Introduction

Essential management skills:

1. Managing time and stress
2. Recognizing, defining, and solving
Personal skills
problems
3. Self awareness

4. Communicating [supportively]
5. Motivating and influencing others
Interpersonal skills
6. Conflict management
7. Decision making

8. Delegating [and empowering]

9. Setting goals and articulating a vision Group skills
10.Team building

• Management skills are behavioral i.e. observable and learned.

• Management skills are controllable i.e. adaptable.
• Management skills are developable i.e. can be learned and improved.
• Management skills are interrelated and overlapping

Developing Management Skills

1. Skill assessment of current level of skill competence and knowledge; and create readiness
to change.
2. Skill learning.
3. Skill analysis of effective performance/behavior and why they work.
4. Skill practice re: adaption of principles to personal style; and receive feedback and
assistance.
5. Skill application in real life situations.

Leadership and Management skills organized by the Competing Values Framework:

1. Clan skills focus on collaborative [effective interpersonal relationships skills]:
i. communicating supportively
ii. building teams and teamwork
iii. empowering
2. Adhocracy skills focus on create [articulating a vision]:

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 i. creative problem solving
ii. leading positive change
iii. fostering innovation
3. Market Skills focus on competition [power and influence]:
i. motivating others
ii. gaining power and influence
iii. managing conflict
4. Hierarchy skills focus on control [and rationality]:
i. Managing personal stress
ii. Managing time
iii. Maintaining self-awareness
iv. Analytical problem solving
Effective leadership and effective management are inseparable.

Effective management is a key source of financial success for firms. But effective managers are
not always successful personally, and vice versa, personally successful managers are not always
effective. Effective managers focus on managing employees, getting results, downward
communication and motivation, problem solving and human resource management. Successful
managers focus on networking and relationship building, especially with higher ups.

Thus, even though good management of people might be the best predictor of a firm’s financial
success, being a good manager (and helping the firm financially as a result) is not a good
predictor for your own success. Ideally, you will combine behaviors that lead to success and
effectiveness by:

1. Being good at networking, upward communication (managing your boss), stress

management, power and influence and conflict resolution
2. Being good at problem solving, downward communication, motivating your employees,
delegating, empowering and team building

“Skills” or “competencies” are identifiable sets of action that lead to outcomes. Unlike
personality traits they are controllable and can be developed. Being a good manager or even a
good sales person is attributable to skills rather than personality, and these competencies can be
learned and developed. The key is emotional intelligence. That is, being able to handle emotions
and balance contradictory skill areas such as human relations, power and control, innovativeness
and rationality.

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Scientific Management
➢ Time and motion studies
➢ Selection
➢ Training
➢ Financial incentives
➢ Piece rates

Human Relations Management

Focuses on group relations/behavior.

Chapter 1 - Developing Self-Awareness

Self-Awareness
Self-awareness involves:

1. Self-knowledge: our assumptions, trigger points, sensitive line, comfort zone, strengths
and weaknesses.
2. Understanding differences in others: different perspectives, needs, inclinations; and
focusing on those differences rather than on distinctions such as qualifications, titles,
status, etc.

Most of us have a tendency to interact with others like ourselves, but if managers do that they
lose information and perspectives that aid decision making. Good managers need to be much
broader minded than the average person.

Fear of self-awareness
• People are afraid of self knowledge and self awareness because it threatens self-concept.
The fear of public speaking shows that humiliation that causes harm to our self concept is
prevalent.
• The sensitive line is the point at which individuals become defensive or protective when
encountering information that is inconsistent with their self-concept or when encountering
pressure to alter their behavior. This is similar to the notion of cognitive dissonance, that
people resist holding two inconsistent beliefs at the same time. If we need a positive self-
concept to survive, then negative information about ourselves will cause cognitive
dissonance, or mental conflict, which we will resolve, likely by rejecting the information,
possibly to the extent of the treat-rigidity response to protect the image we hold of
ourselves.

To overcome the sensitive line:

• Use psychological tests since objective information is less threatening.
• Self-disclosure. Opening up to another person, is another way of building self-awareness.

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• Become more self-aware of key traits including personal values, learning style, orientation
toward change, and interpersonal orientation.

Dimensions of Self-Awareness:

1. Emotional Intelligence is the ability to manage ourselves [recognize and control our
emotions]; and to manage relationships with others [recognize and respond appropriately
to the emotions of others].
2. Personal values identify an individual’s basic standards about what is good/bad,
worthwhile/worthless, desirable/undesirable, true/false, moral/immoral. Personal values
may be either:
i. Terminal values that refer to end states or goals. An example would be “peace.”
They can be personal or social, or
ii. Instrumental values that refer to standards of behavior. Examples would include
morality and competence.
Several psychologists have argued that the level of moral development is a key
predictor of the way people behave. Moral development or moral maturity has
most famously been measured by Kohlberg in his Values Maturity scale.

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 Kohlberg Values Maturity scale:
Preconventional (self centered): i. Fear of punishment. Think of a criminal.
Moral duty resides in external factors, Infantile stage.
and consequences, not persons or ii. Individual instrumental purpose and
relationships. exchange. Meeting one’s own needs,
and being fair to others. Childish stage.
Think of the mafia.

Conventional (Conformity): iii. Mutual interpersonal expectations.

Moral value resides in duty, maintaining Relationships and conformity to others;
social contracts, keeping commitments. keeping commitment. Think of
adolescence.
iv. Social system. Upholding social order.
Doing one’s duty to society. Average
adult.

Postconventional (Principled): Moral v. Prior rights. Moral behavior is freely

value resides in commitment to freely chosen. Upholding rights and contracts.
selected standards, rights, and duties. Think of Kant’s universal ethics. Think
of Socrates

Values often conflict. Chester Barnard, in his seminal book The Functions of the Executive,
argues that the executive’s most important function is to motivate employees to accept
moral codes that are consistent with the firm’s goals. Firms need to balance economic
performance with social performance most adults have neither constructed nor do they
follow a well developed sense of principle.

