罗宾斯《管理学原理》

CHAPTER 1 - MANAGERS AND MANAGEMENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES
After reading this chapter students will be able to:

1. Describe the difference between managers and operative employees.

2. Explain what is meant by the term “management.”

3. Differentiate between efficiency and effectiveness.

4. Describe the four primary processes of management.

5. Classify the three levels of managers and identify the primary responsibility of each group.

6. Summarize the essential roles performed by managers.

7. Discuss whether the manager’s job is generic.

8. Describe the four general skills necessary for becoming a successful manager.

9. Describe the value of studying management.

10. Identify the relevance of popular humanities and social science courses to management practices.

Opening Vignette
SUMMARY

You’re Fired!  “The Apprentice” and Donald Trump

 You’re fired!  Two words that no one wants to hear.  But those two words are heard at the end of the show, “The Apprentice.”  The Apprentice stars CEO-extraordinaire, Donald Trump.  The show is a success, and is based on the premise that contestants compete for a position in Trump’s organization as his “Apprentice”, for an annual salary of $250,000.  Each week the contestants work in teams to compete against each other through business issues based around marketing, sales, finance, etc.  The winning team receives a reward from “The Donald,” while the losing team sees one of their team members fired by Mr. Trump. 
 Trump put his reputation and assets on the line for the show, and some critics thought the show would portray Trump as a publicity-seeker and encourage contestants to succeed at all costs.  Critics also thought the show might demoralize many of Trump’s current employees, causing them to lose respect and trust for the company’s leaders.  Trump’s response; “I don’t worry about them.  I pay them a lot of money.” 
 Trump has proven naysayers wrong, and has accomplished something one may not be able to put a value on---an hour-long prime-time commercial for Trump himself and the Trump organization.  And, other companies are paying upwards of a million dollars just to advertise on the show.  
 Is Donald Trump a genius?  Has he been successful by doing things “outside of the box?” Once again it appears so.  And both the Trump Organization and Trump are winning. 

Teaching Tips

1. Ask students to consider whether the feel Donald Trump is a manager or not.  Have them identify what they feel makes someone a manager, versus perhaps a leader or an entrepreneur. 

I. WHO ARE MANAGERS, AND WHERE DO THEY WORK?

A. Introduction (PPT 1-2)

1. Managers work in an organization.
 
2. An organization is a systematic arrangement of people brought together to accomplish some specific purpose.

a) Your college or university is an organization.

B. What Three Common Characteristics Do All Organizations Share?

1. Every organization has a purpose and is made up of people who are grouped in some fashion.

a) See Exhibit 1-1. 

b) This distinct purpose is typically expressed in terms of a goal or set of goals.
 
2. Second, purposes or goals can only be achieved through people.
 
3. Third, all organizations develop a systematic structure that defines and limits the behavior of its members.

a) Developing structure may include creating rules and regulations, giving some members supervisory control, forming teams, etc.

4. The term organization refers to an entity that has a distinct purpose, has people or members, and has a systematic structure.

C. How Are Managers Different from Operative Employees? (PPT 1-3)

1. Organizational members fit into two categories: operatives and managers.
 
a) Operatives work directly on a job and have no oversight responsibility of others.
 
b) Managers direct the activities of other people in the organization.

1) Customarily classified as top, middle, or first line, they supervise both operative employees and lower-level managers.

2) See Exhibit 1-2.  (PPT 1-4)

3) Some managers also have operative responsibilities themselves.

2. The distinction between operatives and managers is that managers have employees who report directly to them.

D. What Titles Do Managers Have in Organizations? (PPT 1-4)

1. First-line managers are usually called supervisors.
 
a) They are responsible for directing the day-to-day activities of operative employees.
 
b) In your college, the department chair would be a first-line supervisor.

2. Middle managers represent levels of management between the first-line supervisor and top management.
 
a) They manage other managers and possibly some operative employees.

b) They are responsible for translating the goals set by top management into specific details.

3. Top managers are responsible for making decisions about the direction of the organization and establishing policies that affect all organizational members.

a) Examples:  Google’s Larry Page, Kenneth Chenault of American Express.

b) Top managers have titles including vice president, managing director, chief operating officer, etc.  

