Key Concepts in Management Flashcards
What is the definition of Management?
The process of getting activities completed efficiently and effectively with and through other people.
Mintzberg’s 3 roles to group a manager’s activities:
- Interpersonal: a figurehead, leading and liaising
- Informational : monitoring and disseminating information, acting as a spokesperson.
- Decisional: making strategic decisions about organisation’s future.
Classical school of management?
-Theories of Fayol, Taylor and Weber
- Important emphasis on rules, specialisation, hierarchies and obedience.
What was Fayol’s concept that he put forward?
- ‘universality of management principles’
- ## managerial control can be achieved by acquiring a set of skills that have universal application.
What are the 5 functions of management that Fayol classified?
1.) Planning - objectives, strategies, policies, programmes, procedures
2.) Organising - establish a structure of tasks to achieve goals. Delegating authority to carry out jobs. Providing systems of information.
3.) Commanding - Giving instructions to subordinates to carry out tasks for which manager has authority and responsibility.
4.) Co-ordinating - Harmonising the goals and activities of individuals and groups within the organisation.
5.) Controlling - Measuring and correcting activities of individuals and groups to ensure performance is in accordance with plans.
Why is motivation and communicating omitted from Fayol’s five functions?
Reflect the classical view of management as the controlling of resources and processes.
Fayol used his 5 functions to develop 14 general principles of management. Name all fourteen
1.) Division of labour
2.) Unity of command
3.) Scalar chain
4.) Teamwork
5.) Initiative
6.) Equity
7.) Remuneration
8.) Material and social order
9.) Unity of direction
10.) Discipline
11.) Central control
12.) Authority
13.) Personal interests
14.) Stability of tenure (job security)
Taylor took an engineering approach to management. What are his 4 principles of scientific management?
1.) Development of a ‘true science of work’- ability to accurately calculate what constitutes as a fair day’s work
2.) Scientific selection and development of workers - choosing most suitable workers objectively and specific training
3.) Combining science of work withs scientifically selected worker - uniting 1 & 2 together should allow workforce to reach its full potential.
4.) Constant and intimate co-operation between management and workers - Taylor believed that more efficient workforce was in interest of both managers and workers.
What following key elements do scientific management include?
1.) Work study techniques - used to analyse tasks and establish most efficient methods to use. No variation was permitted in way work was done, since aim was to use the ‘best way’.
2.) Planning and doing were separated - assumed that person who were intellectually equipped to do job would not plan well for it. planning was management’s job
3.) Jobs were micro-designed - simple task components.
4.) Workers were supposed to be paid incentives - on basis of acceptance of new methods and output norms which greatly increased productivity and profits. Pay was assumed to be only important motivation force.
What are the features of Weber and bureaucracy?
1.) Continuous organisation - if people disappear, new people will replace them
2.) Official functions - Divided into areas with specific duties.
3.) Rulers - rule defines and specifies a course of action that must be taken under given circumstances.
- Weber was inclined to regard bureaucracy as ideal form of organisation because it is impersonal, rational, based on set pattern of behaviour and work allocation, does not allow personal issues to get in way of achieving goals.
What are the 8 characteristics of bureaucracy (Weber) ?
1.) Hierarchy of roles
2.) Specialisation and training - high degree of specialisation of labour
3.) Professional nature of employment- promotion according to seniority and achievement.
4.) Impersonal nature - formal, impersonal procedures
5.) Rationality -
6.) Uniformity in the performance of tasks - procedures ensure tasks are executed in same way
7.) Technical competence - competence is rarely questioned
8.) Stability - Organisation rarely changes in response to environmental pressures.
Name 5 weaknesses of bureaucracy ?
- Slow to respond to change
- Slow to communicate (due to segregation of officials)
- No involvement of staff in decision making
- Innovation stifled by ‘jobsworth’ attitude
- Failure to consider important informal relationships
Explain Hawthorne and Mayo’s theory on shifting focus to people and relationships:
- Productivity and morale can be influenced by communications that take place between the workforce and management. Good relationships between workers and management can increase motivation.
- People value being part of a group as they are social creatures by their nature. Group work can help to increase motivation and can help build trust among workers in same team.
- People like to be given encouragement and to receive supporting from management
What is Frederick Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory?
- Saw human behaviour at work as being driven by desire to avoid undesirable situations and achieve desirable ones.
Two Factor Theory:
1.) Hygiene (maintenance) factors cannot actively satisfy. They can only prevent dissatisfaction.
2.) Motivational factors can actively motivate but only if hygiene factors have already been met.
Name Hygiene factors?
- Company policy and administration
- Salary
- Quality of supervision
- Interpersonal relations
- Working conditions
- Job security