3. Learning style refers to the manner in which we perceive, interpret and respond to
information. Two dimensions are: gathering information and evaluating information.
Gathering information is characterized by two poles of one dimension:
i. Abstract Conceptualization (AC): information is obtained from books and/or from
analysis of theoretical relationships, and
ii. Concrete Experience (CE): information is obtained from other people and/or from
experience.
Evaluating information is characterized by two poles of a second dimension:
i. Reflective observation (RO) which involves pondering and reflecting on information.
Differing perspective are considered.
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 ii. Active experimentation (AE) which involves testing and acting. Ability to get things
done. Taking risks. Influence through action.

The four poles result in four learning styles, combining one gathering and one evaluating
information pole each:

a. Diverging combines RO & CE indicating that the learner is creative, imaginative, and
interactive such as people in the arts and social services. These people view concrete
situations from many points of view and are good at idea generation.
b. Accommodating combines AE & CE indicating people act on gut feel and are risk
taking…such as entrepreneurs, marketing, sales, managers.
c. Converging combines AC & AE indicating problem solvers: technical people and
decision makers who are good at processing a wide range of information. They are good
at practical uses for ideas. Engineers.
d. Assimilating combines AC & RO indicating abstract thinking: science, computers and
math. These people are good at processing a wide range of information.

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4. Attitudes toward change involve the ability to learn, and adapt. Two dimensions that
reflect the ability to cope with change are tolerance of ambiguity and locus of control:
I. Tolerance of ambiguity refers to the extent to which individuals have difficulty
coping with ambiguous, changing circumstances. Tolerance of ambiguity is related to
cognitive complexity, the ability to integrate seemingly contradictory information.
Cognitive complexity, though, may be associated with lack of focus. Three subdivisions
are:
a. Novelty: extent to which people are tolerant of new, unfamiliar information or
situations,
b. Complexity: extent to which people are tolerant of multiple, distinctive, or
unrelated information, and
c. Insolubility: extent to which people are tolerant of difficult problems.
II. Locus of control refers to the attitude people develop regarding the extent to which
they are in control of their own destinies. Locus of control can shift over time, or vary

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 according to position or situation.
People having internal locus of control believe reinforcements or outcomes are
contingent on their own actions. Such people are associated with successful
management in North America, are less alienated from work environment, are more
satisfied at work, and experience less stress and more position mobility. On the
negative side, they are less likely to comply with leader directions, and are less
accurate in processing feedback about successes and failures. They also have greater
difficulty making decisions that have serious consequences.
People having external locus of control believe others or external factors cause
success or failure. Such people are most commonly found in managers from Eastern
cultures, tend to use coercive power more than internal leaders, and perform poorly in
stressful situations.

5. Core Self-evaluation is positive self-regard comprised of:

i. Self-esteem: the extent to which people see themselves as capable, successful, and
worthy,
ii. Self-efficacy: sense of one’s ability to perform capably in a variety of circumstances,
iii. Neuroticism: tendency to have a negative outlook and pessimistic approach to life,
and
iv. Locus of control discussed above.

Positive core self-evaluation implies sensitivity to others and to the environment so that
relationships with others are strengthened and developed.

Personality
Personality is the relatively enduring traits that make an individual unique. In contrast to skills,
which can be learned, and values, which are inculcated through cultural exposure, personality
traits are relatively permanent and difficult to change. Locus of control and tolerance of
ambiguity are borderline traits/values and is easier than some of the other traits, like the ones in
FIRO-B to change. You should not think of changing your personality traits, such as those
measured by FIRO-B (see chapter 6 notes). Your values can change much more easily.

The Big Five Dimensions of Personality are:

1. Extraversion
2. Agreeableness
3. Conscientiousness

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4. Neuroticism
5. Openness

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Trompenaars—Cultural Values Dimensions
Value Valued Country
dimension example

Universalism Societal rules and norms US

Particularism Individual relationships Korea

Individualism Individual contributions United States

Collectivism Team contributions Mexico, Japan

Affective Emotional response Iran, Spain

Neutral Unemotional response Korea, Japan

Specific Segregating Life’s Roles Holland

Diffuse Integrating Life’s Roles China

Achievement Personal accomplishment United States

Ascription Inherent attributes Egypt

Past and Past is tightly connected to future France

Present

Future Future disconnected but valued US, Holland

Internal Internal locus of control US, UK

External External locus of control. Japan, China

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Chapter 2 – Stress Management
Stress management is important because the ability to manage stress will help you to succeed.
Stress affects managers’ abilities to make decisions, to be creative and to focus. Furthermore,
stress has many health and other social implications. Managing stress is fundamental to our
ability to manage change, and the management of change is a key management mandate in
today’s technologically shifting and globally evolving world.

One of the key sources of stress, interestingly, is incompetent management. Characteristics of

low level positions make them much more stressful than high level positions. I’d rather be CEO
than a secretary because CEOs have more discretion. The CEO gets to give the incompetent
orders, but the secretary has to obey the incompetent orders, and it’s a lot harder to obey
incompetent orders than to give them!

Cultural differences play a role:

1. Egalitarian cultures tend to experience more stress.
2. Affective cultures tend to experience more stress.

Force field analysis suggests that there are stressors whose force is opposed by resistors or
resiliency. Your job is to build the resiliency and so manage the stressors.

