Académique Documents
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COURSE DESCRIPTION
An introduction to the concepts of effective management in organizational settings
from individual and macro- systems perspectives. Primary emphasis includes the
organizational process for effectiveness (Planning, Organizing, Leading/Directing and
Controlling the nature of individual and group behaviour and the role of management
in facilitating a naturally satisfying fit between employee and organizational
requirements.
COURSEOBJECTIVES:
The course is designed to achieve the following objectives:
1. Define what management is.
2. Discuss challenges faced by managers in the operations of their organizations.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the nature and functions of managerial work.
4. Show analytical decision making skills that leads to organizational success.
5. Apply Christian principles to managerial tasks and functions.
COURSE CONTENT:
Defining the managers terrain:
1. Introduction to management and the environment
- Management history
- Managers and their environment
- Social responsibility and managerial ethics
2. Managing work and organizations:
- Managers as decision makers
- Foundations of planning
- Strategic planning
- Organizing
3. Managing people in organizations:
- Motivation
- Leading people in organizations
- coordination
- Communication and negotiation
- controlling
- Change and development
- Human resource management
- Managing work groups
4. Managing production and operations:
- Production and operations management
- Production and inventory planning control
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75
60
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89
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INTRODUCTIONTOMANAGEMENT
The position of a manager is one of the most sought after in todays business
environment. Why? Because a manager is a man in charge and all of us want to
be in a position of authority. The manager is entrusted with making decisions
that ensure the continued survival of the organization. Yet as a manager when
the organization fails to meet its standards, it goes without a say that it is
typically the managers head that is put on the block.
DEFINITION:
If we are to define management, you will realize that there are many definitions
of management as are the books on the subject. The context of the definition is
undertaken from which the functions take place.
For example, an
organisation is a unit within which managers undertake their activities,
is a structured group of people brought together for a specific purpose
to achieve certain objective(s).
Some of the definitions may be as follows:
-
WHAT IS MANAGEMENT?
It is a process that involves coordinating and overseeing the activities of
others so that the activities of the organization are completed efficiently,
and effectively.
- Efficiencyrefers to getting the most output from the least amount of inputs.
This is because managers deals with scarce inputs, and resources. It is often
referred as doing things right.Eg. Reducing inventory levels or efficient
manufacturing techniques.
- Efficiency (means) Resource usage, and low waste. For example, a situation
when outputs measure up to inputs.
-
Effectiveness (ends) Goal attainment, High attainment. Ie choosing the right goals,
or doing the right things. Eg. Producing goods that have no market is ineffective.
Thus effectiveness must come before efficiency, for efficiency without the right goals
will not serve any purpose.
Peter Drucker identifies effectiveness as the key to managerial success.
Management strives for low resource waste, which means high efficiency, high goal
attainment ie high effectiveness.
The management guroos like Peter Drucker believes that the work of management is
to make people productive. In other words, to regain the competitive edge
as an organization, society must have managerial competence.
Also, note that management, its competence, its integrity and its performance are
important elements in the success of every entity be it current or in the future.
Good management also involves treating people decently and asking them
to share and produce things that are meaningful. Management involves
shaping values and reinforcing evangelism in the organization.
A good manager is one who has the ability to inspire people, make people
productive. It requires techniques, knowledge, and understanding of every single
activity that takes place in the environment in which he/she is operating from.
Why study management?
reasons:
Note that managers have specific ways of doing business. (if you do not have a
specific definition, any road could take you anywhere.)
MANAGERIALROLES:
Refers to, specific actions, or behaviours expected of a manager.People play different
roles at different places eg. student, teacher, accountant, mother, father, role, etc.
There are three categories of roles:
1. Interpersonalrole: involves people and other duties that are ceremonial and
symbolic in nature. Eg; figurehead as a figure, the manager performs certain
ceremonial roles which are of a legal nature. Weddings, cutting ceremonies as
well as taking customers to lunch.
Leader, managers are accountable for the
actions of their subordinates as well as their own. They need to show
subordinates how to perform under pressure, what hours they should work,
promoting, etc. Liaison. In this role managers must learn to deal with everyone
both within and outside the organization who can help them achieve the goals.
Ie this role necessitates establishing anetwork of contacts and creating
obligations among the people with whom the manager interacts. In this
instance, the manager also acts as a contact person and his activities include
those of writing correspondence, replying to customer enquiries.
2. Informationalroles:
involves collecting, receiving and disseminating
information eg. Monitoring: Managers must constantly and actively seeking
for information from both inside and outside the organisation, that may be
useful to the organisation. They also ask subordinates for information where the
subordinates are more informed. Where possible they obtain information from
unsolicited sources. It is because of this role thatmanager are considered to be
the most informed people within organizations. Disseminator: in this role the
manager is responsible for distributing important information to subordinates.
The manager has to make sure that subordinates get all the information
possible to ensure that they carry out their duties efficiently and effectively.
Spokesperson: Managers are responsible for transforming information to the
outside world. Ie he becomes the organizations representative in the eyes of
the outside world.
3. Decisionalroles: involves making decisions or choices. The following are the
four decisional roles: - entrepreneurship; managers try to improve the
performance of their sub-units as if they are the actual entrepreneurs. Eg.
Situations when the manager makes decisions that will maximise shareholders
wealth and add value to the organisation. Ie managers have to act in the best
interests of the providers of capital. Disturbancehandler; in this role the
manager is expected to take care of sticky situations. Ie coming up with
solutions to difficult situations. This role requires both analytical and conceptual
skills. Resourceallocator; It is a role that is concerned with the allocation of
resources among the organizational members. Negotiator; Managers spend a
lot of Their time kbargaining for a better deal for their sub units or for the
organisation as a whole. Eg. Bargaining with workers for salary increases, or
with suppliers for cheaper materials, etc. This skill requires the application of
various managerial skills such as interpersonal, diagnostic, technical, etc.
In these roles managers do both reflecting (thinking) and action (doing).
Note that, these roles are performed in every organization and thus to perform these
roles may require certain skills.
MANAGERIALSKILLS
These can be grouped as;
1. Technicalskills; these are necessary to accomplish specialised activities. They
incorporate the ability to use procedures, techniques and knowledge of a
specialised field. First line managers have to possess technical skills as they
are responsible for the day to day running of the organization. It requires
knowledge of procedures, techniques and skills in their specific areas of
responsibility.
2. Interpersonalskills: Can also be called human skills. 1stline managers are
expected to have the ability to work with, understand and motivate other
people. Interpersonal skills could be linked to Henry Mintzbergs managerial
roles
3. Conceptualskills: It is the ability to co-ordinate and integrate all of the
organisations interests and activities. It entails the ability to see the
organization as a whole, understanding how its components parts inter relate
and anticipate how a change in one affect the whole. Those with high levels
conceptual skills have the mental capacity of understanding various cause and
effect relationships in the organization and to view the organization in a
holistic manner. Conceptual skills are especially important at the higher levels
of management.
4. Diagnosticskills: This involves problem solving. Diagnosing problems from
their symptoms. Eg. Causes of high turnover. Diagnostic skills are important at
all levels but especially at the operational and tactical levels.
5. Analytical skills.These complement diagnostic skills. They entail the ability to
identify the key variables in a particular situation, see how they interrelate and
decide which ones should receive the most attention. They enable the manager
to determine the best possible strategies and select the most appropriate one
for a particular situation.
There are two main
pastexperience.
sources
of
managerial
skills,
namely,
education
and
Education: Can still be updated even after formal education through seminars,
symposia, conferences and other media such as the internet.
Experience: Managerial skills must be learnt through direct practical experience. For
instance, trainee managers from colleges and universities are developed through
management development programmes. The programmes incorporate various hands
on tasks and work related activities.
