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A manager

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is someone who works with and through other people by coordinating their work activities in order to accomplish organizational goals. - Coordinate work activities to achieve organizational goals. - Actions are affected by both the internal culture of the organization and the constraints of the external environment - including the global environment. - Deal with complicated ethical and social responsibility issues as they plan, organize, lead and control.

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First-line managers

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are the lowest level of management. They're often called supervisors.

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Middle managers

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include all levels of management between the first-line level and the top level of the organization.

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Top managers

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include managers at or near the top of the organization who are responsible for making organization-wide decisions and establishing the plans and goals that affect the entire organization.

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Efficiency

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is getting the most output from the least amount of input, the goal of which is to minimize resource costs

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Effectiveness

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Effectiveness is completing activities so that organizational goals are attained; often described as "doing the right things

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Henri Fayol

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a French industrialist from the early part of the 1900s, proposed that managers perform five management functions: POCCC (plan, organize, command, coordinate, control).

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Interpersonal roles

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included figurehead, leadership, and liaison activities

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Informational roles

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included monitoring, disseminating, and spokesperson activities.

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Decisional roles

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included those of entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.

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Technical skills

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are skills that include knowledge of and proficiency in a certain specialized field.

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. Human skills

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include the ability to work well with other people both individually and in a group.

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Conceptual skills

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include the ability to think and to conceptualize about abstract and complex situations, to see the organization as a whole, and to understand the relationships among the various subunits, and to visualize how the organization fits into its broader environment.

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An organization

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is a deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish some specific purpose. Organizations share three common characteristics: (1) each has a distinct purpose; (2) each is composed of people; and (3) each develops some deliberate structure so members can do their work.

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Characteristics of the Traditional Organization

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• Stable • Inflexible • Job-focused • Work is defined by job positions • Individual-oriented • Permanent jobs • Command-oriented • Managers make decisions • Rule-oriented • Homogeneous workforce • "9 to 5" hours • Hierarchical • Typical hours of operation

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Characteristics of the New Organizatio

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• Dynamic • Flexible • Skills-focused • Work is defined in terms of tasks to be done • Team-oriented • Temporary jobs • Involvement-oriented • Employees participate in decision making • Customer-oriented • Diverse workforce • Workdays have no time boundaries • Lateral and networked relationships • Work anywhere, anytime

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Explain why managers are important to an organization.

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Managers are important to organizations for three reasons. First, organizations need their managerial skills and abilities in uncertain, complex, and chaotic times. Second, managers are critical to getting things done in organizations. Finally, managers contribute to employee productivity and loyalty; the way employees are managed can affect the organization's financial performance; and managerial ability has been shown to be important in creating organizational value.

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Tell who managers are and where they work.

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Managers coordinate and oversee the work of other people so that organizational goals can be accomplished. In traditionally structured organizations, managers can be first-line, middle, or top. In other more loosely configured organizations, the managers may not be as readily identifiable, although someone must fulfill that role.

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Describe the factors that are reshaping and redefining the manager's job .

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Some of the many challenges of managing include global economic and political uncertainties, changing workplaces, ethical issues, security threats, and changing technology. The greatest managerial challenge is the crisis in ethical responsibility damaging today's organizations.

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Explain the value of studying management.

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Understanding management helps us to improve organizations.

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The omnipotent view of management

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says that managers are directly responsible for the success or failure of an organization.

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The symbolic view of management

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takes the view that much of an organization's success or failure is due to external forces outside managers' control.

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Organizational culture

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is a system of shared meanings and beliefs within an organization that determine, in large degree, how employees act.

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Strong cultures

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are possessed by those organizations in which the key values are intensely held and widely shared.

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. A dominant culture

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expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the organization's members.

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Subcultures

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tend to develop in large organizations to reflect common problems, situations, or experiences that members face. These subcultures are likely to be defined by department designations and geographical separation. include the core values of the dominant culture, plus additional values unique to members of the subculture.

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The Source of Culture.

