The Management Process

Chapter 1: The Management Process

• Recognize the challenges of working in the new economy to describe the nature of organizations as work settings.
• A manager’s functions, roles, and activities and explain how essential managerial skills are identified and learnt.

Working Today

• People and their talents serve as the foundations of organizational performance.
• The collective brainpower and shared knowledge of a workforce is defined as its intellectual capital (IC).
• IC can exist as a personal asset that must be nurtured.
• A package of intellect, skills, and capabilities sets individuals apart, adding value to potential employers.
• A knowledge worker's mind becomes a critical asset to employers, contributing to the IC of an organization.
• Intellectually Competency = Intellectual Capital.
• Tech IQ (Technology Intelligence Quotient) refers to a person's ability to use technology.
• Checking inventory, making sales transactions, and ordering supplies are examples of Tech IQ.
• Globalization is the worldwide interdependence of resource flows, product markets, and business competition characterizing our economy.
• Code of moral principles sets standards of conduct for what's considered "good" and "right" in a person's behavior is termed Ethics.
• Ethical expectations of modern businesses are ethical leadership, integrity, social responsibility and sustainability.
• Board of directors oversee top management's duty for managing organizational performance.
• Workforce diversity captures differences based on gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and physical abilities.
• Workforce diversity presents both challenges and opportunities for employers.
• Diversity bias can manifest as prejudice (negative attitudes), discrimination (unfair treatment), and the glass ceiling effect (invisible barrier).
• Diversity is a moral plus an opportunity for performance gains.
• Online resumes/CVs and job searches are common practices in career and connection.
• Job seekers focus on the internship as a pathway to a first job.
• Most recruiters ask, "What can you do for us?", suggesting a greater demand for skills than degrees.
• "Shamrock Organization" contain three types of workers: core, freelance, and flexible.
• Core workers are permanent, full-time employees whose numbers are decreasing.
• Freelancers are independent contractors providing specialized skills and talents on a contract basis, switching employers often.
• Temporary part-timers are flexible workers who lack benefits and often face job loss during economic crises.
• Free agents are people who work independently for themselves, rather than for a single employer, new workstyle, coined in 1997, Daniel Pink.
• The free-agent economy is comprised of self-employed workers, freelancers, independent contractors, and temporary workers representing ~44% of the U.S. labor force.
• Early Career Survival Skills are critical skills in the workplace, examples are mastery, networking, entrepreneurship, technology, marketing, and renewal.
• Networking involves establishing connections for support and advancement.
• Self-management involves understanding oneself and taking initiative.

Understanding Organizations

• Defined as a group of people working together for a common purpose.
• Organizations provide useful goods or services that offers value to society and meet customer needs.
• IBM's former CEO, Samuel Palmisano defines an effective organization by making the world different by its existence.
• Organizations as open systems interact with their environment to transform resources into outputs.
• Organizations utilize resources and information necessary for supplies, and the organizational system gets work done.
• Organizations use labor and expertise resources into the finished product.
• The Environment supplies resources inputs and transforms them into product outputs.
• Value creation is the creation for an organization.
• Value is created when an organization's operations increase the cost of resource inputs.
• The company's value creation leads to profits and nonprofit wealth gains to society.
• The formula is Earnings = Value Added – Cost Incurred.
• Productivity measures the work of quantity, quality, and use of resources.
• It has to be effective but not efficient, neither effective nor efficient and not effective but efficient.
• Effective means that no resource is wasted and the goals are achieved.
• Trends in businesses include increased reliance on human capital, reduced command-and-control, emphasis on teamwork, and advancement in technology.
• Valuing human capital is crucial in management, as people are not merely cost factors to be controlled.
• High-performing organizations understand the importance of valuable strategic assets.

Managers

• Managers are made, not born.
• Managers support and activate people responsible for getting others to work.
• Managers enable others to achieve satisfaction and high performance.
• HR emphasizes people, not costs to be controlled.

Levels of Management

• The board of directors ensures that the organization is being managed effectibely.
• The top managers are responsible for performance of the organization.
• Middle managers manage divisions and departments.
• First-line managers and team leaders supervise direct workers.

Types of Managers

• Line managers are responsible for work outputs that directly affect the results.
• Staff managers use their expertise to advise line workers.
• Functional managers manage a single area of business.
• General managers manage complex units with many areas of business.
• Administrators work in public and nonprofit organizations.

Managerial Performance

• Accountability, the requirement to show performance results to a supervisor, becomes key.
• High-performing organizations treat people as valuable strategic assets and promote a high quality of work life.
• Boards of directors establish corporate governance by holding top management accountable.
• All the managers are effective and maintain life quality for all workers.
• An upside-down pyramid has customers at the top and top managers at the bottom.

The Management Process

• Management includes planning, organizing, leading, and controlling
• Setting objectives and mapping the actions required is planning.
• Tasks are assigned and resources are allocated is organizing.
• People work hard and their efforts are directed in leading.
• Measuring work of performance is what is controlled.

Mintzberg’s 10 Managerial Roles

• Interpersonal roles deal with people and include being a figurehead, leader, and liaison.
• Informational roles require the process information and include being the monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson.
• Decisional roles use information in decision-making, including entrepreneurship, disturbance handling, resource allocation, and negotiation.
• Managerial work is characterized by long hours, intense pace, fragmented tasks, many communication channels, and interpersonal relationships.

Managerial Agendas

• Prioritie action plans for success.
• Positive relationships (PR) support agendas.
• Social capital allows support and help from others.
• Experience gives learning.
• Continual improvement comes from learning daily and lifelong learning.

Essential Managerial Skills

• Conceptual, analytical skills for problem-solving at the top level.
• Human skills for cooperation and emotional intelligence at the middle level.
• Technical skills for expertise in specific tasks at the lower level.