Most effective managers learn their skills through a combination of education and
experience.
In summary, the work of management involves three interrelated tasks;
-
THEEVOLUTIONOFMANAGEMENT
Management like any other subject has benefited immensely from practising
managers and academics. The proponents of management theories have contributed
towards theories in the subject which have had a bearing on the predictability of the
actions of management.
THECLASSICALMANAGEMENTTHEORIES
These were the first studies of management which emphasized rationality and making
both organizations and workers as efficient as possible. An immediate characteristic
of these is that they were advocated by practising managers who wrote books and
other management articles based on their managerial experiences. The classical
theories are also characterised by the fact that they were developed during the times
of mass production and the great revolution. During this period, the managers
immediate worry was productivity and the only aspect of the workers interests that
was addressed was one of their remuneration. Most classical theorists believed
that workers were primarily motivated by economic gain. This assumption
about man came to be known as theeconomicmanconcept
or
therationaleconomicmanconcept.
The classical theories can be summarized into three categories as follows:
1. TheScientificManagementTheory: pioneered by Frederick Winslow Taylor and
it sought to scientifically determine the best methods of performing a task
and for selecting training and motivating workers. He believed in the
scientific determination of the best man machine combination. There are four
main contributions from Taylors guidelines:
- The development of a true science of management so that best methods for
performing each task could be determined.
- The selection of workers on a scientific basis, so that each would be given
responsibility for the task for which he is best suited.
- The scientific education and development of the worker.
- Intimate, friendly co-operation between management and labour.
Note that the success of these principles required a complete mental revolution on the
part of management and labour. Iemanagement and labour had a common
THECONTEMPORARYAPPROACH
Under this approach we have the Systems Approach which offers more insights into
management. It views the management process as a system.
The systems approach to management:
This is away of thinking about management problems. It views organization as a
group of interrelated parts with a single purpose. Actions of one part influences the
others, managers cannot deal separately with individual parts.
A system, is a set of interrelated and interdependent parts arranged in a manner
that produces a unified whole. The organization is viewed as a system consisting of
inputs from the environment in the form of material, and financial inputs. For instance:
THESYSTEMSVIEWOFMANAGEMENT
INPUTS FROM THE
ENVIRONMENT
-Financial resources
- Physical resources
- Human resources
Information
resources
TRANSFORMATION
OR PROCESSING OF
INPUTS
Manufacturing systems
like; technology and
other expertise.
OUTPUTS TO THE
ENVIRONMENT.
Products, services, Job
opportunities, Wealth,
profits,
and
information.
The
management
process:
Planning
Organizing
Leading
Controlling
This shows that, the activities of each of the components of a system (ie subsystems),
has an effect on the activities of the other components. Managers therefore have to
view the organization as an open systemie a system that interacts with the
environment and have to communicate with other employees, departments as well as
representatives of other organizations.
An organization is contrasted with a closed system;, which refers to a system that is
closed from the environment or does not interact with the environment.
The other important concept evolving from systems theory is synergy, which takes
place when the combined output of the sub units working for a common purpose is
greater than the sum total of the individual component parts.
Major contribution of the systems approach:
The weakness is that it may not offer conclusive insights into the best managerial
practice but generalizes because it is an evolving field of study. It seems to be
generalizing management practices owing to its failure to prescribe clear guidelines or
solutions on managerial practice.
THE CONTINGENCY APPROACH:can also be called the situation approach.
It is an approach that realizes that there is no one best method to management.
Managers may manage according to the situation at hand. It has some similarities
with the systems approach in that it also focuses on the relationship between
subsystems and on identifying factors that are crucial to a particular task. In this
approach, universal solutions and principles cannot be applied to social systems such
as organisations, hence the best solution depends on the situation. Ie management
has to look at each situation on its own merits rather than offer blanket solutions.
Some contingency variables are such as;
-
Main contribution:
- It is viewed as the leading branch in management thought, meaning that it entails
elements of all the other schools and the choice of a technique is based on the best
available option.
- It prepares managers for the unanticipated problems relating to the application of
other management techniques.
- It also has a pragmatic bias.
- It has found widespread use in strategic planning where management have no
information about the future and have to rely on assumptions.
- In making assumptions, management first have to identify the situational variables
influencing a particular problem or opportunity.
SUMMARYOFSCHOOLOFMANAGERIALTHOUGHT
Classical Management Behavioural
Theory
Management
- Scientific
Theory
management
- Human
- Bureaucratic
relations
Management
movement
- Administrativ
- The
e
behavioura
management
l science
school
The current concerns
Current concerns
is for efficiency and
for organizational
Quantitative
management theory
- Quantitative
management
theory
- Operations
management
- Management
information
systems
Current concern for
management science
productivity
behaviour
models
The systems
theory
Contingency
Theory
Leads to
Effective
Management
THEORGANIZATIONALCULTUREANDENVIRONMENT
Organizationalculturereferstothesharedvalues,principles,
traditionsandwaysofdoingthingsthatinfluencethewaytheorganizationmembersdothings
.
Thesharedvaluesinmostorganizationsrevolveovertime.
Thedefinitionofcultureimpliesthreethings:
1. Perception;
thatis
somethingthatcannotbetouched
or
seenbutitisperceivedbasedontheexperienceonehaswiththeorganization.
2. Descriptive: it is based on how members perceive the culture and
not with whether they like it or not.
3. Shared: it is a shared aspect of culture even though individuals
may have different organizational levels.
According to Coutler M. (2009:62), there are seven dimensions of culture and each of
these dimensions ranges from law to high;
1. Stability: ie the degreeto which the organizations decisions and actions
emphasize the maintenance of the status quo. Ie culture must be stable.
2. Aggressiveness:
The degree to which employees are aggressive and
competes rather than cooperative. Ie workers must be competitive enough if
they are not then must leave the organization.
3. Team work: The degree to which work is organized around teams rather than
individualsIe the organization must be perceived as our and not as
myoryour..
4. People orientation: ie how management decisions take into account the
effects on people in the organization. Ie valuing the employees, because they
are the life blood of the organization.
5. Outcome orientation: This is when management focuses on outcomes rather
than on how these outcomes are achieved. Ie what are the end results? Eg
effectiveness and efficiency.
6. Attention to detail:The degree to which employees are expected to exhibit
precision, analysis and attention to detail. For-instance; how careful is the
worker in his performance or job.
7. Innovation and risk taking: the degree to which employees are encouraged
to be innovative and to take risk. This shows that most organizations prefer
people who are creative and risk avers.
Note, that strong cultures are those organizations whose key values influence and
are deeply held and widely shared. They have greater influence on employees.
Eg. Seventh - Day Adventist schools and the Catholic schools.
Characteristicsofstrongcultures:
-
Characteristicsofweakcultures:
-
The more employees accept the organizations key values, the greater is their
commitment to those values, the stronger the culture. Also, note that the stronger
the culture is, the more it affects the way managers plan, organize, lead, and control.
Advantagesofstrongcultures:
-
The main disadvantage is that it prevents employees from trying other approaches
especially when conditions are rapidly changing.
Wheredoesculturecomefrom?
1.
In planning, the degree of risk that plans should contain. Whether plans
should be developed by teams or individuals. And the degree of environment
scanning in which management will be engaged.
In organizing, how much autonomy should be designed into employees job.
Whether tasks should be done by individuals or teams, and the degree to
which department managers interact with each other.
In leading, the degree to which managers are concerned with increasing
employees job satisfaction. What leadership styles are appropriate. Whether
all disagreements even constructive ones should be eliminated.
In controlling whether to impose extra controls or not to allow employees to
control their own activities. And knowing what criteria to be emphasized in
employee performance evaluations. As well as knowing what repercussions
may occur from exceeding ones budget.
