Management Marketing Essay Example

increased efficiency and reduced costs while effectively utilizing remaining resources.The text highlights two steps that can be taken to reduce costs and improve quality: empowerment and the creation of self-managed teams. Empowerment involves using advanced software programs to expand employees' knowledge, tasks, and responsibilities. Self-managed teams are responsible for supervising their own activities and ensuring the quality of goods and services.

At EFM Academy, teams input activity results into computers for immediate access by middle managers. First-line managers act as coaches or mentors, guiding teams towards more efficient task performance.

In terms of IT and managerial roles and skills, managers are expected to perform specific tasks based on their position in the organization. According to Mintzberg, there are ten managerial roles that encompass various tasks involved in planning, organizing, leading, and controlling organizational resources. These roles can be grouped into three categories: decisional (entrepreneur, disturbance handler), informational (monitor, disseminator), and interpersonal (spokesperson, figurehead). Furthermore, a manager also acts as a resource allocator negotiator liaison leader.

These roles involve developing innovative goods and services while dealing with internal and external crises. Managers set budgets establish agreements with other organizations evaluate managers inform workers about the organization's activities at local community level In addition, managers often need to trust their instincts and respond swiftly to circumstances.Managerial skills include conceptual abilities to analyze and comprehend situations, distinguishing between causes and effects. They also involve interpersonal skills to understand, influence, guide, and manage the behavior of individuals and groups.

The effectiveness of managers is defined by their ability to communicate, coordinate, and motivate individuals while forming a cohesive team. These managers require three types of skills: interpersonal, technical, and conceptual. The term "competencies"

is often used to describe the specific set of skills, abilities, and experiences that enable a manager to outperform others.

In today's global environment, managers face four main challenges: building a competitive advantage, upholding ethical standards, managing diverse workforces, and utilizing new information systems and technologies. Building a competitive advantage involves enhancing efficiency, quality, speed, flexibility, innovation, and responsiveness towards customers. This necessitates training employees to be responsive to customer needs.

Upholding ethical and socially responsible standards means refraining from participating in bribes or other unethical conduct. Managing a diverse workforce entails fair and equitable treatment of employees regardless of age, gender race religion sexual preference or income level (Kohler).

The characteristics that determine managerial effectiveness include personality traits which are enduring tendencies influencing how individuals feel think and behave (Jones & George). There are five major personality traits known as the Big Five: extraversion negative affectivity agreeableness conscientiousness openness to experience (Solomon et al.).Extraversion, as defined by Jones and George, pertains to individuals who possess a natural inclination towards positive emotions and sociability. Extroverts are known for being outgoing and friendly, while introverts tend to exhibit a less social demeanor. Negative affectivity, another trait identified by Jones and George, is characterized by the tendency to experience negative emotions such as anger and dissatisfaction. Agreeableness, on the other hand, relates to an individual's ability to get along well with others through likability and genuine concern for people's well-being.

Jones and George also identify conscientiousness as a personality trait that plays a significant role in one's actions. Conscientious individuals are described as careful, diligent, and persevering in their endeavors. This trait is closely associated with qualities like organization and self-discipline.

However, individuals lacking direction or self-discipline may struggle with conscientiousness.

Openness to experience is yet another personality trait discussed by Jones and George. It encompasses attributes such as originality, broad interests, receptiveness to various stimuli, daringness, and willingness to take risks. Those who score high in openness tend to demonstrate innovation in their planning processes and decision-making approach through calculated risks. Conversely, those low in openness display a more conservative mindset when it comes to planning decisions.

