ilovestudy

DEFINE leader and leadership.  A leader is someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority. Leadership is a process of leading a group and influencing that group to achieve its goals. Managers should be leaders because leading is one of the four management functions. COMPARE and contrast early theories of leadership Early attempts to define leader traits were unsuccessful, although later attempts found eight traits associated with leadership. The University of Iowa studies explored three leadership styles. The only conclusion was that group members were more satisfied under a democratic leader than under an autocratic one. The Ohio State studies identifed two dimensions of leader behavior—initiating structure and consideration. A leader high in both those dimensions at times achieved high group task performance and high group member satisfaction, but not always. The University of Michigan studies looked at employee-oriented leaders and production-oriented leaders....

  Focus of Organizational Behavior Based predominantly on contributions from psychologists, this area includes such topics as attitudes, personality, perception, learning, and motivation. Second, OB is concerned with group behavior, which includes norms, roles, team building, leadership, and conict. Our knowledge about groups comes basically from the work of sociologists and social psychologists. Finally, OB also looks at organizational aspects including structure, culture, and human resource policies and practices. We’ve addressed group and organizational aspects in previous chapters. In this chapter, we’ll look at individual behavior. Goals of Organizational Behavior The goals of OB are to explain, predict, and influence behavior. Managers need to be able to explain why employees engage in some behaviors rather than others, predict how employees will respond to various actions and decisions, and influence how employees behave. The cognitive component refers to the beliefs, o...

A group is defned as two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who come together to achieve specifc goals. Formal groups are work groups de€ned by the organization’s structure and have designated work assignments and speci€c tasks directed at accomplishing organizational goals. Groups and the stages of group development.  A group is two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who come together to achieve specific goals. Formal groups are work groups defined by the organization’s structure and have designated work assignments and specifc tasks directed at accomplishing organizational goals. Informal groups are social groups. The forming stage consists of two phases: joining the group and defining the group’s purpose, structure, and leadership. The storming stage is one of intragroup conflict over who will control the group and what the group will be doing. The norming stage is when close relationships and cohesiveness develop as norms are determined. The perf...

Communication is the transfer and understanding of meaning. Note the emphasis on the transfer of meaning: If information or ideas have not been conveyed, communication hasn’t taken place. The speaker who isn’t heard or the writer whose materials aren’t read hasn’t communicated.  More importantly, however, communication involves the understanding of meaning. For communication to be successful, the meaning must be imparted and understood. A letter written in Spanish addressed to a person who doesn’t read Spanish can’t be considered communication until it’s translated into a language the person does read and understand. Perfect communication, if such a thing existed, would be when a transmitted thought or idea was received and understood by the receiver exactly as it was envisioned by the sender. Methods and challenges of interpersonal communication.   The communication process contains seven elements. First, a sender has a message. A message is a purpose to be conveyed. Encoding...

The importance of human resource management and the Human Resource Management process.  HRM is important for three reasons. First, it can be a signi cant source of competitive advantage. Second, it’s an important part of organizational strategies. Finally, the way organizations treat their people has been found to signi cantly impact organizational performance. The external influences that affect the human resource management process.  The external factors that most directly affect the HRM process are the economy, labor unions, legal environment, and demographic trends. The economy aƒects how employees view their work and has implications for how an organization manages its human resources. A labor union is an organization that represents workers and seeks to protect their interests through collective bargaining. In unionized organizations, HRM practices are dictated by collective bargaining agreements. HRM practices are governed by a country’s laws and not following those law...

Six key elements in organizational design .  The key elements in organizational design are work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, centralization–decentralization, and formalization. Work specialization is dividing work activities into separate job tasks. Today’s view is that work specialization can help employees be more efficient. Departmentalization is how jobs are grouped together. Today most large organizations use combinations of diferent forms of departmentalization. The chain of command and its companion concepts—authority, responsibility, and unity of command—were viewed as important ways of maintaining control in organizations. The contemporary view is that they are less relevant in today’s organizations.  The traditional view of span of control was that managers should directly supervise no more than ve to six individuals. The contemporary view is that the span of control depends on the skills and abilities of the manager and th...

What Is Entrepreneurship?  Entrepreneurship is the process of starting new businesses, generally in response to opportunities. Entrepreneurs are pursuing opportunities by changing, revolutionizing, transforming, or introducing new products or services. For example, Nanxi Liu, founder of start-up Nanoly Bioscience, recognized the challenges of refrigerating vaccines, which is necessary to maintain potency. Nanoly Bioscience develops and distributes polymers that allow vaccines to be stored without refrigeration. This innovation enables doctors to provide lifesaving vaccinations in developing countries where millions die from preventable diseases. Entrepreneurship Versus Self-Employment? Self-employment refers to individuals who work for prot or fees in their own business, profession, trade, or farm.2 This arrangement focuses on established professions such as electricians and insurance agents. For comparison, recall that we described entrepreneurship as the process of capitalizing...

What Is Strategic Management? Strategic management is what managers do to develop the organization’s strategies. It’s an important task involving all the basic management functions—planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. What are an organization’s strategies? They’re the plans for how the organization will do whatever it’s in business to do, how it will compete successfully, and how it will attract and satisfy its customers in order to achieve its goal. Strategic management is important because organizations are complex and diverse. Each part needs to work together toward achieving the organization’s goals; strategic management helps do this. For example, with more than 2.1 million employees worldwide working in various departments, functional areas, and stores, Walmart Stores, Inc., uses strategic management to help coordinate and focus employees’ e
orts on what’s important as determined by its goals. THE STRATEGIC management process Step 1: Identifying the Organization’s Curr...

2  Learning Objectives 8.1 Define the nature and purposes of planning. 8.2 Classify the types of goals organizations might have and the plans they use. 8.3 Compare and contrast approaches to goal-setting and planning. Know how to set goals personally and create a useful, functional to-do list Develop your skill at helping your employees set goals 8.4 Discuss contemporary issues in planning. 3  What is Planning? Planning: management function that involves setting goals, establishing strategies for achieving those goals, and developing plans to integrate and coordinate work activities Formal planning Specific, time-oriented goals Goals written and shared Planning involves defining the organization’s goals, establishing strategies for achieving those goals, and developing plans to integrate and coordinate work activities. It’s concerned with both ends (what) and means (how). When we use the term planning, we mean formal planning. In formal planning, specific goals covering a spec...