Table of Contents Chapter 1. Understanding the business organisation – a multidisciplinary approach. The management role. Universality of management:.
The Reality of Work. Management and Business Organization. Integrative Managerial Issues. Managing in a Global Environment.
The economic environment. The political/legal environment. The cultural environment. Global Management in Today’s World.
Types of Workplace Diversity. Challenges in Managing Diversity. Workplace Diversity Initiatives. Managing Social Responsibility and Ethics.
Managers and Ethical Behavior. Social Responsibility and Ethics Issues In Today’s World. Managing Change and Innovation. Types of Organizational Change.
Contemporary Issues in Managing Change. Foundations of Planning. Goals and Plans. Setting Goals and Developing Plans.
Contemporary Issues in Planning. The strategic management process. Current Strategic Management Issues. Basic Organizational Design.
Designing Organizational Structure. Traditional Organizational Design. Adaptive Organizational Design. Managing Human Resources.
Understanding Individual Behavior. Attitudes and Job Performance. Managers and Communication. Methods of Interpersonal Communication.
Effective Interpersonal Communication. Organizational Communication Networks. Early Theories of Motivation. Contemporary Theories of Motivation.
Managers as Leaders. Early theories of leadership. The three major contingency theories of leadership. The Control Process.
Controlling for Organizational Performance. Tools for measuring Organizational Performance. The Role of Operations Management. Techniques for Assessing the Environment.
Techniques for Allocating Resources. Free Software Tools. iDempiere Business Suites -Enterprise resource planning (ERP). Case Studies for Management and Business Organization.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND The first chapter will serve two purposes: The first is to equip you with the understanding you will need of the main key terms you are going to be working with. However, you are not just given definitions. The idea is to offer you a way of developing your own understanding of key concepts and to be able to evaluate the meanings others attach to the terms you will meet. Secondly, Section 1 discusses the background to the subject so that you can appreciate why and how it has developed.
The different influences on its development are important. At first it may be difficult to see how this is relevant to your wanting to understand business and management today, but the developments of today emerge from this background and are often influenced by the major events and theories of the past. This study adopts a gender perspective to analyze funding decisions made by an investment fund that invests equity stakes in new ventures. Prior research has indicated thatthere is gender skewness in risk capital investments resulting from a combination ofdemand- and supply-side issues.
We apply signaling theory to examine the interfacebetween demand and supply to understand gender biases related to risk capital investments. In-depth analyses of decision documents from four investment cases show thatgender plays a role in the signals that are communicated in the prefunding entrepreneur investor relationship. Background Let’s think about the concept of ‘organisation’. Many definitions are possible, but most of these include the characteristics of people, goals and structures.
People are social beings and, by and large, tend to cooperate in interdependent relationships to achieve common aims. Originally people formed simple family and tribal structures. Today we have evolved into a complex society characterised by large, formal and increasingly global structures. For our purposes, then, we can define an organisation as: a social entity that provides the necessary structures to achieve specific aims.
For our purposes in this subject guide, we will understand the term business to mean: a commercial enterprise or establishment that trades in goods or services. We can define the business organisation as: an entity that is both commercial and social, which provides the necessary structures to achieve the central objective of trades in goods or services. Understanding the business organisation – a multidisciplinary approach We are going to focus, in this section, on sociology, psychology, anthropology (the behavioral sciences) and economics, as they will provide the major theoretical foundations for other sections in the guide. Sociological perspectives: The main ways in which sociology informs us about business and management are to help explain: • How people interact at work • The effects of different organisational structures on people; sociology can particularly contribute to our understanding of social relations within the organisation, such as the interaction of employees, power relations and social groupings • The ways in which business and management have impacts on wider society The anthropology of organisations: Anthropology is the study of cultures and societies throughout the world, and shares many of the features of sociology.
The anthropologist spending time within the organisation to develop an understanding of the behaviour patterns, social groupings, rituals, symbols and language within the organisation or within a particular group of employees. The detailed descriptive accounts made possible by this method, and the collection of data over a significant time length, can yield useful results for understanding problems with organisational efficiency and social relations within the organisation. The contributions of psychology: The approach of psychology is most useful for issues that are determined by the processes of the mind. These include how individuals make decisions internally, their performance capabilities, how they can learn, and how they respond to changing conditions.
When exploring individual differences in relation to organisations, the personality is important. Why might a manager want to assess the personality of an employee? Some examples of how an employee’s personality could be important are: • The likelihood that the employee will be suited to a particular type of job • How successful an employee would be in a management role? • The method of training that would be most effective • The way that they interact and work with other employees. The research methods employed by psychologists have helped business a great deal. They are used in several ways: First, psychological tests have been adopted to assess the personality and intelligence of potential employees or for decisions about promotions.
