Exam 3 Flashcards
What does management look like today?
Managers are more progressive; emphasize teams/team building, create drop-in centers, team spaces, etc. They guide, train, support, motivate and coach employees
What reasons account for changes in management?
Leaders tend to be younger, more diverse, and not educated at elite universities. They know many of their employees know more about technology than they do and therefore emphasize motivation, teamwork, and cooperation
What are the primary functions of management?
- planning
- organizing
- leading
- controlling
How do you define the functions of management?
Planning - anticipating trends &b determining the best strategies to achieve goals and objectives
Organizing - designing the structure of the organization & creating conditions & systems where everyone/everything works together to achieve goals
Leading - creating a vision for the organization, communicating, guiding, training, coaching and motivating others
Controlling - measuring whether what occurs meets the organization’s goals
What is the difference between goals and objectives?
Goals are broad, long-term achievements that organizations aim to accomplish
Objectives are specific, short-term plans made to help reach goals
What is a SWOT analysis?
Managers look at the strengths and weaknesses of the firm and opportunities and threats facing it
“Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats”
What are the four types of planning?
STRATEGIC - broad, long-range planning that outlines the goals of the organization
TACTICAL - specific, short-term planning that lists organizational objectives
OPERATIONAL - part of tactical planning, sets specific timetables and standards
CONTINGENCY - developing an alternative set of plans in case the first doesn’t work out
What are the steps involved in decision making?
the six Ds of decision making
1. DEFINE the situation
2. DESCRIBE and collect needed info
3. DEVELOP alternatives
4. DECIDE which alternative is best
5. DO what is indicated (implementation)
6. DETERMINE whether the decision was a good one, and follow up
What are the three levels of management in the corporate hierarchy?
- TOP - highest level consisting of the president, CEO and other key executives who develop strategic plans
- MIDDLE - general, division, and plant mgrs who are responsible for tactical planning & controlling
- SUPERVISORY - first line mgrs/supervisors who evaluate workers’ daily performance
What skills do managers need?
- TECHNICAL - ability to perform specific tasks like selling products or developing software
- HUMAN RELATIONS - ability to communicate & motivate
- CONCEPTUAL - ability to see organizations as a whole & how all the parts fit together
Are skills equally important at all management levels?
Managers at different levels need different skills. Top mgrs rely heavily on HR and conceptual skills, rarely using technical skills.
First-line supervisors need technical and HR skills but use conceptual skills less often
Middle mgrs need a balance of all three skills
What is the difference between a manager and a leader?
A manager plans, organizes and controls functions within an organization.
A leader has vision and inspires others to grasp that vision, establishes corporate values, emphasizes corporate ethics and doesn’t fear change
Describe the various leadership styles
- AUTOCRATIC - making managerial decisions w/o consulting others. Effective in emergencies & when absolute followership is needed i.e. fighting fires.
- PARTICIPATIVE (democratic) - mgrs/employees working together to make decisions. it may not always increase effectiveness but increases job satisfaction.
- FREE-REIN - mgrs set objectives and employees are free to do whatever is appropriate to accomplish the objectives. Often the most successful style in organizations such as mgrs supervising doctors, professors, software developers, or other professionals. Need warmth, friendliness & understanding
What leadership style is best?
It depends on the people being led and the situation, the challenge of the future will be to empower self-managed teams
What does empowerment mean?
Giving employees the authority and responsibility to respond quickly to customer requests. Enabling is giving workers the education, training and tools they need to assume their decision-making powers
What is knowledge management?
Finding the right information, keeping the information in a readily accessible place, and making the information known to everyone in the firm.
What are the five steps of the control function?
- Setting clear standards
- Monitoring & recording performance
- Comparing performance w/ plans & standards
- Communicating results & deviations to employees
- Providing positive feedback for a job well done, & taking corrective action if necessary
What qualities must standards possess to measure performance results?
Standards must be specific, attainable, and measurable
What is the difference between External and Internal customers?
External - dealers (who buy products to sell to others) and ultimate (end users who buy products for their own use)
Internal - individuals and units within the firm that receive services from other individuals or units, i.e. field salespeople are internal customers of the marketing research people who prepare market reports for them.
