Exam 1 (Chapter 1-5) Flashcards
A group of people working together in a structured and coordinated fashion to achieve a set of goals
Organization
A set of activities directed at an organization’s resources, with the aim of achieving organizational goals in an efficient and effective manner
Management
Someone whose primary responsibility is to carry out the management process
Manager
Making the right decisions and successfully implementing them
Effective
A relatively small group of executives who manage the overall organization. Creates the organization’s goals, overall strategy, and operating policies. (ex: vice president, president, CEO, etc.).
Top managers
Largest group of managers in most organizations. Responsible for implementing the policies and plans developed by top managers and for supervising and coordinating the activities for lower-level managers (ex: plant manager, operation manager, division head, etc.)
Middle Manager
Supervise and coordinate the activities of operating employees. (ex: supervisor, coordinator, office manager, etc.)
First-line managers
Setting an organization’s goals and deciding how best to achieve them
Planning
Part of the planning process that involves selecting a course of action from a set of alternatives
Decision making
Determining how activities and resources are to be grouped
Organizing
The set of processes used to get members of the organization to work together to further the interests of the organization
Leading
Monitoring organization progress toward goal attainment
Controlling
The skills necessary to accomplish or understand the specific kind of work done in an organization
Technical skills
The ability to communicate with, understand, and motivate both individuals and groups
Interpersonal skills
The manager’s ability to think in the abstract
Conceptual skills
The manager’s ability to visualize the most appropriate response to a situation
Diagnostic skills
The manager’s abilities both to effectively convey ideas and information to others and effectively receive ideas and information from others
Communication skills
The manger’s ability to correctly recognize and define problems and opportunities and to then select an appropriate course of action to solve problems and capitalize on opportunities
Decision-making skills
The manager’s ability to prioritize work, to work efficiently, and to delegate appropriately
Time management skills
A conceptual framework for organizing knowledge and providing a blueprint for action
Theory
Consists of two distinct branches - scientific management and administrative management
Classical management perspective
Concerning with improving the performance of individual workers
Scientific management
Employees deliberately working at a slow place
Soldiering
Focusing on managing the total organization
Administrative management
Emphasizes individual attitudes and behaviors and group processes
Behavioral management perspective
Argued that workers respond primarily to the social context of the workplace
Human relations movement
A pessimistic and negative view of workers consistent with the views of scientific management
Theory X
A positive view of workers; it represents the assumptions that human relations advocates make
Theory Y
Contemporary field focus on behavior perspectives on management
Organization Behavior
Applies quantitative techniques to management
Quantitative management perspective
Focuses specifically on the development of mathematical models
Management science
Concerned with helping the organization more efficiently produce its products or services
Operations management
An interrelated set of elements functioning as a whole
System
A system that interacts with its environment
Open system
A system that does not interact with its environment
Closed system
A system within another system
Subsystem
Two or more subsystems working together to produce more than the total of what they might produce working alone
Synergy
A normal process leading to system decline
Entropy
An attempt to identify the one best way to do something
Universal perspective
Suggests that appropriate managerial behavior in a given situation depends on, or is contingent on, unique elements in a given situation
Contingency perspective
Everything outside an organization’s boundaries that might affect it
External environment
The set of broad dimensions and forces in an organization’s surrounding that determines its overall context
General environment
Specific organizations or groups that affect the organization
Task environment
The conditions and forces within an organization
Internal environment
The overall health and vitality of the economic system in which the organization operates
Economic dimension
The methods available for converting resources into products or services
Technological dimension
The government regulation of business and the relationship between business and government
Political-legal dimension
An organization that competes with other organizations for resources
Competitor
Whoever pays money to acquire an organization’s products or services
Customer
An organization that provides resources for other organizations
Supplier
A body that has the potential to control, legislate, or otherwise influence the organization’s policies and practices
Regulator
An agency created by the government to regulate business activities
Regulatory agency
A group organized by its members to attempt to influence organizations
Interest group
An organization working together with one or more other organizations in a joint venture similar arrangement
Strategic partner
Whoever can claim property rights to an organization
Owner
Governing body that is elected by a corporation’s stockholders and charged with overseeing the general management of the firm to ensure that it is being run in a way that best serves the stockholders’ interests
Board of directors
An individual’s personal beliefs about whether a behavior, action, or decision is wrong
Ethics
Behavior that conforms to generally accepted social norms
Ethical behavior
Behavior that does not conform to generally accepted social norms
