Management Functions and Levels Quiz

Study Notes

Management is the process of coordinating activities to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively.
Key functions include Planning & Decision Making, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling.

Top managers set overall direction, strategies, and make high-level decisions.
Middle managers oversee specific departments or regions, implement strategies, and supervise lower-level managers.
First-line managers supervise day-to-day operations and employees.

Technical skills are specific abilities related to a particular field.
Interpersonal skills involve communication, understanding, and motivation.
Conceptual skills involve understanding how different parts of an organization work together.
Diagnostic skills are for identifying and solving problems
Communication is for conveying ideas and feedback effectively.
Decision-making evaluates problems and selects the best course of action.
Time management prioritizes tasks, works efficiently, and delegates work effectively.

These approaches emphasize the importance of employee feelings, behavior, and motivation in the workplace.
Early figures like Munsterberg and Follet studied employee psychology and teamwork.
The Hawthorne studies showed that worker performance improves when workers feel valued.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs and McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y are fundamental ideas, with Theory Y suggesting that workers are naturally motivated.

Management science creates mathematical models to solve complex business problems
Operations management improves efficiency in production and services, often through techniques like linear programming.
Examples include FedEx using models to calculate efficient delivery routes.

Developed by Taylor, this approach involves improving individual worker efficiency using scientific methods.
Key principles include standardization of tasks, training for efficiency and worker supervision.
Examples include assembly lines and time-and-motion studies.

Planning is determining the best course of action to achieve goals.
It involves understanding the organization's mission, analyzing internal and external environments, and making informed decisions.
Types of planning include Strategic (long-term), Tactical (shorter-term) and Operational (day-to-day).

Key components include customers, suppliers, competitors, and regulators.
These factors directly impact an organization's ability to obtain resources, achieve goals, and compete.

Includes economic conditions (growth, inflation), technological advances, political and legal factors (regulations).
These broader factors can have significant impact on organizations.

Key factors include owners, board of directors, employees, and physical work environment.
This is often affected by the company's resources, policies, and structure.

Recognizing the situation, identifying and evaluating alternative solutions, selecting the best alternative, implementation and feedback.
Steps include identifying alternatives, evaluating alternatives based on feasibility, selecting the best alternative and evaluating the results.

Programmed decisions are routine and follow established procedures.
Non-programmed decisions handle unique, complex situations.
Examples of programmed decisions are regular purchasing and employee training procedures.
Examples of non-programmed decisions include new product launches or mergers.

Forecasting aims to predict future outcomes, while break-even analysis determines the point of profitability.
Uses data to make informed decisions, but limitations include assumptions about consistency and stability.

Focuses on data-driven insights and facts to inform decisions, which are often less influenced by personal biases.
Quantitative methods such as surveys and performance metrics are commonly employed in DBDM.

The framework that defines roles, responsibilities, reporting lines, and authority within an organization.
Common structures include functional, divisional, conglomerate, and matrix.
Structure is tied to factors such as size, strategy, environment and available technology.

Decentralization distributes decision-making authority to lower levels to increase speed and flexibility.
Centralization keeps decision-making authority at higher organizational levels to maintain consistency.
Each has pros and cons.

Tall organizations have multiple management levels, often characterized by close supervision and more control.
Flat organizations have few management levels, fostering faster decision-making but potentially lacking sufficient oversight.

Mechanistic organizations are structured for stability and efficiency through a strong hierarchy.
Organic organizations are flexible and adaptable, typically operating in more dynamic environments.