Management Principles Quiz

Fundamentals of Management

• Organizations are groups of people working together to achieve a set of goals.
• A goal is a desired future condition that the organization strives to achieve.
• Management is the process of using organizational resources (human, financial, physical, and informational) to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively. This involves planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
• Management activities include planning, decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling the resources (human, financial, physical, and informational).
• Technical efficiency is output quantity divided by input quantity.
• Effectiveness measures the appropriateness of chosen goals and the degree to which they are met. It is getting the right product to the right person at a reasonable cost.

Organizational Performance

• Efficiency is a measure of how well resources are used to achieve a goal (maximizing productivity by utilizing scarce resources).
• Effectiveness measures the suitability of the goals chosen (providing the right product for the right person efficiently) and the extent to which these goals are achieved.
• Organizational performance tracks how efficiently and effectively managers use resources to satisfy customers and achieve organizational goals.

Who Are Managers?

• A manager is a person whose primary responsibility is to carry out the management process including planning, decision making, organizing, leading, and controlling human, financial, physical, and informational resources.
• Effective managers have a strong sense of responsibility, belonging, and accountability.
• Managers who take initiative and efficiently combine factors of production are effective leaders.

Becoming a Manager: Education and Experience

• Initial job experience through a variety of job assignments is important for becoming a manager.
• Successful acquisition and effective utilization of basic management skills are crucial.
• Sound formal education and ongoing life-long education help manage complexity.

Significance of Management

• Effective coordination of resources is vital for organizational success.
• Management impacts the economic, social, and political goals of a country.
• The management process is essential for utilizing scarce resources effectively and appropriately.
• Organizational effectiveness and efficiency heavily depend on the proper management system.

Managerial Functions

• Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are the basic managerial functions.
• Planning involves developing a systematic process to reach organizational goals.
• Organizing involves arranging resources like personnel and supplies to carry out a plan.
• Leading involves guiding, motivating, and directing employees.
• Controlling involves monitoring performance and correcting deviations from plans.

Four Functions of Management

• Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are interconnected.
• Planning sets organizational goals, deciding how to achieve them.
• Organizing structures relationships between workers and resources (to work together).
• Leading motivates workers to act in best interests of the organization.
• Controlling ensures that plans are implemented correctly and that goals are met.

Planning

• Planning involves identifying goals and courses of action.
• Planning comprises the steps of determining goals, how to reach them, and how to assign resources.
• Key steps in planning include defining a problem, generating alternatives, evaluating alternatives, selecting the best alternative, implementing the plan, and evaluating and controlling the results.

Types of Plans

• Single-use plans are designed for one-time events (e.g. project, program).
• Standing plans are for repeated or continuous activities (e.g. policies, procedures, rules).
• Long-range plans cover a 5-10 year future.
• Short-range plans target the near future.

Managerial Roles and Skills

• Ten roles are identified that managers fulfill in organizations: interpersonal, informational, and decisional.
• Managerial roles include figurehead, leader, liaison, monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.
• Managers require conceptual, human, and technical skills. Conceptual skills involve problem-solving and strategic thinking, human skills involve understanding and motivating people, and technical skills involve expertise in a specific field.

Leadership

• Leadership influences employees to meet organizational objectives..
• Effective leadership style varies with the situation.
• Situational leadership emphasizes adapting leadership style based on the specific situation that may include factors like member relationships, task structure, or leader's position power.
• Leadership theories include trait theory, behavioral theory, contingency theory, and transactional and transformational approaches.

Motivation

• Motivation is the internal drive to pursue and meet needs.
• Motivational theories include Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory (Hygiene factors and motivators), McClelland's Learned Needs (achievement, power, affiliation), and Alderfer's ERG Theory (existence, relatedness, growth).
• Management theories focus more on how the manager should influence the employees.

The Controlling Function

• Controlling is crucial to evaluating how effectively plans are implemented and bringing results up to expectations.
• Controlling involves identifying standards, measuring performance, comparing results to standards, and taking corrective actions.
• Different types of controls can be applied at various points in the process (feed-forward, concurrent, feedback).
• Controlling uses financial, operational and qualitative techniques to ensure goals are met.

Decision-Making

• Managers constantly decide on goals and methods for getting work done.
• Decisions can be classified as programmed (recurring tasks) or non-programmed (unique circumstances.)
• Rational decision-making involves steps like defining the problem, collecting information, generating alternatives, analysing alternatives, selecting the best alternative, implementing the plan, and following up on results.