Teaching Notes  _______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

II. WHAT IS MANAGEMENT, AND WHAT DO MANAGERS DO?

A. How Do We Define Management?  (PPT 1-5)

1. Managers, regardless of title, share several common elements.

2. Management—the process of getting things done effectively and efficiently, through and with other people.

a) The term “process” in the definition represents the primary activities managers perform.
 
3. Effectiveness and efficiency deal with what we are doing and how we are doing it.
 
a) Efficiency means doing the task right and refers to the relationship between inputs and outputs. Management is concerned about minimizing resource costs.
 
b) Effectiveness means doing the right task, and in an organization that translates into goal attainment.
 
c) See Exhibit 1-3.

4. Efficiency and effectiveness are interrelated.
 
a) It’s easier to be effective if one ignores efficiency.
 
b) Good management is concerned with both attaining goals (effectiveness) and doing so as efficiently as possible.

c) Organizations can be efficient and yet not be effective.

d) High efficiency is associated more typically with high effectiveness.
 
5. Poor management is most often due to both inefficiency and ineffectiveness or to effectiveness achieved through inefficiency.

B. What Are the Management Processes?

1. Henri Fayol defined the management process in terms of five management functions.

a) They plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control.

b) In the mid-1950s, two professors used the terms “planning,” “organizing,” “staffing,” “directing,” and “controlling” as the framework for the most widely sold management textbook.

2. The most popular textbooks now condense these processes to the basic four: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

a) See Exhibit 1-4. (PPT 1-6)
 
b) These processes are interrelated and interdependent.

3. Planning encompasses defining an organization’s goals, establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals, and developing a comprehensive hierarchy of plans to integrate and coordinate activities. (PPT 1-6)
 
a) Setting goals creates a proper focus.

4. 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. (PPT 1-6)

5. Directing and coordinating people is the leading component of management.
 
a) Leading involves motivating employees, directing the activities of others, selecting the most effective communication channel, or resolving conflicts among members. (PPT 1-7)

6. Controlling. (PPT 1-7)

a) To ensure that things are going as they should, a manager must monitor the organization’s performance.

b) Actual performance must be compared with the previously set goals.

c) Any significant deviations must be addressed.
 
d) The monitoring, comparing, and correcting is the controlling process.

7. The process approach is clear and simple but may not accurately describe what managers do.

a) Fayol’s original applications represented mere observations from his experiences in the French mining industry.

8. In the late 1960s, Henry Mintzberg provided empirical insights into the manager’s job.

Teaching Notes  _______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

C. What Are Management Roles?

1. Henry Mintzberg undertook a careful study of five chief executives at work.

a) Mintzberg found that the managers he studied engaged in a large number of varied, unpatterned, and short-duration activities.
 
b) There was little time for reflective thinking (due to interruptions).

c) Half of these managers’ activities lasted less than nine minutes.
 
2. Mintzberg provided a categorization scheme for defining what managers do on the basis of actual managers on the job—Mintzberg’s managerial roles.

3. Mintzberg concluded that managers perform ten different but highly interrelated roles.
 
a) These ten roles are shown in Exhibit 1-5.

b) They are grouped under three primary headings:

(1) Interpersonal relationships.
(2) The transfer of information
(3) Decision making

D. Is the Manager’s Job Universal? (PPT 1-8)

1. The importance of the managerial roles varies depending on the manager’s level in the organization.
 
a) The differences are of degree and emphasis but not of activity.

b) As managers move up, they do more planning and less direct overseeing of others.
 
1) See Exhibit 1-6.

c) The amount of time managers give to each activity is not necessarily constant.
 
d) The content of the managerial activities changes with the manager’s level.

1) Top managers are concerned with designing the overall organization’s structure.

2) Lower-level managers focus on designing the jobs of individuals and work groups.

2. Profit versus Not-for-Profit.

a) The manager’s job is mostly the same in both profit and not-for-profit organizations.

b) All managers make decisions, set objectives, create workable organization structures, hire and motivate employees, secure legitimacy for their organization’s existence, and develop internal political support in order to implement programs.
 
c) The most important difference is measuring performance, profit, or the “bottom line.”
 
d) There is no such universal measure in not-for-profit organizations.
 
e) Making a profit for the “owners” of not-for-profit organizations is not the primary focus.

f) There are distinctions, but the two are far more alike than they are different.

3. Size of Organization.

a) Definition of small business and the part it plays in our society.

