Managment Flashcards
What is Management
Good management is working with others to accomplish tasks that help fulfill an organization’s
objectives as efficiently as possible
Identify the 4 functions of management
Henri Fayol’s classic management functions are known today as planning, organizing, leading, and
controlling.
Planning is determining organizational goals and a means for achieving them.
Organizing is deciding where decisions will be made, who will do what jobs and tasks, and who will work for whom.
Leading is inspiring and motivating workers to work hard to achieve organizational goals.
Controlling is monitoring progress toward goal achievement and taking corrective action when needed. Studies show that performing these management functions well leads to better managerial performance.
Identify the different types of managers and explain their roles
Top managers are responsible for creating a context for
change, developing attitudes of commitment and ownership, creating a positive organizational culture
through words and actions, and monitoring their company’s business environments.
Middle managers are responsible for planning and allocating resources, coordinating and linking groups and departments, monitoring and managing the performance of subunits and managers, and implementing the changes or strategies generated by top managers.
First-line managers are responsible for managing the performance of nonmanagerial employees, teaching direct reports how to do their jobs, and making detailed schedules and operating plans based on middle management’s intermediate-range plans.
Team leaders are responsible for facilitating team performance, managing external relationships, and facilitating internal team relationships.
Using Mintzberg’s managerial roles and sub-roles, define Interpersonal roles and its sub-roles.
Managment jobs are very people-intensive with a majority of their jobs requiring good communication during face-to-face conversations with others.
In fulfilling the interpersonal roles, managers act as figureheads by performing ceremonial duties, as leaders by motivating and encouraging workers, and as liaisons by dealing with people outside their units.
Using Mintzberg’s managerial roles and sub-roles, define Informational roles and its sub-roles.
Managers spend a large amount of their time obtaining and sharing information for those they manage. Mintzberg found that managers spend 40 percent of their time obtaining information.
In performing their informational roles, managers act as monitors by scanning their environment for information, as disseminators by sharing information with others in the company, and as spokespeople by sharing information with people outside of their departments or companies.
Using Mintzberg’s managerial roles and sub-roles, define Decisional roles and its sub-roles.
When obtaining and sharing information, it is vital for a manager to share this information with people inside and outside of the company to help them make good decisions.
In fulfilling decisional roles, managers act
as entrepreneurs by adapting their units to incremental change, as disturbance handlers by responding to larger problems that demand immediate action, as resource allocators by deciding resource recipients and amounts, and as negotiators by bargaining with others about schedules, projects, goals, outcomes, and resources.
List the skills that companies will look for when hiring a manager.
Companies do not want one-dimensional managers. They want managers with a balance of skills. They want managers who know their stuff (technical skills), are equally comfortable working with blue-collar
and white-collar employees (human skills), are able to assess the complexities of today’s competitive marketplace and position their companies for success (conceptual skills) and want to assume positions of leadership and power (motivation to manage). Technical skills are most important for lower-level managers, human skills are equally important at all levels of management, and conceptual skills and motivation to manage an increase in importance as managers rise through the managerial ranks
List the types of mistakes that managers will typically make.
- Insensitive to others: Abrasive, intimidating, bullying style.
- Cold, aloof, arrogant.
- Betrayal of trust.
- Overly ambitious: thinking of the next job, playing politics.
- Specific performance problems with the business.
- Overmanaging: unable to delegate or build a team.
- Unable to staff effectively.
- Unable to think strategically.
- Unable to adapt to bossing with a different style.
- Overdependent on advocate or mentor.
Describe some the transition process for employees promoted to a manager.
Managers often begin their jobs by using more formal authority and fewer people management. However, most managers find that being a manager has little to do with “bossing” their subordinates.
After six months on the job, the managers were surprised at the fast pace and heavy workload and that “helping” their subordinates was viewed as interference. After a year on the job, most of the managers
had come to think of themselves not as doers, but as managers who get things done through others. And because they finally realized that people management was the most important part of their job, most of them had abandoned their authoritarian approach for one based on communication, listening, and positive reinforcement
Explain how and why companies can create competitive advantage through people
Why does management matter? Well-managed companies are competitive because their workforces are smarter, better trained, more motivated, and more committed. Furthermore, companies that
practice good management consistently have greater sales revenues, profits, and stock market performance than companies that don’t. Finally, good management matters because good management
leads to satisfied employees who, in turn, provide better service to customers. Because employees tend to treat customers the same way that their managers treat them, good management can improve
customer satisfaction.