What does a mission statement outline?
the organization’s fundamental purposes
the self-concept, philosophy, long-term survival needs, customer needs, social responsibility and the nature of its products/services of the organization
What is brainstorming?
Coming up with as many solutions as possible in a short period of time with no censoring of ideas
What is PMI?
Listing all of the Pluses for a solution in one column, the Minuses in another, and the Implications in a third
(pro vs con list)
What is happening today to American businesses?
They are adjusting to changing markets which is a normal function in a capitalist economy. The key to success is remaining flexible and adapting to changing times
What are the principles of organizational management?
Structuring an organization means devising a division of labor (which can result in specialization), setting up teams or departments, and assigning responsibility and authority.
It includes allocating resources (funds), assigning specific tasks, and establishing procedures for accomplishing the organizational objectives. Managers also have to make ethical decisions about how to treat workers
What were Fayol’s basic principles?
Unity of command, hierarchy of authority, division of labor, subordination of individual interests to the general interest, authority, clear communication channels, order, and equity
What principles did Weber add to Fayol’s principles?
Bureaucracy such as job descriptions, written rules and decision guidelines, consistent procedures, and staffing and promotions based on qualifications
What are the four major choices in structuring organizations?
- Centralization vs decentralization
- Breadth of span of control
- Tall vs flat organizational structures
- Type of departmentalization
What are the latest trends in structuring?
Departments are often replaced or supplemented by matrix organizations and cross-functional teams that decentralize authority. The span of control becomes larger as employees become self-directed. Another trend is to eliminate managers & flatten organizations.
What are the two major organizational models?
- LINE - has clearly defined responsibility and authority, is easy to understand, & provides each worker with only one supervisor.
- LINE-AND-STAFF - expert advice helps in areas such as safety, quality control, computer technology, human resource management, and investing
What are the key alternatives to the major organizational models?
Matrix organizations assign people to projects temporarily & encourage inter organizational cooperation and teamwork.
Cross-functional self-managed teams have all the benefits of the matrix style and are long term.
What are the major concepts involved in interfirm communications?
Networking uses communications technology & other means to link organizations & allow them to work together on common objectives. A virtual corporation is a networked organization of replaceable firms that join & leabe as needed.
Benchmarking tells firms how their performance measures up to that of their competitors in specific functions.
The company may then outsource to companies that perform its weaker functions more effectively & efficiently.
The functions that are left are the firm’s core competencies.
What is an inverted organization?
It places employees at the top of the hierarchy; managers are at the bottom to train and assist employees
What is organizational culture?
consists of the widely shared values within an organization that foster unity & cooperation to achieve common goals
What is the difference between the formal and informal organization of a firm?
FORMAL - details lines of responsibility, authority & position. It’s the structure shown on organization charts
INFORMAL - the system that develops spontaneously as employees meet and form cliques, relationships, and lines of authority outside the formal organization. The human side of the organization
they are invaluable managerial asset that promotes harmony among workers establishing corporate culture
Define Bureaucracy
organization with many layers of managers
What is Centralized authority?
when decision making is concentrated at the top level of management
What is Decentralized authority
when decision making is delegated to lower-level managers and employees more familiar with local conditions than headquarters mgmt could be
What is the span of control?
Describes the optimal number of employees a manager supervises or should supervises.
What are digital natives?
Younger people today that grew up with the internet, cell phones, and other technology. Using high-tech devices is second nature to them.
What is the current state of manufacturing in the US?
Manufacturing activity has declined since its height. The result has been fewer jobs in manufacturing.
Today many manufacturing jobs are coming back to the US as labor costs and supply-chain problems increase in other countries.
What have US manufacturers done to achieve increased output?
emphasizing close relationships with suppliers and other companies to satisfy customer needs; continuous improvement; quality; site selection; use of the Internet to unite companies; & production techniques such as enterprise resource planning, computer-integrated manufacturing, flexible manufacturing, lean manufacturing, robotics, and 3D printing
What is production management?
Consists of all the activities managers do to help their firms create goods.
To reflect the change in importance from manufacturing to services, the term production is often replaced by operations
What is operations management?
the specialized area in management that converts/transforms resources, including HR, into goods and services
What kind of firms use operations managers?
Firms in both manufacturing and service sectors use operations managers
What is process manufacturing, and how does it differ from assembly processes?