1) There is no commonly agreed-upon definition.

b) Small business—any independently owned and operated profit-seeking enterprise that has fewer than 500 employees.
 
c) Statistics on small business.

1) 98 percent of all nonfarm businesses in the United States.

2) Employ over 60 percent of the private work force.

3) Dominate such industries as retailing and construction.

4) Will generate nearly three-fourths of all new jobs in the economy.

5)  Where the job growth has been in recent years.
 
(a) Companies with fewer than 500 employees have created more than 2 million jobs

(b) Small business start-ups witnessed in countries such as China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Great Britain.

d) Managing a small business is different from that of managing a large one.

1) See Exhibit 1-7.

2) The small business manager’s most important role is that of spokesperson (outwardly focused).

3)  In a large organization, the manager’s most important job is deciding which organizational units get what available resources and how much of them (inwardly focused).

4)  The entrepreneurial role is least important to managers in large firms.

5) A small business manager is more likely to be a generalist.

6)  The large firm’s manager’s job is more structured and formal than the manager in a small firm. 

7)  Planning is less carefully orchestrated in the small business.

8) The small business organizational design will be less complex and structured.

9)  Control in the small business will rely more on direct observation.

e) We see differences in degree and emphasis, but not in activities.
 
4. Management concepts and national borders.
 
a) Studies that have compared managerial practices between countries have not generally supported the universality of management concepts.

1) In Chapter 2, we will examine some specific differences between countries.

b) Most of the concepts we will be discussing primarily apply to the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and other English-speaking democracies.

c) Concepts may need to be modified when working with India, China, Chile, or other countries whose economic, political, social, or cultural environments differ greatly from that of the so-called free-market democracies.

5. Making decisions and dealing with change.

a) Managers make decisions and are agents of change.
 
1) Almost everything managers do requires them to make decisions.

2) The best managers are the ones who can identify critical problems, assimilate the appropriate data, make sense of the information, and decide the best course of action to take for resolving the problem.

3) Chapter 4 addresses the proper way to make decisions. 

b) Successful managers acknowledge the rapid changes around them and are flexible.

1) Successful managers recognize the potential effect of technological improvements on a work unit’s performance.
2)  They also realize that people often resist change.
 
c) Managers need to be in a position to “sell” the benefits of the change while simultaneously helping their employees deal with the uncertainty and anxiety that changes may bring.

d) We'll look at how managers act as agents of change in greater detail in Chapter 7.

Teaching Notes  _______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

E. What Skills and Competencies Do Successful Managers Possess?

1. In the 1970s, management researcher Robert L. Katz found that managers must possess four critical management skills. (Conceptual, interpersonal, technical, & political skills)

2. Management skills—those abilities or behaviors that are crucial to success in a managerial position.
a) Two levels—general skills and specific skills.

3. General Skills (PPT 1-10)

a) Conceptual skills refer to the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations.
 
1) They help managers see how things fit together and facilitate making good decisions.

2)  Interpersonal skills encompass the ability to work with, understand, mentor, and motivate other people, both individually and in groups.

b) Technical skills are abilities to apply specialized knowledge or expertise.
 
1) Top-level managers—these abilities are related to knowledge of the industry and a general understanding of the organization’s processes and products.

2)  Middle and lower-level managers—these abilities are related to the specialized knowledge required in the areas with which they work.

c) Political skills are related to the ability to enhance one’s position, build a power base, and establish the right connections.
 
1) Managers with good political skills tend to be better at getting resources, receive higher evaluations, and get more promotions.

Teaching Notes  _______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

DEVELOPING YOUR MENTORING SKILL

Guidelines for Mentoring Others
A mentor is someone in the organization usually more experienced and in a higher level position who sponsors or supports another employee (frequently called a protégé). A mentor can teach, guide, and encourage. Some organizations have formal mentoring programs, but even if your organization does not, mentoring should be an important skill for you to develop.

Steps in Practicing the Skill
1) Communicate honestly and openly with your protégé.
2) Encourage honest and open communication from your protégé.
3) Treat the relationship with the protégé as a learning opportunity.
4) Take the time to get to know your protégé.

