Exam Review Flashcards
What are the four types of engineering managers?
- Project Manager:
- Facility Manager:
- Leader / Strategist
- Consultant
What is project management?
The application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills, and experience to achieve the project objectives.
What is Facility Management?
The practice of coordinating the physical workplace with the people and the work of the organization.
What is leadership?
Leadership: the process of influencing people to accomplish the targets, inspiring their commitments, and improving the organization.
What is Strategic Management?
Strategic management is a disciplined effort that produces priorities, fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, who it serves, what it does, etc…
Define McFarland’s management
Historically, “to handle” or “the process of training or directing”.
- An organizational or administrative process.
- A science, discipline, or art
- The group of people running an organization
- An occupational career
What are the 3 levels of management?
- First-Line
- Middle
- Top
What is a First-Line Manager?
Responsible for carrying out plans and objectives from higher management, assign tasks to workers, and supervise work.
Make short-range operations plans
Foreman, supervisor, etc…
What is a Middle Manager?
Establish department policies, evaluate the performance of subordinates, and provide integration and coordination function
Make plans for the intermediate range
Plant manager, operating manager, etc…
What is a Top Manager?
Define the character and mission and objectives of the enterprise, and evaluate the performance of the major departments.
Establish criteria for and review long range plans
CEO, V.P., etc…
What are Fayol’s five elements of management?
- Planning
- Organization
- Commanding
- Coordinating
- Controlling
What are Mintzberg’s three managerial roles?
- Interpersonal: Figurehead, leader, liaison
- Informational: Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson
- Decisional: Entrepreneurial, disturbance, resource, negotiator
What is a paradigm? What is a paradigm shift?
A typical example.
To accept something new as the norm
What are paradigm shifts in management caused by?
- Organizational and technological changes
- Changing relations in service and production
- Globalization
- Changing conceptions of time and space
- Changing demographics
- Changing values
What is an organization?
Goal-oriented collectives, in which we are organized. To be organized means being an elements in a systematic arrangement of parts creating a unified, organic whole.
Name some characteristics of an organization
- It has a design expressed through its routine practices and structure
- Always changing (as future unfolds, redefine actions, roles, etc…, through change management)
- Future-oriented
- Hierarchy and division of labour
- Defined actions, roles and responsibilities
What are the five types of organizational rules?
- Formal
- Professional
- Legal
- Standards
- Informal
What is sensemaking?
A managerial term for the phenomenon of us always attempting to make sense of everything around us.
Occurs within an ideology that rationalizes decisions made to suit the goal of that ideology (unionism assumes decisions are made in the best interest of employees; stakeholders assume decisions are made for maximum profitability)
What are some characteristics of sensemaking?
- Ongoing
- Retrospective (review what sense we make with additional data)
- Plausible (not perfect sense, but provisional sense)
- Images (work with representations of things)
- Rationalize
- People (People who do sensemaking)
- Doing (thinking and action define one another)
What is framing?
The practice of removing unimportant details and focusing on the important stuff that managers do
What is organizational behaviour?
Concerned with individual, group, and organizational-level processes and practices that inhibit or enable organizational performance
Involves understanding, researching, and addressing phenomena from a multidisciplinary perspective
What is Nature? What is Nurture? What is the debate?
Nature: Is human personality, cognition, and behaviour genetic or preprogrammed?
Nurture: Is human personality, cognition and behaviour learned or socialized?
What is perception?
The process of receiving, attending to, processing, storing, and using stimuli to understand and make sense of our world.
Stimuli are experiences through any and all of these senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch)
What are schemas?
Sets of cognitive constructs developed through social interactions that organize thoughts, feelings, and attentions
Are used to structure and organize info that we experience in our social world and often hierarchical
Name the 5 types of schemas
Person schemas: forms the ideal that a person strives to be
Self-schemas
Social schemas
Role schemas
Script schemas: The instructions to do anything and everything
Name and define the five types of errors in perception
Stereotyping: grouping objects into simplistic categories based on generalizations
Self-fulfilling prophecy: a belief that comes true because people behave as if it is true
Halo effect: ascribing positive characteristics to a person formed in one situation to other situations
Devil effect: Ascribing negative characteristics to a person formed in one situation to that person in other situations
Attribution errors: How people attribute cause to their own and other’s behaviours
Name the three types of attribution errors
Fundamental attribution error: Using internal attributions when explaining the cause of behaviours of others
Self-serving bias: Success is due to internal causes / failures are due to external causes
Cognitive dissonance: Discomfort caused by holding inconsistent and conflicting sets of cognition
What are values? What are trans-situational values? What are value priorities?
A set of beliefs and goals that serve as guiding principles in one’s life
Trans-situational values: Values that are consistent and stable across situations
Value priorities: The order of values in terms of importance to one’s life
What are Schwartz’s 10 value types?
Achievement: Valuing of personal success by demonstrating one’s competence according to social standards
Benevolence: Preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent contact
Conformity: Restraint of actions, inclinations, and impulses that are likely to upset or harm others and that might violate social expectations or norms
Hedonism: Pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself
Power: One’s social status and prestige, control, or dominance over people and resources
Security: Safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self
Self-direction: Independent thought and action
Stimulation: Excitement, novelty, and challenge in life
Tradition: Respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or religion provides
Universalism: Understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature
Define personality
Stable patterns of behaviour and internal states of mind that help explain a person’s behavioural tendencies
What are the four top personality theories and their founders?
Trait theory (e.g. McCrae and Costa) - Big Five
Socio-cognitive theory (Bandura)
- Reciprocal determinism
- Locus of control
Psychoanalytic theory (Freud)
Humanist theory (Rogers)
What is the hierarchy of needs?
Self-actualization Esteem needs Belongingness and love Safety Physiological needs
Describe the theory of positive psychology and state how it is applied to management
The study, research, and theorizing of the psychological bases for leading the best life possible through positive thinking, feelings, and behaviour
Applied to management: positive psychology seeks to understand and to foster civic virtues, social responsibility, altruism, tolerance, happiness, and psychological well-being
Define ‘emotions’
Feelings in response or expectation to an object or event
What is emotional intelligence?
The capacity to recognize our own emotions and the emotions of others
The ability to manage our emotions in our relationships with others
What is affected forecasting?
Decisions made in the present based on feelings forecasted into the future
Impact bias is overestimated intensity in affective forecasting
What is a group?
Two or more people interacting interdependently to achieve a common goal.
Two or more people with a common relationship
Name and define the types of groups
Formal work groups: Groups that are established by organizations to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals
Informal groups: groups that naturally emerge in response to the common interests of organizational members
Name and define the five stages of group development
Forming: the situation is ambiguous and members are aware of their dependency on each other
Storming: Conflicts often emerge as roles and responsibilities are sorted out
Norming: Members resolve the issues provoked by storming and develop social agreement
Performing: The group devotes its energies towards task accomplishment
Adjourning: Characterized by concern with wrapping up activities rather than task performance
What is a role? What are role expectations?
