Management of Organizations (3) Flashcards
From theory to practice
Fayol’s influence
what managers actually do :
ritual and ceremony, networking, lobbying, soft information, filling in for absences, meetings, etc.
Mintzberg’s study
- 5 managers observed over one week (diff. industries)
- a lot of activities in a little time
-steady stream of calls/mail, worked during breaks
-brevity, variety, and fragmentation
1/2 of activities less than 9 min
worked 30 min straight once every 2 days
Mintzberg’s study (cont.)
- preference for live action and intuition (never look at cost reports,..)
- networking
- unwritten communication
- situational pressure
Dilemma of delegation
-managers acquire strategic info
(only accessible to managers)
-info is needed to make decisions
making decisions leads to overload, delegating leads to chance of error, both time-consuming
-no scientific attempts at solving this problem
research so far focused on functional areas (little attention to general management)
Interpersonal roles (because of status from formal authority)
- figurehead
signing documents, handing out awards, greeting customers,… - Leader
hiring and training, motivating, resolving conflicts - Liaison
relating to suppliers, clients, politicians, competitors
Informational roles
1. Monitor querying contacts within and outside 2. Disseminator sharing info from outside to subunits 3. Spokesperson giving talks, presentations, press conferences, reporting to board and stakeholders, sharing info outside
Decisional Roles
- Disturbance handler
dealing with losses, scandals, pandemics, strikes - Entrepreneur
turning ideas into projects, delegating projects - Resource allocator
dividing labor and coordinating tasks
4.Negotiator
finding agreement with competitors and unions, contracting star employees
Indivisibility of Roles
roles are inseparable. This creates problems after managerial succession and within TMT, partly solved by creating multiple C-level positions
Middle managers can more easily specialize:
sales are mostly interpersonal
HR is mostly informational
production is mostly decisional
Main Challenges
- Delegation (regularly share info through debriefing, memos)
- Prioritisation (turn obligations into advantages, a conference into an opportunity for lobbying)
- Cooperation (managers have authority and resources, but analysts have time, instruments, and domain knowledge)
Sources of Power
- Authority
- rational-legal: professors, mayors
- charismatic: investors, talented entrepreneurs
- traditional: kings, popes - Resources
- people:
- info: knowledge
- instrumentalities: capital
feelings: friendship
Power-generating resources
VRIN (Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, Non-substitutable)
ex: knowing how to handle uncertainties gave power to sales in post-war economy
Outcomes of Power
- Stimulates deeper involvement
-forcing people to do something (alienative)
-incentivizing with monetary gain (calculative)
-incentivizing with status/symbolic reward (moral)
not all types are equally important - Generates conflict
-uncommon, but sometimes spectacular (MeToo, BLM)
-arises when power is used for personal goals
-spreads or shrinks until power balance is equal
Leadership
Power that involves changing others’ preferences (does not always coincide with formal authority)
- most relevant to the strategic apex (org mission)
- also relevant to middle line (transmitting info, resolving conflicts, clarifying job expectations)
Sources of Leadership
- Personality traits (extroverted, agreeable, conscientious, open, emotionally stable)
- Decision-making style
- making decisions alone (autocratic)
- taking advice from others (consultative)
- entrusting decisions to others (delegative)
- facilitating group decisions (participative) - Follower and situational characteristics
- highly or poorly structured tasks favor autocracy
- conflict and low consensus favor participation
Outcomes of Leadership
- Mixed results on satisfaction and productivity
- productivity higher with autocratic style
- satisfaction higher with participative style - Little evidence of impact at the strategic apex