Practicing the Skill
Select someone you know (e.g., a relative, neighbor, or friend) and teach him/her a skill you’ve mastered. Spend an hour teaching your protégé.
Write a brief set of notes about the mentoring experience.
Be sure to record what you learned from your protégé and how you might have improved your own learning opportunity.
Could you have prepared ahead of time?  How would that have helped you learn better?

In assessing your performance as a mentor, evaluate your skill in organizing and presenting the necessary information.
Did your protégé ask questions you could not immediately answer?
 How did you handle these?
 How do you think you could have done better?

In-Class Teaching Tips for Using Practicing the Skill
As a class, brainstorm a list of 3-7 characteristics they would look for in a mentor.
Examples could include:
Thorough understanding of process or skill to be taught;
Able to communicate well (i.e., not seen as condescending or aloof; easy to understand);
Seems “approachable” or seems to like helping others;
Knows the company, its products/services, and processes well;
Has time, or is willing to make time, to work with the protégé;
Is respected by others in the company; etc.

Recommend students include their preferred criteria in priority order when they write a description of their experience of being a mentor.

As a class, discuss similarities and differences between serving in the role of mentor and the role of  protégé. 
Brainstorm a list of 3-7 characteristics they would look for in a protégé. Examples could include
    Has both a desire and ability to learn
   Accepts feedback well
   Has time, or is willing to make time, to work with the mentor; etc.

Form students into small groups in class and have them brainstorm, discuss, and share ideas of what skills/processes they could teach. Encourage students to select a skill or process to teach that they really know well. 

Ask that each student report out 1-3 skills they think they could teach someone else.
Ask students to prepare 3-5 minute oral summaries of their mentoring experience to present in class.

4. Specific Skills.  (PPT 1-10)

a) Research has also identified six sets of behaviors that explain a little bit more than 50 percent of a manager’s effectiveness.

1) Controlling the organization’s environment and its resources.

2) Organizing and coordinating.

3) Handling information.

4) Providing for growth and development.

5) Motivating employees and handling conflicts.

6) Strategic problem solving.

5. Management Competencies. 

a) The most recent approach to defining the manager’s job.

b) These are defined as a cluster of related knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to effective managerial performance.
 
c) One of the most comprehensive competency studies has come out of the United Kingdom.

1) The Management Standards Center (MSC).

2)  Based on an analysis of what effective managers should be able to do, the MCI sets generic standards of management competence.

3) Exhibit 1-8 lists standards for managers.  

(a) For each area of competence, there is a related set of specific elements that define effectiveness in that area.
 
Teaching Notes  _______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

III. HOW MUCH IMPORTANCE DOES THE MARKETPLACE PUT ON MANAGERS?

A. Introduction (PPT 1-11)

1. Good managers can turn straw to gold.

2. Managers tend to be more highly paid than operatives.

a) As a manager’s authority and responsibility expand, so typically does his or her pay.
 
b) Large retail firms such as Best Buy or Costco pay their managers considerably more than their non-managers as a measure of the importance placed on effective management skills.

3. However, not all managers make six-figure incomes.

4. What could you expect to earn as a manager?
 
a) It depends on level in the organization, education and experience, the type of business, comparable pay standards in the community, and managerial effectiveness.

b) Most first-line supervisors earn between $30,000 and $55,000 a year.

c) Middle managers often start near $45,000 and top out at around $120,000.
 
d) Senior managers in large corporations can earn $1 million a year or more.

e) In 2005 the average cash compensation (salary plus annual bonus) for executives at the largest U.S. corporations was well over $10 million.

f) In many cases, this compensation was also enhanced by other means, such as stock options.

g) The top 12 of these individuals (CEOs from Capital One, Lehman Brothers, Autodesk, and Abercrombie & Fitch) averaged between $83 and $295 million in total compensation (including their stock options).

h) Management compensation reflects the market forces of supply and demand.

i) Some controversy surrounds the large dollar amounts paid to these executives (see Ethical Dilemma in Management).

Teaching Notes  _______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Ethical Dilemma in Management
Are U.S. Executives Overpaid?
SUMMARY
Are we paying U.S. executives too much? There are two sides to the issue. Support for paying this amount is the fact that these executives have tremendous organizational responsibilities. They have to manage today’s environment, keep moving into the future, and their jobs are six to seven days a week, often ten to fourteen hours a day.
On the other hand, most of the research done on executive salaries questions the linkage to performance. American company executives are some of the highest paid people in the world. Even when performance problems lead to dismissal, some executives are paid phenomenal severance packages—sometimes as much as $210 million. U.S. executives make two to five times the salaries of their foreign counterparts. That is interesting when you consider that a number of executives in Japanese and European organizations perform better.  U.S. CEOs make more than 350 times as much as the average employee.