Sources of Stress
Source Causes Counters

Time • Work overload • Effective time management

• Lack of control (doing the right thing)
• Efficient time management
(doing things right)
• Delegating

Encounter • Role conflicts Membership in a stable, closely-knit

(incompatibility) group or community.
• Issue conflicts
(disagreements) • Collaborating & team building
• Action conflicts (personal • Emotional intelligence
antagonisms)

Situational • Unfavorable working • Work redesign

conditions • [Change management]
• Rapid change

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Anticipatory • Unpleasant expectations • Goal setting
• Fear • Small wins

Reacting to stress:
1. Alarm stage is characterized by acute increases in anxiety/fear/sorrow/depression.
2. Resistance stage in which defense mechanisms predominate. Defense mechanisms
include:
a. aggression – attacking the stressor directly
b. regression – adoption of previously successful behaviors
c. repression – denial, forgetting, or redefining the stressors
d. withdrawal – fantasizing, inattentiveness, purposive forgetting, escape
e. fixation – persisting in a response regardless of its effectiveness
3. Exhaustion stage (if resistance fails to counter stressors) in which efforts to defend
against stress ceases.

Stress management
1. Enactive: eliminate stressors by creating new environments.
2. Proactive: develop resiliency (capacity to handle stress).
3. Reactive: temporary on the spot remedies including deep breathing, muscle relaxation,
imagery and fantasy, rehearsal of positive reactions to potentially stressful situations, and
reframing by redefining the situation as manageable.

Effective time management:

1. Distinguish between important -v- urgent tasks.
2. Spend time on important rather than urgent matters.
3. Focus on results rather than methods
4. Say no without guilt.

Efficient time management

Inefficient time management causes stress. Inter alia:
1. We tend to misuse time:
2. We do what we like first
3. We do easy, planned, routine and scheduled things first
4. We wait until deadlines
5. The squeaky wheel gets our attention

Efficient time management includes:

1. Reading selectively
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 2. Making to-do lists
3. Prioritizing
4. Placing everything in designated places
5. Doing one important thing at a time but several small things simultaneously
6. Dividing up large projects
7. Not procrastinating
8. Doing something productive while waiting
9. Holding routine meetings at the end of the day
10.Setting time limits
11.Meeting visitors in your doorway
12.Etc…

Work Redesign
Hackman and Oldham argue that more interesting, challenging and fulfilling jobs have certain
characteristics that lead to psychological states that in turn lead to job performance outcomes.

Job Characteristics Applications to eliminate stressors at work

Skill variety Combine tasks to utilize more skills, and foster pride of ownership in
the job.

Task identity Form identifiable work units to facilitate greater integration of

related tasks, and to eliminate/minimize monotony.

Task Significance Establish customer relationships to foster a greater sense of purpose

and pride in output which becomes more associative with customer
satisfaction.

Autonomy Empowerment: increase decision-making authority to provide

greater control and sense of ownership.

Feedback Open feedback channels to communicate ultimate results of efforts,

and to provide for self monitoring.

Goal Setting
Good goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable (but challenging), Relevant, and Time-
Bound.
1. Establish SMART goals.
2. Specify actions & behavior requirements.
3. Generate accountability and reporting mechanism.
4. Identify criteria of success and reward.

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Resiliency
1. Physiological resiliency is attained through exercise, proper diet, avoiding alcohol, sugar,
fat.
2. Psychological resiliency is attained by “hardiness” and avoiding Type A personality.
Hardiness means feeling in control, feeling committed and feeling challenged. In turn, it
implies internal locus of control and self esteem. In contrast, Type A personalities feel a
lot of tension, focus on having rather than being, are unaware of the broader environment,
have a strong need to compete, chronic sense of being in a hurry, have a feeling of guilt
when relaxing.
Ways to build psychological resiliency include balanced lifestyle, small wins strategy, and
deep relaxation.
3. Social resiliency implies developing a supportive social system: mentors, small groups
and teams.

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Chapter 3 – Problem Solving
Problem solving is an important skill and marketable to employers. Creativity is important to
entrepreneurship. But problem solving and creativity are likely NOT critical to career success
and moving up the corporate ladder. Networking and power and influence skills are likely more
important to career success. Creativity, problem solving and innovation and (more importantly)
management of creativity, problem solving and innovation are important for managerial
effectiveness.
Two types of problem solving are analytical problem solving which focuses on eliminating
problems, and creative problem solving which focuses on creating something new.

Analytical Problem Solving

Four steps to analytical problem solving are:
1. Define the problem.
a) Differentiate fact from opinion
b) Specify underlying causes
c) Tap everyone involved for information
d) State the problem explicitly
e) Identify what standard is violated
f) Determine whose problem it is
g) Avoid stating the problem as a disguised solution

1. Generate alternatives
a) Be sure all involved individuals generate alternatives
b) Specify alternatives that are consistent with goals
c) Specify both short- and long-term solutions
d) Specify alternatives that solve the problem
e) Postpone evaluating alternatives
f) Build on others’ ideas

1. Evaluate and select alternatives

a) Evaluate relative to an optimal standard
b) Evaluate systematically
c) Evaluate relative to goals
d) Evaluate main effects and side effects

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 e) State the selected alternative explicitly
1. Implement and follow up
a) Implement at proper time and in the right sequence
b) Implement using a small-wins strategy to discourage resistance
c) Provide opportunities for feedback
d) Engender acceptance by facilitating participation by affected individuals
e) Establish ongoing measurement and monitoring system
f) Evaluate based on problem solution not side benefits

Limitations of Analytical Problem Solving

Limitations include: time pressures, non-existing or unclear standards, paucity of alternative
solutions, inability to determine accuracy of information obtained, and insufficiency of
information.

1. Defining problem - Lack of consensus on the problem, acceptance of problem definition,

symptoms are often confused with the real problem, confusing information.
2. Generating alternatives - Alternatives are evaluated as they are proposed, few possible
alternatives are usually known, the first acceptable solution is usually accepted, and
alternatives are based on what was successful in the past.
3. Evaluating and selecting alternatives - Information on alternatives is limited, search for
information occurs close to home, the type of information is constrained by other factors,
gathering information is costly, preferences for the best alternatives are not always
known.
4. Implementing - Acceptance is not always forthcoming, resistance to change, uncertainty
about which part of the solution to monitor, political and organizational processes must be
managed, it may take a long time to implement a solution.