Role: A set of expected behaviour patterns associated with someone occupying a given position in the unit.
Role expectations: How others believe a person within a specific role should act in a given situation
Name and define the four types of role issues
Role Conflict: An individual is confronted by divergent role expectations
Role Ambiguity: A person is unclear about his or her role
Role Overload: Too much is expected of someone
Role Underload: Too little is expected of someone and that person feels that he or she is not contributing to the group
What are norms? What do norms define?
Norms: Acceptable standards of behaviour within a group that are shared by the group’s members
Norms define: Performance Appearance Social arrangement: how team members interact Allocation of resources
What is a team? How do teams differ from groups?
What is a team? A group of people who have different talents and are often assigned different tasks, but who work together towards a common goal through meshing of functions and mutual support
Teams differ from groups because a team is psychologically contracted together to achieve common goals, and share responsibility and accountability for outcomes
Name the 4 types of teams
Problem-solving / Process-improvement
Self-managed / Self-directed
Cross-functional
Virtual: uses computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal
Name and define the 10 team roles
Process managers: Leaders of the team
Conceptual thinkers: source of new and original ideas
Radicals: do not accept conventional thinking and solutions, bring an unusual perspective to problem-solving
Technicians: specialists on the subject being considered
Harmonizers: main aim is to ensure there is a sense of harmony between team members
Planners or implementers: Drive for completion of team goals
Facilitators: Provide support wherever needed
Critical observers: Look for problems, advise caution
Politicians or power-seekers: influence team members into their way of thinking, responsible for shaping the team’s views
Salespeople or diplomats: Provide a link between the team and other teams
What is the objective of delegating?
To improve manager’s overall efficiency by selectively distributing work for employees to do
What type of work can be delegated?
Problems/issues requiring exploration
Activities coming within the job scope of the employee
Tasks promoting employee development and growth
Activities that would save manager’s time
What type of work should NOT be delegated?
Planning Morale problems Coaching Performance reviews Manager’s own assignments from upper management Pet projects
Name and define the three stages in team forming
Drifting: Individuals come together and define roles
Gelling: Like-minded individuals form small groups, team identity is developed under an unofficial leader
Unison: Whole team is behaving as a single, highly-organized body under a single leade
What is team conflict? When can it occur?
Conflict refers to one or more people, groups, or entities perceiving that their interests are or will be negatively affected by the interests of others
Conflict may occur when people what the same thing, but access to that same-thing is limited
Conflict may occur because parties may actually want different things
Conflict can be functional or dysfunctional
Name the five methods of conflict management. What kind of resolution is achieved with each?
Collaborative: Seek win/win solution
Avoiding: Lose-lose position because nothing is resolved
Forcing: win/lose outcome
Accommodating: lose/win outcome
Compromise: Both parties win a little or lose a little
What are the 7 Deadly INs?
Toxic Handling of Organizational Conflict
Intention to cause pain Incompetence Infidelity Insensitivity Intrusion Institutional forces Inevitability
What is creativity?
The ability to produce new and useful results, usually though new developments or novel applications of known facts
What is planning?
1 - A primacy function of management
2 - Provides a method of identifying objects and designing a sequence of programs and activities to achieve these objectives.
3 - Amos and Sarchet: Planning is deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who to do it.
4 - The work done to predetermine a course of action, in order to provide focus and direction for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the company
What three reasons make planning necessary?
Technology
Environment
Organization
What are the two types of planning?
Strategic planning: Defines future activities that are worth doing by the unit/company, to which the company applies its resources effectively to achieve short-term and long-term goals
Operational Planning: Defines tasks / events to be accomplished with the least amount of resources, within the shortest time, to assure that the company applies its resources efficiently to achieve its short-term and long-term goals
Name the stages of the product life cycle and how sales change throughout the cycle
Entry → Growth → Saturation → Decline
Sales increase from Entry to Saturation and decrease from Saturation to Decline
What is a mission and a mission statement?
Mission: Why do we exist, whom are we serving, what do we do to serve them?
Mission statement: what the company is now
What is a vision and vision statement?
Vision: Company aspiration
Vision statement: what the company would like to be
Name some tools of Strategic Planning
SWOT analysis Sensitivity analysis External benchmarking Technology forecasting Product lifecycle analysis
What is the purpose of SWOT analysis?
For determining the current status and success of the business at this point
What does SWOT stand for?
Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats
What is GAP analysis?
To analyze where you are now (from SWOT) against where you would like to be in the future
Name some tools for Operational Planning
Project management
Action planning
Design, test, and analysis procedures
Operational guidelines
What are the different types of Performance Metrics?
Customer-related Process-related Financial Employee-related Competition-related
What are the four planning activities?
Forecasting
Action Planning
Issuing policies
Establishing procedures
What is forecasting and what is its purpose?
Forecasting: To estimate and predict future conditions and events
Purpose of forecasting:
Set bounds for possibilities to help focus on specifics
Form basis for setting objectives
Promote inter-group coordination
Provide basis for resources allocation
Induce innovation through forecasted needs
What is action planning? What is the action planning process?
The process of establishing specific objectives, action steps, and a schedule and budget related to a predetermined program, task, or project
Action Planning Process: 1 - Analyze critical needs 2 - Set objectives 3 - Define KPIs 4 - Specify action steps 5 - Determine dates of task initiation and completion 6 - Develop a budget
From the APP, how to analyze critical needs and what are some different types of critical needs?
How to analyze critical needs?
Needs are to be defined with respect to position charter, duties, management expectations, and company goals
Types of Critical Needs: Development Maintenance Deficiency Strategic Long-term / short-term
From the APP, how to set objectives?
Objectives are set to satisfy the critical needs
Objectives need to be specific and measurable
From the APP, how to define metrics?
Metrics are what takes to measure the attainment of the objectives
Metrics need to quantitative
Must be defined with the doer’s participation and consent
From the APP, how to specify action steps?
List major action steps, identify work contents, define sequential relationship between steps, determine resource requirements for each, specify expected results, and assign people to each action step
Evaluate risk for completing the steps planned, define contingencies to manage risk
From the APP, how to determine a schedule?
Determine dates of initiation and completion of each task
Allow scheduling flexibility (slag)
Focus on management of critical path tasks
From the APP, how to develop a budget?
