Organizational Culture and Sustainability Quiz

Introduction to Management (Chapter 1)

• Management is the art of getting things done through people.
• Managers coordinate and oversee the work of their subordinates to achieve organizational goals.
• First-line managers coordinate non-managerial employees directly involved in production or service.
• Middle managers are between top managers and first-line managers, translating strategy into action.
• Top managers make broad organizational decisions and establish strategies.
• Organizations are deliberate arrangements of people working towards a shared purpose, including a structure.
• Management involves coordinating and overseeing others to ensure efficient and effective completion of activities.
• Efficiency means getting the most output from the least input (doing things right).
• Effectiveness means doing the right things to achieve a goal (doing the right things).
• Managerial roles are specific actions or behaviors expected of managers.
• Management is universal, necessary in all organizations, regardless of size or type.
• Managers are critical to organizational performance in complex, uncertain times.

What is Management? (Chapter 1)

• Poor management involves poor people skills, lack of safety strategies, poor organization, leadership, communication, control, decisions, motivation and safety culture.
• Managers are responsible for planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
• These functions are not sequential, they overlap and are interdependent.
• Business units are based on market segments.
• Departments are based on functions.
• The Porter's value chain explains activities in companies add immediate value to what is being sold.

Activities in Companies (Chapter 1)

• Skills required by managers include: conceptual (analyzing complex situations), interpersonal (working with groups), technical (job-specific knowledge).
• Stressors for starting managers include bad work-life balance, different relationships with peers, high responsibility, increased workload, and being caught up in the middle.
• Emotional intelligence is crucial for managers (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management).
• Managerial challenges include technology, social media, ethics, and political uncertainty.
• Organizations can improve by dealing with organizational politics.

Important Types of Organizations (Chapter 1)

• Different business models such as small businesses (less structure), nonprofits (less tangible value), and the importance of accountability.

Questions & Answers (Chapter 1)

• Questions and answers related to managerial roles and responsibilities in different business situations are presented.
• Example tasks from the questions include the following situations: If you are quickly painting the wrong wall.
• The basic management functions.
• The management function when describing employees.

Looking Forward Thinking Backward (Chapter 2)

• Classical management theory emphasizes specialization and efficiency, drawing on concepts like division of labor (Adam Smith).

• Scientific management (Frederick Taylor) sought to optimize worker activities to improve productivity through task specialization and standardization.

• General management principles (Henri Fayol) focused on management functions like planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling in larger industrial settings.

• Bureaucracy (Max Weber).

• The behavioral approach emphasized the importance of human relations in organizations.

-Mary Parker Follett: going human by focusing on conflict resolution and collaboration between people.

• Hawthorne Studies (Elton Mayo): highlighted the importance of social relations and factors beyond money/task to motivate employees.

-Chester Barnard: importance of cooperation.

• Contemporary Approaches highlight the need for a contingency approach to management, considering environmental factors and technology (Edwards Deming, Pfeffer and Salancik, and the institutional approach).

• Contingency approach to management is that there is no one set way to do things but different approaches are appropriate for different situations.

• Management theories of various eras reflect the specific developments and challenges.

Mapping External Influences (Chapter 3) and Structuring Organizations (Chapter 11)

• External environment factors like PESTLE (political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental) can profoundly influence organizations.

• Environmental uncertainty is characterized by rates of change and complexity. Stable vs. Dynamic environments.

• General environment factors are beyond company influence; task environment factors are directly influenced

• Factors defining the organizational structure: Centralization: High centralization means concentration of decision making at the top, vs Decentralization: dispersion of decision making. -Formalization: Prescribed way of behavior is used. -Different Organizational Configurations (simple structure, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, divisionalized form, adhocracy).

• Factors determining ethical and unethical behavior in organizations.

• Different types of decisions(structured, unstructured, operational, strategical).

• Decision making models (rational, bounded rationalitity, heuristics,cognitive biases).

Effective Strategies (Chapter 9) in Organizational Settings.

• An organization's strategy is the integrated plan for competing; including arenas for competition, vehicles for competition, staging for competition, economic logic for competition and differentiation
• Different levels of strategy include corporate strategy (how a large company makes its goals), Business Unit level strategy (how a business unit within the larger organization makes its goals).

Managing Sustainably (Chapter 6)

• Corporate Social Responsibility is a holistic concept where business activities interrelate with ecosystems and stakeholders, for achieving goals both economically viable and stakeholder friendly with planetary boundaries.
• Identifying Stakeholder salience is contingent upon type of organization, external environment.
• Engaging/handling stakeholders to achieve a company's mission- includes a stakeholder engagement process.

Managing Ethically (Chapter 6)

• Business ethics deals with the fundamental beliefs about what is right and wrong in business.
• Ethical dilemmas can involve conflict, choices between conflicting values, and difficult situations.
• Understanding ethical decision making criteria (Utilitarian—what is best for the most, Moral rights—respect for fundamental rights, Justice—fairness and impartiality).
• Identify individuals, and stakeholders interest. Ethical behaviour is contingent upon the decision making process and its structure.

Internationalization (Chapter 4)

• Internationalization strategies that use economic logic are Cost saving, Market expansion, Cultural differences, and Government practices).
• Understand the Cage Framework.
• Understanding different Types of Organizational Structure.
• Understanding different forms of International Entry strategies.

Leadership (Chapter 17)

• Leadership is a process of influencing individuals or groups to achieve goals.
• Leadership is about influencing people, vs. management which is about compliance
• Effective leaders possess multiple leadership styles, considering contingency models.
• Early leadership theories like trait theories, and implicit leadership theory. Contemporary theories like LMX, Path Goal, and Situational Leadership.
• Various leadership styles (autocratic, laissez-faire, democratic, Achievement oriented, Country club, Task oriented).