Do you believe that U.S. executives are overpaid? What's your opinion?

Teaching suggestions

1. Before leading this discussion consider assigning students the task of researching CEO pay of two groups of companies, small caps and large caps to see if there are any significant differences.

 Select five large caps and assign a student team to research each one.

 Select five small caps and assign a student team to research each one.

2. Second, research or ask students to research the makeup of the boards of selected companies whose CEOs are very highly paid. [There is some evidence of the linkage of CEO and the makeup of the board, i.e., the more CEOs and executives on a company board, the higher the pay.]

3. A final item to research is the performance of the companies over the last three years and then match that to the pattern of CEO performance and CEO pay.

4. This type of personal research will give the students substance to work with rather than an opinion shaped by headlines.

IV. WHY STUDY MANAGEMENT?

A. Reasons (PPT 1-12)

1. We all have a vested interest in improving the way organizations are managed.
 
a) We interact with them every day of our lives.

1) Examples of problems that can largely be attributed to poor management.
 
b) Those that are poorly managed often find themselves with a declining customer base and reduced revenues.

2. The reality that once you graduate from college and begin your career, you will either manage or be managed.

a) An understanding of the management process is foundational for building management skills.
 
b) You will almost certainly work in an organization, be a manager, or work for a manager.
 
c) You needn’t aspire to be a manager in order to gain something valuable from a course in management.

3. Management embodies the work and practices from individuals from a wide variety of disciplines.

3.  Self-Assessment #47 “How Motivated am I to be a Manager?”; #48 “Am I Well Suited for a Career As a Global Manager?”

V. HOW DOES MANAGEMENT RELATE TO OTHER DISCIPLINES?

A. Introduction 

1. College courses frequently appear to be independent bodies of knowledge.

2. There is typically a lack of connectedness between core business courses and between courses in business and the liberal arts.

3. A number of management educators have begun to recognize the need to build bridges by integrating courses across the college curriculum.

4. We’ve integrated topics around the humanities and social science courses you may have taken to help you see how courses in disciplines such as economics, psychology, sociology, political science, philosophy, and speech communications relate to topics in management.

5. The big picture is often lost when management concepts are studied in isolation.

B. What Can Students of Management Gain From Humanities and Social Science Courses?

1. Anthropology.
 
a) The study of societies, which helps us learn about human beings and their activities.
 
b) Anthropologists’ work on cultures and environments has helped managers better understand differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior between people.

2. Economics.
 
a) Concerned with the allocation and distribution of scarce resources.

b) Provides an understanding of the changing economy and the role of competition and free markets in a global context.
 
3. Philosophy. 

a) Philosophy courses inquire into the nature of things, particularly values and ethics.
 
b) Ethical concerns go directly to the existence of organizations and what constitutes proper behavior within them.

Teaching Notes  _______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

4. Political Science.
 
a) It studies the behavior of individuals and groups within a political environment.

b) Specific topics of concern include structuring of conflict, allocating  power, and  manipulating power for individual self-interest.

c) Capitalism is just one form of an economic system.

d) The economies based on socialistic concepts are not free markets but government owned. Organizational decision makers essentially carry out dictates of government policies.
 
1) Efficiency had little meaning in such economies.

e) Management is affected by a nation’s form of government, whether it allows its citizens to hold property, by the ability to engage in and enforce contracts, and by the appeal mechanisms available to redress grievances.
 
5. Psychology.

a) The science that seeks to measure, explain, and sometimes change the behavior of humans.
b) Psychologists study and attempt to understand individual behavior, and is leading the way in providing managers with insights into human diversity.

c) Psychology courses are also relevant to managers in terms of gaining a better understanding of motivation, leadership, trust, employee selection, performance appraisals, and training techniques.

6. Sociology.
 
a) Sociology studies people in relation to their fellow human beings.
 
b) Sociologists investigate how societal changes such as globalization, cultural diversity, gender roles, and varying forms of family life affect organizational practices.

