MGT – Flashcard

We really did not feel that groupthink was a factor in our second organization. Justin was very open to our ideas and and he also gave us constructive criticism and allowed us to make mistakes and take corrective action. Yet, in our first organization, we experienced a lot of groupthink. There were two advisors for AAD, Ray Rickman and Dylan. Ray was the boss and was very insistent on what would work and what wouldn't work. When we tried to offer new ideas, we felt that Dylan was receptive and understanding but he never wanted to side with us because his boss forced him to comply.

Symptoms of Groupthink: Invulnerability, stereotyping of the opponents Illusion of unanimity Self censorship Groupthink vs. wisdom of crowds With Adopt a Doctor we were so involved that we didn't see the red flags. Had we stepped back we could have saved ourselves a lot of time and stress

There are 5 stages of group development they include 1. Forming- "the group comes together" the leader should allow for people to become acquainted and socialize they should also assert their authority. We did most of our forming in the car rides to and from the first org meetings 2. Storming- "individual personalities and roles emerge" the leader should encourage members to share ideas voice disagreements, and work through their conflicts. We were forced to voice disagreement over which org we should choose to work with over the semester 3. Norming- "conflicts resolved, relationships developed, unity emerges" the leader should emphasize unity and help identify team goals and values. the large change helped unify our group into a team and turned a bad situation into a good one 4. Performing- "solving problems and completing tasks" the leader should allow the members the empowerment they need to work through tasks. the team was divided into smaller groups to divide and conquer the things we needed to complete 5. Adjourning- "prepare for disbandment" the leader should ease the transition by rituals celebrating the end and new beginnings. We had a final group meeting to talk about how we were going to use this experience in the future.

Considerations: 1. Cooperation- the manager needs to work to systematically integrate efforts. We tried to make sure everyone was respectful of each other and made sure that our efforts were helping the general cause 2. Trust- work to ensure group member credibility and accountability. We each worked to prove our credibility to the other and make it clear that we were trustworthy people 3. Cohesiveness- work to make sure the group is working together through encouraging team interactions and emphasis of common characteristics. We held group meeting at least 2 times a week, even if they were short to review our progress 4. Performance goals and feedback- the manager needs to make sure that the goals are clear and measurable and give continuous feedback to the employees. We consistently revisited our goals and reviewed our progress in achieving them. We then made alterations as necessary

Formulating a team contract is very beneficial because it allows for a clear understanding of the rules and norms of the group. This leads to an increased sense of accountability between the team members. When all of the rules are clearly stated in a written document, it is not possible for a member to claim they were unaware of a specific rule. Team contracts can allow for better team management in the forming, storming, and norming stages of development. Forming-helps get to know people by learning their goals and expectations Storming-contracts can help clarify roles so when personal roles start to develop, there is limited confusion Norming- helps increase the "we" feeling by uniting people on shared expectations and holds everyone accountable

The 5 conflict handling are 1. Avoiding-"Maybe the problem will go away"-best for trivial issues when emotions are high or when the cost of addressing the issue is greater than the benefit 2. Accommodating-"Lets do it your way"-best when the issue doesn't mean anything to you or when you need something later 3. Forcing- "You have to do it my way"-best when an unpopular solution must be implemented and when it is not important that others be committed to that view point 4. Compromising- "Lets split the difference" -best when both sides have opposite goals or possess equal power 5. Collaborating- "Lets cooperate to reach a win win situation that benefits both of us" -best when appropriate for complex situations plagued by misunderstanding. Three cases where we used this: 1. Avoiding- When one member was late for a meeting, my not calling them out or fighting with each other, we were able to handle the group much better 2. Compromising- When one or more of the people couldn't make it to the meeting, we had to compromise and adjust the meeting times. 3. Collaborating when we were deciding whether or not to switch organizations we needed to have a lot of discussion to make sure everyone's voice was heard

Constructing a dashboard is not an easy task for an organization. It not only involves identifying measurables, but discovering if these measurables are a true representation of the organization's success. Metrics should be chosen based on their relevance to the task at hand. They must relate to the big picture. Targets should be based on SMART goals. It is important to look at past data and make goals that are actually attainable for the organization. The data on the dashboard should be analyzed and then conclusive results can be made from that information. if the US China Institute had a dashboard, we would include: 1. General Awareness on Campus 2. Social Media Likes and Follows 3. Participation in Various US China Events

The four perspectives of the balanced scorecard are 1. customer satisfaction 2. internal processes 3. innovation and improvement activities 4. financial measures. It is related to organizational strategy because it establishes goals and performance measures according to the four perspectives. For us, we viewed the customer as prospective bryant students, the internal processes as our team relations, innovation as the ways that we can reach these students and inform them about the US China Institute, and the financial shareholders as the US China Institute who supported us financially during the project and who we had to report to.

