Question

Answer all the following questions.

1. What would be the four principal functions as a manager?

2. Discuss a company general environment

3. What are SMART goals and how can they be implemented?

4. How can Porter's competitive forces help me formulate strategy?

5. Explain the nonrational decision making process.

6. Discuss the various forms of compensation.

7. What do I need to know to encourage innovation?

8. What causes workplace stress, and how can it be reduced?

9. What kinds of needs motivate employees?

10. How can you as a manager build an effective team?

11. What does it take to be a successful leader?

12. How can you use different channels and patterns of communication to your advantage?

13. What are the keys to successful control, and what are the barriers to control success?

14. Provide at least 6 advantages and disadvantages of implementing/practicing workforce diversity

subject Organizational Management

Answer 1

1. What would be the four principal functions as a manager?

· Planning: Planning is establishing organizational goals and deciding how to accomplish them.

· Organizing: Organizing is structuring working relationship in a way that allows organizational members to work together to achieve organizational goals.

· Leading: Leading is articulating a clear organizational vision for the organization’s members to accomplish, and they energize and enable employees so everyone understands the part he or she plays in achieving organizational goals.

· Controlling: Controlling is evaluating how well an organization has achieved its goals and to take any corrective actions needed to maintain or improve performance.

2. Discuss a company general environment.

   A company’s general environment has to do with the factors and conditions that generally affect everyone in a company. It includes economic, technological, social cultural, demographic, political and legal forces that affect the organization and its task environment. It’s imperative to explain each of the company’s general environments.

· Economic forces: Economic forces are interest rates, inflation, unemployment, economic growth and other factors that affect the general health and well-being of a nation or the regional economy of an organization. Economic forces produce many opportunities and threats for managers.

· Technological forces: Technological forces are outcomes of changes in the technology managers use to design, produce, or distribute goods and services.

· Social cultural forces: These are pressure emanating from the social structure of a country or society or from the national culture. Pressures from both sources can either constrain or facilitate the way a company operates and managers behave.

· Demographic forces: Demographic forces are outcomes of changes in, or changing attitudes toward, the characteristics of a population, such as age, gender, ethnic origin, race, sexual orientation and social class. Demographic forces present managers with opportunities and threats and can have major implications for a company just like other forces in a company general environment.

· Political and legal forces: They are outcomes of changes in laws and regulations, such as deregulation of industries, privatization of organizations and increased emphasis on environmental protection. Laws constrain the operations of organizations and managers and thus create both opportunities and threats.

3. What are SMART goals and how can they implemented?

· Specific: A goal is specific when it provides a description of what is to be accomplished. A specific goal is a focused goal. It will state exactly what the organization intends to accomplish. While the description needs to be specific and focused, it also needs to be easily understood by those involved in its achievement. It should be written so that it can be easily and clearly communicated

· Measurable: A goal is measurable if it is quantifiable. Measurement is accomplished by first obtaining or establishing base-line data. It will also have a target toward which progress can be measured, as well as benchmarks to measure progress along the way.

· Attainable: There should be a realistic chance that a goal can be accomplished. This does not mean or imply that goals should be easy. On the contrary, a goal should be challenging. It should be set by or in concert with the person responsible for its achievement. The organization's leadership, and where appropriate its stakeholders, should agree that the goal is important and that appropriate time and resources will be focused on its accomplishment. An attainable goal should also allow for flexibility. A goal that can no longer be achieved should be altered or abandoned.

· Relevant: Goals should be appropriate to and consistent with the mission and vision of the organization. Each goal adopted by the organization should be one that moves the organization toward the achievement of its vision. Relevant goals will not conflict with other organizational goals.

· Time-bound: Finally a goal must be bound by time. That is, it must have a starting and ending point. It should also have some intermediate points at which progress can be assessed. Limiting the time in which a goal must be accomplished helps to focus effort toward its achievement.

