Week 1: Module 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What is business

A

Any organized effort by individuals to creat eany products and services that society needs.

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2
Q

What are the 5 business activities

A
  1. Marketing
  2. Human resource management
  3. Accounting and Financing
  4. Operations
  5. Innovations
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3
Q

What are the layers of business in context

A
  1. Business
  2. Strategic
  3. Organizational
  4. Environmental
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4
Q

What happens on a strategic level

A

Strategy determines the direction of business activities.

It encompasses goals, determined by management, and the methods of achieving those goals.
Strategy shapes structre.

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5
Q

What does the organizational level look at?

A

The organizational level is about how people are grouped and operate to fullfill operations. Looks at:
1. Size
2. Ownership
3. Organizational/corporate culture
4. Structure
5. Goals

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6
Q

What are the factors of the environmental level?

A
  1. Economy
  2. Technology
  3. State
  4. Labour
  5. Cultural and institutional differences
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7
Q

What constitutes Weber’s bureaucratic management

A

Wber saw that traditional authority was based on relationships/kinship/tradition vulnerable to particularism/favoritism.
He argued for rational-legal authority based on rational decision-making

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8
Q

What are the elements of bureaucratic management?

A
  1. Formal rules
  2. Division of labour
  3. Hierarchy
  4. Systemic pay structure based on merit
  5. Authority of position
  6. Division personal and professional life
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9
Q

What is the critique on bureaucratic management?

A
  1. Organization becomes inflexible
  2. There is still room for covert particularism
  3. Can create corporate culture that consumes rules instead of goals.
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10
Q

What is the central principle of Taylor’s scientific management

A

The central principle is the homo economicus: the worker is a rational, self-interested human being motivated by money

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11
Q

what are the three pillars of scientific management?

A
  1. Efficiency through standardization and specialization
  2. Division of thinking (management) and doing (workers)
  3. Scientific analysis of worker selection and performance (time and motion studies)
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12
Q

What is the critique on scientific management?

A
  1. Shallow view on workers and their motivations
  2. Focuses on controlling behavior and individuals.
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13
Q

What are the most important findins in Mayo’s Hawthorne study?

A
  1. Attention improved productivity
  2. Workers are not only motivated by money and their morale and attitude can positively affect productivity
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14
Q

What do scientific, bureaucratic mangement and human relations theories have in common?

A

They are all internal models, looking at how to shape the organization.

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15
Q

What is the assumption of systems theory?

A

The assumption is that you gain a better understanding of a business by thinking of them as living organisms within their environment.

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16
Q

What are the four underlying principles of systems theory?

A
  1. permeability
  2. Holism
  3. Entropy
  4. Equifinality
17
Q

What is permeability?

A
  1. Permeability is how much information can flow in and out of an organization. Differs per org.
  2. Company must be open to survive
  3. Dynamic context requires permeability
18
Q

What is holism?

A

Consideration of the entity in its entirety. It’s an interlocking system with subelements.

19
Q

What is entropy?

A

Organization will deteriorate if not attended to properly. Resources must be committed to maintaining balance in organization

20
Q

what is equifinality?

A

There are more right ways, but not all are equally good.

21
Q

What does contingency theory focus on and what are it’s two important findings?

A

Focuses on the place of organizations within their environment.

Bureaucracy is best for routine work
ORganic system is best for non-routine work.

22
Q

What is the assumption of network theory?

A

The basic assumption is that organizations are networks, consisting of nodes (people) and connections.

Weak ties act as bridges

23
Q

What does pyramid thinking focus on?

A
  1. vertical relations
  2. Bureaucracy
  3. Manager directs work
  4. Efficiency
24
Q

What does network thinking focus on?

A
  1. Horizontal relations
  2. Trust
  3. Managers facilitate
  4. Prioritizes innovativeness
25
Q

What are the vulnerabilities of global networks?

A

Contagion through exposure

26
Q

What do systems, contingency and network theory have in common?

A

They are all external.