Entrepreneurial Management Chapter 4

Management and Leadership

• Management is the process of developing and allocating resources to achieve organizational goals.
• Managers are responsible for developing and implementing management plans to achieve organizational goals.
• The four functions of management include:
  • Expecting problems or opportunities and designing plans to deal with them
  • Coordinating and allocating resources needed to implement plans
  • Guiding personnel through implementation
  • Reviewing results and making necessary changes

Planning

• Planning involves expecting potential problems or opportunities and designing plans to deal with them
• There are four basic types of planning:
  • Strategic planning (1-5 years): Top management, broad and general, long-term goals
  • Tactical planning (less than 1 year): Middle management, mid-range goals
  • Operational planning (current): Supervisory management, implementing specific goals
  • Contingency planning (urgent): Top and middle management, meeting challenges and opportunities

Management Levels

• Top management: Highest level, consists of president and key company executives who develop strategic plans
• Middle management: Includes general managers, division managers, and branch and plant managers who are responsible for tactical planning and controlling
• Supervisory management: Those directly responsible for supervising workers and evaluating daily performance

Controlling and Solving Problems

• Controlling involves assessing the organization's progress toward achieving its goals and making corrections
• Managers take the following steps to solve problems:
  • Identify the problem
  • Analyze the problem
  • Develop alternative solutions
  • Choose a solution
  • Implement the solution
  • Evaluate the solution

Managerial Skills

• Conceptual skills: Ability to picture the organization as a whole and the relationship among its various parts
• Human relations skills: Ability to communicate and motivate, enabling managers to work through and with people
• Technical skills: Ability to perform tasks in a specific discipline or department

Trends in Management

• Four important trends in management today are:
  • Crisis management
  • Outside directors
  • The growing use of information technology
  • The increasing need for global management skills

Organization

• An organization is a deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish a specific purpose that individuals cannot accomplish alone
• Common characteristics of organizations include:
  • Having a distinct purpose (goal)
  • Being composed of people
  • Having a deliberate structure

Staffing

• Staffing involves recruiting, hiring, motivating, and retaining the best people to accomplish the company's objectives
• Recruiting good employees is critical, and many people are not willing to work at companies unless they are treated well with fair pay

Leadership

• Leaders must:
  • Communicate a vision and gather others around that vision
  • Establish corporate values
  • Promote corporate ethics
  • Control change