Contemporary management
Chapter 1: managers and managing
Organizations: collections of people who work together and coordinate their actions to
achieve a wide variety of goals or desired future outcomes.
Management: the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of human and other
resources to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively. An organization’s
resources include assets such as people and their skills, know-how, and experience;
machinery; raw materials; computers and information technology; and patents, financial
capital, and loyal customers and employees.
One of the key goals that organizations try to achieve is to provide goods and services
that customers value and desire. Manufacturing managers must balance the quality
needs of their consumers against the pressure to be cost-effective.
Organizational performance: a measure of how efficiently and effectively a manager
uses resources to satisfy customers and achieve organizational goals.
Efficiency: a measure of how well or how productively resources are used to achieve a
goal. Organizations are efficient when managers minimize the amount of input resources
(such as labor, raw materials, and component parts) or the amount of time needed to
produce a given output of goods and services.
Effectiveness: a measure of the appropriateness of the goals an organization is
pursuing and the degree to which the organization achieves those goals.
Planning: identifying and selecting appropriate goals; one of the four principals tasks of
management. The three steps involved in planning are:
1. Deciding which goals the organization will pursue
2. Deciding what strategies to adopt to attain those goals
3. Deciding how to allocate organizational resources to pursue the strategies that
attain those goals
Organizing: structuring working relationships in a way that allows organizational
members to work together to achieve organizational goals; one of the four principal
tasks of management.
,Organizational structure: a formal system of task and reporting relationships that
coordinates and motivates organizational members, so they work together to achieve
organizational goals. Organizational structure determines how an organization’s
resources can be best used to create goods and services.
Leading: articulating a clear vision and energizing and enabling organizational members
so they understand the part they play in achieving organizational goals; one of the four
principal tasks of management. Leadership involves managers using their power,
personality, influence, persuasion, and communication skills to coordinate people and
groups, so their activities and efforts are in harmony.
Controlling: evaluating how well an organization is achieving its goals and taking action
to maintain or improve performance; one of the four principal tasks of management. To
exercise control, managers must decide which goals to measure – perhaps goals
pertaining to productivity, quality, or responsiveness to customers – and then they must
design control systems that will provide the information necessary to assess
performance – that is, determine to what degree the goals have been met.
,Department: a group of people who work together and possess similar skills or use the
same knowledge, tools, or techniques to perform their jobs.
Organizations normally have three levels of management:
1. First-line manager (supervisor): a manager who is responsible for the daily
supervision of nonmanagerial employees.
2. Middle manager: a manager who supervises first-line managers and is
responsible for finding the best way to use resources to achieve organizational
goals.
3. Top manager: a manager who establishes organizational goals, decides how
departments should interact, and monitors the performance of middle managers.
They have cross-departmental responsibility.
The chief executive officer (CEO) is a company’s most senior and important manager, the
one all other top managers report to. Today the term chief operating officer (COO) often
refers to top managers, who are being groomed to assume CEO responsibilities when the
current CEO retires, leaves the company, or assumes other responsibilities. Together the
CEO and COO are responsible for developing good working relationships among the top
managers of various departments.
Top management team: a group composed of the CEO, the COO, and the vice
presidents most responsible for achieving organizational goals.
, Research has shown that education and experience help managers acquire and develop
three types of skills:
1. Conceptual skills: the ability to analyze and diagnose a situation and to
distinguish between cause and effect.
2. Human skills: the ability to understand, alter, lead, and control the behavior of
other individuals and groups.
3. Technical skills: the job-specific knowledge and techniques required to perform
an organizational role.
Core competency: the specific set of departmental skills, knowledge, and experience
that allows one organization to outperform another. In other words, departmental skills
that create a core competency give an organization a competitive advantage.
Chapter 1: managers and managing
Organizations: collections of people who work together and coordinate their actions to
achieve a wide variety of goals or desired future outcomes.
Management: the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of human and other
resources to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively. An organization’s
resources include assets such as people and their skills, know-how, and experience;
machinery; raw materials; computers and information technology; and patents, financial
capital, and loyal customers and employees.
One of the key goals that organizations try to achieve is to provide goods and services
that customers value and desire. Manufacturing managers must balance the quality
needs of their consumers against the pressure to be cost-effective.
Organizational performance: a measure of how efficiently and effectively a manager
uses resources to satisfy customers and achieve organizational goals.
Efficiency: a measure of how well or how productively resources are used to achieve a
goal. Organizations are efficient when managers minimize the amount of input resources
(such as labor, raw materials, and component parts) or the amount of time needed to
produce a given output of goods and services.
Effectiveness: a measure of the appropriateness of the goals an organization is
pursuing and the degree to which the organization achieves those goals.
Planning: identifying and selecting appropriate goals; one of the four principals tasks of
management. The three steps involved in planning are:
1. Deciding which goals the organization will pursue
2. Deciding what strategies to adopt to attain those goals
3. Deciding how to allocate organizational resources to pursue the strategies that
attain those goals
Organizing: structuring working relationships in a way that allows organizational
members to work together to achieve organizational goals; one of the four principal
tasks of management.
,Organizational structure: a formal system of task and reporting relationships that
coordinates and motivates organizational members, so they work together to achieve
organizational goals. Organizational structure determines how an organization’s
resources can be best used to create goods and services.
Leading: articulating a clear vision and energizing and enabling organizational members
so they understand the part they play in achieving organizational goals; one of the four
principal tasks of management. Leadership involves managers using their power,
personality, influence, persuasion, and communication skills to coordinate people and
groups, so their activities and efforts are in harmony.
Controlling: evaluating how well an organization is achieving its goals and taking action
to maintain or improve performance; one of the four principal tasks of management. To
exercise control, managers must decide which goals to measure – perhaps goals
pertaining to productivity, quality, or responsiveness to customers – and then they must
design control systems that will provide the information necessary to assess
performance – that is, determine to what degree the goals have been met.
,Department: a group of people who work together and possess similar skills or use the
same knowledge, tools, or techniques to perform their jobs.
Organizations normally have three levels of management:
1. First-line manager (supervisor): a manager who is responsible for the daily
supervision of nonmanagerial employees.
2. Middle manager: a manager who supervises first-line managers and is
responsible for finding the best way to use resources to achieve organizational
goals.
3. Top manager: a manager who establishes organizational goals, decides how
departments should interact, and monitors the performance of middle managers.
They have cross-departmental responsibility.
The chief executive officer (CEO) is a company’s most senior and important manager, the
one all other top managers report to. Today the term chief operating officer (COO) often
refers to top managers, who are being groomed to assume CEO responsibilities when the
current CEO retires, leaves the company, or assumes other responsibilities. Together the
CEO and COO are responsible for developing good working relationships among the top
managers of various departments.
Top management team: a group composed of the CEO, the COO, and the vice
presidents most responsible for achieving organizational goals.
, Research has shown that education and experience help managers acquire and develop
three types of skills:
1. Conceptual skills: the ability to analyze and diagnose a situation and to
distinguish between cause and effect.
2. Human skills: the ability to understand, alter, lead, and control the behavior of
other individuals and groups.
3. Technical skills: the job-specific knowledge and techniques required to perform
an organizational role.
Core competency: the specific set of departmental skills, knowledge, and experience
that allows one organization to outperform another. In other words, departmental skills
that create a core competency give an organization a competitive advantage.