Productivity is defined as the organizational outputs divided by inputs. You can increase this productivity by making substitutes or increasing the efficiency in the inputs such as labor, capital, materials, and energy. Increasing productivity is important because it allows you to provide more services with less cost to the organization. There are 3 ways in which our group increased productivity: 1. We divided into 3 groups to more efficiently manage the various tasks that we were assigned. 2. We often communicated via email in order to keep up communication even when we were not meeting 3. We were forced to revise our project plans and team contract because we switched organizations. By redefining our plans, we were able to be much more productive and were able to accomplish much more than before.

Controlling is defined as monitoring performance, comparing it with goals, and taking corrective action as needed. Its purpose is to make sure that the organization is keeping with the goals that they set for themselves. It is necessary to track the progress of a project or plan. If an organization does not implement proper controls, they are not able to monitor progress and, when it comes time for the final evaluation of the project, there is a strong possibility that the results will not match the goals. This could have been fixed long before if there had been proper controls. Yes. One control that we noticed related to trip participation. The organization realized that they were not getting as many students to participate in the trip as they would have liked so they began working with the science department to get the trip approved for class credit. The organization saw the problem, and came up with a solution to fix this problem in the future.

ANYI- reciprocity- both those you are serving and you get something out of it and learn. A "Hand up" not a "hand out" -More like covenant than contract- Our team contract was our bond and we worked hard to not let each other down. -Reciprocity- being able to meet the students going on the trip and seeing how excited they were gave us a sense of accomplishment since we were able to learn and grow so much during the project but also helped out a few students have a great new, cultural experience. -Value in potential long lasting relationships- Our contacts at USCI like Justin allowed us to learn from them as they guided us along, and we were able to give back by completing this project.

Six tactics to manage conflict -Work with more not less info -Develop multiple alternatives -inject humor into decision process -maintain a balanced power structure -resolve issues without forcing consensus -shared agreed upon goals Conflict within team- Deciding to stay with AAD or switch. we used balanced power structure-everyone had a fair say and was able to say their side of the debate. Everyone's opinions were respected and treated equally. -Shared common goals- we shared what we wanted to achieve in the class (grades) and what we wanted to do for the community in our project. This helped us realize we could make a better impact with USCI and get a better grade too. -Could have used more- humor- it was a very tense situation and a little humor could have allowed us to relax a bit more. -Not force consensus- we assumed that everyone had to be on board. However, by doing this, it could have possibly instigated groupthink and not allowed people to be as open as they would have been in order to move the group along.

Physical Barrier- sound, space, time, time zone differences. Our team had many difference obligations-sports, fraternity/sorority, so we planned well and set up a schedule to figure out when everyone was available to avoid physical barriers. -Semantic barrier- Not knowing what the words mean. "we need to get this done right away" Who is "we" when is "right away"???? Avoid buzzowords, be clear and concise, and clarify any confusion. -Personal Barriers- variation in skills in communicating effectively, how info is interpreted, credibility, egos, bad listening skills, tendency to judge, inability to listen, stereotypes, non verbal communication. Our group emphasized asking questions and being open with each other to mitigate personal barriers.

-Six Keys to Effective Listening: 1. Don't rush to respond 2. Judge content, not delivery 3. Ask questions, summarize remarks 4. Listen for ideas 5. Resist distractions, show interest 6. Give a fair hearing -What do you need to work on? Judge content, not delivery. I have a tendency to tune out when a person does not deliver their message in a clear way. -which inhibited effective communication on your team? Don't rush to respond. Many of us had similar ideas and tried to get them out to the group as soon as possible. We often ended up talking over each other when trying to make small decisions. -Sponsor? Ask questions. There were times early on when we could have asked more questions to clarify what they wanted from us, so we had to go back and talk again.

-Transactional Leadership- focusing on clarifying employee's roles and task requirements and providing rewards and punishments contingent on performance. -Transformational Leadership- transforms employees to pursue organizational goals over self interests. Influenced by individual characteristics and organizational culture. -Servant Leadership- focuses on providing increased service to others, meeting the goals of both followers and the organization, rather than oneself. Focus on listening, empathy, helaing, use persuasion rather than authority, self awareness, believe they are stewards of their employees and resources. -Justin- Servant leadership. He always made himself available on short notice and wanted to help us succeed. He listened to our ideas and was honest with us.