Creating a culture that supports diversity: may involve, having a workforce that
is heterogeneous in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, age and other characters that
reflect differences.Ie cultures must accept and promote diverse views. Diversity
contributes to more creative solutions and enhances employee moral.
Spirituality and organizational culture:
-
A change in any of these internal environmental factors may influence the managers
ability to undertake his functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling. It
may also affect the managers decision making capacity.eg the changes in
responsibilities and/or authority. In other words, the managers approach in
dealing with the external environment largely depends on the internal
environmental considerations that he or she may be experiencing.
THEEXTERNALENVIRONMENT
These are factors and forces outside the organization that affect the organizations
performance. It includes the specific environment and the general environment.
The specific environments include the external forces that directly impact managers
decisions and the actions are directly relevant to the achievement of the
organizations goals. goals could be in the same industry but their specific
environment may be different because they operate in distinctly different market
niches. The main forces that make up the specific environment are:
1. Theeconomicenvironment: This is one of the most important factors that the
manager needs to be on the look-out for instance; the changes in Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). It has implications on demand in the long term,
hence, it influences sales. Changes in demand patterns for the firms products,
changes in disposable income levels. Understanding the economic environment
helps the organization to understand the customers predicaments in times of
depressions.
Note that regional or national economic measures include:
- The rate of inflation
- The rate of unemployment
- The interest rates and availability of credit
- The balance of trade and foreign exchange rates
- The tax levels and incentives
- The government subsidies
- The public expenditure
- The existence of any protectionist measures among countries which tends to
restrict trade between them
- Freedom of capital movements
- Existence of any trade agreements or trade embargoes
- The economic trends for example nature of industry.
2. Thelegalenvironment: these are the framework of laws eg the law of contract
and unfair selling practices and other legislation pertaining to:
This shows that the manager is not free to behave anyhow in the execution of his
functions but has to adhere to various laws and standards. Failure to respond to legal
environmental consideration may lead an organizations being liable for fines in
respect of breach of contract or failure to observe the laws of the land.
3. The political environment: It mainly refers to government policy and how it
influences legislation on pricing, dividends, tax health and safety, etc. for
example the trade agreements like COMESA, SADC, etc. In evaluating the
political environment, the manager needs to ascertain the impact of political
change, the influence of political change, the consequences of the political
change as well as the likelihood of the political change taking place.
4. The social demographic and cultural environment; Organizations must
adapt their practices to the changing expectations of the society in which they
operate eg workers seek a balanced life, organizations then must adjust by
offering family leave policies, flexible work hours or even on-site child care
facilities. Cultural changes may include religious changes, corporate cultural
changes, class changes etc. Demographic changes include age, education,
gender, income family composition and geographical locations that may affect
the managers functions.
Socialfactorshavesevereimplicationsontheorganizationscorporateimageoridentit
y
in
theeyesofthesocietyotherwise,theorganizationmayendupbeingviewednegative. In other words, the
manager experiences a more culturally diverse workforce today than in
the olden days.
5. The technological environment: it is characterized by rapid changes and the
organization must adapt constantly. It has effects on types of products that a
firm can produce, the way the products are made, the way services are
provided, the way markets are identified, the cost and quality of products.
Creativity innovation leading to the development of new products/services.
Even students should endeavour to keep abreast with technological
developments and get to learn to se new packages or technologies on the
market, eg the internet, networking and the communication flexibility.
6. The ecological environment: this environment has become more popular
with the publicity of the ozone layers depletion, pollution global warming and
other related issues. There is increasing emphasis on production systems that
minimises negative environmental consequences.
Failure to comply with legislation on environment may result in being fined and
at times lobbyists may influence customers not to buy the company products.
7. The competitive environment: organizations cannot avoid competition in
their operations. They offer more or less the same product for the same market.
Information has to be estimated on the resent market share of the organization,
the market share of the competitors, the likely attitudes/responses of
competitors. It may also be necessary to assess the strategies being pursued
by the competitors.
Some of the direct forces which have a direct bearing are such as:
-
SOCIALRESPONSIBILITYANDMANAGERIALETHICS
The concept of social responsibility can be described in various ways , for example,
profit making or going beyond profit making, improving social or environmental
conditions, etc. Social responsibility has two elements:
1. Socialobligation: referring to a firm engaging to a social action because of its
obligation to meet certain economic and legal responsibilities. That means the
organization does what it is obligated to do and nothing more.
This view reflects the classical view of social responsibility which says that
management is only socially responsible to maximize profits. Ie the
primaryresponsibility is to operate the business in the best interest of
the stake holders, whose primary concerns are financial. This simply means
that when management spend money or organizational resources for
social good, then, they must add to the costs of doing business and
this cost must be passed on to the consumers, thus maximizing on
profits. It also reflects that, socially responsible activities such as
social improvement programs should be determined by law, by public
policy, and by the actions and contributions of private individuals. In
other words, an organization that allocates profits to social improvement
activities, it is abusing its authority. Because managers will be concentrating on
activities that have no immediate profit return to the company. Besides that
such actions by management may work to the disadvantage of society. Why,
because the financial costs of social activities may over time, cause the price of
the companys goods and services to increase, and customers would pay the
bill.
2. Socialresponsiveness: means a firm engages in social actions in response to
some popular social need. Managers in these companies are guided by social
norms and values and make practical market oriented decisions about their
actions.
That means a socially responsible organization goes beyond what it is obligated
to do or chooses to do because of some popular social need and does what it
can to help improve society because it is the right thing to do.
Note that the social economic view is the view that managements social
responsibility goes beyond making profits and includes protecting and improving
societys welfare. ie organizations are not independent entities responsible
only to stock holders but have an obligation to the larger society.
Therefore, the definition for social responsibility could be as a business intention
beyond its legal and economic obligations to do the right things and act in ways that
are good for society. that means, a business obeys the law and cares for its
stockholders. It adds an ethical imperative to do those things. It also makes society
better and not to do those things that make it worse.
Green marketing:
This is a concept that management has come to consider the impact of their
organization on the environmental disasters that are taking place. For example, the
plastic shopping bags, - plastic bags can last for over 1000 years when throne away.
Hence managing the environment is called green marketing.
Organizationscangogreenby:
-
MANAGERSANDETHICALBEHAVIOUR
Ethics refers to principles, values and beliefs that define right and wrong decisions
and behaviour.
Some factors that determine ethical and unethical behaviour are such as;
1. Stageofmoraldevelopment: there are three levels of moral development and
each has two stages and at each stage an individuals moral judgement
becomes less dependent on outside influences and more internalized.
- Pre-conventional; this is the first level where the individuals choice
between right and wrong is based on personal consequences from outside
sources, eg physical punishment, reward, or exchange of favours.
- Conventionallevel: In this stage, ethical decisions rely on maintaining
expected standards and living up to the expectations of others.
- Principledlevel: in this stage individuals define moral values apart from the
authority of the groups to which they belong or society in general.
2. Individualcharacteristics: There are two individual characteristics, which are
values and personality.
Values are basic convictions about what is right and wrong. Peoples values
develop from young stages based on what we see and hear from our parents,
teachers, friends and others. Values are broad and cover a wide range of
Value based management is one of the tools that can be used to influence
employees in the organization in the way they should do their work. Also, top
management must reinforce the importance of values throughout the
organization.
5. Issueintensity: it is a concept on how important an ethical issue is to an
individual. There are six characteristics to determine issue intensity;
- Greatness of harm iehowmanypeoplewillbeharmedbytheact.
- Consensus of wrong: how much agreement is there that this action is
wrong.
- Probability of harm: how likely is it that this action will cause harm.
- Immediacy of consequences; will harm be felt immediately?