Creative problem solving

Four types of creativity:
1. Incubation (be sustainable)
a) Capitalize on teamwork, involvement, coordination, cohesion, empowering people,
building trust.
b) Flexible/internal/slow.
c) Requires existence of a diverse community with strong values; need for collective
effort and consensus; empowered workforce.
1. Imagination (be new)

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 a) Experimentation, exploration, risk taking, transformational ideas, revolutionary
thinking, unique vision.
b) Flexible/External/Large.
c) Appropriate when there is need for brand-name breakthrough, emerging markets,
resources needed for experimentation.
1. Improvement (be better)
a) Incremental improvements; process control; systematic approaches; careful methods;
clarifying problems.
b) Internal/control/small.
c) Requirement for quality, safety, and reliability; high technical specialization; effective
standardized procedures.
1. Investment (be first)
a) Rapid goal achievement, faster responses than others; competitive approaches; attack
problems directly
b) External/control/fast
c) Fast results a necessity; highly competitive environments; emphasis on bottom line
outcomes.

Conceptual Blocks
Conceptual blocks are mental obstacles that constrain the ways problems are defined. Selective
perception causes conceptual blocks. We are bombarded with much information and our minds
screen that information out. For example, formal education makes people less creative. Play,
not education, leads to creativity.
1. Constancy: being wedded to one way of solving a problem
a) Vertical thinking: defining a problem one way without considering alternative views.
b) One thinking language: not using more than one language (Words, Symbols, Sensory,
feelings and emotions, visual imagery) to define and assess the problem.
1. Commitment: being committed to one point of view.
a) Related to cognitive dissonance, defined as discomfort with contradictions among
beliefs and actions
b) Perceptual stereotyping: define present problems in terms of problems faced in the
past.
c) Ignoring commonalities: failure to find the common thread that exists between
dissimilar problems.
1. Compression:

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 a) Artificial constraints: defining the boundaries of a problem too narrowly (not thinking
outside the box).
b) Distinguishing figure from the ground: Not filtering out irrelevant information or
finding needed information.
1. Complacency
a) Non-inquisitiveness: not asking questions.
b) Non-thinking: a bias toward activity in place of mental work. Reliance on left-
hemispheric (logical, sequential, analytical, linear) thinking instead of being
ambidextrous. Right-hemispheric thinking utilizes intuition, synthesis, qualitative
judgment, etc.

Steps to creative problem solving:

1. Preparation – gathering data, defining the problem, generating alternatives, and examining
all available information.
2. Incubation – unconscious mental activity that combines unrelated thoughts in pursuit of a
solution.
3. Illumination – recognition of insight and articulation of a solution.
4. Verification – evaluating the creative solution relative to some standard of acceptability.

Improving creativity
A. Improving the definition of the problem:
1. Synectics: Put something you know in terms of what you don’t know. Transform the
problem definition through synectics or analogies and metaphors. Ask: what does this
remind me of? What does it make me feel like?
a) Personal analogies - Identify yourself as the problem.
b) Direct analogies - Apply facts, technology, and common experience to the problem.
c) Symbolic analogies - Impose symbols or images on the problem.
d) Fantasy analogies - In my wildest dreams how would I wish the problem to be resolved.
1. Elaborate on the definition.
a) Generate several plausible definitions.
b) Question checklist - is there anything else? Is the reverse true? Is this a symptom? Who
sees it differently?
1. Reverse the definition: reverse the way you think about the problem. Janusian thinking:
thinking contradictory thoughts at the same time.

A. Create more alternatives:

1. Fluency - number of ideas.
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 2. Flexibility - diversity of ideas.
3. Brainstorming/Deferring judgment.
a) Encourage wild/divergent ideas. Generate ideas separately then submit to a central
coordination (nominal group technique).
b) No evaluation. Quantity is more important than quality.
c) Build on others’ ideas.
1. Expand current alternatives through subdivision of the problem into smaller parts.
2. Combine unrelated alternatives using morphological synthesis: write the problem, list
attributes of problem, list alternatives to each attribute, and then combine different
alternatives. An ability to see common relationships among disparate factors is a major
factor differentiating creative and uncreative individuals.

A. Applying creative problem solving:

1. Give yourself relaxation time.
2. Find a place where you can think.
3. Talk to others about ideas and solicit suggestions.
4. Read a lot.
5. Protect yourself from idea killers (“back holes”).

A. Pull people apart—put them together

1. Heterogeneous teams.
2. Let people work alone and in groups.
3. Separate competing groups.

A. Monitor and prod: hold people accountable.

1. The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.
2. Sharp pointed prod: mandates that demand innovativeness.

A. Reward multiple roles.

1. Idea champions.
2. Orchestrator (facilitator).
3. Sponsors and Mentors.
4. Rule breakers who go beyond boundaries and barriers to ensure success.

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Chapter 4 – Communicating
Communication has gotten more accurate because of technology such as e-mail and fax
machines. But good communication depends on trust as well as accuracy. Much writing on
communication focuses on accuracy. Technology has improved accuracy but not the emotional
content of communication.

The ability to communicate, face-to-face in interpersonal communication is the most important

managerial skill. Models of communication that focus on accuracy emphasize the following:
Sender  Message  Encode  Medium  Decode  Message  Receiver

But the emotional dimension of communication is more important than accuracy. More often
than not, it is the impersonal aspect of communication that stands in the way of accuracy.

Supportive communication seeks to preserve a positive relationship between communicators.

Good relationships produce bottom-line advantages. It is particularly important for coaching
and counseling.

Coaching - giving advice, direction or information to improve performance. It is relevant for

addressing ability problems: inability, incompetence, or insufficient information or
understanding.