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• The original source of an organization's culture is usually a reflection of the vision or mission of the organization's founders. • It results from the interaction between the founders' biases and assumptions and what the first employees subsequently learned from their own experiences.

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specific environment

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is that part of the environment that includes the constituencies that are directly relevant to the achievement of an organization's goals. a. The specific environment is unique and changes with conditions. b. It also varies depending on the niche the organization serves with respect to the range of products or services it offers and the markets it serves.

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. The general environment

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includes the broad economic, political/legal, socio-cultural, demographic, technological, and global conditions.

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Suppliers

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Suppliers include firms that provide materials and equipment as well as providers of financial and labour inputs. Managers seek to ensure a steady flow of the needed materials, equipment, financial, and labour inputs at the lowest possible price.

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Customers

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are the reasons that organizations exist, as they absorb the outputs. They obviously represent potential uncertainty, particularly if their tastes and desires change.

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Competitors

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cannot be ignored. They're an important environmental force to monitor and respond to. Most organizations have one or more competitors.

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. Pressure groups

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also cannot be ignored by managers. Changes in social and political movements influence the power that these pressure groups have on organizations.

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Economic conditions

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include interest rates, inflation rates, changes in disposable income, stock market fluctuations, and the general business cycle, among other things.

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Legal-Political conditions

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include the general political stability of countries in which an organization does business and the specific attitudes that elected officials have toward business. Federal and provincial governments can influence what organizations can and cannot do.

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Socio-cultural conditions

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include the changing expectations of society. Societal values, customs, and tastes can change, and managers must be aware of these changes.

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Demographic conditions

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including physical characteristics of a population, such as gender, age, level of education, geographic location, income and family composition, can change, and managers must adapt to these changes.

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Technological conditions

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include the changes that are occurring in technology.

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Global conditions

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include global competitors and global consumer markets.

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environmental uncertainty:

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the degree of change and complexity in an organization's environment

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. Degree of change

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is measured as dynamic or complex. If the components in an organization's environment change frequently, it's a dynamic environment. If change is minimal, the environment is called a stable one.

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environmental complexity

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defined as the number of components in an organization's environment and the extent of an organization's knowledge about its environmental components.

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Stakeholders

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are any constituencies in the organization's external environment that are affected by, or have a vested interest in, the organization's decisions and actions.

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Compare and contrast the actions of managers according to the omnipotent and symbolic views.

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The omnipotent view of management suggests that managers are directly responsible for an organization's success or failure. The symbolic view of management argues that much of an organization's success or failure is due to external forces outside managers' control.

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Discuss the characteristics and importance of organizational culture.

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A strong culture supports the goals of the organization making it easier for managers to achieve goals. A weak culture can make things more difficult for managers.

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Describe what kinds of cultures managers can create.

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Ethical, innovative, customer-responsive and diversity supportive cultures.

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Describe the features of the specific and general organizational environments.

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The environment plays a major role in shaping managers' decisions and actions. Economic, legal-political, socio-cultural, demographic, and technological conditions affect the issues managers face in doing their job.

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. Human skills

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include the ability to work well with other people both individually and in a group.

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Perception

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is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. What one perceives can be substantially different from objective reality. Understanding perception is important because people's behaviour is based on their perception of what reality is, not reality itself.

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Attribution Theory

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says we judge people differently depending on what meaning we attribute to a given behaviour.

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- Fundamental Attribution Error

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- The tendency to underestimate external factors and overestimate internal factors when making judgments about others' behaviour.

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- Self-Serving Bias

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- The tendency to attribute one's successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.

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- Selective Perception

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- People selectively interpret what they see based on their interests, background, experience, and attitudes.

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- Halo Effect

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- Drawing a general impression about an individual based on a single characteristic, such as intelligence, likeability, or appearance.

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- Contrast Effects

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- A person's evaluation is affected by comparisons with other individuals recently encountered.

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- Projection

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Attributing one's own characteristics to other people.

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- Stereotyping

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- Judging someone on the basis of your perception of the group to which that person belongs.

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- Prejudice

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- An unfounded dislike of a person or group based on their belonging to a particular stereotyped group.