C. A Concluding Remark

1. We’ve attempted to provide some insight into need-to-integrate courses you have taken in your college pursuits because what you learn in humanities and social science courses can assist you in becoming better prepared to manage in today’s dynamic marketplace.

Teaching Notes  _______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Review, Comprehension, Application
Chapter Summary

1.    Managers direct the activities of others in an organization.  They have such titles as supervisor,
       department head, dean, division manager, vice president, president, and chief executive officer.
       Operatives are nonmanagerial personnel.  They work directly on a job or task and have no
       responsibility for overseeing the work of others.

2.    Management refers to the process of getting activities completed efficiently with and through other
       people.  The process represents the primary activities of planning, organizing, leading, and
       controlling.

3.    Efficiency is concerned with minimizing resource costs in the completion of activities.  Effectiveness 
       is concerned with getting activities successfully completed—that is, goal attainment.

4.    The four primary processes of management are planning (setting goals), organizing (determining how
       to achieve the goals), leading (motivating employees), and controlling (monitoring activities).

5. The three levels of management are first-line supervisors, middle managers, and top managers.  First-line supervisors are the lowest level of management and are typically responsible for directing the day-to-day activities of operative employees.  Middle managers represent the levels of management between the first-line supervisor and top management.  These individuals, who manage other managers and possibly some operative employees, are primarily responsible for translating the goals set by top management into specific details that lower-level managers can perform.  Top managers, at or near the pinnacle of the organization, are responsible for making decisions about the direction of the organization and establishing policies that affect all organizational members.

6. Henry Mintzberg concluded that managers perform 10 different roles or behaviors.  He classified them into three sets.  One set is concerned with interpersonal relationships (figurehead, leader, liaison).  The second set is related to the transfer of information (monitor, disseminator, spokesperson).  The third set deals with decision-making (entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator).

7. Management has several generic properties.  Regardless of level in an organization, all managers perform the same four activities; however, the emphasis given to each function varies with the manager’s position in the hierarchy.  Similarly, for the most part, the manager’s job is the same regardless of the type of organization he or she is in.  The generic properties of management are found mainly in the world’s democracies.  One should be careful in assuming that management practices are universally transferable outside so-called free-market democracies.

8. The four critical types of skills necessary for becoming a successful manager are: conceptual (the ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations); interpersonal (the ability to work with and understand others); technical (applying specialized knowledge); and political (enhancing one’s position and building a power base).

9. People in all walks of life have come to recognize the important role that good management plays in our society.  For those who aspire to managerial positions, the study of management provides the body of knowledge that will help them to be effective managers.  For those who do not plan on careers as managers, the study of management can give them considerable insight into the way their bosses behave and into the internal activities of organizations.

10. Management does not exist in isolation.  Rather, management practices are directly influenced by research and practices in such fields as anthropology (learning about individuals and their activities); economics (understanding allocation and distribution of resources); philosophy (developing values and ethics); political science (understanding behavior of individuals and groups in a political setting); psychology (learning about individual behavior); and sociology (understanding relationships among people).

Companion Website
We invite you to visit the Robbins/DeCenzo Companion Website at www.prenhall.com/robbins for this chapter’s Internet resources, chapter quiz and student PowerPoints.

Reading for Comprehension
1. What is an organization? Why are managers important to an organization’s success?
Answer – An organization is a systematic arrangement of people brought together to accomplish some specific purpose. All organizations share three common characteristics. 1) Every organization has a purpose and is made up of people who are grouped in some fashion. 2) No purpose or goal can be achieved by itself, therefore organizations have members. 3) All organizations develop a systematic structure that defines and limits the behavior of its members. Organization—an entity that has a distinct purpose, has people or members, and has a systematic structure.

Managers direct the activities of other people in the organization. Customarily classified as top, middle, or first line, they supervise both operative employees and lower-level managers. First-line managers are responsible for directing the day-to-day activities of operative employees. Middle managers manage other managers and possibly some operative employees. They are responsible for translating the goals set by top management into specific details. Top managers are responsible for making decisions about the direction of the organization and establishing policies that affect all organizational members.