Counseling - helping someone understand and resolve a problem him/herself by displaying

understanding. It is relevant for addressing attitude problems: personality clashes,
defensiveness, and other emotions.

Obstacles to communication
If principles of supportive communication are not followed, two major results are:

1. Defensiveness:
i. One individual feels threatened or attacked as a result of the communication
ii. Self-protection becomes paramount
iii. Energy is spent on constructing a defense rather than on listening
iv. Aggression, anger, competitiveness, and/or avoidance as a result of the
communication.

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1. Disconfirmation:
i. Individual feels incompetent, unworthy, or insignificant as a result of the
communication
ii. Attempts to reestablish self-worth take precedence
iii. Energy is spent trying to portray self-importance rather than on listening
iv. Showing off, self-centered behavior, withdrawal, and/or loss of motivation are common
reactions.

Principles of supportive communication

1. Congruence: a match between what an individual is thinking and feeling.
2. Descriptive and reduces the tendency to evaluate and cause defensiveness.
a) Describes objectively the event, behavior, or circumstance.
b) Focuses on the behavior and your reaction.
c) Focuses on solutions.
1. Problem-oriented and does not focus on personal traits which cannot be changed.
2. Validating helps others feel recognized, understood, accepted, and valued. It is egalitarian,
flexible, two-way, and based on agreement.
Invalidating communication conveys superiority, rigidity, indifference, and imperviousness
and creates negative feelings of self worth.
3. Specific and identifies something that can be understood and acted upon.
4. Conjunctive (not disjunctive) and joined to a previous message and provides equitable
opportunities to speak.
5. Owned and acknowledges the source of the idea. Ownership conveys responsibility.
6. Active listening and responding effectively to someone else’s statements.

Listening Responses
1. Advising provides direction, evaluation, personal opinion, or instruction. Most appropriate
when the listener has expertise that the speaker lacks. Cautions:
a) Creates listener control over the topic.
b) Can produce dependence.
c) The speaker may feel misunderstood.
d) Shifts the focus of the conversation.
e) Should almost always follow other responses.

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1. Deflecting switches focus from the speaker to the listener e.g. “A similar thing happened to

me.”, and can produce feeling of being one-upped. Appropriate if reassurance is needed.

Implies that the communicator’s issues are not important.

2. Probing: Ask a question about what the speaker just said to gather more information.
“Why” questions are seldom as effective as “What” questions. “What do you mean by that”
is better.
4 kinds of probes:
i. Elaboration – to solicit more information.
ii. Repetition to confirm statement or prevent topic drift.
iii. Reflection to encourage more in-depth discussion of the same topic, and
iv. Clarification to eliminate ambiguity.
3. Reflecting: mirror back to the speaker to indicate and contribute acceptance of what was
said. Least intrusive listening response.

Even more important than good listening technique is genuine concern for the person with
whom you are communicating. Covey advocates empathetic listening: seek first to
understand, then to be understood. Through empathy for others, you will gain their trust.

Behavioral Guidelines
1. Differentiate between coaching situations and counseling situations.
2. Use problem-oriented statements rather than person-oriented statements.
3. Communicate congruently by acknowledging your true feelings without acting them out in
destructive ways.
4. Use descriptive, not evaluative, statements.
5. Use validating statements that acknowledge the other person’s importance and uniqueness.
6. Use specific rather than global statements when correcting behavior.
7. Use conjunctive statements that flow smoothly from what was said previously.
8. Own your statements, and encourage, the other person to do likewise.
9. Demonstrate supportive listening.
10.Implement a personal management interview program characterized by supportive
communication.

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Chapter 5 – Power and Influence
Power is the potential to influence behavior - to get things done. Political competence is
critical to getting things done in an organization. In involves management of bosses, underlings,
customers, suppliers, unions, etc. It also involves the capacity to make others feel powerful.

Not all cultures see power the same way. Ascriptive cultures value inherent attributes, and don’t
value personal power as Americans do. They believe that power resides in stable, personal
characteristics. Collectivist cultures believe in power of groups.

Need for Power

1. Personal power – some people seek power for themselves.
2. Institutional power - people who seek power on behalf of their organizations.

McClelland predicted that while entrepreneurs have a high need for achievement and like to
get things done and demonstrate excellence, top managers tend to have a high need for
power.

Current organizational trends:

a) flatter organizations
b) technology and decentralization
c) boundaryless organizations
d) smaller firms

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Power determinants
1. Personal attributes: abilities and competencies, also referred to as human capital, and
2. Positional characteristics: social connections within and without the organization, also
referred to as social capital.

Sources of Personal Power

1. Expertise: task relevant knowledge. Skillful subordinates make knowledge available in a
manner that does not threaten a boss. But, avoid the expertise trap, where you are locked in
a field that you have expertise in, but the company does not want to replace you.

2. Personal attraction: charisma, likeability, and physical attractiveness. Likeability implies:

a) Emotionally accessible.
b) Honest and loyal.
c) Positive regard and acceptance.

3. Effort: higher than expected commitment of time leads to cognitive dissonance on others’
part. They associate the hard worker with a higher level job. But in some organizations hard
work is discouraged by peer groups and group norms. In some organizations everyone works
very hard, so effort will not distinguish anyone. If you put out more effort your boss relies on
you. At the same time, it is better to benefit than to impress your boss. It is important to:
a) Understand your boss’s goals and objectives.
b) Understand your boss’s traits.
c) Maintain a relationship that fits the needs and style of both you and the boss.

4. Legitimacy: Conformity to organizational norms and values. The person who mirrors their
boss and conforms to the boss’s ways and the ways of the higher ups and of the organization
tends to be more successful.