Tests are also 4 useful to assess the attitudes of employees, and so to try to identify conflicts with group or organisational goals. Secondly, the experimental methods of psychology have been used to observe the effect of changes in the workplace, such as in working conditions, or changes to the benefits received by employees. Economic approaches to organisations: Economic theory is concerned with understanding the mechanism for the allocation of limited resources to achieve unlimited wants. In a free market, the price system is the mechanism for allocating resources between competing wants.
Thus, markets allow the interaction of producers and consumers. One of the key elements in business economics is the focus on those activities of the business that are related to profit maximisation. This assumes that the overall mission of the organisation is ultimately to create as much profit as possible, for as long as possible. This would therefore be the guiding principle for all decisions made by managers, at all levels of the organization.
Decision making Decision making is a key activity in the management of business organisations, ranging from the daily decisions related to operations in the workplace, to the long-term decisions which will affect the future direction of the business organisation. The management role The first reason managers are important is that organizations need their managerial skills and abilities more than ever in these uncertain, complex, and chaotic times. As organizations deal with today’s challenges—the worldwide economic climate, changing technology, everincreasing globalization, and so forth—managers play an important role in identifying critical issues and crafting responses. Another reason managers are important to organizations is that they’re critical to getting things done.
Finally, managers do matter to organizations! How do we know that? The Gallup Organization, which has polled millions of employees and tens of thousands of managers, has found that the single most important variable in employee productivity and loyalty isn’t pay or benefits or workplace environment; it’s the quality of the relationship between employees and their direct supervisors. A manager is someone who coordinates and oversees the work of other people so that organizational goals can be accomplished. A manager’s job is not about personal achievement—it’s about helping others do their work. Is there a way to classify managers in 5 organizations? In traditionally structured organizations managers can be classified as first- line, middle, or top.
Common terms used to describe managers in an organisational hierarchy It’s obvious that managers do their work in organizations. But what is an organization? It’s a deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish some specific purpose. Your college or university is an organization; so are fraternities and sororities, government departments, churches, Facebook, your neighborhood grocery store, the United Way, the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, and the Mayo Clinic.
All are considered organizations and have three common characteristics. First, an organization has a distinct purpose. Second, each organization is composed of people. Third, all organizations develop some deliberate structure within which members do their work.
That structure may be open and flexible, with no specific job duties or strict adherence to explicit job arrangements. Management involves coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so that their activities are completed efficiently and effectively. We already know that coordinating and overseeing the work of others is what distinguishes a managerial position from a nonmanagerial one. However, this doesn’t mean that managers can do what they want anytime, anywhere, or in any way.
Instead, management involves ensuring that work activities are completed efficiently and effectively by the people responsible for doing them, 6 or at least that’s what managers aspire to do. Efficiency refers to getting the most output from the least amount of inputs. Management is also concerned with being effective, completing activities so that organizational goals are attained. Effectiveness is often described as “doing the right things”—that is, doing those work activities that will help the organization reach its goals.
Because organizations exist to achieve some particular purpose, someone must define that purpose and the means for its achievement. Managers are that someone. As managers engage in planning, they set goals, establish strategies for achieving those goals, and develop plans to integrate and coordinate activities. Managers are also responsible for arranging and structuring work to accomplish the organization’s goals.
We call this function organizing. Every organization has people, and a manager’s job is to work with and through people to accomplish goals. This is the leading function. The final management function is controlling.
After goals and plans are set (planning), tasks and structural arrangements put in place (organizing), and people hired, trained, and motivated (leading), there has to be some evaluation of whether things are going as planned. In today’s world, managers are dealing with global economic and political uncertainties, changing workplaces, ethical issues, security threats, and changing technology. Changing and impact of change 7 You may be wondering why you need to study management. If you’re majoring in accounting or marketing or any field other than management, you may not understand how studying management is going to help you in your career.
We can explain the value of studying management by looking at three things: the universality of management and the reality of work. Universality of management: The reality that management is needed in all types and sizes of organizations, at all organizational levels, in all organizational areas, and in organizations no matter where located. Management is needed in all types 2. The Reality of Work Another reason for studying management is the reality that for most of you, once you graduate from college and begin your career, you will either manage or be managed.
For those who plan to be managers, an understanding of management forms the foundation upon which to build your management skills. Omnipotent view of management: The view that managers are directly responsible for an organization’s success or failure. Symbolic view of management: The view that much of an organization’s success or failure is due to external forces outside managers’ control.