Management Perspectives

Define management, and discuss future perspectives for management careers.

      Management is the process of getting things done through others. Managers major responsibilities are defining what is to be done, organizing resources, guiding others toward accomplishing their tasks, and controlling performance. Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling form the outline of this text. Future managers will find exceptional opportunities in global affairs, and they will find equally rewarding challenges in small, high&-growth ventures.

Explain what constitutes an organization, and discuss the differences between formal and informal organizations.

      Organizations exist when two or more people mutually cooperate to pursue common objectives. Thus people combine their talents and resources to achieve more collectively than they could working independently. Formal organizations have deliberately defined objectives that take into account their stakeholders interests; they also have specific purposes. Informal organizations arise spontaneously and may have no formal purpose or objective, yet their members have mutual interests and work together to satisfy them.

Explain the process of management, and discuss the concepts of planning, organizing,  leading, and controlling.

      The process of management includes four functions of management that are interrelated activities. Managers plan in order to provide objectives. Organizing is concerned with gathering resources necessary to carry out plans. leading is the "influence" process through which managers in authority direct human behavior to achieve objectives. Controlling is the management function of steering performance toward desired results.

Name the different sets of managerial roles, and give examples of each.

      Interpersonal roles include figurehead, leader, and liaison. Informational roles include monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson. Decisional roles include entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.

Name the three basic levels of managers in the management hierarchy and briefly describe each.

      Strategic managers are top operating executives and decision&-making boards who guide the company in fulfilling long&-term objectives. They are concerned with the broad&-based mission and major objectives to be accomplished, as well as with providing a philosophy of leadership to organizational members. Tactical managers are those just under executive ranks and in several lower strata, including divisions and departments. They can be specialists, such as auditors, or operational managers, such as sales directors, but they deal with near&-term objectives such as quarterly or annual sales and budgets. First&-line managers are those who interact directly on a daily basis with operational nonmanagement employees. They hold positions as supervisors, foremen, and office managers, and they are concerned with immediate performance results, daily scheduling, and personal leadership and guidance of the work force.

Describe entrepreneurship as an important dimension of our free enterprise system.

      Large and complex organizations began in humble surroundings as entrepreneurial ventures. Every major company can trace its roots to innovative individuals. Entrepreneurship is the act of starting new ventures by combining resources in unusual ways to create new commercial endeavors.

Discuss how global competition is changing our views about managing organizations.

      American managers must cope with increased competition at home from foreign companies that have been able to establish strong markets by offering high&-quality products at reasonable prices. One of the important challenges for future American managers is to regain our competitive posture in the world economy.

Explain the connection between quality and productivity.

      Productivity is achieved by reducing the total resources used to provide reliable products or services. Workmanship, effective purchasing, proper sales forecasting, careful performance control, good inventory management and innovative methods in production or services add to a companies's quality profile and as these improve, so does productivity.