Sources of Position Power

1. Centrality: access to information. Being part of a broad network of interpersonal
relationships. Horizontal and vertical networks are important. Informal network power
precedes formal power.
2. Flexibility: freedom to exercise one’s judgment and discretion.
3. Visibility: people oriented positions are often more powerful than task oriented ones. Being
in a position that allows you to interact with a large number of influential people increases
your power by making your accomplishments more evident to the people who allocate
resources.
4. Relevance: working on activities directly related to the central objectives and issues in the
organization.
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Developing long term relationships is key to gaining power. In contrast, managers tend to have
their careers derailed if they are
➢ Cold, aloof and arrogant,
➢ Insensitive to others and betraying their trust,
➢ Overly ambitious,
➢ Unable to delegate, and
➢ Unable to trust.

Converting power into influence

The skill of transforming power into influence hinges on securing the consent of others that
engenders support and commitment.

Three influence strategies:

1. Retribution: using threat/intimidation of negative consequences to force others comply. “If
you don’t do x you’ll regret it”. Likely to incur resentment/resistance/opposition.
2. Reciprocity: bargaining and emphasizing mutual gain. “If you do x, you’ll receive y”.
Requires some degree of trust; and may generate cynicism.
3. Reason: promote the merits of the proposition to elicit willing compliance. The best
approach but takes time. Is disadvantaged by different cultural and other value systems, and
by incongruent goals.

Influencing your boss:

Ways to sell issues upwards:
1. Congruence with your position and role.
2. Credibility: honest, non-self-serving, and straightforward.
3. Communication through multiple channels.
4. Payoff – emphasize benefits to the organization.
5. Bundling of similar issues.
6. Visibility – promote the issue in public forums (meetings)…

Neutralizing retribution attempts

1. Use countervailing power to shift dependence to interdependence
2. Confront the exploiting individual directly
3. Actively resist

Neutralizing reciprocity attempts

1. Examine the intent of gift giving

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2. Confront individuals who are using manipulative bargaining tactics
3. Refuse to bargain with individuals who use high pressure tactics

Neutralize reason strategies

1. Explain the adverse effects of compliance and suggest alternatives. E.g. inability to fulfill your
responsibilities/task.
2. Defend your personal rights be treated fairly, not be disadvantaged, and not to be
overburdened because of others’ negligence or overdependence.
3. Firmly refuse to comply with the request; and seek the support of a higher authority if
necessary.

Behavioral Guidelines
1. Enhance personal power in the organization
2. Increase centrality of position
3. Increase latitude and flexibility of the job
4. Increase visibility of job performance
5. Increase task relevance to major organizational objectives
6. Use appropriate influencing strategies
7. Neutralize inappropriate influencing strategies directed toward you
8. Sell issues to superiors.

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Chapter 6 – Motivating Others
Employee commitment has important competitive value but is difficult to achieve. The challenge
for managers is to create a motivating work environment.

Performance
Attribution bias is the tendency to blame people or a human cause. It is sometime incorrect to
say that “someone” is to blame.

➢ Performance =Ability × Motivation (Effort)

➢ Ability = Aptitude × Training × Resources
➢ Aptitude = mental × personality characteristics
➢ Motivation (Effort)= Desire × Commitment

Diagnosing a performance problem

Diagnosing a performance problem involves determining whether there is a lack of ability, lack of
motivation or both. This requires appreciation of:

1. Difficulty of the task,

2. Capability of the individual,
3. Degree of effort, and
4. Improvement progress of the individual.

Signs of ability deterioration include:

➢ Taking refuge in a specialty/retreating to a past area of expertise.
➢ Focusing on past performance/measuring one’s value to the organization in terms of past
success.
➢ Exaggerating aspects of the leadership role, excessive delegation, micro managing.

Overcoming lack of ability

1. Resupply resources —personnel, budget, political clout, etc.
2. Retrain employees to respond to changing skill requirements.
3. Refit employees and tasks for a better match.
4. Reassign to a less difficult job…may involve demotion.
5. Release (fire).

Motivation Issues
Macgregor argued that there are two kinds of managers:
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 1. Theory X who believe that workers are lazy, need to be closely supervised, need financial
incentives.
2. Theory Y who believe that workers can be trusted, and naturally want to do a good job
and assume more responsibility.

Relationship between Satisfaction & Performance

Motivation  Performance  Outcomes  Satisfaction.

Outcomes may be:

1. Extrinsic– controlled by someone other than the performer; and includes pay, promotions,
praise, etc.
2. Intrinsic – experienced by the performer as a result of successful task performance; and
includes feelings of accomplishment, self esteem, development of new skills, etc.

Management styles
1. Indulging focuses on satisfaction rather than performance; and undermines performance of
subordinates.
2. Imposing focuses on performance rather than satisfaction; results in exploited, and
consequently, unhappy employees.
3. Ignoring both performance & satisfaction is a lack of management.
4. Integrating focuses equally on performance and satisfaction though specific cases will
involve some trade-offs.
.

Whetten and Cameron Assumptions for an Integrated, Synergistic Motivational

Program
1. Lack of motivation is learned (but that’s hard to prove).
2. Management should create a supportive environment.
3. Rewards should encourage a high level of personal performance (but it is very difficult for
managers to evaluate subordinates’ performance).
4. Motivation works best when based on self governance.
5. Individuals should be treated fairly.
6. Individuals deserve timely, honest feedback (but it’s hard to get it right)

6 Elements of an Integrative Motivation Program

1. Establish moderately difficult goals that are understood and accepted.
2. Remove obstacles to performance.

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3. Use rewards appropriately to encourage exceptional performance and discipline to
extinguish unacceptable behavior.
4. Provide salient intrinsic and extrinsic incentives.
5. Distribute rewards equitably.
6. Provide timely rewards and specific, accurate, and honest feedback on performance.