Unethical behavior
Standards of behavior that guide individual managers in their work
Managerial ethics
Occurs when employee’s decision potentially benefits the individual to the possible detriment of the organization
Conflict of interest
A formal, written statement of the values and ethical standards that guide a firm’s action
Code of ethics
A law that requires CEOs and CFOs to vouch personally for truthfulness and fairness of their firms’ financial disclosures and imposes tough new measures to deter and punish corporate and accounting fraud and corruption
Sarbanes - Oxley Act of 2002
The set of obligations that an organization has to protect and enhance the societal context in which it functions
Social responsibility
The extent to which an organization complies with local, state, federal, and international laws
Legal compliance
The extent to which an organization and its members follow basic ethical standards of behavior
Ethical compliance
Awarding funds or gifts to charities or other worthy causes
Philanthropic giving
The disclosure , by an employee of illegal or unethical conduct on the part of others within the organization
Whistleblowing
Making a product in the firm’s domestic marketplace and selling it in another country
Exporting
Bringing a good, service, or capital into the home country from abroad
Importing
An arrangement whereby one company allows another company to use its brand name, trademark, technology, patent, copyright, or other assets in exchange for a royalty based on sales
Licensing
A cooperative arrangement between two or more firms for mutual gain
Strategic alliance
A special type of strategic alliance in which the partners share in the ownership of an operation on an equity basis
Joint venture
When a firm builds or purchases operating facilities or subsidiaries in a different country from the one where it has its headquarters
Direct investment
Light assembly plants that are built in northern Mexico close to the U.S. border and are given special tax breaks by the Mexican government
Maquiladoras
A tax collected on goods shipped across national boundaries
Tariff
A limit on the number or value of goods that can be traded
Quota
Accords reached by governments in which countries voluntarily limit the volume or value of goods they export to or import from one another
Export restraint agreements
A set of countries that agree to markedly reduce or eliminate trade barriers among member nations
Economic community
The first and most important international market system
European Union
An agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico to promote trade with one another
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
A trade agreement intended to promote international trade by reducing trade barriers and making it easier for all nations to compete in international markets
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
An organization, which currently includes 140 member nations and 32 observer countries, that requires members to open their markets to international trade and to follow WTO rules
Work Trade Organization (WTO)
The set of values, beliefs, behaviors, customs, and attitudes that helps the organization’s members understand what it stands for, how it does things, and what it considers important
Organizational culture
A statement of an organization’s fundamental purpose
Mission
A goal set by and for an organization’s top management
Strategic goal
A goal set by and for an organization’s middle managers
Tactical goals
A goal set by and for an organization’s lower lever managers
Operational goals
A general plan outlining decisions about the resource allocation, priorities, and action steps necessary to research strategic goals
Strategic plan
A plan that focuses on carrying out tactical plans to achieve operation goals
Operational plan
A comprehensive plan for accomplishing an organization’s goals
Strategy
A comprehensive and ongoing management process aimed at formulating and implementing effective strategies; a way of approaching business opportunities and challenges
Strategic management
A strategy that promotes a superior alignment between the organization and its environment and achievement of strategic goals
Effective strategy
An organizational strength possessed by only a small number of competing firms
Distinctive competence
When applied to strategy, it specifies the range of markets in which an organization will compete
Scope
How an organization distributes its resources across the areas in which it competes
Resource deployment
The set of strategic alternatives from which an organization chooses as it conducts business in a particular industry or market
Business-level strategy
The set of strategic alternatives from which an organization chooses as it manages its operations simultaneously across several industries and several markets
Corporate-level strategy
The set of processes involved in creating or determining an organization’s strategies; it focuses on the content of strategies
Strategy formulation
The methods by which strategies are operationalized or executed within the organization; it focuses on the processes through which strategies are achieved
Strategy implementation
An acronym that stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
SWOT
A skill or capability that enables an organization to create and implement its strategy
Organizational Strength
A skill or capability that does not enable an organization to choose and implement strategies that support its mission
Organizational weakness
A strategy in which an organization seeks to distinguish itself from competitors through the quality of its products or services
Differentiation strategy
A strategy in which an organization attempts to gain a competitive advantage by reducing its costs below the costs of competing firms
Overall cost leadership strategy
A strategy in which an organization concentrates on a specific regional market, product line, or group of buyers
Focus strategy
A model that portrays how sales volume for products changes over the life of products
Product life cycle