4. How can porter’s competitive forces help me formulate strategy?

    Porter’s competitive forces are the major threats an organization will encounter when analyzing opportunities and threats. However, paying a particular attention to these competitive forces will help me to formulate strategies to encounter these threats so that I can manage my task and general environment, perform at a high level and generate high profits.

5. Explain the non rational decision making process.

    The non rational decision making process involves the following steps:

· Recognize the need for a decision: The first step in decision making process is to recognize the need for a decision. You realize that a decision must be made. You then go through an internal process of trying to define clearly the nature of the decision you must make.

· Generate alternatives: Having recognized the need to make decision, a manager must generate a set of feasible alternative courses of action to take in response to the opportunity or threat. You may also use your imagination and information to construct new alternatives. In this step of the decision-making process, you will list all possible and desirable alternatives.

· Assess alternatives: Once managers have generated a set of alternatives, they must evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative. The key to a good assessment of the alternatives is to define the opportunity or threat exactly and then specify the criteria that should influence the selection of alternatives for responding to the problem or opportunity.

· Choose among alternatives: Once the set of alternative solutions has been carefully evaluated, the next task is to rank the various alternatives and make a decision. When ranking alternatives, managers must be sure all the information available is brought to bear on the problem or issue at hand.

· Implement the chosen alternative: Once a decision has been made and an alternative has been selected, it must be implemented, and many subsequent and related decisions must be made. After a course of action has been decided, thousands of subsequent decisions are necessary to implement it.

· Learn from feedback: This is the final step in the decision making process. In this step, effective managers always conduct a retrospective analysis to see what they can learn from past successes or failures. Managers who do not evaluate the results of their decisions do not learn from experience, instead they will remain where they are and likely to make the same mistakes again and again.

6. Discuss the various forms of compensation.

    There are two forms of compensation provided to employees; direct and indirect. Direct forms of compensation have a multitude of types or methods, from salaries to bonuses. Indirect compensation is primarily the various types of benefits and long term incentives.

Direct forms of compensation:

· Salary: This type of wage is customarily a set sum of remuneration over a defined period of time. The most traditional form is a dollar amount over a period of one year. The frequency of payment is another part of the compensation and is based on industry standards. Most businesses pay for services twice a month. Most commonly used tool to pay professional or licensed employees. In general there is an expectation from the employer of a longer term commitment from the employee for providing a regular uninterrupted compensation.

· Hourly: This is a dollar amount per hour of service to the employer, more commonly used to compensate unskilled and skilled laborers in the workforce. This form of compensation comes with an implied understanding that during times of slow or minimal workloads, the employee may not be used to provide services. In effect, there is no guarantee of a regular cycle of pay.

· Commission: When compensation is based on volume or some form of performance, this is known as commission based remuneration. Other terms used include piecework or piecemeal. Many industries used this type of remuneration to get a minimum standard of production in exchange for compensation. It is used to shift risk from the employer to the employee. There are two methods to calculate commission. One is based on volume of services and the other is based on sales.

· Bonuses: Bonuses are used to increase performance from the employee. This is a variable type of remuneration and is more commonly found with salaried staff to incentivize them for a particular goal whether time or volume based. Other reasons used for bonuses are to increase or maintain retention of certain skills or the pool of skill sets needed in the company. Sometimes bonuses are paid when a company meets certain financial standards or goals over an extended period of time.

            Indirect forms of compensation:

· Benefits: This particular group is traditionally thought of in the form of insurances (health, dental, life, disability and vision) and retirement. Very few small businesses provide benefits to their employees due to cost involved. When small businesses begin providing benefits, they customarily start out with retirement because of simplicity and low cost. As they grow, they add health insurance and continue to expand the benefit package as the number of employees increase and the risk of business performance decreases. Benefits allow for retention and recruitment. Other benefits can include transportation, paid time off, vacation time, and customized incentives (lodging, meals, phones, etc.).

· Equity based programs: Rarely found in the small business world for several reasons. These types of indirect compensation tie the employee to the company via ownership. Due to the complexity and the legal issues involved, very few small businesses use this tool. This is a sophisticated method to retain key employees.