Characteristics of good goals:

1. Specific
2. Consistent
3. Appropriately challenging
4. Provide feedback

The best awards program:

1. Give awards publicly
2. Use awards infrequently
3. Embed them in a reward process that is timely, equitable (by workers’ perceptions), and has
salient intrinsic and extrinsic values.
4. Acknowledge past recipients in awards presentations
5. Match award with culture

Path-Goal Model
The path-goal model is a contingency theory of motivation. It suggests that leaders should get
involved to a varying degree depending upon the needs of subordinates: need for support, need
for autonomy, need for achievement, locus of control, and experience, as well as the task
difficulty and structure.
➢ Task structure high  low management involvement.
➢ Task mastery high  low management involvement.
➢ Subordinates’ need for autonomy high  low management involvement.

Expectancy Theory
Expectancy theory holds that motivation depends on the manager’s ability to gauge the
employee’s desire for a given reward, the employee’s expectancy of competence to do the
required task, the employee’s expectancy that the manager can be trusted, and that the
manager will actually provide the reward if the required task is done.
Motivation = Expectancy × Instrumentality × Valence for reward

Valence is the employee’s valuation of the perceived outcome.

Instrumentality is the employee’s belief that if he completes certain the tasks then he will in
fact achieve the expected outcome.
Expectancy is the employee’s belief that he is able to complete the tasks.

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Equity theory
Equity is the absolute value the employee associate with a reward. Fairness is comparative
value the employee associate with a reward; and is determined by the value of the reward to
their efforts, as well as comparing the rewards they receive for their efforts –v- the rewards other
employees receive for their efforts. In the latter case,
Equity: Output of person = Output of other
Input of person Input of other

Inequity: Output of person ≠ Output of other

Input of person Input of other

The absence of equity leads to cognitive dissonance. Inequity leads to employees’ attempts to
resolve the inequity, such as quitting, forming a union, sabotage, restricting work.

Fiedler’s contingency theory

Fiedler’s contingency theory of leadership held that the leader’s characteristics will vary
depending on whether circumstances are unfavorable or favorable. When the leader has a lot of
power, the task is clear and leader-member relations are good, the circumstances are positive.
When the leader lacks power, the task is complex, ambiguous or difficult and leader-member
relations are poor, the circumstances are unfavorable.

Fiedler distinguished between task and socio-emotional (relations) orientation. Task oriented
people focus on the task rather than harmony in relationships, while socio-emotionally oriented
people focus on interpersonal relationships and interpersonal harmony. Fiedler measured task
versus socio-emotional orientation with his least-preferred coworker scale. The least preferred
coworker scale measured the extent to which the subject disliked the coworker s/he liked the
least. If the subject liked the coworker s/he liked the least, then they were relations or socio-
emotionally oriented, while if they disliked the worker they liked the least, then they were task
oriented.

Fiedler found that task oriented people tend to do best when the task is very difficult or very
easy, as in a military battle (very difficult) or in the civil service (very easy). In those
circumstances task orientation is good. In contrast, socio-emotional orientation is important
when the task is moderately difficult or unfavorable. Then socio-emotionally oriented leaders
work best. Fiedler argued that it is best to fit the manager to the job, and that orientation is
difficult to change. Which style works best will depend on the circumstances, so his theory is a
contingency theory.

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Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning or behaviorism is a theoretical underpinning of scientific management,
expectancy theory and equity theory. It emphasizes the timing of rewards: it is best to give
rewards around the time behavior occurs. Other schedules such as interval (based on time
periods) and ratio (based on units of output) are also possible.

Behaviorism
Behaviorism emphasizes that learning occurs through experience or reinforcement. The reason
behavior changes, is that positive or unpleasant results have occurred because of past behavior.

Types of reinforcement
➢ Positive response (rewarding);
➢ Extinction: No response (Neutrality). This could be misinterpreted as either negative or
positive response depending on what was the typical/expected response.
➢ Negative response (disciplining).
➢ Negative reinforcement: (withholding a negative when someone does something right)

Improving Behavior
1. Reinforce exceptional behavior,
2. Redirect (clarify expected behavior), and
3. Reprimand (extinguish unwanted behavior).

Needs Hierarchies
An alternative view of motivation focuses on intrinsic rewards such as self esteem and self
actualization. Maslow argued that there is a hierarchy of needs: physiological, safety, social,
self esteem, self actualization.
He thought that you need to satisfy the lower order needs first.

Herzberg built on Maslow’s theory. He suggested that the lower order needs have to be
satisfied, but do not motivate workers to achieve important achievements. He called things that
satisfy the lower order needs “hygiene factors” or “de-motivators” because their absence
dissatisfies or demotivates, but their presence does not motivate.

He argued that what motivates workers to work hard are the higher order needs, the self
actualization and self esteem needs. He called the things that satisfy these “motivators.”
Intrinsic to the work, motivators are challenge and interest in the work. Interesting work is the

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most important motivator. In Herzberg’s view, the way you make work interesting is “vertical job
loading” or job enrichment. You take the supervisor’s work and give it to the employee.

Manifest needs theory

Murray’s manifest needs theory argued that there are twenty needs. McClelland argued that
four of these needs: need for achievement, need for power, need for affiliation, and need
for autonomy are important. Entrepreneurs characteristically have need for achievement,
while managers are characterized by need for power. Managers who are successful typically
have a need for institutional power, that is, they like to use power to benefit the firm.

**************************************************************************************************
****************************
Moral belief is often the most important motivator. Leadership involves inspiring work that is
incrementally greater than expectations. Leadership can be transactional, which means that it
depends on financial or bureaucratic incentives such as fear of being fired or other work rewards.
Leadership can also be transformational, which means based on moral values, and emotional
belief.

FIRO-B SCALE AS A MEASURE OF NEEDS

Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO)

Inclusion Control Affection

Desires Acceptance Guidance Closeness

Offers Interest Leadership Liking

Schutz created the FIRO-B questionnaire to measure an individual's orientation toward the six
interpersonal needs. The B on the end of the acronym indicates that the purpose of the
instrument is to examine behavior. Responding to six sample items will give you a better
understanding of the theory and might help you understand yourself at the same time.