The number of different businesses that an organization is engaged in and the extent to which these businesses are related to one another
Diversification
A strategy in which an organization manufactures just one product or service and sells it in a single geographic market
Single-product strategy
A strategy in which an organization operates in several businesses that are somehow linked with one another
Related diversification
A strategy in which an organization operates multiple businesses that are not logically associated with one another
Unrelated diversification
Methods that diversified organizations use to determine which businesses to engage in and how to manage these businesses to maximize corporate performance
Portfolio management techniques
A framework for evaluating businesses relative to the growth rate of their market and the organization’s share of the market
BCG Matrix
A method of evaluating business along two dimensions: (1) industry attractiveness and (2) competitive position; in general, the more attractive the industry and the more competitive the position, the more an organization should invest in a business
GE Business Screen
A plan aimed at achieving tactical goals and developed to implement parts of a strategic plan; an organized sequence of steps designed to execute strategic plans
Tactical plan
Developed to carry out a course of action that is not likely to be repeated in the future
Single-use plan
A single-use plan for a large set of activities
Program
A single-use plan of less scope and complexity than a program
Project
Developed for activities that recur regularly over a period of time
Standing plan
A standing plan that specifies the organization’s general response to a designated problem or situation
Policy
A standard plan that outlines the steps to be followed in particular circumstances
SOP
Describe exactly how specific activities are to be carried out
Rules and regulations
The determination of alternative courses of action to be taken if an intended plan is unexpectedly disrupted or rendered inappropriate
Contingency planning
The set of procedures the organization uses in the event of a disaster or other unexpected calamity
Crisis management
The act of choosing one alternative from among a set of alternatives
Decision making
Recognizing and defining the nature of a decision situation, identifying alternatives, choosing the best alternative, and putting it into practice
Decision-making process
A decision that is relatively structured or recurs with some frequency (or both)
Programmed decision
A decision that is relatively unstructured and occurs much less often than a programmed decision
Non-programmed decision
A condition in which the decision maker knows with reasonable certainty what the alternatives are and what conditions are associated with each alternative
State of certainty
A condition in which the availability of each alternative and its potential payoffs and costs are all associated with probability estimates
State of risk
A condition in which the decision maker does not know all the alternatives, the risks associated with each, or the likely consequences of each alternative
State of uncertainty
A prescriptive approach to decision making that tells managers how they should make decisions; it assumes that managers are logical and rational and that their decisions will be in the organization’s best interests
Classical decision model
Recognize and define the decision situation; identify appropriate alternatives; evaluate each alternative in terms of its feasibility, satisfactoriness, and consequences; select the best alternative; implement the chosen alternative; and follow up and evaluate the results of the chose alternative
Steps in rational decision making
A decision making model that argues that decision makers (1) use incomplete and imperfect information, (2) are constrained by bounded rationality, and (3) tend to “satisfice” when making decisions
Administrative model
A concept suggesting that decision makers are limited by their values and unconscious reflexes, skills, and habits
Bounded Rationality
The tendency to search for alternatives only until one is found that meets some minimum standard sufficiency
Satisficing
An informal alliance of individuals or groups formed to achieve a common goal
Coalition
An innate belief about something, without conscious consideration
Intuition
When a decision maker stays with a decision even when it appears to be wrong
Escalation of commitment
The extent to which a decision maker is willing to gamble when making a decision
Risk propensity
A decision-making group or team in which members openly discuss, argue about, and agree on the best alternative
Interacting group or team
A form of group decision making in which a group arrives at a consensus of expert opinion
Delphi group
A structured technique used to generate creative and innovative alternatives or ideas
Nominal group
A situation that occurs when a group or team’s desire for consensus and cohesiveness overwhelms its desire to reach the best possible decision
Groupthink
The process of planning, organizing, operating, and assuming the risk of a business venture
Entrepreneurship
Someone who engages in entrepreneurship
Entrepreneur
A business that is privately owned by one individual or a small group of individuals and has sales and assets that are not large enough to influence its environment
Small business
A market in which several large firms compete according to relatively well-defined criteria
Established market
A segment of a market not currently being exploited
Niche
Any advantage that comes to a firm because its exploits an opportunity before any other firm does
First-mover advantage
A document that summarizes the business strategy and structure
Business plan
A group of small investors seeking to make profits on companies with rapid growth potential
Venture capital company
A contract between entrepreneur (the franchise) and a parent company (the franchiser); the entrepreneur pays the parent company for the use of its trademarks, products, formulas, and business plans
Franchising agreement
