PART 1: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 - MANAGERS AND MANAGEMENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES
After reading this chapter students should be able to:
1. Describe the difference between managers and operative employees.
2. Explain what is meant by the term management.
3. Differentiate between efficiency and effectiveness.
4. Describe the four primary processes of management.
5. Classify the three levels of managers, and identify the primary responsi
bility of each group.
6. Summarize the essential roles performed by managers.
7. Discuss whether the manager's job is generic.
8. Describe the four general skills necessary for becoming a successful man
ager.
9. Describe the value of studying management.
10. Identify the relevance of popular humanities and social science courses
to management practices.
Opening Vignette
SUMMARY
Manager Wiin Wu.
What distinguishes those organizations that succeed from those that don't are go
od managers. Managers accomplish goals through and with the efforts of others.
Educated at MIT and Stanford universities, Wiin began his career at Intel. He ha
d a vision of how to make better computer chips and made it a reality in 1989 wh
en he founded Macronix International, Ltd. in Taiwan. He also created alliances
with other companies also investing heavily in research and development. Wiin ne
ver overlooks the role of the human factor in his business, constantly seeking t
o re-create the organization, fostering a work environment that promotes enthusi
asm. His efforts have proven successful for Macronix International; company sale
s broke through $320 million in 1998, and its share of the Asian microchip marke
t has nearly doubled from 2.8 to 5.4 percent, and has earned the recent honor of
being chosen one of Taiwan's thriving high-tech companies.
Wiin Wu provides a good example of what a successful manager does. They manage l
arge corporations, small businesses, etc., while holding positions at the top, i
n the middle, and on the line overseeing employees, and doing their work in ever
y country on the globe.
Teaching tips
1. Make contact with 3-5 local companies or CEOs through the chamber of com
merce, Kiwanis club, etc.
2. Choose 3-5 volunteers or 3-5 teams to visit these local companies and co
nduct brief 30-minute interviews with the CEOs.
3. As a class, using this chapter, brainstorm what questions, 5-7 at the mo
st, each team or interviewer should ask.
4. Have the interviewers report back to class what they learned.
5. As a class, discuss how their discoveries fit or do not fit course conte
nt.
I. WHO ARE MANAGERS, AND WHERE DO THEY WORK?
A. Introduction
1. Managers work in an organization.
2. An organization is a systematic arrangement of people brought together t
o accomplish some specific purpose.
a) Your college or university is an organization.
B. What Three Common Characteristics Do All Organizations Share?
1. Every organization has a purpose and is made up of people who are groupe
d in some fashion.
a) See Exhibit 1-1.
b) This distinct purpose is typically expressed in terms of a goal or set o
f goals.
2. Second, purposes or goals can be achieved only through people.
3. Third, all organizations develop a systematic structure that defines and
limits the behavior of their members.
a) Developing structure may include creating rules and regulations, control
of members, etc.
4. Organization--has a distinct purpose, has people or members, and has a s
ystematic structure.
C. How Are Managers Different from Operative Employees?
1. Organizational members fit into two categories: operatives and managers.
a) Operatives work directly on a job and have no oversight responsibility o
f others.
b) Managers direct the activities of other people in the organization.
(1) Customarily classified as top, middle, or first-line, they supervise bot
h operative employees and lower-level managers.
(2) See Exhibit 1-2.
(3) Some managers also have operative responsibilities themselves.
2. The distinction, managers have employees who report directly to them.
D. What Titles Do Managers Have in Organizations?
1. First-line managers are usually called supervisors.
a) They are responsible for directing the day-to-day activities of operativ
e employees.
b) In your college, the Department Chair would be a first-line supervisor.
2. Middle managers--management between the first-line supervisor and top ma
nagement.
a) They manage other managers and possibly some operative employees.
b) They are responsible for translating the goals set by top management int
o specific details.
3. Top managers, like Wiin Wu, are responsible for making decisions about t
he direction of the organization and establishing policies that affect all organ
izational members.
Teaching Notes ________________________________________________________________
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II. WHAT IS MANAGEMENT, AND WHAT DO MANAGERS DO?
A. How Do We Define Management?
1. Managers, regardless of title, share several common elements.
2. Management--the process of getting things done, effectively and efficien
tly, through and with other people.
a) Process in the definition represents the primary activities managers per
form.
3. Effectiveness and efficiency deal with what we are doing and how we are
doing it.
a) Efficiency--doing the task right and to the relationship between inputs
and outputs.
b) Effectiveness--doing the right task, that translates into goal attainmen
t
c) See Exhibit 1-3.
4. Efficiency and effectiveness are interrelated.
a) It's easier to be effective if one ignores efficiency.
b) Good management attains goals (effectiveness) and doing so as efficientl
y as possible.
c) Organizations can be efficient and yet not be effective.
d) High efficiency is associated more typically with high effectiveness.
5. Poor management is most often due to both inefficiency and ineffectivene
ss.
B. What Are the Management Processes?
1. Henri Fayol defined the management process in terms of five management f
unctions.
a) They plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control.
b) In the mid-1950s, two professors used the terms planning, organizing, st
affing, directing, and controlling as the framework for a the most widely sold m
anagement textbook.
2. The most popular textbooks now condense to the basic four: planning, org
anizing, leading, and controlling.
a) See Exhibit 1-4.
b) These processes are interrelated and interdependent.
3. Planning encompasses defining an organization's goals, establishing an o
verall strategy for achieving those goals, and developing comprehensive plans to
integrate and coordinate.
a) Setting goals creates a proper focus.
4. Organizing--determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, ho
w the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to b
e made.
5. Directing and coordinating people is the leading component of management
.
a) Managers motivate employees, direct the activities of others, select the
most effective communication channel, or resolve conflicts among members.
6. Controlling.
a) To ensure that things are going as they should, a manager must monitor p
erformance.
b) Actual performance must be compared with the previously set goals.
c) Any significant deviations must be addressed.
d) The monitoring, comparing, and correcting is the controlling process.
7. The process approach is clear and simply but may not accurately describe
what managers do.
a) Fayol's original applications represented observations of his experience
.
8. Henry Mintzberg provided fresh insight on the manager's job.
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C. What Are Management Roles?
1. Henry Mintzberg undertook a careful study of five chief executives at wo
rk.
a) Managers engaged in a large number of varied, unpatterned, and short-dur
ation activities.
b) There was little time for reflective thinking.
c) Half of these managers' activities lasted less than nine minutes.
2. His categorization scheme--Mintzberg's managerial roles.
3. Mintzberg concluded that managers perform ten different but highly inter
related roles.
a) These ten roles are shown in Exhibit 1-5.
b) They are grouped under three primary headings.
(1) Interpersonal relationships.
(2) The transfer of information.
(3) Decision making.