Determine the basic resource units to accomplish each step
Define other resources
Review action steps, to see if projected cost exceeds value expected
What are policies, what is their purpose, and name some characteristics of policies
Policies are directives, promulgated to address repetitive questions and issues of general concern (ex: firing policy)
Purpose of policies:
Save management time
Capture the distilled experience and past learning of the company
Facilitate delegation
Characteristics of Policies:
Applied uniformly
Relatively permanent
Foster corporate objectives
What are procedures? Why are procedures important?
Procedures are standardized methods of doing work
Importance of procedures: Preserve the best way to perform repetitive work Provide the basis for method-improvement Insure standardized action Simplify training Save corporate memory
What is the process for developing procedures?
Concentrate on critical eeds Chart the work Review the work Propose procedure Improve procedures Formulate / Communicate procedures
What are some ingredients of good planning?
Assumptions People Benefit vs. Cost Small, but Sure Steps Change in Future Commitment
Why set goals?
Concentrate your efforts
Increase motivation and enthusiasm
Set priorities
Define urgent vs. important
Urgent: Time-rushed, but not critical (you have to answer the phone right away, regardless of who is on the other line).
Important: Meaning on what you want to achieve
What are some reasons for not achieving a goal?
Goals are unrealistic
Circumstances change
Being too consumed by a single goal
Name the three questions to answer when setting a goal:
WHAT do I want to accomplish?
WHY do I want to accomplish this?
HOW am I going to do it?
Name some characteristics of effective weekly goals
Have to be driven by conscience
Are goals you feel positive about
Important, not necessarily urgent
Reflect our four basic needs and capacities
Are in our center of focus
Are either determinations or concentrations
For goal-setting, what are the four basic needs?
Physical dimension
Spiritual dimension
Social dimension
Mental dimension
What is the center of focus?
Within our center of influence and within our center of concern
What is a determination? What is a concentration?
Determinations: Things you are determined to do no matter what
Concentrations: Things where you want to focus your time and energy
What are SMART goals?
Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Time-Bound
What is the goal cycle?
Organize → Act → Evaluate
Define empowerment. When does empowerment occur?
Sharing your power with people over whom you have power.
Empowerment occurs when team members are given authority to make decisions that were previously reserved for managers
Name the Three Pluses of empowerment
Ideas: Two heads are better than one philosophy. Empowerment solicits input from team members
Synergism: One idea sparking a new idea in another member, etc…
Ownership: Team members identify with the project and become committed to its success
Name two reasons why someone may not want to be empowered
Empowerment forces them to change their routine
Does not fully understand their new roles
Name two methods to encourage empowerment
Train team members in methods for generating ideas (brainstorming)
Get underway slowly
Define entrepreneurship
A person who undertakes and operates a new venture, and assumes accountability for the inherent risks
An individual who sees an opportunity that others do not and marshalls the resources to exploit it
Name some motivations to become an entrepreneur
To be independent
To choose the nature of your occupation
To earn more money
To meet familial commitments
What are the four theories of entrepreneurship?
Richard Cantillon (1755): Arbitrage and the bearing of uncertainty
Jean-Baptiste Say (1828): Co-ordination of factors of production
Joesef Schumpter (1934 - 1939): Innovation
Leibenstein (1968): Leadership and Motivation
Name some psychological traits of entrepreneurs
Need for achievement Creativity Perseverance Optimism Independence
Can entrepreneurship be taught?
Currently, there are university programs that offer entrepreneurship classes
Historically, it was a born-trait
Only by doing can one become an entrepreneur
Instructors in entrepreneurship can only assist you
Failure / Success of Entrepreneurship depends on: Personal skills, experience, timing, and luck
Define organizing
Arrange and relate the work, so that it can be done efficiently by people.
Name some benefits of organizing
Ensure that important work is done Provide continuity Form basis for salary administration Aid delegation Promote growth and diversification Encourage teamwork Stimulate creativity
What is organizational structure?
Organizing involves defining activities that are necessary to achieve planned goals or objectives, obtaining resources, establishing informal- and reporting relationships among people, and allocating planning sub-goals to those people
Define contingency and state how it comes about. What do contingencies have to do with organization?
Contingency: something that management cannot avoid
Contingencies arise from routines, rather than emergencies, as facts of organizational life, and have to be acknowledged and dealt with.
Different organizations face different contingencies; how they handle these contingencies is reflected in their organizational design
What is Contingency Theory? What are its three key tenets?
Contingency Theory: The dominant theory of organizational design
Key Tenants of Contingency Theory:
Suggests that there are several key contingencies that shape organizations, no matter where in the world they are
The basic idea of contingency approaches is to stress that all organizations have to deal with a predictable number of contingencies
Contingencies will shape the organization’s design as it adapts to them
What are the three assumptions of contingencies?
Environment: The more certain and predictable the environments in which organizations operate, the more probable it is that they will have bureaucratic structures
Technology: As organizations adopt more routinized technologies (that is, technologies with repetition and routines associated with them), they tend to become more bureaucratic
Size: As organizations become bigger, they become more bureaucratic
What are the Six Questions for Organizational Structure, and How is the Answer Provided?
To what degree are tasks subdivided into separated jobs? Work specialization
On what basis will jobs be grouped together? Departmentalization
To whom do individuals and groups report? Chain of command
How many individuals can a manager efficiently and effectively handle? Span of control
Where does the decision-making authority lie? Centralization and decentralization
To what degree will there be rules and regulations to direct employees and managers? Formalization
Define Division of Labour. What are some benefits and downsides?
The degree to which tasks in the organization are subdivided into separate jobs.
Benefits: Efficiency
- Less time changing tasks, putting equipment away
- Easier to train employees
Downsides: Boredom, stress, low productivity, high turnover, increased absenteeism
Define departmentalization and its 5 types
Departmentalization: The basis on which jobs are grouped together Types: Functional Discipline Product Geographic Customer
For departmentalization, what is a Functional Organization? When should they be used?
Functional Organization: Members are grouped into teams / departments by FUNCTION
When to Use Functional Organizations
- Organizations with high relative stability of workflow and limited product diversity (certain manufacturing operations, process industries)
- Startup companies
- Organizations with narrow product ranges, simple marketing pattern, and few production sites
For departmentalization, what is a Discipline-Based Organization? Where are they favoured and why?
Members are grouped into teams by discipline
Favoured by universities, governmental laboratories and other R&D organizations
Promote innovative pursuits in individual disciplines, allowing employees to drill down to deeper knowledge levels without requiring much coordination with others
For departmentalization, what is an Organization-by-Product or an Organization-by-Region? Name some pros and cons
Pros: Focuses on end products or geographical regions Facilitates coordination Encourages management development Provides for decentralization Promotes growth
Cons: High cost due to layers, autonomy, or duplicated facilities Requires management talents Technical obsolescence of specialists Changes take time to take effect
For departmentalization, what is Departmentalization by Customer?
