the organization.
- Employees specialize in certain jobs, such as marketing, finance, or design
- The five major forms of departmentalization divide work by product, geographical area, customer, function, and process.

Question 27

1. Product departmentalization

Answer 27

Organizes work units based on the goods and services a company offers.

Question 28

2. Geographical departmentalization

Answer 28

Organizes units by geographical regions within a country or, for a multinational firm, by region throughout the world.

Question 29

3. Customer departmentalization

Answer 29

Might be used by a firm that offers a variety of goods and services for different types of customers.

Question 30

4. Functional departmentalization

Answer 30

Organize work units according to business functions, such as finance, marketing, human resources, and production.

Question 31

5. Process departmentalization

Answer 31

Organizes work units by work processes necessary to complete production of goods and services.

Question 32

Delegation

Answer 32

The managerial process of assigning work to employees.
- Providing employees with the responsibility and necessary authority for completing tasks.
- Employees have accountability, or responsibility, for their actions and decisions.

Question 33

Span of management (span of control)

Answer 33

The number of employees a supervisor manages. What can affect the span of control:
- Experience and skill of employees
- Experience and skill of managers
- Job or task complexity
Geographical or physical separation
- Degree of interaction with other company activities.

Question 34

Centralization

Answer 34

decision making is retained at the top of the management hierarchy

Question 35

Decentralization

Answer 35

decision making is shifted to the lower levels. Many firms believe it enhances their flexibility and responsiveness to customer needs

Question 36

Line organization

Answer 36

Direct flow of authority from CEO to employees
- Defines a simple, clear chain of command that establishes a hierarchy of managers and workers.

Question 37

Line-and-staff organizations

Answer 37

• Direct flow of authority combined with staff departments supporting line departments.
• Help make decisions that affecting firm’s core operations.
• Staff departments lend specialized technical support

Question 38

Committee organization

Answer 38

A structure that places authority and responsibility in a group of individuals, not a manger.
- Often part of a line-and-staff structure.
- Often develop new products.
- Tend to act slowly and make conservative, or safe, decisions.
- May make decisions by compromising conflicting interests rather than choosing best alternative.

Question 39

Matrix structure

Answer 39

Links employees from a different parts of the organization who work together on specific projects.
- employees report to both a line manager and a project manager
- when the project is complete, employees return to their “regular” jobs.

Question 40

Advantages of matrix organization

Answer 40

• flexibility to adapt quickly to rapid changes in the environment
• focuses resources on major problems or products.
• outlet for employees’ creativity and initiative.

Question 41

Disadvantages of matrix organizations

Answer 41

• Integrating skills of many specialist into a coordinated team.
• team members’ permanent functional managers must adjust the employees’ regular workloads.

Question 42

Controlling

Answer 42

• The measurement function of management.
• Evaluations of progress towards goals, and the effectiveness of the strategies that were undertaken.
• Involves four basic steps:
  1. Setting performance standards
  2. Monitor actual performance
  3. Compare actual performance with the standards
  4. Making corrections if needed (either to standards, methods, objectives or strategies)