Process manufacturing physically or chemically changes materials
Assembly processes put together components and finish products such as automobiles
How do CAD/CAM systems work?
design changes made in computer-aided design (CAD) are instantly incorporated into the computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) process.
The linking of CAD and CAM is computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)
What is flexible manufacturing?
Designing machines to produce a variety of products
What is lean manufacturing?
The production of goods using less of everything than in mass production: less human effort, less manufacturing space, less investment in tools, & less engineering time to develop a new product
What is mass customization?
Making custom-designed goods and services for a large number of individual customers
Flexible manufacturing makes mass customization possible. *mass customization is important in service industries
How do robotics help make manufacturers more competitive?
Industrial robots can work 24/7 with great precision. Many of the jobs they replace are repetitive, dangerous, or require precision for which robots are necessary, or at least helpful, to make workers more productive.
Workers and robots (called collaborative robots or cobots) are working together more frequently in today’s environment. Robots are also beginning to encroach on white-collar jobs in many professions
What is 3D printing and what is it used for?
3D printing (additive manufacturing) is technology that creates a product one layer at a time by a nozzle similar to those found in inkjet printers.
It is largely used to create prototype models or molds for other industrial projects, but use is growing significantly and today is involved in medical equipment, orthopedic implants, airplane components, and even bridges & houses
What is facility location and how does it differ from facility layout?
Facility location is the process of selecting a geographic location for a company’s operations.
Facility layout is the physical arrangement of resources, including people, to produce goods and services effectively and efficiently.
How do managers evaluate different sites?
Labor costs & land costs are two major criteria for selecting the right sites.
Other criteria include whether resources are plentiful & inexpensive, skilled workers are available or trainable, crime rates are low, taxes are low, and the local gov offers support, energy & water are available, transportation costs are low, quality of life and education are high
What relationship do materials requirement planning (MRP) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) have with the production process?
MRP is a computer-based operations management system that uses sales forecasts to make sure the needed parts and materials are available at the right time and place.
ERP, a newer version of MRP, combines the computerized functions of all the divisions and subsidiaries of the firm (finance, material requirements planning, HR, order fulfillment) into a single integrated software program that uses a single database.
The result is shorter time between orders and payments, less staff to do ordering and order processing, reduced inventories, and better customer service for all firms involved
What is just-in-time (JIT) inventory control?
requires suppliers to deliver parts and materials just in time to go on the assembly line so they don’t have to be stored at the firm’s location or in warehouses at a high cost
What is Six Sigma quality?
sets standards at just 3.4 defects per million opportunities and detects potential problems before they occur
What is SQC?
Statistical quality control (SQC) is the process some managers use to continually monitor all processes in the production process and ensure quality is being built into the product from the beginning
What is SPC?
Statistical process control (SPC) tests statistical samples of product components at each stage of the production process and plots the results on a graph so managers can recognize and correct deviations from quality standards
What quality standards do firms use in the US?
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
International standareds US firms strive to meet include ISO 9001 and ISO 14001
What qualifications are needed for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award?
- Leadership
- Strategic planning
- Customer and market focus
- Information and analysis
- Human resource focus
- Process management
- Business results
What is ISO 14001?
a collection of the best practices for managing an organization’s impact on the environment [as an environmental mgmt system, it doesn’t describe a performance level.
requirements for certification include having an environmental policy, specific improvement targets, conducting audits of environmental programs, and maintaining top mgmt review of the processes
What is ISO 9001?
the common name given to quality mgmt and assurance standards
Require that a company determine what customer needs are, including regulatory and legal requirements, and make communication arrangements to handle issues such as complaints. Other standards cover process control, product testing, storage and delivery.
What is a GANTT chart?
a bar graph, can be prepared by computer, that shows what projects are being worked on and how much has been completed at any given time.
What is a PERT chart?
Program Evaluation and Review Technique
users analyze the tasks to complete a given project, estimate the time needed to complete each task, and compute the minimum time needed to complete the whole project
What is the critical path?
The sequence of tasks that takes the longest time to complete; ctitical emphasizing a delay anywhere along this path will cause the project/production run to be late
What is Form utility?
the value producers add to materials in the creation of finished goods and services, such as by transforming silicon into computer chips, or putting services together to create a vacation package.