Ex: Bombardier commercial aircraft vs. business aircraft
Able to focus more on the unique needs of customers, who may require very different services and/or products
What is the Chain of Command?
The unbroken line of authority that extends from the top of the organization to the lowest level and clarifies the responsibilities and accountabilities
What is Responsibility?
Responsibility: Duty to perform work efficiently and in a professional manner
What is Accountability?
Accountability: Upwards directed obligation for securing the desired results
What is Authority?
Authority: Who has the right to give orders and expect them to be obeyed
What is the Unity of Command?
Unity of command: Subordinates should have only one superior
What is Delegation?
Assignment of authority to another person to carry out specific duties, allowing the employee to make some of the decisions
What are the differences between a Pyramid and a Flat Organizational Structure?
Pyramid Organizational Structure: Many levels, small span of control
Flat Organizational Structure: Few levels, large span of control
Define Span of Control
Number of subordinates that can be efficiently and effectively managed
What is Centralization? What is the alternative to a Centralized organization?
Centralization: The degree to which decision-making is concentrated at a single point.
Usually in centralization, decisions are concentrated at the top as the ‘single point’
Decentralization: Decentralization of processes practices, rules, etc…, in order to increase ability to adapt to constantly changing environments
What is Formalization?
How standardized are the jobs?
High formalization means employees have little discretion
Low formalization means employees have more freedom
Who defined Mechanistic and Organistic organizations and when?
Identified by Burns and Stalker in 1961
Define Mechanistic Organization. What are some of its characteristics?
Formal and specialized, with precise role prescriptions for each task and responsibility (i.e. hierarchy of command and control)
Characteristics of Mechanistic Organizations: More frequently found in stable organizations High specialization Rigid departmentalization Clear chains of command Narrow span of control Centralization High formalization
Define Organistic Organization. What are some of its characteristics?
Simpler in structural terms, in which individuals are allowed space in which they develop their creativity
More frequently found in smaller firms, that operate in highly uncertain environments, and oriented to discovery and learning
Characteristics of Organistic Organizations: Cross-functional teams Cross-hierarchical teams Free flow of information Wide span of control Decentralization Low formalization
What is a Simple Structure? What are some of its strengths and weaknesses?
A structure characterized by a low degrees of departmentalization, wide spans of control, and authority centralized in a single person
Strengths:
Simplicity: fast, flexible, inexpensive
Weaknesses:
Works best in small organizations
Can slow down decision-making
Can be risky as it relies on one person to make all the decisions
Name some characteristics of Family Businesses in Canada
Represent more than 70 percent of Canadian employment and more than 30 percent of the GDP
Family businesses face both family/personal relations and business/management relations
Family businesses must manage the conflicts found within families as well as the normal business issues that arise for any business
What is a Matrix Organization? What are its pros and cons?
Breaks the “unity of command” principle. Employees have more than one boss. Example: a functional manager and a project manager
Pros:
Project managers focus on schedule and cost; functional managers on quality and experience
Workload balance
Increased exposure for employees
Cons: Dual reporting Severe conflicts among managers Delicate balance of power (people versus money/time) Communication problems
What are the causes of conflict in a Matrix Organization?
PMs have money under control, mandate to authorize work with top management support
FMs have manpower, skills, knowledge, facilities, and owns funds to support people
What are some characteristics of New Organizational Structures?
Organizational designs for structures seeking to be non-bureaucratic
Stressing flat structures
Multi-skilled capabilities rather than a rigid division of labour
Informality rather than a high degree of formality
What are the three new Team Structures? What characterizes these structures?
Breaking the boundaries internally: Team Organizations
Breaking the boundaries externally: Modular Organizations; Network Organizations
Breaking the boundaries externally and internally: Boundaryless Organization
Name some characteristics of Team Organizations. What is its purpose?
Team members “on loan” from functional organizations to eliminate organizational conflicts
Team leader in full control
Short term high-priority tasks/projects
Ex: Product team, special task force
Purpose: To create recommendations, to make or do things, and to run things
What is a Modular Organization? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
Modular Organization: A small core organization that outsources major business functions
Advantages:
Can devote technical and managerial talent to most critical activities
Can respond more quickly to environmental changes
Increased focus on customers and markets
Disadvantages:
Reduces management’s control over business
Relies on outsiders to get the job done
What is a Network Organization? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
Network Organization: A continually-evolving network of independent companies - suppliers, customers, even competitors - linked together to share skills, costs, and access to one another’s markets
Advantages:
Organizations can share costs and skills
Provides access to global markets
Increases market responsiveness
Disadvantages:
Companies give up operational and strategic control to work together
Managers need to be more flexible, to acquire new skills
What is a Boundaryless Organization?
An organization that seeks to eliminate the chain of command, have limitless spans of control, and replaces departments with empowered teams
Name the four legal types of business in Canada?
Sole Proprietorship
The Partnership
The Corporation
The Cooperative
What is a Sole Proprietorship? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
Sole Proprietorship: A business owned and operated by a single person
Advantages: Simple to organize and shut down Has few legal restrictions Owner is free to make all the decisions Profit is taxed only once
Disadvantages:
Owner faces unlimited liability for business debts
Owner’s personal assets may be seized to pay off debt
May find it difficult to raise capital
Duration of the business is limited to the life of the proprietor
What is a Partnership? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
The Partnership: An association of two or more partners to carry on as co-owners of a business for profit
Still easy to organize
Relatively few legal restrictions
Synergy of several people, but divided decisions-making
Normally partners have unlimited liability
What is a Corporation? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
The Corporation: Legal entities owned by shareholders, who in general have no liability beyond the loss of the value of their stock
Advantages: Corporations have perpetual life Easier to raise money Transfer of ownership Change of management
Disadvantages:
More difficult and expensive to organize a corporation
Corporate income is taxed twice
Corporations are subject to many controls
What is a Cooperative?
It is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit
A cooperative may also be defined as a business owned and controlled equally by the people who use its services or who work at it
What is Job Analysis? What is this info needed for?
Process of getting detailed information about jobs in order to allocate tasks into a job
Knowledge is needed for: Staffing Training Performance appraisal Other HR functions
What is a Job Analysis Method? What are the two types?
Job Analysis Methods: Evaluation based on the job nature or based on the job relations with the other jobs, and its outputs
Position Analysis Questionnaire: One of the broadest and most researched
- Information input and mental processes
- Work output
- Relationships with other persons
- Job context and other characteristics
Task Analysis Inventory: Focuses on the tasks performed in a particular job
- Several variations exist
Define Work Flow in Organizations. What are the steps in the flow, and their definitions?
Work Flow in Organizations: Process of organizing work into tasks required for a job
Raw Inputs –> Activitiy –> Output
Raw Inputs: What materials, data, and information are needed?