- Proximity to victim(s); how close are the potential victims
- Concentration of effect: how concentrated is the effect of the action on
the victims?
These factors suggest that the greater the number of people harmed, the more
agreement that the action is wrong; the greater the likelihood that the action
will be felt and the closer the person feels to the victim and the more
concentrated the effect of the action on the victim. The greater the issue
intensity or importance. ie when an ethical issue is important, employers are
more likely to behave ethically.
Q. Areethicalissues/standardsuniversal?
- Common moral beliefs may exist.
- Social and cultural differences between countries are important factors that
determine ethical and unethical behaviour eg bribes in some parts of the world
are acceptable.
- Payments to influence foreign officials/politicians management are guided by
the law of their home countries, most of which make it illegal to knowingly
corrupt a foreign official.
- another guide is to use the global compact a document created by united
nations that outlines principles for doing business globally in the areas of human
rights, labour, and the environment. The aim of compact is more sustainable
and inclusive global economy. The organization that make a commitment do so
because they believe that the world business community plays a significant role
in improving economic and social conditions.
Waysofencouragingethicalbehaviour:
- Employeeselection; organizations need to employ employees with high
ethical standards. The selection process must be viewed as an opportunity
to learn about an individuals level of moral development, personal values
ego strength and locus of control.
3. Uncertainty: decisions one is not certain about the outcomes. Under such
conditions the decisions are influenced by the limited amount of available
information and the psychological orientation of the decision maker.
Under such conditions, an optimistic manager may follow maxi-max choice, ie
maximizing he maximum possible payoff. While a pessimistic manager, may
follow a maxi-min choice ie maximizing the minimum possible pay off, and those
who desire to maximize their regret may opt for a mini-max choice ie not
resulting into anything profitable.
Decision making styles are likely to be influenced by ones thinking style. Thinking
styles reflect two things:
-
The source of information you tend to use. Eg external data and facts or
internal sources, like feelings and intuition
How you process the information ( linear, rational, logical, analytical or nonlinear, intuitive, creative, insightful)
Decision making biases and errors are ; heuristic ie rules of thumb that managers use
to simplify decision making, but it does not mean that those rules are reliable. The
common errors may be such as; overconfidence, immediate gratification bias,
anchoring effect, selek2ctive perception bias, confirmation bias, framing bias.
availability bias, representation bias, randomness bias, sunk cost error, self-serving
bias, hindsight bias.
FOUNDATIONSOFPLANNING
Planning is the process of establishing goals and developing suitable courses of action
to achieve these goals. It entails developing the methods of achieving the goals as
well as determining and setting aside the resources that will ultimately be required for
goal attainment.
It is concerned with both ends and means. It could be thought of as the dynamic
process of analytically looking at the organizations present position with a view to
determining its future position. Planning is necessitated by todays turbulent
environment and the consequent need for mangers to minimise risk and maximise
opportunities.
In formal planning, specific goals covering a specific time period are defined. Goals
are written and shared with organizational members to reduce ambiguity and create a
common understanding about what needs to be accomplished.
Specific plans: are detailed when one makes such plans all the information
on procedures, methods, etc. will be available and the consequences of
actions would be known. Emphasis in this case would be on consistency ie
two people can come up with the same set of specific plans.
Directional plans; act a guideline, providing the manager with only a
skeletal framework while according him some reasonable leeway as to how
he is to formulate his plans. They simulate innovation through encouraging
creativity. They are flexible.
Factorsinfluencingchoiceofspecificordirectionalplans:
-
Somedisadvantagesofplanning:
-
May create rigidity sticking to original plans even when the conditions have
changed.
Plans cannot be developed for a dynamic environment failing to plan because
the environment is unpredictable.
Formal plans cannot replace intuition and creativity routine planning may
impede on someones innovative vision.
Planning focuses managers attention on todays competition and not on
tomorrows survival eg capitalizing on existing business.
Formal planning reinforces success which may lead to failure eg success
plans may provide a false sense of security, generating more confidence in
the formal plans than is warranted.
Elements of planning:
-
Objectives:
Actions
Resources
implementation
GOALSETTING:
Goals are desired outcomes/targets. They form the criteria against which work results
are measured.
Approaches to goal setting:
1. Traditional goal setting: goals are set by top management and flow down to the
operational departments. The assumption is that management knows what is
best for the organization.
2. Management by objectives (*MBO); a process of setting mutually agreed goals
and using those goals to evaluated employee performance.
Stepsinsettinggoals:
1. Review the mission/purpose. A mission is a broad statement of purpose that
provides an overall guide to what an organization wants to achieve goals
therefore, must reflect the mission.
2. Evaluate available resources; set goals that are achievable with the available
resources.
3. Determine the goals individually or with input from others goals should be
congruent with the organizational mission.
4. Write down the goals and communicate them. Written goals become evidence
of the importance of working towards something.
5. Review results and whether goals are being met if goals are not being met then,
changk2e them as needed.
The focus here is in making goals that are: SMART! Ie Specific, Measurable,
Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound.
Definingthepresentposition:
There is need to answer the question where we are? What are present resources?
What are present profit, costs, revenues, etc?
Determiningaidsandbarriers:
There is need to determine factors both within and outside an organization and
relating to both the present and the future position which aid us in achieving our
goals.
Typical aids include among other the following:
-
There is also need to determine those factors both within and outside the organization
that restrict or limit them in achieving their organizational targets. These may
include:
-
Developing a setofactions:
Developing a set of actions is tantamount to establishing the specific plans. The
actions so developed must close the gap between the actual performance and
standard performance and must also maximise the benefits arising from the aids
while at the same time minimising the negative effects posed by barriers.
It should also be noted that plans must be implemented on the basis of some action
plan or implementation timetable, ie clear deadlines must be established for each
critical activity.
BARRIERSTOEFFECTIVEPLANNING
There are a number of factors that may limit the effectiveness of plans. Some of them
are:
1. Lack of environment awareness:
managers may not have sufficient
knowledge about the organization to embark on the planning process. For
example, information on profitability and on which resources to use for
achieving organizational goals.
2. Lack of organizational knowledge: it emanates from the managers who have
lack of confidence in their abilities and have no knowledge about the
organization in terms of goals, sub units, etc.
3. Resistancetochange: changing the organizations current situation is one of
the consequences of planning and some members may resent change. This
tends to reduce the effectiveness of planning.
4. Timeandexpense: planning costs money and time, and sometimes sacrifices
have to be made. Some members may be unwilling to make such sacrifices
preferring instead, to tackle problems as they arise.
5. Lackofknowledgeonthebenefitsofplanning: if organizational members are
not enlightened on the benefits from planning, they may not be keen to
implement plans.
STRATEGICMANAGEMENT
Strategic management refers to what managers do to develop an organizations
strategies. It is a task that involves all the management functions; which are;
planning, organizing, leading and controlling. It is important to note that the
continued existence of the organization depends on the plans that policy makers have
for the organizations long term survival.
A strategy: is a set of long term objectives affecting an organizations position in its
environment. According to Mintzberg, a strategy is a tale of 4 ps.
-
These are major courses of action that an organization has to take in order to achieve
its objectives. It can be viewed as the basis of survival or extinction. It is about
winning. It could also refer to the pattern of objectives, purposes or goals and the
major policies and plans for achieving these goals stated in such a way as to define
what business the company is in or is to be in and the kind of company it is to be.
A strategic plan is a document or statement indicating the time scale for the
strategy and the resources available for achieving it.
Strategic planning therefore, concerns itself with planning for the long term survival of
the organization and is typically done at the top managerial levels. It may also be
perceived as comprehending the environment and ensuring that the organization
adapts to the changing environment.