2. What four common activities comprise the process approach to management? Briefly describe each of them.
Answer – The management process can be condensed to four basics:  planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. See Exhibit 1-4. These processes are interrelated and interdependent.
 Planning—encompasses defining an organization’s goals, establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals, and developing comprehensive plans to integrate and coordinate.
 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—managers motivate employees, direct the activities of others, select the most effective communication channel, or resolve conflicts among members.
 Controlling—to ensure that things are going as they should, a manager must monitor performance. The monitoring, comparing, and correcting is the controlling process.

3. What are the four general skills and the six specific skills that affect managerial effectiveness?
Answer –
General Skills
 Conceptual skills refer to the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations. They help managers see how things fit together and facilitate making good decisions.
 Interpersonal skills encompass the ability to work with, understand, mentor, and motivate other people, both individually and in groups.
 Technical skills are abilities to apply specialized knowledge or expertise.
 Political skills are related to the ability to enhance one's position, build a power base, and establish the right connections.

Specific Skills
Research has also identified six sets of behaviors that explain a little bit more than 50 percent of a manager’s effectiveness.
 Controlling the organization’s environment and its resources.
 Organizing and coordinating.
 Handling information.
 Providing for growth and development.
 Motivating employees and handling conflicts.
 Strategic problem solving.

4. How does a manager’s job change with his/her level in the organization?
Answer – The differences are of degree and emphasis but not of activity. As managers move up, they do more planning and less direct overseeing of others. See Exhibit 1-6. The amount of time managers give to each activity is not necessarily constant. The content of the managerial activities changes with the manager’s level. Top managers are concerned with designing the overall organization’s structure. Lower-level managers focus on designing the jobs of individuals and work groups.

5. What value do courses in anthropology, economics, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology have for managers?  Give an example of one application to management practice that comes from each of these disciplines.
Answer – Students’ examples of application will vary but should take into consideration the following practicalities:
 Anthropology. Anthropologists’ work on cultures and environments has helped managers better understand differences in fundamental values, attitudes, and behavior between people.
 Economics. It provides an understanding of the changing economy and the role of competition and free markets in a global context.
 Philosophy. Philosophy courses inquire into the nature of things, particularly values and ethics. Ethical concerns go directly to the existence of organizations and what constitutes proper behavior within them.
 Political Science. Specific topics of concern include structuring of conflict, allocation of power, and how people manipulate power for individual self-interest. Management is affected by a nation’s form of government, whether it allows its citizens to hold property, by the ability to engage in and enforce contracts, and by the appeal mechanisms available to redress grievances.
 Psychology. Psychology courses are also relevant to managers in terms of gaining a better understanding of motivation, leadership, trust, employee selection, performance appraisals, and training techniques.
 Sociology. Sociologists investigate how societal changes such as globalization, cultural diversity, gender roles, and family life are affecting organizational practices.

Linking Concepts to Practice
1. Are all effective organizations also efficient? Discuss. If you had to choose between being effective or being efficient, which one would you say is more important? Why?
Answer – Management is the process of getting things done, effectively and efficiently, through and with other people. Effectiveness and efficiency deal with what we are doing and how we are doing it. Efficiency means doing the task right and refers to the relationship between inputs and outputs. Effectiveness means doing the right task, which translates into goal attainment. Efficiency and effectiveness are interrelated.

It’s easier to be effective if one ignores efficiency. Good management is attaining goals (effectiveness) and doing so as efficiently as possible. Organizations can be efficient and yet not be effective. High efficiency is associated more typically with high effectiveness. Poor management is most often due to both inefficiency and ineffectiveness or to effectiveness achieved through inefficiency.

To address the question of which is more important, maybe it depends.  Doing the right tasks may keep a business in business—keep the doors open and meet payroll. Doing the wrong tasks may close the doors and send everyone home. 

Suppose you are the owner and manager of a CPA firm.  Over the years, your organization has
developed a long-term relationship with a number of customers who come to you each year to
prepare their income tax return. 

If you chose to emphasize efficiency over effectiveness, what might happen? You might create an
infrastructure that at least in the short run would be very efficient.  Suppose you have one person
handle a customer’s tax return preparation from start to finish (sounds like a silo).  You could  have
your accountants specialize in the type of customers they work with so they could become
even more efficient in completing the tax returns (we’ll talk about job specialization more in the
history module and chapter five).  You could create a compensation system where accountants who
could document their ability to complete tax returns in less time were rewarded.  Let’s come back to
this concept in a minute.