Equipment: What special equipment, facilities, and systems are needed?
Human Resources: What competencies are needed by those performing the tasK?
Activity: What tasks are required in the production of the output
Output: What products, info, or service is provided? How is the output measured?
What is a Job? What is a Position?
Job: A set of related duties/responsibilities for one or more employees
Position: Collection of tasks/responsibilities performed by one person
What is Job Design? What is Job Redesign?
Job Design: The process of defining the way work will be performed and the tasks that a given job requires.
Job Redesign: Changing an existing job design
Name the 3 Job Design Considerations
- Specialized and Industrial Engineering Considerations
Work simplification
2. Behavioural Considerations: Job enlargement Job rotation Job enrichment Team-based job designs
- Human Engineering Considerations:
Ergonomics
What are the 4 approaches to Job Design?
- Design for Mental Capacity
Filtering information
Clear displays and instructions
Memory aids - Design for Safety and Health
Ergonomics
3. Design for Motivation: Job enlargement Job enrichment Teamwork Flexibility
- Design for Efficiency:
Industrial Engineering
What are the five elements of a job description?
Identification information: Job title, location, and source of job analysis information
- Job Summary: Short statement summarizing the responsibilities of the position in the organizational structure
- Job Duties and Responsibilities: The top 3-5 responsibilities, in detail
- Job Specifications: Knowledge and skills required to carry out the job duties and responsibilities
- Minimum Qualifications: Basic standards to be met in order to be successful in the position, such as education, certification, and years of experience
What are the six steps to the Job Development Process?
Step 1: Identify what information will be used for
Step 2: Review relevant background information
Step 3: Select representative positions/jobs to be analyzed
Step 4: Analyze the job
Step 5: Review analysis with incumbent/supervisor
Step 6: Develop job description/job specification
What are the 7 steps to selecting a proper candidate for a job?
Step 1: Contact the HR Department
Step 2: Look for candidates within your own organization
Step 3: Recruitment
Step 4: Evaluating Applications and Resumes
Step 5: Preparing for an Interview
Step 6: Interviewing
Step 7: Making the Hiring Decision
What are the five pieces of info on a standard application form?
Education Work experience Skills Personal info References
What questions should be asked in an interview? What questions shouldn’t be asked and why?
Questions that should be asked: Education Previous Experience Accomplishments Skills Personal characteristics - Weaknesses - Motivations - Originality - Working with Others
Questions that should not be asked (illegal from the Equal Employment Opportunity Act by Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson): Age Religion Origin of nationality Marital status Number of children
Name two flaws in selecting the candidate
- Overemphasizing appearance: Hiring people who are physically attractive
- Succumbing to the halo effect (when the candidate has one outstanding characteristic and you apply it to their entire character) vs. the pitchfork effect (applying one bad trait to their entire character)
Name some of the candidate-selection tools that are used in the hiring process
Letter of recommendation Application Forms Ability tests Personality tests Interviews Assessment centers Drug tests Honesty tests Reference checks Handwriting analysis
Name the four most frequently-used tests for testing applicants
Intelligence tests
Aptitude tests
Performance tests
Personality tests
What seven pieces of info should be included in a job offer?
Title of job Starting date Salary Benefits Working hours Location of job Deadline to accept the offer
Define Leadership
The art or process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly towards the achievement of group goals
To cause people to take effective action for attaining organizational goals, willingly
What are the 3 theories on leadership?
Trait approach
Situational approach
Fiedler’s contingency approach (combines trait and situational)
What are the 7 traits of the Trait Theory (for leadership)?
- Personal Attributes: Energy, appearance, height, etc…
- Personality Attributes: Adaptability, aggressiveness, enthusiasm, self-confidence
- Task-Related Characteristics: Achievement, drive, persistence, initiative
- Social Characteristics: Cooperativeness, interpersonal skills, administrative ability
- Physical Qualities: Health, vitality, etc…
- Character Attributes: Integrity, humanism, etc…
- Intellectual Qualities: Mental capacity, ability to teach others, etc…
How does the Situational Theory measure leadership? What are the four types of leaders in this theory?
ituational Leadership: A graph of Supportive Relationship Behaviour vs. Task Behaviour Directive
Low Relationship and Low Task: Delegating
High Relationship and Low Task: Participating
High Relationship and High Task: Selling
Low Relationship and High Task: Telling
How does Emotional Intelligence relate to Leadership
EI is the best predictor of who will emerge as a leader
IQ and technical skills are “threshold capabilities” → necessary, but not sufficient requirements for leadership
Leaders need to be self-aware, self-managed, self-motivated, emphatic, and have extensive social skills → all components of EI
What are the four leadership styles? How are they linked to the Situational Theory of leadership?
Autocratic: demands power
Maintains authority from his position
One who tells
Diplomatic: sells his power
His authority is achieved through personality and he generally works through obtaining power
One who sells
Consultative: accepts power
Receives authority by his reputation and simply accepts power
One who consults
Participative: rejects power
Gains authority through is competence and usually rejects power
One who joins
Define the five leadership behaviours
Telling: tells them exactly what needs to be done
Persuading: Persuades team to accept the solution
Consulting: Discuss with team and chooses most promising option
Joining: Involved in group conversations
Giving: Give them hints regarding the solution
What is the Managerial Grid used for? What are its axes?
Managerial Grid: Used to identify and measure leadership behaviours
Concern for people vs. concern for production
What are the four leadership characteristics?
Corrective action
Integrity
Keep informed
Group participation
Define coaching. Define mentoring
Coaching: The process of developing and enhancing employees’ job competencies and capabilities through constructive suggestions and encouragement
Mentoring: The process of passing on the job expertise, skills, and knowledge in order to develop a protege
Name some of the coaching capabilities
Trust building Empathy Active listening Influence tactics Set goals Monitor performance Feedback Encourage positive actions Discourage negative actions
What are the differences between a manager and a leader?
Manager:
- Engages in quotidian activities
- Exhibits supervisory behaviour
- Administers subsystems within the organization
- Asks how and when to engages standard practice
- Acts within the established culture of the organization
- Status quo supported and stabilizer
Leader:
- Formulates long term objectives for reforming the system
- Asks what and why to change about standard behaviour
- Status quo challengers and change-creator
Define Transactional Leadership. What are some of its characteristics?
ransactional Leadership:
The leader will provide certain resources in exchange for the employee’s pay raise
Fairly routine style of leadership
Ensures employees do exactly what is expected of them
Has been linked with higher employee performance
Characteristics of Transactional Leadership:
Contingent reward
Management by exception
Laissez-faire
Define Transformational Leadership. What are some of its characteristics
Transformational Leadership:
Motivate and inspire employees to perform beyond expectations
Helps them develop a strong emotional attachment to the leader, the work unit, and the organization as a whole
Characteristics of Transformational Leaders: Charisma Inspiration Intellectual stimulation Individualized consideration
What are some qualities of an effective follower?