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- Self-fulfilling Prophecy

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- A concept that proposes a person will behave in ways consistent with how he or she is perceived by others.

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- What is Personality?

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- The stable patterns of behaviour and consistent internal states that determine how an individual reacts and interacts with others.

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- Means of measuring personality

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- Self-report surveys • Individuals evaluate themselves on a series of factors - Observer ratings • Provide an independent assessment of personality. • Tend to be more accurate predictors of success on the job.

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- Personality Determinants

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- (1) Heredity: An approach that argues that the ultimate explanation of an individual's personality is the molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes. The most persuasive research on this comes from studying monozygotic twins who were separated at birth and raised in very different environments. Different research studies with these kinds of twins have determined that genetics accounts for about half of the personality differences in people. - (2) Environment: The culture in which we are raised, our early conditioning, the norms among our family, friends, and social groups, and other influences that we experience play a critical role in shaping our personalities. - (3) Situation: The situation influences the effects of heredity and environment on personality. Personality can be subdued in some situations. A person will be different in a job interview as compared to being at dinner with friends. We cannot look at personality patterns in isolation.

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Extraversion:

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One's comfort level with relationships. Extroverts (high in extraversion) tend to be friendly and outgoing and spend much of their time maintaining and enjoying a large number of relationships. Introverts tend to be reserved and to have fewer relationships, and they are more comfortable with solitude than most people are.

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Agreeableness:

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An individual's propensity to defer to others. Highly agreeable people value harmony more than they value having their say or their way. They are cooperative and trusting of others. People who score low on agreeableness focus more on their own needs than on the needs of others.

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Conscientiousness:

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The number of goals on which a person focuses. A highly conscientious person pursues fewer goals, in a purposeful way, and tends to be responsible, persistent, dependable, and achievement-oriented. Those who score low tend to be more easily distracted, pursuing many goals, and more hedonistic.

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Big Five personality factors are:

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Extraversion; Agreeableness; Conscientiousness; Emotional stability; and Openness to experience

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Emotional stability:

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A person's ability to withstand stress. People with positive emotional stability tend to be characterized as calm, enthusiastic, and secure. Those with high negative scores tend to be nervous, depressed, and insecure.

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Openness to experience:

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The final dimension addresses one's range of interests. Extremely open people are fascinated by novelty and innovation. They tend to be imaginative, artistically sensitive, and intellectual. Those at the other end of the openness category appear more conventional and find comfort in the familiar.

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Machiavellianism

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• Degree to which an individual is: - pragmatic - maintains emotional distance - believes that the ends can justify the means • High Machs vs. Low Machs - manipulate more - win more - are persuaded less - persuade others more

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Narcissism

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• The tendency to be arrogant, have a grandiose sense of importance, require excessive admiration, and have a sense of entitlement. Narcissists tend to think that they are better leaders than their colleagues; but their supervisors tend to rate them as worse

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Psychopathy

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• The tendency for a lack of concern for others and a lack of guilt or remorse when one's actions cause harm. • Related to the use of hard influence tactics (threats, manipulation) and bullying work behaviour (physical or verbal threatening). • They may be cunning, which helps them gain power in an organization, but they do not use that power toward healthy ends for themselves or their organization.

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Core Self-Evaluation

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• People differ in the degree to which they: - Like or dislike themselves - See themselves as effective, capable, and in control of their environment

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Self-Monitoring

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• An individual's ability to adjust behaviour to external, situational factors. • High self-monitors tend to: • Pay closer attention to the behaviour of others • Be more capable of conforming than low self-monitors • Be more mobile in their careers • Receive more promotions

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Proactive Personality

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• A person who identifies opportunities, shows initiative, takes action, and perseveres until meaningful change occurs. • People with a proactive personality will have: - Higher levels of job performance - Career success

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• Emotional Intelligence (EI)

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- refers to an individual's ability to: - Perceive emotions in self and others - Understand the meaning of these emotions - Regulate one's emotions accordingly in a cascading model

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• Emotional labour:

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When an employee expresses organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work.

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