What business strategy is all about is a competitive advantage the sole purpose of
strategic planning is to enable a company to gain as efficiently as possible a
sustainable edge over its competitors. Ie corporate strategy implies an attempt
to alter a companys strength relative to that of its competitors in the most efficient
way.
Characteristics of strategic decisions are:
-
Goals: these are the broad measures of how mission will be attained.Goals
generally define the measures that will be used to measure progress towards
mission accomplishment. Goes should be simple, consistent and long term.
Internal analysis:
After the SWOT analysis it is important to look into the internal appraisal. It
gives information about specific resources and capabilities. Its capabilities are
its skills, and abilities in doing the work activities needed in its business. The
major value creating capabilities of the organization are known as its corecompetences. Note that both resources and core competencies determine the
organizations competitive weapons.
After the internal analysis, then, formulate strategies on how to implement.
Nomatter how effectively an organization has planned its strategies,
performance may suffer if strategies are not implemented properly.
Evaluation of the results is also important. As an organization, you may have to look
at how effective the strategies have been and what adjustments may be necessary?
Adjustments are made to regain market share and to improve the companys bottom
line.
MANAGINGCORPORATESTRATEGIES:
Management can use
1. Thecorporateportfoliomatrixwhich may be used to establish priorities for
allocating resources. For instance, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
matrix where you have:
Market share
High
low
Stars
Cash cows
Question marks
Dogs
Note that the horizontal axis represents the market share and the vertical axis
indicates anticipated growth.
The strategic implications of using the BCG matrix is that the dogs should be sold off
or liquidated because they have a low market share with low growth rate. The
organization must milk the cash cows for as much as possible and limit any new
investments in them and use the large cash generated to develop stars and question
marks with strong potential to improve market share. This shows that heavy
investments in stars may help take advantage of the market growth and help
maintain high market share. The stars eventually turn into cash cows but for the
question marks some may be sold off while some may be tuned into stars.
2. Competitivestrategieswhichdefines
its
competitive
advantage,
the
products/services it will offer. The role of competitive advantage is what sets an
organization apart. It is its distinctive edge.
The distinctive edge comes from the organizations core competencies because
the organization does something that other organizations cannot do or it does
better than others. At times it comes from the resources that the organization
have. Eg quality inputs for the end products.
Note that, most organizations today have established quality management
departments as an attempt to set themselves apart and sustaining competitive
advantage.
Organizing
Organizing is an arrangement and structuring of work to accomplish organizational
goals.
It entails designing the organizational structure appropriate for the organization.
Structure can be shown on the organizational chart. When the structure is changed, it
is known as organizational design.
The organizational structure shows the following;
ii.
-
iii.
iv.
v.
decisions and the costs of coordinating are minimized. Above all provides
training round for general managers.
Process departmentalization; ie grouping on the basis of customer flow or
product.
Customer departmentalization; ie grouping according to specific and or
unique customers who have common needs.
Chain of command: refers to the line of authority extending from upper
organizational levels to lower levels and clarifies who reports to whom. The
chain of command has three elements:
Authority;ie the right to tell people what to do.
Responsibility; obligations to expect performance.
Unity of command;ie the principle that each person should report only to
one manager in order to avoid conflicting demands from multiple bosses.
Span of control; ie the number of employees a manager can efficiently and
effectively manage.
Centralization and decentralization;
Decentralization; from the management point of view, refers to the
location of decision making power within the organization. It may also be
thought of as the extent to which power and authority are dispersed down
the channels of communication.
Advantages of decentralization:
- There is quick decision making through reduced bureaucracy.
- There is increased employee motivation from autonomy of decisions.
- It unburdens senior management. Ie management has more time at their disposal
to plan, organize and lead.
- It promotes establishment of use of broad controls which may create motivation.
It facilitates product diversification,and facilitates comparison of different
organizational units possible.
Factors influencing decentralisation/centralization:
-
vi.
Comments:
As a manager, one needs to know when a mechanic structure would be preferable and
when an organic structure would be more appropriate. Some factors that influence
the decision on structures are such as;
Contingencyfactors;
These are situational because of the changing
environment. Organizations tend to restructure and try to be lean, fast, and
flexible. Also, because of global competition it forces organisation to be
innovative and hence respond to the changes in the environment.
Traditional organizational designs:
1. Simplestructure: may start from an entrepreneurial set up with law
departmentalization, wide span of control authority centralized in a single
person and little formalization.
It changes as more employees join the
organization.
Advantages: fast decision making, flexible, inexpensive to maintain, clear
accountability.
Disadvantages: not appropriate as organizations grow. Tend to rely on one
person, hence may be risk.
2. Functional structures: ie grouping similar or related occupational specialties
together.
Advantages: they are cost saving. The organization takes advantage of the
economies of scale, there is minimal duplication of work, human resource and
equipment. Besides that, employees are grouped with others with similar skills.
3. Divisional structures: they are made up of separate business units/division.
Each division has limited autonomy, with a division manager who has authority
over his/her unit and is responsible for performance. In such structures the
parent corporation provides support services like financial and legal services.
The main advantage is that it focuses on results.ie customer oriented. That
means managers are responsible for what happens to their products/services.
The main disadvantage is that there is duplication of activities and resources
which results in an increase in costs and reduced efficiency.eg decisions are
concentrated at the departmental level leaving out top managers un aware of
what is taking place in the organization.
Contemporary organizational structures:
These are structures designed to be lean, flexible and innovative. They are more like
organic.
1. Teamstructures: it is one in which the organization is made up of work teams
that do the organizations work. In such structures, employees empowerment is
crucial because there is no line of managerial authority from top to bottom. All
employees design and do work in the way they think is best, but also are held
responsible for performance results.
The major advantages are that employees are more involved and empowered.
There is also reduced barriers among functional areas.
However, the
disadvantages are that there is no clear chain of command and there is more
pressure for performance.
2. Matrix and project structures: these are structures that assign specialists
from different functional areas to work in projects but who return to their areas
when the project is completed. Ie once the project is complete, they either
return to normal or are relocated to the sight of another project. It common in
the building industry.
Theuniqueness in such structures is in the aspect of creating a dual chain of
command where employees end up with two manager/bosses eg,the functional
area manager and the project or product manager.
Advantages of matrix structures are that, it is result oriented ie the emphasis is
on gathering a team to achieve results eg,increased sales. There is also, some
professional identification which is maintained because it motivates the project
members and hence brings satisfaction from being associated with the project group.
The emphasis on project responsibility emanates from the results orientation
approach. It may also provide the basis for training of organizational members in the
various functional areas hence encourages the conceptual view of the organization.
Disadvantages of matrix structures:
-
There is greater need for interpersonal skills because the structure has a dual
reporting system.
- Tends to have role conflict like the project members have to perform two
different roles in the functional department as well as in the project, thus
creating conflict.
- Dual authority may promote conflict between project and functional leaders.
- The short term nature of projects may demotivate project members who may
have to go back to their routine functional tasks upon completion of projects.
- Tends to have high competition between project and functional managers for
resources, both human and material.
- At times creates personnel problems relating to re-designations, transfers,
especially if is of a short term nature.
3. Boundary less structures:
These are structures that are not defined by any arrangement limited to
artificial horizontal, vertical or external boundaries, eg virtual and network types
of organizations. Such structures are characterized by two boundaries;
Internal boundary ie horizontal boundaries imposed by work specialization
and departmentalization and the vertical ones that separates employees into
organizational levels
External boundary these are boundaries that separate the organization from
its customers, suppliers, and other stake holders. Therefore, to eliminate
these boundaries, managers may use virtual or network structural designs.
Note that a virtual organization consists of a small core of full time
employees and outside specialists temporarily hired as needed to work on
projects.
The main advantage is that it is highly flexible and responsive. It utilizes
talents wherever it is found. However, the major disadvantages are lack of
control and the communication channels are difficulty.
