Chapter 8- Management Activities of Planning, Organising and Controlling

Question 1

What is planning?

Answer 1

Planning means clearly setting out the goals for the organisation and how these are to be achieved

Question 2

What is a SWOT analysis?

Answer 2

A SWOT analysis is a management technique used to assess a business in terms of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

Question 3

What are mission statements?

Answer 3

Mission statements are short but precise one or two sentence statements used by companies to summarise “who we are, what we do, and where we’re headed”

Question 4

What is a strategic plan?

Answer 4

A strategic plan (or corporate plan) refers to the long-term plan for the whole business. It normally covers five or more years

Question 5

What are tactical plans?

Answer 5

Tactical plans break general strategic plan down into shorter, more specific and manageable steps. Usually of one or two-year periods

Question 6

What are operational plans?

Answer 6

Operational plans are short-term plans that set targets for weeks or months ahead

Question 7

What are contingency plans?

Answer 7

Contingency plans are special plans prepared to cope with emergencies or unexpected circumstances

Question 8

What are the qualities of a good plan?

Answer 8

Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Timed

Question 9

Why is planning important to management?

Answer 9

Helps to identify internal strengths, weaknesses, new opportunities, threats and sets out clear targets, assists leadership and motivation and provides the necessary information to the investors

Question 10

What is organising?

Answer 10

Organising means bringing people and resources together effectively to implement plans.

Question 11

What does organising do?

Answer 11

Organising identifies the work to be done, creates and suitable organisation structure, identifies who will do what tasks and maintain a clear chain or command

Question 12

What do organisational structure do?

Answer 12

Organisational (or management) structures identify the different departments and management functions in an organisation

Question 13

Name the traditional types of organisational structure

Answer 13

Functional, Product, Geographic, matrix/ team based

Question 14

What is a functional structure?

Answer 14

A functional structure divides a business into different departments according to the management functions of marketing, production, human resources and finance

Question 15

What are the advantages of functional structures?

Answer 15

Builds up staff skills and expertise and provides clear promotional paths

Question 16

What are the disadvantages of functional structures

Answer 16

Employees can get focused on their own departmental goals and communications between departments can be slow and subject to misunderstandings

Question 17

What is product organisational structure?

Answer 17

A product structure organises a business on the basis of the products it makes

Question 18

What are the advantages of product structures?

Answer 18

They improve communications, allows businesses to adapt different products more easily in response to customers needs and allows each division to focus on its own custoemrs

Question 19

What is a geographic organisational structure?

Answer 19

A geographic structure divides the organisation according to the geographical markets it serves

Question 20

What are the advantages of geographic structures?

Answer 20

Staff are better able to meet local customer needs and can encourage healthy competition between different regions

Question 21

What are the disadvantages of geographic structures?

Answer 21

It can result in wasteful duplication of resources and lack of co-ordination between divisions if not properly controlled by management

Question 22

What are matrix/team-based organisation structure?

Answer 22

Matrix (or team-based) structures are a type of organisation structure where staff are brought together into teams to achieve a clearly stated team goal, such as launching a new product

Question 23

What are the main characteristics of successful team management?

Answer 23

Self-managing, responsibilities delegated and input into decision-making

Question 24

What are the advantages of team-based/matrix structures?

Answer 24

Synergies, efficiency, better relationship and motivation

Question 25

What are the disadvantages of team-based/matrix?

Answer 25

Two bosses and training costs