7. What do I need to know to encourage innovation?

    As a manager, I need to know that an individual working alone does not possess the extensive and diverse skills, knowledge, and expertise required for successful innovation. Therefore, innovation can be better encouraged by creating teams of diverse individuals who together have the knowledge relevant to a particular type of innovation rather than by relying on individuals working alone.

8. What causes workplace stress, and how can it be reduced?

The following can cause workplace stress:

· Juggling work/personal lives.

· Lack of job security.

· People issues.

· Workload.

            However, there are many ways to reduce workplace stress which include:

· Take care of yourself.

· Shift your mindset.

· Resolve your concerns.

· Hang with a great crowd.

· Reconnect with what you loved about your job.

· Take a break during the work day.

· Talk to your boss, etc.

9. What kinds of needs motivate employees?

     For employees to be motivated, motivator needs must be met. (E.g. challenging work, recognition for one's achievement, responsibility, opportunity to do something meaningful, involvement in decision making, and a sense of importance to an organization). Motivator needs are related to the nature of the work itself and how challenging it is. Outcomes such as interesting work, autonomy, responsibility, being able to grow and develop on the job, and a sense of accomplishment and achievement help to satisfy motivator needs.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

10. How can you as a manager build an effective team?

    As a manger, I can build an effective team through the following ways:

· By clarifying the common goals and purposes.

· Clarifying each person’s role in achieving the common purpose.

· Put team members in touch with the people who use what they do.

· Pay attention to conflicts when they arise.

· Work out ways to resolve conflicts.

· Remember my leadership role.

· Make sure team members interact at meetings.

· Allow team members to have input into their jobs.

· Make sure there is room for minority or unpopular views.

· Appraise and reward the team as a whole.

· Appraise and reward each employee individually, including a review of his or her teamwork.

· Communicate team success.

11. What does it take to be a successful leader?

    It takes a lot to be a successful leader and for you to be a successful leader, you have to possess the following:

· Honesty

· Ability to delegate

· Communication

· Sense of humor

· Confidence

· Commitment

· Positive attitude

· Creativity

· Intuition

· Ability to inspire

12. How can you use different channels and patterns of communication to your advantage?

There are factors to consider in using different channels and patterns of communication to your advantage because there is no one best communication channel and pattern to rely on. As a manager, you need to consider three factors in choosing a communication channel and pattern for any message. The first and the most important is the level of information richness that is needed. However, information richness is the amount of information a communication medium can carry and the extent to which the medium enables the sender and receiver to reach a common understanding. Therefore, the communication channels and pattern you use as a manager vary in their information richness. Media and patterns high in information richness can carry an extensive amount of information and generally enable receivers and senders to come to a common understanding.

    The second factor that you need to take into account in selecting communication channel and pattern is the time needed for communication because your time and other organizational member is valuable.

     The third factor that affects the choice of a communication channel and pattern is the need for a paper or electronic trail or some kind of written documentation that a message was sent and received. As a manager you may wish to document in writing. You can use different channels and patterns of communication to your advantage by putting these three factors into consideration.

   

13. What are the keys to successful control, and what are the barriers to control success?

     The keys to successful control are:

· Establish standards to measure performance: Within an organization's overall strategic plan, managers define goals for organizational departments in specific, operational terms that include standards of performance to compare with organizational activities.

· Measure actual performance: Most organizations prepare formal reports of performance measurements that manager’s review regularly. These measurements should be related to the standards set in the first step of the control process.

· Compare performance with the standards: This step compares actual activities to performance standards. When managers read computer reports or walk through their plants, they identify whether actual performance meets, exceeds, or falls short of standards.

· Take corrective actions: When performance deviates from standards, managers must determine what changes, if any, are necessary and how to apply them. In the productivity and quality‐centered environment, workers and managers are often empowered to evaluate their own work. After the evaluator determines the cause or causes of deviation, he or she can take the fourth step—corrective action.

                  The barriers to control success include:

· Lack of resources

· Inaccurate measurements

· Improper information flow

· Incorrect analyses