Tallstructures: a tall structure is one with many reporting levels. It may be thought
of as a bureaucratic structure. The main characteristic of the tall structure is that it
has a short span of control, that is there are fewer subordinates reporting to one
manager.
A flat structure: a flat structure on the other hand refers to one with relatively re
reporting levels. They are associated with a longer span of control. ie there are more
subordinates for each manage
LEADING
Leading can be defined as the process of guiding, directing and influencing task
related activities of organisational members to ensure that the organisation achieves
its objectives.
Leadership entails counselling, motivating and directing the efforts of the said
organizational members to ensure that the entitys pre-determined targets as
measured in terms of performance, etc. are accomplished.
In every organization there are two aspects that a leader must understand. These
are:
-
Visible aspects:
these include strategies, objectives, policies and
procedures, structure, technology, formal authority. The chain of command is
the iceberg.
Hidden/invisible aspects; these include the attitudes, perceptions group
norms, informal interactions, interpersonal and intergroup conflicts.
The visible and invisible aspects help the leader to understand organizational
behaviour. Organizational behaviour focuses on three major areas:
i.
ii.
iii.
In other words, good leaders may want to know how satisfied the employees
are because satisfaction increases output. How can you know that workers
are satisfies?
Workers who aresatisfied do not miss from work
unnecessarily, and there is less turnover.
Also, satisfied employees are more likely to be friendly, upbeat, and
responsive which customers appreciate. It is also believed that employees
who are satisfied, increases customer satisfaction and loyalty, hence
customer retention. Above all, satisfied employees are likely to speak well
about the organization. Hence, when there is some unfairness of some sort in
the organization, job satisfaction of the individual suffers.
The three other related job attitudes are:
i.
ii.
iii.
like the extrovert,eg an extrovert is energetic, lively and sociable, is rarely silent or
withdrawn. Neither would a melachone behave like
Approaches used to the study of leadership are:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Note that there are various theorists who attempted to explain leadership
according to behavioural school: one of them is known as the
OhioExperiment In this study, the distinction was between the
initiatingstructure(task behaviour) and consideration (regarding for
employees).
The initiating structures refers to the extent to which a leader defined
his/her role and the roles of group members in attaining goals.
Consideration, is the dimension that defines the extent to which a leader
had work relationships characterized by mutual trust and respect for group
members ideas and feelings. In other words, a leader who has high
consideration, helps his group members with personal problems, is
friendly, and approachable and treated all group members as
equal.Ie showing concern for the followers, comforting them, etc.
The conclusions are that leaders who take initiatives and considerate to the
followers tend to be good leaders.
The other approach is known as the
ManagerialGrid university students, R Blake and Jane Mouton. the
focus was in distinguishing between employee orientated and task orientated
behaviour of managers. The employee oriented leaders emphasizes
interpersonal relationships while the task oriented leaders emphasize
the importance of jobs. Still, the managerial grid did not explain an effective
leader although a balance would produce better results.
These observed leadership as situational. They viewed leaders as the product of any
given situation. In other words, leaders are strongly influenced by the situational
factors which leader emerges and in which he/she operates
The situational factors which were identified were;
-
There are three theories in this category; these attempt to explain the leaders who
failed to achieve greatness because they failed to understand the context they were
operating in.
i.
ii.
The Path Goaltheory, portraysa leaders as a flexible person and can display any or all
of the leadership styles depending on the situation.
It further explains that
leadership behaviour can be moderated by the situation or contingency variables like
the, environment. The theory further proposes that a leaders behaviour wont be
effective if it is redundant with what the environmental structure is providing or is
congruent with followers characteristics. Eg. Giving directives to a group that is well
experienced and capable, your efforts may be perceived as redundant, ie your group
does not need a leader to tell them what to do. Directives may be welcome when the
organization is experiencing conflict. Ie will need a leader who would give them
charge.
iii.
Readiness refers to the extent to which people have the ability and
willingness to accomplish a specific task. Eg the leader defines roles and
tells people what, how, when and where to do various tasks. Eg telling.
Also, the leader provides both directive and supportive behaviour ie
selling. The leader and followers share in decision making ie the role of
the leader is facilitating and communicating, ie participating.
And
delegating; ie the leader provides little direction or support.
This theory implies that; the leader uses the telling method when workers are both
unable and unwilling to take responsibility for doing something. Ie followers are not
confident not competent. The leader also, uses the selling method when followers
are unable although willing to do the job tasks, ie followers would be motivated but
lack the appropriateskills.
The participation method applies when followers are able but unwilling to do what
the leader wantsie you have competent workers who do not want to do something.
And finally, you delegate your work when the people you are leading are both able to
do and are willing to do what is asked for them.
The locus of control: the belief that you are a master of your own fate.
Machiavellianism; the degree to which people are pragmatic, maintain
emotional distance and believe that ends justify means.
Self esteem; the degree to which people like themselves.
Self monitoring:ie the individuals ability to adjust behaviour to external
situational factors. People with high self monitoring show considerable
adaptability in adjusting their behaviour and they are sensitive to external
cues and can behave differently in different situations.
Note that, low self monitors cannot adjust their behaviour, instead they tend to
display their true dispositions and attitude in every situation and there is high
behavioural consistency between who they are and what they do.
-
followers to see the positive side of the problems and are able to excite, arouse,
and inspire the followers.
Transformational leaders produces levels of employees efforts and performance that
go beyond what would occur with a transactional approach alone. They in still in the
followers the ability to question views by their leadership style.
2. Charismatic visionary leadership: portrays enthusiastic, self-control, selfconfident personality and have actions that influence people to behave in a
certain way. They have vision and are able to articulate that vision, willing to
take risk, sensitive to the environmental constraints, etc.
(from our African continent which leaders would be classify
under this category?
MOTIVATION
Motivation refers to the forces that drive human beings to behave in a certain way.
It can also be defined as the innerstate of mind that arouses, energises channels and
sustains behaviour.
It may also mean the mental process of human decision making.
It is an act that seeks to understand why human beings behave the way they do and
how to influence and reinforce their behaviour in such a way as to help achieve
organisational objectives.
Note that the motivation is part of the overall managerial leadership role.
several views on motivation, some of them are as follows:
There
ceremonies, etc. the social needs have to be satisfied only after the
physiological and safety needs. The above three needs are at times referred
to as the lower level needs. One common thing about them is that they
can easily be satisfied .(there are usually in a physical upper limit as to their
satisfaction).
Esteem needs: these are psychological needs from a persons inner self.
May include need to be praised and need for recognition, achievement,
competence and status. It is from these that people drive pride.
Self-actualization needs: the needs to realize ones full potential and
utilise ones capabilities. May incorporate the need for challenging tasks,
advancement and growth. They can also be known as the higher order
needs or egoistic needs. These cannot be fully satisfied. Eg people always
want some more praise and recognition.
Maslow suggests that the manager could address the egoistic needs by giving
subordinates more challengingtasks and assignments as well as by
personal encouragement and involvement. Subordinates need to feel
important and they need to be given jobs that yield a feeling of importance.
And therefore, an effective leader and good motivator should concentrate on
addressing the subordinates higher order needs only if he/she has addressed
the basic needs.
In support of Maslows hierarchy of needs some maintain that it offers a
reasonable explanation of human behaviour, egthe teachers retreat trip to
Cape town, would motivate managing directors and others who have
satisfied the lower order needs more than a general hand employee
who still has to satisfy the basic human needs of hunger shelter, etc.
The implication is that managers should not reduce hygiene factors or else
risk the negative effects of reduced productivity and lower employee
morale. The hygiene factors include;
-
The term maintenance factor is used because these factors do not significantly
affect motivation but are necessary to maintain hygiene within the working
environment. In other words, these factors were the basic levels necessary to
maintain certain levels of performance.
