What Managers Do

What Managers Do Managers (or administrators) Individuals who achieve goals through other people. Managerial Activities • Make decisions • Allocate resources • Direct activities of others to attain goals

Where Managers Work Organization A consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals.

Management Functions Planning

Organizing

Management Functions Controlling

Leading

Management Functions (cont’d) Planning A process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing different ways to coordinate activities.

Management Functions (cont’d) Organizing Determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made.

Management Functions (cont’d) Leading A function that includes giving vision, motivating employees, directing others, selecting the most effective communication channels, and resolving conflicts.

Management Functions (cont’d) Controlling Monitoring activities to ensure they are being accomplished as planned and correcting any significant deviations.

What Is Planning?

• Planning

– A primary functional managerial activity that involves: • Defining the organization’s goals • Establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals • Developing a comprehensive set of plans to integrate and coordinate organizational work.

– Types of planning • Informal: not written down, short-term focus; specific to an organizational unit. • Formal: written, specific, and long-term focus, involves shared goals for the organization.

Why Do Managers Plan? • Purposes of Planning – Provides direction – Reduces uncertainty – Minimizes waste and redundancy – Sets the standards for controlling

Planning and Performance • The Relationship Between Planning And Performance – Formal planning is associated with: • Higher profits and returns of assets. • Positive financial results. – The quality of planning and implementation affects performance more than the extent of planning. – The external environment can reduce the impact of planning on performance, – Formal planning must be used for several years before planning begins to affect performance.

How Do Managers Plan? • Elements of Planning – Goals (also Objectives) • Desired outcomes for individuals, groups, or entire organizations • Provide direction and evaluation performance criteria

– Plans • Documents that outline how goals are to be accomplished • Describe how resources are to be allocated and establish activity schedules

Types of Goals • Financial Goals – Are related to the expected internal financial performance of the organization.

• Strategic Goals – Are related to the performance of the firm relative to factors in its external environment (e.g., competitors).

• Stated Goals versus Real Goals – Broadly-worded official statements of the organization (intended for public consumption) that may be irrelevant to its real goals (what actually goes on in the organization).

Types of Plans

Exhibit 1.1

Traditional Objective Setting

Exhibit 7.4

Planning in the Hierarchy of Organizations

Exhibit 7.7

Managers Versus Leaders •

Managers – Are appointed to their position. – Can influence people only to the extent of the formal authority of their position. – Do not necessarily have the skills and capabilities to be leaders.

•

Leaders – Are appointed or emerge from within a work group. – Can influence other people and have managerial authority. – Do not necessarily have the skills and capabilities to be managers.

Leadership is the process of influencing a group toward the achievement of goals.

The Managerial Grid • Managerial Grid – Appraises leadership styles using two dimensions: • Concern for people • Concern for production

– Places managerial styles in five categories: • Impoverished management • Task management • Middle-of-the-road management • Country club management • Team management

The Managerial Grid Source: Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review. An exhibit from “Breakthrough in Organization Development” by Robert R. Blake, Jane S. Mouton, Louis B. Barnes, and Larry E. Greiner, November– December 1964, p. 136. Copyright © 1964 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.

Exhibit 17.3

Cutting-Edge Approaches to Leadership • Transactional Leadership – Leaders who guide or motivate their followers in the direction of established goals by clarifying role and task requirements.

• Transformational Leadership – Leaders who inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organization by clarifying role and task requirements. – Leaders who also are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on their followers.

Cutting Edge Approaches to Leadership (cont’d) • Charismatic Leadership – An enthusiastic, self-confident leader whose personality and actions influence people to behave in certain ways. – Characteristics of charismatic leaders: • Have a vision. • Are able to articulate the vision. • Are willing to take risks to achieve the vision. • Are sensitive to the environment and follower needs. • Exhibit behaviors that are out of the ordinary.

Cutting Edge Approaches to Leadership (cont’d) • Visionary Leadership – A leader who creates and articulates a realistic, credible, and attractive vision of the future that improves upon the present situation. – Visionary leaders have the ability to: • Explain the vision to others. • Express the vision not just verbally but through behavior. • Extend or apply the vision to different leadership contexts.