-management and leadership complement each other. -management is coping with complexity while leadership is coping with change -Three ways to manage complexity: 1. Determine what needs to be done- planning and budgeting 2. Creating arrangements of people to accomplish an agenda- organize and staffing 3. Ensure people do their jobs-controlling and problem solving -Three ways to cope with change: 1. Setting direction 2. Aligning people 3. Motivating and inspiring

In a mechanistic organization authority is centralized and tasks and rules are clearly specified, while in an organic organization authority is decentralized and employees are encouraged to cooperate and respond quickly to unexpected tasks. Also in a mechanistic organization there is formalized communication, few teams, and a narrow span of control. While in an organic organization there is more informal communication, many teams, and wider span of control. Our sponsor organization fell under the heading of an organic organization.

Differentiation is the action of an organization to disperse and fragment. The notion of differentiation is characterized by division of labor of an organization and specialization. The organizational form of divisional structure would be an acting force in differentiation. In integration parts of the organization instead draw together to achieve a common purpose. With regards to this idea, a matrix structure would work best because of combination of functional and divisional structure which builds more integration and collaboration. It is important to find a balance because incorporation of the two concepts builds a well-rounded organization which is important to its success. Too much of one thing can be detrimental. With regards to our sponsor, The U.S.-China Institute they have a good balance of differentiation and integration. They focus on the using employees to work together as cross-functional teams, but still concentrate on different aspects of their organizational goals.

In a horizontal design managers from different functional divisions are brought together in teams to solve particular problems. In a hollow structure a company might retain such important core processes as design or marketing and outsource most other processes such as human resources, or distribution. Through these two designs a company can collaborate and expend more resources to product development or problem solving.

Functional- people with similar occupational specialties are put together in formal groups. Advantage: Clear-cut lines, people understand boundaries as in who answers to whom. Also decision-making is centralized which leads to a better sense of direction and coordination. Disadvantage: The structure creates space between departments and communication between them suffers. Also it can be difficult for departments to understand larger company concerns. Managers may put department before company which can lead to resentment. Divisional- people with diverse occupational specialties are put together in formal groups by similar products or services. Advantage: If one division fails, it doesn't directly threaten the other divisions. Also, a division's focus allows it to build a common culture that contributes both to higher morale and a better knowledge of the division's portfolio. Disadvantage: One division will sometimes act to undermine another because divisions may compete for company resources. Another disadvantage can include operational inefficiencies from separating specialized functions. Matrix- Combines functional and divisional chains in a grid so there are two command structures-vertical and horizontal. Advantage: Since employees have constant contact with members of different functional areas, the matrix structure allows for information and resources to travel more fluidly between those functional areas. Also, placing employees in functional areas allows them to specialize in a particular field. Disadvantage: A disadvantage of the matrix structure is that it can result in internal complexity. Some employees may become confused as to who their direct supervisor is. Also, it is an expensive structure. A company's overhead cost typically increases because of the need for double management.

Both of these terms describe the action of a group to make a unanimous decision without putting much discussion into it or looking at many alternatives. However, groupthink occurs because of the group's desire not to argue and to come to a unified decision. Satisficing takes place because of the group's tendency to find a decision that is satisfactory or "good enough." One of the reasons for satisficing is limited time. Our group experienced the issue of groupthink in the early stages of the project. We all agreed on working with our first organization without putting much time into discussing it or looking into alternatives until it was too late. This issue of groupthink led into escalation of commitment and caused us to fall behind early.

Participative management is the process of involving employees in (a) setting goals, (b) making decisions, (c) solving problems, and (d) making changes in the organization. In a survey of over 2000 employees, 2/3 expressed the will to have more influence and power in their job. Some factors that help participative management work are: top management is continually involved, middle managers are supportive, employees trust managers, and employees are ready for increase in job tasks.

Directive Style: Action-oriented decision makers who focus on facts. Have a low tolerance for ambiguity and are oriented toward task and technical concerns in decision making. Analytical Style: Careful decision makers who prefer lots of information and alternative choices. Higher tolerance for ambiguity than directive style, and have the tendency to overanalyze a situation. Conceptual Style: Rely on intuition and have a long term perspective. People with this style have a high tolerance for ambiguity and tend to focus on people or the social aspects of a work situation. Behavioral Style: Most people oriented style. Work well with others and enjoy social interactions with exchanged opinions. Also, tend to avoid conflict and in some situations they may have a hard time saying no.