In addition, the satisfiers or motivators boosted production each time their quantities
were increased. Therefore, management should concentrate on satisfiers or drivers
to maximise the benefits from motivation. Typical motivators entails the following:
-
Achievement,
recognition,
work itself,
responsibility and
advancement.
by David Maclellands
States that different people are motivated by different circumstances and categorises
people into:
-
Note that people with high need for achievement would be motivated by;
-
People with high need for power are motivated by tasks that give them more
responsibility and autonomy as well as authority. However, some of the employees
with high need for power, may not necessarily be high achievers.
The implication is that, managers who want to motivate their workers must
first of all establish whether the employee has a high need in power or in
affiliation, or in achievement. And then create an atmosphere in which the
employees can be motivated by these relevant needs.
The process theories/expectancy model by Victor Vroom:
The model maintains that the effort to achieve a high performance depends on the
perceived likelihood that high performance will be rewarded and the reward worth the
effort. It has the following elements:
-
There are three components in the model, namely: the individuals inputs in the
form of effort, experience, competence and other personal attributes. Output that
is the individual gets from employment , these may take the form of rewards, mainly
money, recognition, promotion, etc.
-
The reference group or person which is the group or person against whom
the individual compares his input/output ratio.If there is an imbalance the
employee may consider raising or lowering his input to balance the
disequilibrium.
If this reward is greater (by his standards) he will justify this by increasing his
performance.
-
This shows that, rewards can only motivate staff if they are perceived to be fair and
equitable.
The equity theory recognises that individuals are concerned not only with their
absolute pay (reward) but also with the relationship of these rewards to what others
receive.
The reinforcement theory
In this theory the emphasis is on how consequences should shape behaviour. Ie
behaviour yielding unpleasant results will most likely not be repeated. Ie human
behaviour is moulded by consequences.
Positive reinforcement is the use of reward system to encourage desirable
behaviour while avoidance of undesirable consequences is another reinforcement
mechanism.
This shows that if skill variety, task identity and task significance are combined
in a job, the employees is likely to view his/her job as being important, valuable,
and worthwhile. Whereas, jobs that posses autonomy give the job holder a
feeling of personal responsibility for the results. Above all, a job that provides
feedback will allow the employee to know how effective he/she us performing.
CO-ORDINATION:
It is the process of integrating the objectives and activities of subunits of an
organization to achieve the organizational objectives.
It may also be thought of as the extent to which organizations sub units depend on
each other or the extent to which these activities are synchronised.
There are three forms of coordination:
-
If functions call for a wide geographic coverage, then a smaller span would
be the most practical.
More assistance may be associated with a larger span and vice versa.
COMMUNICATION:
Communication is the transfer of, and understanding meaning. For example, a writer
who has not written and published, he has not yet communicated. The emphasis in
communication is the transfer. Also, communication involves the understanding of
meaning. Therefore, for communication to be effective it must be transferred and
understood. That means unless a common understanding results from the
transmission of verbal or nonverbal symbols, there is no communication.
In other words, for communication to be successful it must be imparted and
understood. Further, communication encompasses both interpersonal communication
and organizational communication. Note that both interpersonal and organizational
communication are important to the manager.
Functions of communication:
-
Organizational communication can flow both downward and upwards, horizontally and
diagonally.
Downwardcommunication is any communication that flows from manager to
employees. For example, giving instructions on some job tasks or when giving
information on the developments of the organization. Etc.
Upwardcommunication applies when information flows from employees to
managers. Most of this information is in form of reports which give feed back to
decision makers.
Eg the sales reports, suggestion box messages, grievance
procedures etc.
How much information should go up, depends on the organizational culture. If
management have created a climate of trust and respect and use participative
Regions of information: there are four regions of information known and unknown
by the self and others:
a. The arena: this is the region most conducive for effective interpersonal
communication. The arena is the area of common understanding. In this setting
all the information necessary to carry on effective communication is known to
both the communicator (self) and the receivers (others). For a communication
attempt to be in the arena region, the parties involved much share feelings,
data, assumptions, and skills.
b. The blind spot: it is a situation where by relevant information is known to
others but not to the self. In this context, one is at a disadvantage when
communicating with others, because one cannot know their feelings,
sentiments, and perceptions. As a result interpersonal communications suffers.
The blind sport presents an interpersonal handicap for the self, since one hardly
can understand the behaviour, decisions, or potentials of others without having
data on which these are based. Others have the advantage of knowing their
own feelings, while the self is unaware of these.
c. The faade: when information is known to the self but unknown to others, a
person (self) may resort to superficial communications that is, present a false
front or faade. This situation is particularly damaging when a subordinate
knows and an immediate supervisor does not know. The faade, like a blind
spot, diminishes the arena and reduces the possibility of effective
communication.
d. The unknown:
this region constitutes that portion where the relevant
information is not known by the self or by other parties to the relationship: eg I
dont understand them, and they dont understand me. It is easy to see that
under such circumstances, interpersonal communication will be poor. The
unknown area often occurs in organizations when individuals in different
specialities must coordinate what they do through communications.
Therefore, to improve communication an individual must utilize two strategies
known as the exposure and the feedback.
-
Exposure is increasing the arena by reducing the faade it requires that the
individual be open and honest in sharing information with others. The
process that the self uses to increase the information known to others is
called exposure because it leaves the self in a sometimes vulnerable
position. exposing ones true feelings, telling it like it is, often involves
risks.
Feedback: when the self does not know or understand, more effective
communications can be developed through feedback from those who do
know. Thus, the blind spot can be reduced with a corresponding increase in
the arena. Note that, whatever the use of feedback is possible depends on
the individuals willingness to hear it and on the willingness of others to give
it. The individual is less able to control the obtaining of feedback than the
provision of exposure. Obtaining feedback is dependent on the active
cooperation of others, while exposure requires the active behaviour of the
self and listening of others.
Note that groups are formed for various reasons. Some of the reasons could be such
as;
1. Physical reasons: in organizations workers are placed according to their
similar occupations. For example secretaries are located elbow to elbow.
People in close proximity to one another tend to interact and communicate with
one another.
2. Economic reasons: in some situations work groups form because individuals
believe they can derive more economic benefits from their jobs if they form into
groups. For example the trade unions.
3. Socio-psychological reasons: workers in organizations also are motivated to
form work groups to satisfy safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs.
- Safety: work groups can protect members from outside pressures, including
serving as a buffer from managements demands for better quality and
quantity of production. By being a member of a group individual employees
can become involved in group activities and openly discuss these
management demands with fellow workers who usually support their
viewpoint.
- Social: employees often join wok groups because of their need for affiliation.
The basis of affiliation ranges from wanting to interact with and enjoy other
employees to more complex desires for group support of self- image. A
management atmosphere that
does not permit interaction and
communication suppresses the desire of employees to feel a sense of
belonging.
- Esteem: some employees are attracted to a work group because they think
they gain prestige by belonging. In an organization, a particular group may
be viewed by employees as being a top-notch work group.
Hence
membership among the elite bestows on the members prestige that is not
enjoyed by non-members. This prestige is conferred on members by other
employees often leading to more gratification of the esteem need.
- Self-actualization: the desire of individuals to utilize their skills with
maximum efficiency and to grow and develop psychologically on the job is
Problem solving: these are teams from the same department of functional
area involved in improving work activities.
Self managed work team: these are a group of employees who may
operate without a manager and are responsible for a complete work process.
The main purpose is to get work done and to manage itself.
Cross functional teams: groups composed of specialitiesfor instance, the
hospitals may have intensive care units, pharmacists social worker
nutritionist, etc.