Cutting Edge Approaches to Leadership (cont’d) • Team Leadership Characteristics – Having patience to share information – Being able to trust others and to give up authority – Understanding when to intervene

• Team Leader’s Job – Managing the team’s external boundary – Facilitating the team process • Coaching, facilitating, handling disciplinary problems, reviewing team and individual performance, training, and communication

Cutting Edge Approaches to Leadership (cont’d) • Team Leadership Roles – Liaison with external constituencies – Troubleshooter – Conflict manager – Coach

Specific Team Leadership Roles

Exhibit 1.2

Beyond Charismatic Leadership • Level 5 Leaders – Possess a fifth dimension—a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will—in addition to the four basic leadership qualities of individual capability, team skills, managerial competence, and the ability to stimulate others to high performance. – Channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the goal of building a great company.

Contemporary Planning Techniques • Scenario – A consistent view of what the future is likely to be.

• Scenario Planning – An attempt not try to predict the future but to reduce uncertainty by playing out potential situations under different specified conditions.

• Contingency Planning – Developing scenarios that allow managers determine in advance what their actions should be should a considered event actually occur.

ORGANIZING  Organizing • The process of arranging people and other

resources to work together to accomplish a goal.

– Organization structure • The system of tasks, workflows, reporting relationships, and communication channels that link together diverse individuals and groups.

Organizing viewed in relationship with the other management functions.

What are the major types of organization structures?  Functional structures – People with similar skills and performing similar tasks are grouped together into formal work units. – Members work in their functional areas of expertise. – Are not limited to businesses. – Work well for small organizations producing few products or services.

What are the new developments in organization structures?  Network structures – A central core that is linked through networks of relationships with outside contractors and suppliers of essential services. – Own only core components and use strategic alliances or outsourcing to provide other components.

What are the major types of organization structures?  Divisional structures – Group together people who work on the same product or process, serve similar customers, and/or are located in the same area or geographical region. – Common in complex organizations. – Avoid problems associated with functional structures.

The boundary less organization eliminates internal and external barriers.

What organizing trends are changing the workplace?  Contemporary organizing trends include: – Shorter chains of command. – Less unity of command. – Wider spans of control. – More delegation and empowerment. – Decentralization with centralization. – Reduced use of staff.

What organizing trends are changing the workplace?  Shorter chains of command – The line of authority that vertically links all persons with successively higher levels of management. – Organizing trend: • Organizations are being “streamlined” by cutting unnecessary levels of management. • Flatter structures are viewed as a competitive advantage.

What organizing trends are changing the workplace?  Less unity of command – Each person in an organization should report to one and only one supervisor. – Organizing trend: • Organizations are using more cross-functional teams, task forces, and horizontal structures. • Organizations are becoming more customer conscious. • Employees often find themselves working for more than one boss.

What organizing trends are changing the workplace?  Wider spans of control – The number of persons directly reporting to a manager. – Organizing trend: • Many organizations are shifting to wider spans of control as levels of management are eliminated. • Managers have responsibility for a larger number of subordinates who operate with less direct supervision.

Spans of control in “flat” versus “tall” structures.

What organizing trends are changing the workplace?  More delegation and empowerment – Delegation is the process of entrusting work to others by giving them the right to make decisions and take action. – The manager assigns responsibility, grants authority to act, and creates accountability. – Authority should be commensurate with responsibility.

What organizing trends are changing the workplace?  Guidelines for effective delegation: – – – – – – – – – – –

Carefully choose the person to whom you delegate. Define the responsibility; make the assignment clear. Agree on performance objectives and standards. Agree on a performance timetable. Give authority; allow the other person to act independently. Show trust in the other person. Provide performance support. Give performance feedback Recognize and reinforce progress. Help when things go wrong. Don’t forget your accountability for performance results.

What organizing trends are changing the workplace?  More delegation and empowerment (cont.) – A common management failure is unwillingness to delegate. – Delegation leads to empowerment. – Organizing trend: • Managers are delegating more and finding more ways to empower people at all levels.

What organizing trends are changing the workplace?  Reduced use of staff – Specialized staff • People who perform a technical service or provide special problem-solving expertise to other parts of the organization.

– Personal staff • People working in “assistant-to” positions that provide special support to higher-level managers.

Recruitment •

• • •

Process of locating, identifying, and attracting capable candidates Can be for current or future needs Critical activity for some corporations. What sources do we use for recruitment

Job Performance, Selection Criteria, and Predictors

Big Five Personality Characteristics

Types of Selection Interviews

What Is Control? • Control – The process of monitoring activities to ensure that they are being accomplished as planned and of correcting any significant deviations.

• The Purpose of Control – To ensure that activities are completed in ways that lead to accomplishment of organizational goals.

Why Is Control Important? • As the final link in management functions: – Planning • Controls let managers know whether their goals and plans are on target and what future actions to take.