Managing for life goals Managing for life goals with this project was a bit challenging because after overcoming our first obstacle our project ran pretty smooth. Though we were happy we could sail through the project and to keep improving with every assignment, we did not come across something else besides our switch of organizations that we could learn from in terms of a mistake. Fortunately, it was evident that good planning, and leading were two main components of being successful with this project. Managing for Sustainability: For our project, our main challenge was ensuring that our work stayed for a long time with the US China Institute. Since our project was revolved around a trip, we had to go above and beyond that this trip was successful so they would continue to do it. Managing for IT A challenge we came across for IT was that the Insitute really did not know how to use their online resources the right way. Justin explained to us that it was up to us to help them with online resources to reach out to Bryant because they weren't aware of everything you could do with it. We had to come up with clever ways to get the attention of Bryant students interested in the Institute and the trip they were offering.

Planning- defined as setting goals and deciding how to achieve them. Organizing- as arranging tasks, people, and other resources to accomplish the work. Our sponsor was great with letting us know what had to be done with the project and the trip's planning. He was also a great help with everything that we needed to have done and took into account whenever we needed something from him and also was great with getting that to us as soon as possible. Suggestions: Justin really wanted us to find places in the area for him that would entertain the participants. To get him the best possible results, when filling out the application it may have been best for Justin to almost survey those who were interested to see their interests so we knew exactly what types of places to call in order to please the Bryant students who were coming on the trip. Leading- as motivation, directing, and otherwise influencing people to work hard to achieve the organizations tasks. Justin was extremely great as being a leader because he was constantly feeding us ideas but also told us what he thought we were doing well. He is all about positivity and feedback which made it easy for us to go to work and actually help him out. Controlling- as monitoring performance, comparing it with goals, and taking corrective action as needed. Since our project dealt with organizing events, planning logistics, and increasing the awareness of the US China Insititute, Justin was constantly checking in to make sure it matched up with some of his initial plans of the trip.

The interpersonal role of a manager is to interact with people inside and outside their work units. Justin fulfilled his interpersonal role by being a figurehead and assisting to outline future goals, and as a leader. He was constantly in touch with professors from Bryant to help further the trip's intellectual capacity as well as work with us as we branched out to spread awareness of the organization. The informational role of a manager is to receive and communicate information with other people inside and outside the organization. The informational role: From the start Justin set us up with a dropbox that had everything we could ever need in it. It had contacts of people who could help us spread awareness, names of others who worked with the US China Institute, especially Maggie who was a past student of Kwesiga. He provided us with the tools we needed to complete the project. Justin is a huge part of the Institute so he was able to get us meetings, with people who really could help us. The decisional role of a manager is to use information to make decisions to solve problems or take advantage of opportunities. Decisional- He was great with this step because he pushed us along in the process and allowed us to make our own decisions along with pointing us in the right direction along with giving us his opinion on what he thinks is the best choice.

1) Great managers play the game of chess. They know and value the unique abilities and even the eccentricities of their employees, and they learn how to best integrate them into a coordinated plan of attack. trigger good performance 2) Great managers are natural "romantics." They are fascinated with individuality for their own sake. They focus on uniqueness isn't just because it makes good business sense. They do it because they can't help it. make use of strengths 3) Great managers must gather what they know about the employee and put the employee's idiosyncrasies (characteristics particular to the individual) to use. The "3 Levers" - know strengths, know triggers that activate these strengths, and how employee learns. tailor to learning styles Making the most of strengths was easy for us because we could tell after the first assignment what people were best at and even when we assigned roles within the group, people had say on what they felt other group members were best at and we went from there. Our team leader was great with making sure that whatever we sent is was nothing but our best work, she would make sure that she reminded us of what we had due and how much time we had left to make sure that we were putting in the best work possible and not just cramming to get it done. We got the most out of this project because we tailored towards great performance and making sure that what we passed in was the best possible work we could give our professor. Our team leader was great with learning our learning styles she tried to give everyone the right assignment based on our strengths and weaknesses based on our learning. Everything was based on how people performed from the first assignment because based on that we could figure out later in the semester what people were best at.

Planning is defined as coping with uncertainty by formulating future courses of action to achieve specified results. Our Team Our plan started off shaky because we did not stay with the original organization we chose to work with (Adopt a Doctor) Failure to come up with a scope sufficient enough for the US China Institute based on our escalation with Adopt A Doctor at the beginning of our project Our Planning Tools 1. Due to length of this project, we used operational planning (planning for 1-52wks) 2. We determined how to accomplish specific tasks with available resources. 3. Effective because we were able to keep ourselves organized. 4. Each team member knew what they were responsible for, when it was due, and how to do each task. 5. We used the Gantt chart as a planning tool. We were able to better predict and set in stone how long each task was going to take and when exactly we were going to get it done. x Future Recommendations Use more time to weigh options and to find other projects before investing an enormous amount of time into one that from that start seems like it has unrealistic goals.