1. Inclusion wanted: I like people to ask me to participate in their discussions.

2. Inclusion expressed: When people are doing things together, I tend to join them.

3. Control wanted: I let other people control my actions.

4. Control expressed: I try to have other people do things the way I want them done.

5. Affection wanted: I like people to be close and personal with me.

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6. Affection expressed: I try to have close relationships with people.

**************************************************************************************************
****************************
It is important to understand that the best leaders go beyond the transactional and inspire their
employees to do more than is expected. This is done through organizational cultures that great
business leaders create. Examples include Bill Gates at Microsoft and Jack Welch at GE.

Great leadership involves the creation of a vision and the creation of a moral code that will
inspire employees to become committed to the organization. Military organizations have always
known this.

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Chapter 7 – Managing Conflict
Conflict is important to corporate competitiveness. Too much agreement leads to business
failure. Conflict leads to deeper understanding and a richer solution set. Confidence in one’s
conflict resolution skills and ability to handle conflict leads to better management of conflict.
Important to understand and manage conflict in light of heterogeneity and diversity. Different
views and diversity lead to conflict but also lead to more and better ideas.
Some cultures like Japan have high uncertainty avoidance; others like the US have high tolerance
of uncertainty.

Rules of Engagement
➢ Work with more information.
➢ Focus on the facts.
➢ Develop multiple alternatives.
➢ Share agreed-upon goals.
➢ Inject humor into the decision process.
➢ Maintain a balanced power structure.
➢ Resolve issues without forcing consensus.

Type of conflict
Much conflict focuses on people rather than issues. People focused conflict is emotional and
hurts relationships, whereas issue-based conflict is rational and enhances relatinships. Hostile
behavior often reflects the frustrations of people who have good intentions but are unskilled.
Issue-focused conflicts are rational negotiations that entail an amicable settlement that is fair to
all parties.

Sources of interpersonal conflict

1. Personal differences: incompatible values, needs, and personalities.
2. Informational deficiencies arising from misinformation and/or misunderstandings.
3. Role incompatibility: competing roles. E.g., sales versus production, line versus staff.
4. Environmental stress resulting from organizational environment: austere budgets, scarcity,
uncertainty.

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Five ways to manage conflict
Strategies Attributes Applicability
Forcing Using formal authority, threats, and/or High issue importance, low relationship
intimidation. Breeds hostility and important, high relative power, med-
(Distributive) undermines confidence. high time constraints.
Accommodati Satisfying the other party’s interests Low issue importance, high
ng while neglecting your own. Win-lose. relationship importance, low relative
power, med-high time constraints.
(Distributive)

Avoiding Ignoring conflict = failure to resolve Low issue importance, low relationship
issues; festering ill feeling. Lose-lose. importance, equal relative power, med-
(Distributive) high time constraints.
Compromisin Reach quick agreement. Splitting the Med issue importance, med
g difference. Win-lose. relationship importance, equal relative
power, low time constraints.
(Distributive)

Collaborating Generate mutually agreeable High issue importance, high

solutions. Win-win. relationship importance, low-high
(Integrative) relative power, low time constraints.

Negotiation strategy
a) Distributive bargaining is win-lose. In distributive bargaining you don’t want to give up too
much information, especially about your threat point or the worst offer that you’ll accept.
Involves splitting the pie.
b) Integrative bargaining is win-win based on sharing information. Involves expanding the
pie, to make both sides better off.

Four phases of collaborative problem solving

1. Problem identification.
2. Solution generation.
3. Action plan formulation and agreement.
4. Implement and follow up.

Collaboration problem solving steps

1. Establish superordinate goals. Focus on shared interest/goals.
2. Separate people from the problem (depersonalize).
3. Focus on interest not positions.
4. Use options for mutual gain such as brainstorm to shift dynamics from competitive to
collaborative.
5. Use objective criteria for evaluating alternatives. Determine what is fair using an objective
standard.
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6. Define success in terms of real gains, not imaginary losses.

Initiator problem identification

1. Own problem. “I have a problem”.
2. Describe problem in terms of behaviors, consequences, and feelings. “When you do x, y
results and I feel z.”
3. Avoid drawing evaluative conclusions and attributing motives to the respondent.
4. Persist until understood. Responders may be rigid.
5. Encourage two way discussions. Lengthy monologues encourage defensive reactions and get
the speaker worked up.
6. Manage the agenda. Approach multiple problems incrementally. Use the small wins
approach.

Initiator solution generation

1. Focus on commonalities as the basis for requesting a change.
2. Define success in terms of gains, not losses.

Responder problem identification

1. Establish a climate for joint problem solving: show genuine interest and concern.
2. Seek additional, clarifying information about the problem.
3. Agree with some aspect of the complaint.
4. Limit responses to questions.
5. Transform general complaints to specific complaints.
6. Transform emphasis on motives to emphasis on actions.

Responder solution generation

1. Ask for suggestions of acceptable alternatives. Each party believes it is the victim of the
other’s aggression

Mediator problem identification

1. Acknowledge problem exists. Take the complaint seriously. Decide whether to have a joint
or separate meeting.
2. Maintain a neutral posture. Effective mediation requires impartiality.
3. Serve as facilitator, not judge. Focus on problem solving.
4. Manage the discussion to ensure fairness.

Mediator solution generation

1. Focus on interests, not positions.
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2. Obtain agreement on solution and establish follow up procedures.

Behavioral Guidelines
1. Collect information on the sources of conflict.
2. Examine relevant situational considerations.
3. Take into consideration your personal preferences for using the conflict management
approaches.
4. Utilize the collaborative approach unless conditions dictate the use of an alternative
approach.

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