Apart from conscientiousness and openness-to-experience traits mentioned above,JonesandGeorgehighlightthatotherpersonalitytraitscaninfluencemanagerialbehavior.Oneofthesetraitsislocusofcontrolwhichreferstoanindividual'sbeliefinhis/herlevelofcontrolovertheircircumstances.Aninternallocusofcontroloccurswhenindividualsbelieve that they have control over what happens internallyto them personallyConversely, individuals with an external locus of control believe that outside forces are responsible for determining their fate and that their behavior has little influence on outcomes. (Source: EFM Academy – Summary: Essentials of contemporary management, Gareth R. Jones, Jennifer M)

George, a member of the Marketing team at Real People, Real Choices, collaborates closely with Solomon, Marshall, and Stuart from the Stuart team. Self-esteem is influenced by three needs: achievement, affiliation, and power. The need for achievement refers to striving for excellence in challenging tasks. The need for affiliation involves establishing good relationships and seeking approval from others. The need for power relates to desiring control or influence over others. Values, attitudes, moods, and emotions all impact managers' experiences in their jobs. Values are lifelong goals that guide behavior and determine what managers aim to achieve through their work. Attitudes reflect thoughts and feelings about specific roles within an organization. Moods and emotions refer to managers' emotional states while performing tasks. Values can be terminal or instrumental; terminal values are personal convictions regarding lifelong goals while instrumental values represent desired ways of behaving.

Attitudes encompass feelings and beliefs towards one's job or organization.The text examines the impact of job satisfaction, fair treatment, desirable job characteristics, and loyalty on managers' behavior and organizational culture. Satisfied managers are more likely to engage in voluntary behaviors that benefit the organization (organizational citizenship behaviors). Additionally, managers' commitment to the organization includes their beliefs and emotions towards its mission and values. The behavior of managers is influenced by their mood, emotional intelligence, and ability to understand and manage both their own emotions and others'. Organizational culture is composed of shared beliefs, expectations, values, norms, and work routines that shape how members interact to achieve organizational goals.Both managers and founders have significant roles in shaping organizational culture. Benjamin Schneider's ASA framework explains how the personal characteristics of founders can determine organizational culture. The values and norms established by founders have a profound and lasting impact on culture as they guide the company's development and are imitated by subordinates. Organizational socialization occurs over time as members learn important values and norms from each other. Ceremonies, rites, stories, language, and other methods are commonly used by organizations to transmit cultural norms and values.

Culture also influences the way managers perform their four functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

Decision making is the process through which managers analyze options and make determinations regarding organizational goals and courses of action in response to opportunities or threats. This includes both programmed decision making, which is a routine process where managers use established rules or guidelines to make decisions, as well as nonprogrammed decision making.This is done for situations that have occurred repeatedly in the past and do not require new

judgments.

In decision-making situations, managers often rely on intuition, feelings, beliefs, and hunches. However, reasoned judgment can also be involved when there is time for gathering information and evaluating alternatives.

The classical model of decision making assumes that managers have all the necessary information but does not account for uncertainty and risk. The administrative model recognizes that decisions are inherently uncertain and may lead to satisfactory rather than optimal outcomes. Bounded rationality acknowledges cognitive limitations in interpreting and acting on information.

Managers faced with numerous alternatives and extensive information find it challenging to evaluate all options before deciding. Incomplete information is another aspect of bounded rationality as the complete range of alternatives cannot be known. Risk involves known probabilities while uncertainty refers to unknown future outcomes. Ambiguity arises when information can be interpreted differently.

Time constraints and the cost of obtaining information limit managers' ability to explore all possible solutions. Satisficing refers to the exploration of a limited sample of potential alternatives.The process of making decisions involves several steps, which include recognizing the need for a decision, generating alternatives, evaluating them based on their legality, ethicalness, economic feasibility, and practicality. Then choosing among these alternatives and implementing the chosen one while also learning from feedback. Group decision making offers advantages over individual decision making as it helps reduce biases and errors.

The text discusses the significance of decision making in groups and the role of organizational learning and creativity. It underscores the advantages of group dynamics, such as leveraging the collective skills and knowledge to generate viable alternatives and make sound decisions. However, it also cautions against groupthink, where flawed decision making arises from members prioritizing agreement over accurately assessing