The US China Institute for this particular cultural, learning, Summer Road Trip needed planning in order to actually make the trip possible. You cannot endeavor on an education trip with 27 people without planning participation, sleeping arrangements; food plans, making reservations to visit certain sites. The trip would not exist without planning. Our project in a nutshell was planning for the entirety of the semester.

Strategic planning: Determine what the organizations long-term goals should be for the next 1-5 years with the resources they expect to have available. Top management: chief executive officer, president, vice president, general managers, division heads Tactical planning: Determine what contributions their departments or similar work units can make with their given resources during the next 6-24 months. Middle management: functional managers, product line managers, department managers Operational planning: Determine how to accomplish specific tasks with available resources within the next 1-52 weeks. First line management: unit managers, team leaders, first line supervisors

An example of one of our team's SMART goals was "Increase our social media by 200% by April 26, 2014 as well as double participation by the end of the semester." SMART goals stand for: SMART goals stand for: Specific 200% Measurable we could track likes and follows online Attainable We saw the potential and made it not too far out of reach Relevant We can use social media to promote events and inform people about current programs Time-bound We gave ourselves two months to complete this goal. We increased our social media by 200% and doubled the participation by April 26, 2014

Locus of Control: Measure of how much people believe they control their own fate through their own efforts. Self-Efficacy: Belief in one's personal ability to complete task Self Esteem: the extent to which people like or dislike themselves. How it affected us: Self-esteem: Eric perfectly embodies self esteem. Carries himself proudly, looks at self in mirror Elizabeth, promoted self-efficacy. "Guys we can do this and do well" Locus of Control: started with external, thought our grade would be a result of your opinion. Turned internal when we decided to take matters into our own hands, make it impossible to not get an A

1. Stereotyping, Rick Rickman 2. Halo effect: From Bryant (not brown), talked down to us 3. Recency Effect: 2nd adopt-a-doctor made us think about their proposals, rather than the problems we wanted to address 4. Casual Attributions: inferring causes for observed behavior---We did it to Rickman. Assumed he was stuck up and stingy.

1. Extroversion- openly and willingly communicate and express ideas 2. Agreeableness (trusting) - had to be able to trust and cooperate with eachother 3. Conscientiousness (dependable)- responsibility and achievement orientation, wouldn't progress without it. 4. Emotional Stability- especially crucial under stress, positive vibes 5. *Openness- (struggled with), had to broaden scope and be more innovative.

1. Stereotypes, Prejudice, (and Ethnocentrism) 2. Fear of Reverse Discrimination 3. Resistance to Diversity Programs 4. Unsupportive Social Atmosphere 5. Lack of Support for Family Demands 6. Lack of Support for Career Building

Expectancy Theory: suggests that people are motivated by a) how much they want something and b) how likely they are to get it. As we invested time in the project, our will to win grew. Once we saw ourselves as competitive we were driven even more. Supervisor: Emphasized trips importance and personal relevance to Machtley. Made us want to impress, and as we gathered feedback seemed in position to do so. -Instrumentality: expectation that successful performance leads to desired outcome -Valence: Value or importance worker assigns to possible outcome.

Equity Theory: focuses on employee perceptions as to how fairly they think they are being treated compared to others. Adopt-a-doctor, didn't treat us as equals. Glance to Dylan and chuckle. Felt insignificant and un devoted

Two Factor Theory: Motivating and Hygiene factors; work satisfaction and dissatisfaction arise from these factors. Motivating: What will make my people satisfied? Achievement, Recognition, Responsibility, Advancement. Our Example: Competition + Achievement Hygine: What will make my people dissatisfied? Pay, Working Conditions, Relationships, Policy, Supervisors. Our Example: Workload, Time Conflicts, Physical Barriers

-Pay for Performance (pay based on results) sales commission/piece rate -Bonuses (cash awards for meeting specific objectives) Christmas Bonus -Profit Sharing (percentage of company profits) 10% of profits distributed among employees -Gain Sharing (distribution of savings or gains to employees who reduced costs) get 75% of money they save for the company -Stock Options (employees given right to buy stock at discounted price) (example Starbucks employees with 20+ hours) -Pay for knowledge: employee pay tied to job relevant skills (ex. Masters).