Monday, January 5, 2009

Management and Leadership

Upward Communication - takes place when information is traveling from someone lower on the hierarchy to someone higher on it.

Downward Communication - takes place when information is traveling from someone higher on the hierarchy to someone lower on it.

Horizontal Communication - takes place between parties on the same level in the hierarchy.

There is no backward and forward communication.

As an organization or as a business expands, it will tend to become more hierarchical.

A hierarchical organization is characterized by formal authority, procedures and rules, clearly defined division of labor and promotions based on skills.


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Behavioral Management Theory - focuses on employees as individuals, as part of work groups, as persons with needs to be met by the organization.

Quality Management Theory - attempts to improve the performance of delivering high quality goods or services

Classical Management Theory - focuses on how to improve productivity and device guidelines to manage the complex organizations that emerged

Quantitative Management Theory - management science approach. The emphasis is on the applications of quantitative or mathematical approaches to management problems.

Contingency Management Theory - based on the premise that the actions or approaches manager should take depend on the situation and its variables. It looks for the most effective way to deal with any situation or problem.


--Feedforward controls are future directed. They are designed to detect and anticipate deviations from standards at various points throughout the processes. A standardized admissions exam prescreens applicants to ensure that they possess the skills necessary to meet with success at the school.


--Organizational development is a companywide long-term plan that make major changes on the people. It strives to maximize organizational effectiveness as well as individual worl satisfaction.


--Crisis is usually encountered before an organization can evolve to the next stage of growth.


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Confrontation - a process where conflicting parties verbalize their positions and areas of disagreement. This is a more heavily stress-related setting than a consensus seeking approach. The outcome hoped for is to find a reason for the conflict and eventually resolve it.

Avoidance - approach where conflict is ignored

Smoothing - approach where conflict is managed by playing down differences among parties.

Compromise - approach where each party is required to give up something and find middle ground

Collaboration - approach where each party work together to solve the conflict.

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Changes in organizations

Process-oriented - changes increases productivity and efficiency

Strategic - improves the company's strategy to meet its objectives

People-centered - changes make adjustments to employee attitudes and behaviors.

Structural - focuses on the hierarchy, goal, or systems.

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Unfreezing - an organizations change process that involves challenging the status quo by pointing out the ways in which the current system is lacking.

Refreezing - where new behavior and procedures are reinforced.

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Driver - force of change intended for solving a problem

Resister - force of change intended to prevent solving a problem

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Managerial Grid Model

Impoverished Leadership - low-level concern with people and low-level concern with production

Authoritarian Leadership - low-level concern with people and low-level concern with production

Middle of the road style - equal concern with people and production

Country club style - high-level concern with people and low-level concern with production

Team style - high-level concern with people and high-level concern with production

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Pygmalion Effect - concept of self-fulfilling prophecy, that is, individuals will act according to what others expect them to.

Projection - act of attributing one's idea or emotion to another

Classifying - assuming something about someone because he is part of a certain group.

Selective perception - concentrating on an aspect of a situation that is compatible with one's own belief.

Stereotyping - associating a characteristic to an individual based on his race, ethnicity, age, group or gender.

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Zero-based budgeting - forces each part of an organization to justify with specifics wach of the operations it wishes to fund.

Top-down budgeting - places responsibility at a managerial level one or two steps above that of unit managers

Bottom-up budgeting - places responsibility in the hands of those who have direct knowledge of the environment and the marketplace.

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Line Authority - defines he relationship between the superior and his subordinates. Example is a department manager who can delegate work to his subordinates.

Functional Authority - authority delegated to an individual over specific activities undertaken be personnel in other departments. Example is a human resources manager who can give training-related assignments to members of various departments.

Decentralized authority - disperses authority within an organization structure usually to those in the lower levels.

Hierarchical authority - concentrates on authority in the upper levels.

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Brainstorming - group effort at generating ideas and alternatives that can assist a particular manager in making decisions or solving problems.

Groupthink - phenomenon of group members to go along with the opinion of the group

Decision tree - graphic representation of the actions a manager can take and how these actions relates to future events.

Flow chart - graphic representation of a procedure

Conference - formal meeting of people with a shared interest usually takes place over several days

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Indirectly interactive forces are political, economic, legal, sociocultural or technological in nature.

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Authority - right to make decisions that commit the organization's resources or the legal right of the manager to tell someone to do or not to do something.

Power - person's ability to influence results

Responsibility - obligation to carry out one's assigned task to the best of one's ability

Accountability - means being answerable for the results of one's actions.

Leadership - process of influencing a group or an individual toward the accomplishment of goal setting or goal achievement.

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Personal Power - based on a person's personality, traits and knowledge.

a. Expert Power- possessed by persons who have demonstrated their superior skills and knowledge.

Positional Power - based on the position of an individual in the hierarchy. The higher the position, the greater the power.

a. Punitive and Reward Powers are examples of positional power.

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Storming phase - characterized by conflict and competitiveness.

Forming Stage - members become familiar with one another and their task. The team have not yet built a cohesive community at the end of this stage.

Norming Stage - team focuses on building a cohesive community by collecting ideas and opinions from each member, identifying and resolving issues, and brainstorming.

Adjourning Stage - focuses on recognizing the team solidarity and achievement.

Performing Stage- most productive stage

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Joint venture - two competing companies work together to meet foreign market demands

Wholly-owned subsidiary - a company purchases all or the controlling interest of a foreign company

Global strategic partnership - business approach where two firms make a long-term arrangement to produce new products that will dominate the international market.

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Total Quality Management is neither fast nor inexpensive. It actually requires more time and capital. The company using the TQM program wants to make sure of the quality of their product.