Manage themselves well
Committed to a purpose outside themselves
Build their competence and focus their efforts for maximum impact
Courageous, honest, and credible
Define ethics
Reflecting on and recommending concepts of right and wrong behaviour.
What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
Meeting or exceeding legal and normative mandated standards, by considering the greater good of the widest possible community within which organizations exist
Regard to the environment, social, economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic impact of the organizations way of conducting business and the activities they undertake
The continuing commitment by businesses to behave ethically and contribute to the economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as that of the local community and of society at large
What is Corporate Green Wash?
A rhetorical device employed by corporations to legitimize the corporate form and accomodate the social conscience of its customer
What are stakeholders?
Individuals or groups with a vested interest or “stake” in a given decision or project
What is sustainability?
A sustained use of resources would leave the world short of nothing that was depleted in any process
Ensuring nothing deleterious to the world’s natural systems resulted from whatever processes that were being undertaken
The integrational philosophy meeting the needs of today’s generation without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their needs
What is Business Ethics? Can a business ever be considered ethical?
Business Ethics: How businesses ought to act in an ethical way
Some ideas that a business can never be judged ethical or unethical; organizations must do what they can to fulfill their functions within the market mechanism
Should an organization ensure it meets all socially-desirable needs and wants relevant to its practices?
What are Normative Ethics? What are Descriptive Ethics?
Normative Ethics: Seeks to establish means of judging whether a practice is right or wrong
Descriptive Approach: Does not seek normative guidelines, but rather is applied to monitor and describe the outcomes
What is philanthropy? What is charity?
Philanthropy:
Love of humanity
Private initiatives for public good focusing on quality of life
Charity: Similar to philanthropy, but exists to relieve the pains of social problems, whereas philanthropy attempts to solve these problems at their root causes
What is Strategic Philanthropy?
The practice of companies by which they target their respective charitable and philanthropic activities around a specific issues or cause that will in turn support their business objective.
What are the three approaches to how ethics are implemented?
Ethics as Individual Responsibility:
- Ethics is the responsibility of the individual, not the business
- Unethical organizational behaviour is due to “bad apples” within the organization
- Ethics is a managerial moral task
- Ethics resides solely within the free will of the individual
- Organizations are ethically questionable and it is up to the manager to make sense of and practice ethics
Ethics as Bureaucratic Responsibility:
- The shape of the organization must be ethical
- Can a business ever be ethical if profitability is its foremost goal?
- Maximizing one’s own interest will always be done at the expense of the other
Ethics as Practice:
- Ethics is what we do in social contexts
- Enacted through specific discourses
- Expressed in and through the categories used in everyday language
- Practices at work: challenges in designing ethical behavioural changes
What are the three aspects of the CSR and Sustainability?
Risk society: One in which the life-threatening disasters that society might be subject to cannot be controlled within a specific territory
Corporate greening: A process that involves trying to adopt green principles and practices in as many facets of the business as it is possible to do so
Learning to be green:
- Lifelong learning
- Developing critical thinking
- Building citizenship: don’t think just as employees, but as citizens
- Foster environmental literacy
- Nurturing ecological wisdom
Define communication
Occurs when persons or groups transmit information, ideas, and concepts between them
What are 8 tips to becoming a better communicator?
- Know your subject
- Know your audience
- Say it well
No mumbling, don’t speak too fast or too slowly, and avoid mispronunciations
Avoid “word whiskers” = uhms, ehs, you know’s, etc…
4. Use images, diagrams, visual aids: A picture is worth a thousand words Flip charts and chalkboards Overhead projectors Slide presentations Videos or films
5. Listen to what others communicate to you Eliminate distractions Get rid of excessive paper Don’t get too comfortable Be an active listener Be an empathetic listener Take notes
- Learn to read body language
Gestures
Facial expressions
Movements - Minimize the use of channels
- Improve your written communication:
Formal language tends to be expected
Be concise
What are the three main causes of poor communication?
Assumptions made by the communicator about the listener
Preconceptions: People hear what they expect to hear
Prejudices: Your biases against a person influence the way the message is received
What are the 3 C’s of Communication?
Clear
Complete
Concise
Name the three steps to writing in the form of a bulletin
Headline your main point
Break the story into separate sections for each subsidiary point
Use an asterix or bullet to highlight key points
Where appropriate, use visual aids
Name the three tips to writing a good report
Briefly state the purpose of the report
Present a summary and some recommendations
Provide a detailed backup
Define culture
The sum of values and beliefs of a specific group of people or population
What are the two types of business culture?
- National cultures
2. Organizational cultures
What are the seven characteristics of culture?
Consists of learned patterns of behaviour which is common to a given society
The unique lifestyle of a particular group of people
Is learned, not innate
The various aspects of culture are interrelated
Culture is shared, with immersive and invasive characteristics
Defines the invisible boundaries of different groups
Could be extensive training program
What are Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions?
Hofstede’s cultural theory applies to National Cultures
- Power-Distance Index
- Individualism
- Masculinity
- Uncertainty Avoidance Index
- Long-Term Orientation
Define Power Distance (from Hofstede)
The extent to which a society accepts the fact that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally
In an organizational setting, this dimension aims at assessing the extent to which less powerful members of organizations accept the unequal distribution of power
Define Uncertainty Avoidance (from Hofstede)
The extent to which people in a society feel threatened by ambiguous situations and the extent to which they try to avoid these situations by providing greater career stability, establishing formal rules, and accepting the possibility of absolute truths and attainment of expertise
Define Masculinity and Femininity (from Hofstede)
Masculinity: The extent to which the dominant values in society emphasize assertiveness and the acquisition of money and things, while not particularly concerned for people
Femininity: The extent to which the dominant values in society emphasize relationships among people, concern for others, and the overall quality of life
Define Individualism and Collectivism (from Hofstede)
Individualism: Characterized by definitions of an individual independent entities. It implies loosely-knit social frameworks in which people are supposed to take care of only themselves and their immediate families
Collectivism: Characterized by tight social frameworks in which people distinguish between their own group and other groups
What is Hofstede’s assumption?