What if you chose to emphasize effectiveness over efficiency?  Suppose that it is one of your
organization’s goals to guarantee accurate preparation of income tax returns.  You may decide to send
all employees to training to learn the most up-to-date advice available regarding tax law. You may
also see that all of your employees have training each year in any changes being implemented by the
Internal Revenue Service.  You might also create an infrastructure that would seem to be less
efficient.  For example, you might require that each tax return be reviewed by three separate
accountants, one of whom must be a senior accountant, before it is released to the customer.  You
may require all accountants to work with a wide variety of tax returns so they will develop a broader
base of expertise.

In the first example (the efficient office), everything might move quickly from start to finish but your
control system may be weak.  When customers begin to be audited by the IRS and learn that your
efficient operation was not necessarily effective (tax returns are not correct according to tax law and
IRS requirements), your customer base may quickly disappear and your ability to continue in business
could be at risk.

In the second example (the effective office), everything and everyone may be very knowledgeable and thorough and correct. . .and expensive.  When your customers begin to figure out that your charges are higher than those paid by some of their friends for similar services, your customer base may quickly disappear and your ability to continue in business could be at risk.

As an effective manager can you afford to separate effectiveness and efficiency?  Probably not.  You
need to pursue the right goals (effectiveness) and you need to use resources wisely (efficiency).  Since
the two are so closely interrelated, understanding the fine balance between them is an important part
of how you become an effective manager.

2. Contrast planning, organizing, leading, and controlling with Henry Mintzberg’s ten roles.
Answer – Students’ responses can be abbreviated by comparing Exhibit 1-4 and Exhibit 1-6. See the suggested answer for #3 below.

3. Is your college instructor a manager? Discuss in terms of both planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, and Mintzberg’s managerial roles.
Answer – A college instructor is both an individual contributor and a manager. He/she is an operative in that he/she produces “the product” of the university. But he/she is also a manager in that he/she must manage the class and students.
In terms of:
 Planning—the instructor defines class goals, establishes the semester plan for achieving them, and develops lesson plans to integrate and coordinate these efforts.
 Organizing—not as much, as he/she is primarily responsible for execution but may need to if he/she uses class participation.
 Leading—should be relatively obvious, motivating students, direct the activities of others, select the most effective communication channel, or resolve conflicts among members.
 Controlling—ah grading!

For the sake of space, suggestions will be limited to Mintzberg’s three primary categories.
 Interpersonal—the roles of leader and liaison.
 Informational—monitor and disseminator.
 Decisional—disturbance handler and resource allocator.

4. In what ways would the activities of an owner of an automotive repair shop that employs two people and the president of the Ford Motor Company’s job be similar? In what ways would they be different?
Answer – Managing the shop is different from managing the company. Refer to Exhibit 1-7. The shop manager’s most important role is that of spokesperson. The president’s most important job is deciding which organizational units get what available resources and how much of them. The entrepreneurial role is least important to the president. The shop owner is more likely to be a generalist. The president’s job is more structured and formal than in small firms. In the shop planning is less carefully orchestrated, the shop’s design is less complex and structured, and control in the shop will rely more on direct observation. We see differences in degree and emphasis, but not in activities.

5. Some individuals today have the title of project leader. They manage projects of various size and duration and must coordinate the talents of many people to accomplish their goals, but none of the workers on their projects report directly to them. Can these project leaders really be considered managers if they have no employees over whom they have direct authority? Discuss.
Answer – Less so because they manage processes. They still perform the four basic functions of managers, but of processes, not people.

给自信 更公益

中国经济管理大学《公益教育宣言》

中国经济管理大学——每个人都有受教育的权利和义务，不分民族、性别、宗教、语言、社会出身、财产或其它身份等任何区别。　

中国经济管理大学——MBA/EMBA培训不应该仅仅属于富人的专属特权，更不应该让天价学费阻碍为那些有管理潜力普通大众的求学之路。

中国经济管理大学——中国经济管理大学EMBA公益研究生院（免费学堂）勇当教育公益事业先行者，2013继续让公益培训遍结硕果。每月2-4次免费专题培训。

中国经济管理大学——为有潜力的管理人才、培训合格人才免费颁发合格证书，筹建高端管理人才库，让每一位学员享有金牌猎头服务。

中国经济管理大学

中国经济管理大学|中国经济管理大学培训