Virtual team: a team that uses technology to link physically dispersed
members in order to achieve a common goal.
The managers duty is to create and effective work team. Therefore, effective ness
can only be understood after analysing the characteristics of virtual teams. For
example;
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Clear goals; ie the team must have clear understanding of the goal to be
achieved and all the members are committed to meet the goal.
Relevant skills; it is composed of competent individuals who have the
necessary technical and interpersonal skills to achieve the desired goals
while working together. Nevertheless, you notice that it is not every one who
is technically competent who has the interpersonal skills to work well with
others.
Mutual trust; members believe in each others ability, character, and
integrity. Also, maintaining trust requires careful attention by managers .
Unified commitment; dedication and willingness to spend extraordinary
amounts of energy to achieve the goals, ie loyalty must be exhibited.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
Good communication;
members convey both verbally and non vernal
messages and readily get understood.
Negotiating skills; flexibility requires members to develop negotiating skills.
That means there is need to reconcile and confront differences.
Appropriate leadership; this involves motivating team members to follow
them. Even when situations are difficulty.
Internal and external support; ie it is characterised by a supportive climate.
Internally there must be a sound infrastructure which means proper training,
etc.
the structure must support and reinforce behaviours that lead to high
levels of performance. Externally, managers should provide the team with
the resources needed to get the job done.
Note that as a manager, you may be required to manage a global team. Such
assignments can be complicated because it has its own challenges like; sourcing
group member resources and managing these resources. Also, recognizing members
skills, abilities, and personality differences etc, can be challenging. This means that
managers may have to be familiar with the culture.
Also, issues like conformity, status, social loafing and cohesiveness become
challenging in a global team management.
Above all, group processes may cause a challenge especially in communication
because members may not be familiar with the language used.
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
MANAGING OPERATIONS
Managing operations refers to the transformation process that covets resources into
finished products.
The system takes in inputs which could be in form of people, equipment, materials,
and information and transforms them through various processes, procedures, work
activities etc, into finished goods.
The concept of operations management is important to managers because every
business unit in the organization produces something. It is important for the following
reasons:
i.
ii.
iii.
Note that, successful organizations move toward managing their operations from a
value chain perspectiveValue chain management is a process of managing the
sequence of activities and information along the entire value chain.
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Value chain: refers to the entire series of organizational work activities that
add value at each step. Ie from raw materials to finished products. That
means, by using value chain you can encompass the suppliers supplier to
the customers customers.
Value chain: can also be defined as the performance characteristics,
features, and attributes and any other aspects of products/services for which
customers are willing to give up resources (money). That means, value is
provided to customers through transforming raw materials and other
resources into some product or service that end users need or desire, when,
where, and how they want it.
Improved procurement
Improved logistics
Improved product development
Enhanced customer order management
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
ii.
iii.
This shows that the activities of HRM must be completed in order to ensure that
organization have qualified people to perform the work that needs to be done. These
activities are;
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6. Operations: these are the day to day activities of the organization. Control
effort has to also focus on them with a view to ensuring that routine targets are
met. This in turn will ensure that the overall long term goals are met.
Steps in the control process:
1. Establish standards: in terms of profits, costs, turnover, etc and establishing
howsuch performance will be measured.
There are four ways you can use to measure the standards these are personal
observation, statistical report, oral reports and written reports
2. Measuring actual performance:
the reporting should be reliable and
reasonably accurate. It should be in terms of the same bases of measurement
as set standards.
3. Comparing actual and standard performance: emphasis should not only
be on differences that are negative, but should also be established why the
standards have been exceeded. Because at times the excess could be because
the standard were not challenging enough.
4. Taking corrective action: differences in the actual and standard performance
may be either due to unsatisfactory performance or unrealistic standards.
Therefore, the corrective action is meant to correct the performance if
unsatisfactory or adjusting the plans if they unrealistic.
Typesofcontrol
The type of control can be analysed according to the stage at which control action
is taken:
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Feed forward controls: these are controls instituted before the production
process is at the input stage. By ensuring that the input is of high quality,
there will be less likelihood of poor quality. The advantage is that it allows
management to take corrective action before problems actually occur.
Concurrent controls: in this case the control action will be taken during
the production process
Feedback controls:
these are reactive by nature in that they are
implemented after an activity. The emphasis is on waiting for an
event/activity to occur, comparing it with standards and then taking
corrective action where there is a difference. For example, quality control
undertaken on the final product, and correction of errors detected after work
has already been input, like in a computer system.
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
Specific:
the control system must be targeted at specific areas, eg
standards must not be vague
Simplicity: the system must be easy to use. A complicated system may not
necessarily be the most effective one
Economy: it must be cost effective. A balance is must be struck between
economy and other factors.
Timeliness: an effective system must produce information when it is
needed most. This ensures that corrective action is taken before a situation
gets out of hand.
Completeness:
the system must balance qualitative with qualitative
information and must not be restricted to one particular aspect.
Understand ability: a good control must be understood by all those who
participate in its implementation.Otherwise it may be of no value. It should
not be difficult to use as this may lead to unnecessary frustration for the
employees.
Reasonable criteria: standards that are too high may de-motivate staff,
leading to possible use of shortcuts. That means standards should be based
on reasonable criteria which are sufficient to challenge and motivate staff
while minimising chances of deception.
Strategic placement: controls should be placed on key areas of the
organisations performance due to the fact that it is impossible to control all
the areas. This also ensures that there is economy.
Emphasis on exceptions:
the control system should pinpoint only
exceptional circumstances. This would ensure that management does not
have excessive and unnecessary information concerning variations from
standards.
Multiple criteria: an effective system will have multiple standards to help
minimize chances of manipulation brought about by say, having a single
standard. This may also contribute towards objective control systems, and
more accurate assessments of performance.
Corrective action: the effectiveness of a control system will also depend on
its ability not only to detect deviations but also its prescription of corrective
managerial action to put the organization back on course towards goal
attainment.
Accuracy:
the control system must be accurate in terms of the
measurement of actual performance. Incorrect measurement will raise
unnecessary alarms by highlighting insignificant variances.
MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE
unfreezing the status quo, it is a stage of preparing for the needed change.
It can be done by increasing the driving force. Once the unfreezing is
complete,
changemust be implemented to a new state is done. The new situation
needs to be
refrozen to make the change permanent. The intention of refreezing is to
stabilize the new situation.
Team building: these are techniques that help team members learn how
each member thinks and operates.
Intergroup development: iechanging the attitudes, stereotypes and
perceptions that work groups have about each other.
ii.
iii.
iv.
You also, need to know the symptoms of stress eg, depression, accident prone, or
argumentative, some may have difficulty making routine decisions, may be easily
distracted etc. symptoms of stress can be categorized into three groups;
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Behavioural:
ie changes in productivity, absenteeism, job turnover,
changes in eating habits, increased smoking, or consumption of alcohol,
rapid speech, fidgeting, and sleep disorders.
Psychological:
job related dissatisfaction, tension, anxiety, irritability,
boredom, and procrastination.
Physical: changes in metabolism, increased heart and breathing rates,
raised blood pressure, headaches, and potential of heart attacks.
Employee selection;
ie an employees
ability must match the job
requirements.
Reduceambiguity about job expectations
Improved organizational communication
Use performance planning programs like MBO to clarify job responsibilities,
provide clear performance goals and reduce ambiguity through feedback
Job redesigning; job should be redesigned to reduce the work load and
increase the opportunities for employees to participate in decisions and to
gain social support.
Reducing stress from the employees personal life has two problems;
firstly, it is difficulty for a manager to have direct control. Secondly, there are ethical
considerations like, does a manager have a right to intrude in an employees
personal life? if you think it is ethical, some of the following approaches may be
used:
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