– Empowering employees • Control systems provide managers with information and feedback on employee performance.

– Protecting the workplace • Controls enhance physical security and help minimize workplace disruptions.

The Planning–Controlling Link

Exhibit 1.3

The Control Process • The Process of Control 1. Measuring actual performance. 2. Comparing actual performance against a standard. 3. Taking action to correct deviations or inadequate standards.

The Control Process

Exhibit 1.4

Taking Managerial Action • Courses of Action – “Doing nothing” • Only if deviation is judged to be insignificant.

– Correcting actual (current) performance • Immediate corrective action to correct the problem at once. • Basic corrective action to locate and to correct the source of the deviation. • Corrective Actions – Change strategy, structure, compensation scheme, or training programs; redesign jobs; or fire employees

Taking Managerial Action (cont’d) • Courses of Action (cont’d) – Revising the standard • Examining the standard to ascertain whether or not the standard is realistic, fair, and achievable. – Upholding the validity of the standard. – Resetting goals that were initially set too low or too high.

Controlling for Organizational Performance • What Is Performance? – The end result of an activity

• What Is Organizational Performance? – The accumulated end results of all of the organization’s work processes and activities • Designing strategies, work processes, and work activities. • Coordinating the work of employees

Understanding Groups • Group – Two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who come together to achieve particular goals.

– Formal groups • Work groups defined by the organization’s structure that have designated work assignments and tasks. – Appropriate behaviors are defined by and directed toward organizational goals.

– Informal groups • Groups that are independently formed to meet the social needs of their members.

Stages in Group Development • Forming – Members join and begin the process of defining the group’s purpose, structure, and leadership.

• Storming – Intragroup conflict occurs as individuals resist control by the group and disagree over leadership.

• Norming – Close relationships develop as the group becomes cohesive and establishes its norms for acceptable behavior.

• Performing – A fully functional group structure allows the group to focus on performing the task at hand.

• Adjourning – The group prepares to disband and is no longer concerned with high levels of performance.

Stages of Group Development

Exhibit 1.5

Group Structure: Group Size • Small groups – Complete tasks faster than larger groups. – Make more effective use of facts.

• Large groups – Solve problems better than small groups. – Are good for getting diverse input. – Are more effective in factfinding.

• Social Loafing – The tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when work individually.

Group Structure (cont’d) • Group Cohesiveness – The degree to which members are attracted to a group and share the group’s goals. • Highly cohesive groups are more effective and productive than less cohesive groups when their goals aligned with organizational goals.

The Relationship Between Cohesiveness and Productivity

Exhibit 1.6

Techniques for Making More Creative Group Decisions

Exhibit 1.7

Advantages of Using Teams • Teams outperform individuals. • Teams provide a way to better use employee talents. • Teams are more flexible and responsive. • Teams can be quickly assembled, deployed, refocused, and disbanded.

What Is a Team? • Work Team – A group whose members work intensely on a specific common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills.

• Types of Teams – Problem-solving teams – Self-managed work teams – Cross-functional teams – Virtual teams

Types of Teams • Problem-solving Teams – Employees from the same department and functional area who are involved in efforts to improve work activities or to solve specific problems

• Self-managed Work Teams – A formal group of employees who operate without a manager and responsible for a complete work process or segment.

Types of Teams (cont’d) • Cross-functional Teams – A hybrid grouping of individuals who are experts in various specialties and who work together on various tasks.

• Virtual Teams – Teams that use computer technology to link physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal.

Examples of Formal Groups • Command Groups – Groups that are determined by the organization chart and composed of individuals who report directly to a given manager.

• Task Groups – Groups composed of individuals brought together to complete a specific job task; their existence is often temporary because once the task is completed, the group disbands.

Examples of Formal Groups (cont’d) • Cross-functional Teams – Groups that bring together the knowledge and skills of individuals from various work areas or groups whose members have been trained to do each others’ jobs.

• Self-managed Teams – Groups that are essentially independent and in addition to their own tasks, take on traditional responsibilities such as hiring, planning and scheduling, and performance evaluations.

Characteristics of Effective Teams

Exhibit 1.8

Characteristics of Effective Teams • Have a clear understanding of their goals. • Have competent members with relevant technical and interpersonal skills. • Exhibit high mutual trust in the character and integrity of their members.

• Are unified in their commitment to team goals. • Have good communication systems. • Possess effective negotiating skills • Have appropriate leadership • Have both internally and externally supportive environments

Job satisfaction A general attitude toward one’s job, the difference between the amount of reward workers receive and the amount they believe they should receive.