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Continuous-process production - system that transforms raw materials into goods by constantly feeding the raw materials through an automated system. It relies on technology, therefore it does not require large labor force. It is flexible and not rigid in structure.


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Learning Organizations - firms that continually evolve and encourage employees to improve performance based on their experiential lessons.

Bureaucracy - formal structure based on procedures with a number of channels through which issues must pass before arriving at a decision.

Informal Organization - network of personal and social relationships that arise spontaneously as people interacts with one another in a work environment.

Multinational organizations - have operating facilities, not just sales office in several foreign countries as well as business transactions with foreign companies.

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Grievance - formal statement of complaint about a situation, usually made by an employee or group of employees to management.

Negotiation - happens when two parties agree to work to resolve a labor dispute.

Mediation - happens when a third party is requested to facilitate a resolution of a negotiation

Arbitration - happens when a third party is given the authority to decide on how the dispute will be resolved.

Appraisal - review that measure the performance of an employee.

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Job Orientation - integrates the employee into the organization.

Twinning - situation which two or more employees divide a single job.

Work Specialization - division of a task into separate jobs.

Mentoring - situation where a knowledgeable individual guides a less experienced individual

Job Enlargement - redesigning a job to include a greater variety of tasks.

Span of control - concerned with the number of subordinates each manager should have to direct

Unity of command - when an employee has two or more supervisors to whom he is directly accountable for

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The working conditions of the employees is considered a maintenance factor since it requires continuous maintenance. The area must be conducive to working and safe for everyone.

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Job-rotation is a job redesign technique of assigning people different jobs or different task on a temporary basis.

Job-enrichment - allows those interested to satisfy some of their psychological needs.

Job-enlargement - increases the variety or the number of tasks a job includes.

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Employee worker's compensation insurance is a mandatory benefit and cannot be canceled by the company.

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Demotion is a movement from one position to another which has less pay or responsibility attached to it. Demotions can be used for punishment, but most organizations refuse it as an option, preferring instead to suspend the employee or assess a financial penalty.

Promotion - movement by a person into position of higher pay and greater responsibilities. Promotions reward competence and ambition. They act as incentives to perform above average.

Transfer - represents a lateral move from one position to another that has similar pay and responsibility level.

Lateral move - move from one position to another one on the same level. It does not involve promotion or demotion

Layoff - result of downsizing. The employee is terminated not because he has done something improper but because the company may be cutting on operational expenses.


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Differentiation strategy - a company strives to be the the first company out with the latest technological advancement.

Single-use plan - used only once since it is designed for non-recurring situation

Contingency plan - alternate plan that can be used in the event that the original plan is not workable due to changing circumstances

Cost leadership strategy - strives to keep its operating costs low by being efficient and maintaining tight controls.

Bureaucracy - formal structure based on procedures with a number of channels through which issues must pass before arriving at a decision.

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Rewards and their methods of attainment should bot be uniform for all comparable recipients. Employees have varying sets of skills to offer an organization, therefore they should be given the opportunity to achieve rewards in a variety of ways depending on what would they value or appreciate most.

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Job analysis - step that requires a person to research jobs to determine what they call for in the way of education, skills, aptitudes, and their environmental working conditions.

Payback analysis - evaluation of investment alternatives by comparing the length of time necessary to pay back their initial costs.

Force field analysis - depicts the change process as one which must overcome a person's or organization's status quo or existing state of equilibrium - the balance between forces for change and forces that resist change.

decision analysis - step in the decision-making process that involves determining the advantages and disadvantages of each number of possible solutions.

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Leadership styles

Free-rein - characterized by the leaders encouraging the individual or group to function independently

Supportive approach - characterized by the manager's support to his subordinates in attaining their goals. This is done by removing barriers, developing mutual goal-setting opportunities, encouraging positive risk taking and providing stability.

Participative approach - characterized by the manager's involving the subordinates in the decision

Motivator - approach is the same as the supportive approach.

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An intermittent production process is occurring at irregular intervals or not steady. This is used by a company that readjusts its operations to make a slightly different product to meet the current demand of its market.

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Law of Large Numbers - states that if a large number of similar objects or persons are exposed to have the same risk, a predictable number of losses will occur during a given period of time.

Insurable risk - idea that the person considering transferring the risk must stand to suffer a financial loss before he or she will be allowed to purchase insurance on a given risk.

Insurable interest - relationship between the insured and the beneficiary.

Liquidity ratio - ratio used to determine the ability of the enterprise to raise enough cash in short period of time to pay current debts. The most common liquidity ratio is the current ratio. It is determined by dividing current assets by current liabilities.

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Lobbying - an alternative to government regulation that focuses on consolidation of overlapping government authority and elimination of agency duplication of activities.

self-policing - process of keeping order or maintaining control within the organization without accountability to the government

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Involuntary bankruptcy - a group of creditors petitions the court to declare a debtor bankrupt so they may collect at least part of their claims

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Businesses are interdependent. They depend on one another as customers and suppliers. Businesses are customers for other business. The action taken by each independently influence the success or failure of the others. If a company that is the major customer of a small-business supplier goes out of business, there is a very high probability the smaller business will follow suit.

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Inflation - general increase in the levels of proces over a period of time. It impacts on the prices of goods and services

Recession - describes a low point of business activity and a low point in the business cycle

Bankruptcy - situation where a company is unable to pay its debts

fiscal policy - relates to deliberate changes in taxes and government spending for the purpose of changing capital investment, income and employment.

contraction - period in the business cycle where business operations slow down. During this period, unemployment increases, business cut back on their production of goods, and money is "tight".

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