BUAD 304 1st Edition Exam 1 Study Guide 4 Management Functions POLC Planning encompasses defining an organization s goals establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals and developing a comprehensive set of plans to integrate and coordinate activities Organizing determining what tasks are to be done who is to do them how the tasks are to be grouped who reports to whom and where decisions are to be made Leading management s job to direct and coordinate those people This includes motivating employees directing activities selecting the most effective communication channels or resolving conflicts among members Controlling monitoring the organization s performance and compare it with previously set goals If there are any significant deviations it is management s job to get the organization back on track Management Roles ten roles that managers must perform are primarily interpersonal informational or decisional Interpersonal roles all managers are required to perform duties that are ceremonial and symbolic Managers are required to be leaders The third role within the interpersonal grouping is the liaison role or contacting others who provide the manager with information o Figurehead symbolic head o Leader responsible for the motivation and direction of employees o Liaison maintains a network of outside contacts who provide favors and information Informational roles all managers collect information from outside organizations and institutions This includes talking to people to learn of changes in the public s tastes what competitors may be planning and the like o Monitor receives a wide variety of information o Disseminator transmits information received from outsiders or from other employees to members of the organization o Spokesperson transmits information to outsiders on organization s plans policies actions and results serves as expert on organization s industry Decisional roles making choices o Entrepreneur searches organization and its environment for opportunities and initiates projects to bring about challenge o Disturbance handler responsible for corrective action when organization faces important unexpected disturbances o Resource allocator makes and approves significant organizational decisions o Negotiator responsible for representing the organization at major negotiations These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Management Skills looks at skills and competencies that managers need to achieve their goals Technical skills encompasses the ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise All jobs require some specialized expertise and many people develop their technical skills on the job Human skills the ability to understand communicate with motivate and support other people both individually and in groups They must have good human skills Conceptual skills managers must have the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations This requires managers to identify problems develop alternative solutions to correct those problems evaluate those alternative solutions and select the best one Effective versus Successful Managerial Activities Successful managers give almost the opposite emphases to traditional management communication human resource management and networking as do effective managers Traditional Management decision making planning controlling Communication exchanging routine information and processing paperwork Human resource management motivating disciplining managing conflict staffing and training Networking socializing politicking and interacting with others Organizational behavior a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals groups and structure have on behavior within organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization s effectiveness In other words OB is the study of what people do in an organization and how their behavior affects the organization s performance Generally it is related to concerns such as jobs work absenteeism employment turnover productivity human performance and management Complementing Intuition with Systematic Study Behavior is generally predictable and the systematic behavior is a means to making reasonably accurate predictions Systematic study looking at relationships attempting to attribute causes and effects and basing our conclusions on scientific evidence Evidence based management EBM complements systematic study by basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence o EBM argues that managers should become more scientific in how they think about management problems Intuition gut feelings about what makes others tick Systematic study and Evidencebased management add to intuition Relying on intuition is made worse because we tend to overestimate the accuracy of what we think we know Therefore use evidence as much as possible to inform one s intuition and experience Disciplines that Contribute to the OB Field OB is an applied behavioral science built on contributions from a number of behavioral disciplines mainly psychology and social psychology sociology and anthropology Psychology contributions are mainly at an individual level while the other disciplines are at a group level The difference between good and bad management reflects the difference between making a lot of money and making a lot more money In good times understanding how to reward satisfy and retain employees is at a premium In bad times issues like stress decision making and coping come to the fore Responding to Globalization the world has changed and become more global Thus the manager s job has changed Increased foreign assignments transferred to employer s operating division or subsidiary in another country Managers must manage a workforce with very different needs aspirations and attitudes Working with people from different cultures managers find themselves working with bosses peers and other employees born and raised in different cultures To work effectively one must understand their culture geography and religion have shaped them and how to adapt their management style to their employees differences Overseeing movement of jobs to countries with lower cost labor jobs tend to flow where lower costs give businesses a comparative advantage Managers face the difficult task of balancing the interests of their organization with their responsibilities to the