pertinent information. Devil's advocacy is suggested as a means to critically analyze preferred alternatives for strengths and weaknesses prior to implementation. The text further emphasizes the value of diversity among decision makers, as it brings together individuals with different backgrounds and experiences, leading to a wider range of perspectives during the decision-making process. Organizational learning is defined as managers' efforts to enhance employees' understanding and management capabilities for improved organizational effectiveness. Creativity plays a vital role in organizational learning by enabling decision makers to uncover original and innovative ideas that result in feasible alternative courses of action.In conclusion, the text highlights the key components of establishing a learning organization such as developing personal mastery, constructing complex mental models, and encouraging team learning. Additionally, various methods and strategies for fostering creativity at both individual and group levels are discussed. It emphasizes the significance of granting individuals with freedom and opportunities to generate fresh ideas. Furthermore, it suggests that creativity within groups can be nurtured through problem-solving approaches like brainstorming, the nominal group technique, and the Delphi technique. These techniques enable multiple alternatives to be generated and evaluated while minimizing obstacles like production blocking. Notably, the Delphi technique involves written responses from group members instead of face-to-face meetings. Lastly, the text elucidates on how managers employ the planning process in modern management to determine appropriate goals and actions for an organization.

The organizational plan is the outcome of the planning process and defines the goals of the organization, as well as how managers will achieve them. Strategy involves decisions and actions that aim to reach these goals. Planning comprises three steps: determining the mission and goals of the

organization, formulating strategies through current situation analysis, and implementing these strategies by allocating resources and responsibilities. Planning occurs at various levels, starting with the corporate level where top management decides on the mission, overall strategy, and structure of the organization. This includes creating a corporate-level strategy outlining which industries and markets the organization aims to compete in. The business (division) level refers to individual units within an industry that compete against each other. At this level, divisional managers make decisions regarding long-term goals, overall strategy, and structure. The business-level strategy explains how a division plans to outperform its competitors. The department (functional) level consists of functions such as manufacturing, R, and marketing. Here, functional managers make decisions concerning goals that will help their divisions achieve their business-level objectives. The functional-level strategy describes how a function intends to accomplish its own goals. Each level of management develops its own plans based on their respective responsibilities.
The top management, known as the corporate level, is responsible for creating the overall plan. Divisional managers at the business level develop their own plans, while department managers at the department level create specific plans for their functions. Plans have different timeframes - long-term plans cover five or more years, intermediate plans cover one to five years, and short-term plans cover up to one year. A rolling plan is continuously updated every year and can extend over five years or more to adapt to environmental changes.

There are two types of plans mentioned in the text: standing plans and single-use plans. Standing plans are ongoing and used repeatedly, while single-use plans are designed for one-time situations or events. The text discusses various decision-making

tools such as policies (general guides), rules (formal written guides), and standard operating procedures (specific instructions). It also mentions single-use plans like programs (integrated sets of goals) and projects (action plans for different aspects of a program).

The importance of planning is emphasized in the text as it allows managers to participate in decision-making regarding goals and strategies. Planning provides direction and purpose for the organization while facilitating coordination among managers from different divisions. Additionally, planning can be utilized to control managers' performance.In addition, the text mentions scenario planning as a method that involves generating multiple forecasts of future conditions and analyzing effective responses for each condition. The text also refers to several books by Gareth R. Jones, Jennifer M. George, Solomon, Marshall, and Stuart.

The first step in the planning process involves determining the organization's mission and goals. Defining the business requires understanding customers' needs and how those needs are being met. Once this is done, developing the organization's strategy comes next – it should align with established goals and present a challenging yet realistic approach. Specifying expected timeframes for achieving each goal is equally important.

To aid in planning, there are various exercises such as SWOT analysis which identifies internal strengths and weaknesses alongside external opportunities and threats an organization faces. This analysis helps develop strategies that drive mission accomplishment and goal achievement.
Michael Porter's five forces model is another valuable tool for managers to identify potential threats within the external environment. The text discusses various factors that can impact industry profits and product prices, including the level of rivalry among organizations, the potential for entry into an industry, the power of suppliers and customers, and the

threat of substitute products.The text discusses various ways in which organizations can expand and improve their market position. These strategies include diversifying product offerings, expanding internationally, forming alliances with other companies, and merging or acquiring to increase market presence. Implementing effective corporate-level strategies is essential for optimizing resource allocation and maximizing profitability.