Each country has just one dominant culture
Name some types of Organizational Culture
Process-oriented vs. Results-oriented Job-oriented vs. Employee-oriented Professional vs. Parochial Open systems vs. Closed systems Tightly controlled vs. Loosely controlled Pragmatic vs. Normative
Name two differences between National and Organizational Cultures
National Cultures:
Anthropology issues
Given facts for management
Organizational Cultures:
Sociology issues
Somewhat manageable
Name some benefits of Cross-Cultural Communication
Globalization of economy
People of diverse cultures usually work together to achieve common goals
Miscommunication may lead to misunderstandings, and even project failures
Name some dangerous assumptions in Cross-Cultural Communication
The other person sees the situation the same way you do
The other person is making the same assumptions that you are
The communication situation has no relationship to past events
The other person’s understanding is based on your logic, not their own feelings
The other person is the one who has a problem
Other cultures want to become more like yours, and therefore, the other person is becoming more like you
Name some strategies for better cross-cultural communication
Setting communication objectives Choosing a communication style Enhancing credibility Overcoming language difficulties Using appropriate non verbal behaviours
Name the three types of marketing
Mass marketing vs. Customized marketing
International marketing and national marketing
Tradition-Based vs. Modern-Based
What is the relationship between culture and marketing?
Culture defines acceptable purchasing- and product-used behaviours for both consumers and businesses
Each element of culture influences each components of the marketing mix
Marketing also influences culture, especially by contributing to cultural borrowing and change
What are Gestland’s four cultural models?
Deal-focused vs. relationship-focused models
Formal vs. informal modes
Rigid-time vs. fluid-time cultures
Expressive vs. reserved cultures
Name some challenges in cross-cultural marketing
Cultural impacts of marketing: International vs. domestic marketing
The standardization versus adaptation in cross-cultural marketing
Cross-cultural dimensions of marketing research
Cross-cultural aspects of marketing mix
What are some guidelines for cross-cultural marketing?
Be sensitive to taboos
Respect another’s cultural differences
Be culturally neutral
Never assume transferability of a concept from one culture to another
Get cultural informants involved into the decision-making
What are the five factors of Expatriate success?
Selection on the basis of both technical- and personality-based factors
Training on cultural sensitivity
Spousal preparation for the assignment, especially for dual-career couples
Organizational support before and during the assignment
Host country workforce preparations for the expatriate; cultural-sensitivity training
What may cause fall in morale and motivation?
Unfair treatment of employees Excessive emphasis on status Non-recognition of achievement Petty regulations Poor communication
What is a motive? What is drive?
Motive: A consideration or motion that excites action
Drive: To urge a long, to hurry on, to furnish motive power to
Define motivation and name some of its characteristics
Motivation:
A motivating force, an incentive
A stage or condition that activates and gives direction to thoughts, feelings, and actions
A force which excites and drives a person to action
Characteristics:
Motivation results in drive
Motivations are subjective and qualitative
Motivation cannot be measured
Varies with time and with a person’s individual characteristics
A psychological entity
It causes action which is done subconsciously and emotionally with reasons behind it not always clearly definable
What are the two types of motivation drivers?
Primary: Instinct Hunger Thirst Pain avoidance Etc
Secondary: These are learned
Behaviours that give pleasure
Who are the five contributors to Motivational Theory and what are their theories?
Abraham Maslow: Needs Theory
Most common
Frederick Herzberg: Job Attitudes Theory
Vroom: Expectancy Theory
Douglas McGregor: Assumptions Theory
David McClelland: Needs Theory
What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
Higher Levels: Transcendance Self-actualization Aesthetic Needs Esteem Needs Belongingness and Love Needs
Lower Levels:
Safety Needs
Physiological Needs
Define Survival
Survival: A universal need for the necessities of life (food, water, etc…)
Define Security
Security: What allows us to keep the necessities for survival (weapons, a hearth, etc…)
Define Belonging
Belonging: A social need; acceptance of the individual by the group. Only important after security is obtained
Defien Ego
Ego: The need for recognition of accomplishments and status, as denoted by respect from others or by symbols of rank
Define Self-Fufilment
Self-Fulfilment: Being challenged, having responsibility and variety, and possessing a sense of accomplishment
What is Maslow’s Needs Theory?
A higher level need only arises when the ones below it are satisfied
A satisfied need no longer dominates and individual’s behaviour; the next higher need takes over
An unsatisfied need acts as a motivator. Note that higher-level needs can never be completely satisfied
What is McClelland’s Trio of Needs Theory and what the three needs?
David McClelland’s Trio of Needs: Postulated that each person is motivated by one of these three needs:
- Need for Power: A person is motivated by influencing others. Exercising power is more important than achieving goals. Power is desired for power’s sake, not as a means for achieving an aim
- Need for affiliation: A person is motivated by the need for social intercourse and the need to belong to a group
- Need for achievement: The person is motivated by the need to meet goals. No motivation occurs on receipt of money, praise, or what-have-you, except when taken as sign of the completion of a goal.
What is McGregor’s Asumption Theory? Of whom are assumptions made?
McGregor put forward two extremes of management style: Theory X and Theory Y
Actual behaviour lies somewhere in between, although most people have a bias to one side or the other
Theory X and Y make assumptions about the workers
What is McGregor’s Theory X?
Management must change a worker’s attitudes, direct their efforts, control their actions
Must be present to control works or else they would run the organization into the ground
Can be characterized as “carrot and stick” motivation → this works in some instances, but only for a short time
What is McGregor’s Theory Y?
Workers have learnt their bad behaviour through past bad experiences
Using motivation and calling on their innate capacity to improve, management should set the stage for workers to improve upon these behaviours
Management should integrate their workers into a system. All workers’ goal should be to become a factor in achieving the organization’s goal.
What is Herzberg’s Job Attitudes Theory? What are the two types of needs?
Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory: Two factors can affect job attitudes.
Human needs can be grouped into two levels: Higher and Lower
Lower level needs / Extrinsic Factors / Hygiene Factors / Dissatisfiers: Pay and working conditions
If absent, create dissatisfaction. If present, do not create satisfaction
High Level Needs / Intrinsic Factors / Motivators / Satisfiers: Doing a challenging job, having responsibility for the task being done, getting recognition for work well done, and belonging to a group
If absent, inhibits satisfaction, but does not create dissatisfaction
Both are needed to minimize dissatisfaction and maximize satisfaction.
What is Vroom’s Expectancy Theory? What are the three key aspects?
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory: A person’s motivation to achieve a goal is dependent on the value that the person places on achieving the goal and the expectancy of attaining it.
There are three important aspects:
1. Effort-to-performance expectancy: The probability that effort will lead to high performance
- Performance-to-outcome expectancy: The probability that performance will lead to a reward
- Valence: Measure of strength in these beliefs
When does maximum motivation occur?
Maximum motivation is obtained when people want to attain the goals and feel that they control the means for achieving these
How can a manager create motivation in their employees?
Inspiring them
Challenging them
Stimulating them
What are some factors that can affect an employee’s motivation?
Interest in work matter Usefulness of work Desire to achieve Self-confidence Self-esteem
What three motivators for employees?
The approval of others
By overcoming challenges
By individual needs / desires / wants
What should a manager’s expectations on employees be?
What expectations should the employee have of him/herself?
Manager’s Expectations on Employee Motivation: Hold high, but realistic expectations. A manager’s expectation of the employee has a high effect on the employee’s performance
Employee Expectation on Employee Motivation: Set achievable goals for themselves
Name the two managerial motivation methods
- Financial
- Piece-rate pay: Payment for each item produced
- Commision: Payment on value of sales achieved
- Profit-related pay: Gives employee a share in the profits earned by the business
- Performance-related pay
- Share ownership: Employees have shares in the company they work for
Non-financial
- Job enlargement
- Job rotation
- Job enrichment
- Team working and empowerment
Define controlling. What are the two purposes of controlling?
Controlling: Work done by managers to assess and regulate work in progress and to evaluate results obtained.
For the purpose of:
Securing and maintaining maximum productivity
Reducing and preventing unacceptable performance
Name some aspects of the control function
Primarily administrative and operational Critical to implementation of any plan Important to delegation Important to company renewal Balance between operational efficiency and staff creativity and innovation = Four Levels of Control
What are the two types of control?
Output-Based
Process-Based
What are some resistances to control?
Falsifying data, inventing excuses, sabotage, etc…
What are some characteristics of good control?
Accuracy Timeliness Flexibility Cost-effectiveness Understandability Realistic Control at all levels Balance between objectivity and subjectivity
What is the Pareto Principle? How does it relate to Control?
Pareto Principle: Principle of the Critical Few: 20% of factors affective 80% of the results.
Therefore, control the few
What are the four steps of the controlling function?
Setting Standards
Measuring Performance
Evaluating Performance
Controlling Performance
Define standards. What are the three characteristics of standards?
Standards: Define the results that are expected from a person performing a job, state what behaviours or results are expected for performance to be considered satisfactory
Standards should be:
Specific
Measureable
Realistic
What are the 5 types of standards?
Technical Standards: Product unit cost, Mean time between failures, ROI, etc…
Historical Standards: Own metrics in the past, internal benchmarking
Planning Standards: Cost leadership target, expected profit, expected sales revenue
Market Standard: Order processing cost, market share, time to market, external benchmarking
Other Standards: Health standards, environmental quality, self-imposed performance metrics
What are the three barriers to setting good standards?
Subjectivity: Setting unrealistically high standards
Fear of not meeting standards
Lack of consideration: For human factors and such
What is benchmarking? What are the two types?
Benchmarking: A method of defining performance standards in relation to a set of references
Internal benchmarking: How I compare with myself over the years
External: How I compare with peers in industry
What are the three benchmarking metrics?
Financial
Non-financial: Customer metrics
Product-related: aspects of production
What are the limitations to benchmarking?
No forecast of the future, only applies to current practices
Some data may not be available
What are the three steps to measuring performance?
Step 1: Collect and analyze work being done and results obtained
Step 2: Compare performance against established standards
Step 3: Document results of measurement
What are the two steps to evaluating performance?
Step 1: Appraise work in progress or completed work and provide feedback
Step 2: Focus on deviation tends to encourage self-appraisal and foster initiative
Why are formal appraisals important?
The provide a framework for discussing a worker’s overall work record
Become more objective and enable team leaders to compare all members of the team against the same criteria
Provide helpful data for determining what type of additional training team members need
Can help determine salary increases and bonuses
Their formality causes employees to be taken more seriously
Can be used as a vehicle for goal-setting and goal-planning
What are some downsides to formal appraisals?
Stressful
Uncomfortable team leaders and unhappy associates
Poorly designed, can create more problems than solutions
What are the two Formal Appraisal Systems?
Trait-Based Approach
Results-Oriented Approach
Define the Trait-Based Approach for Formal Appraisal Systems
Trait-Based Appraisal System: Evaluation system in which a series of traits are listed. Excellent, very good, average, needs improvement, unsatisfactory Quality of work Quantity of work Job knowledge Dependability Ability to take instruction Initiative Creativity Cooperation
Name the four problems wit hthe Trait-Based Appraisal System
The Halo Effect: One trait is so greatly appreciated by managers, they rate all others very highly.
The Pitchfork Effect: Same as Halo, but for a bad trait
Personal biases
Latest behaviour
How can problems be overcome in the Trait-Based Appraisal System?
Clarify standards
Establish criteria for rating
Try to overcome personal biases
Have specific examples of unsatisfactory behaviour
What is the Results-Oriented Appraisal System?
A Key Results Area is an aspect of a job on which employees must concentrate time and attention to ensure that they achieve the goals of the job
For every job, the team leader and the people doing the job agree on the KRAs for the job
The team leader and team members establish results that are expected from the team members in each of the KRAs
During a formal review, the results an employee gained in each of the KRAs is measured against what was expected
A numerical scale is used in some organizations to rate employees on how closely they come to reaching their goals OR a narrative report is compiled to sumarie what has been accomplished and to comment on its significance
What are some downsides to the Results-Oriented Appraisal System?
Setting unrealistic expectations: when the team leader and team members agree on the KRAs and results
Not all goals are equally important: Consider the value of the expectation in comparison to the overall goals of the team and the company
Intangible goals are more difficult to measure
Name some guidelines for effective control
Focus on location where action takes place
Induce self-imposed control
Avoid widespread control
Manage expectation
Strive for flexible and coordinated control
What are the six specific controlling targets?
Managerial time Personnel Business Relationship Project Quality Knowledge
What are four causes to time wasting?
Absence of clear roles and responsibilities
Poor self-discipline
Lack of effective delegation
Poor communication
What is Control of Personnel?
The amount of supervision required is inverse to the level of skill the employee has
What are Simon’s Four Levers of Control?
Diagnostic System: Management demands standardized behaviour and exercises control
Belief System: Communicate core value, mission, and vision, to encourage employees to add value
Boundary System: Specify what is off-limits
Interactive Control Systems: Senior management monitors and interacts with low-level decision makers to stay abreast
How can Simon’s Four Levers of Control be used to create an effective control system?
Use Belief System and Interactive Control to set performance and business conduct guidelines
Apply performance guidelines and Diagnostic System to improve operational efficiency
Implement business conduct guidelines and Boundary System to improve creativity
What is Control of Business Relationships?
Who one knows and how well is an important competitive advantage
How can projects be effectively controlled?
Understand objectives and constraints Use tools to plan and manage the project Monitor costs, due dates, critical path activities Control plan deviations Induce collaboration among team members Resolve problems and conflicts timely Communicate constantly
How can business knowledge be effectively controlled?
Knowledge refers to corporate intellectual property
Managers are responsible for developing, preserving, and applying corporate knowledge
Set knowledge reporting and management policy
Major difficulties: Knowledge is disperse and not shared
