Quiz

• Types of managerial roles

  • Decisional
  • Interpersonal
  • Informational
• Decisional roles


  • Require managers to plan strategy and utilize resources
  • Categorized by researcher Henry Mintzberg
  • Include roles such as entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator
• Decisional roles


  1. Entrepreneur role: assign resources to develop innovative goods and services or expand a business

  2. Disturbance handler role: correct unanticipated problems facing the organization

  3. Resource allocator role: determine allocation of resources to work units

  4. Negotiator role: work with others to reach agreements regarding products and services
• Interpersonal roles


  • Require managers to direct and supervise employees and the organization
  • Include roles such as figurehead, leader, liaison
• Interpersonal roles


  1. Figurehead role: communicate future organizational goals or ethical guidelines

  2. Leader role: act as an example, give commands, make decisions, mobilize employee support

  3. Liaison role: coordinate work of others, establish alliances, share resources
• Informational roles

  • Involve obtaining and transmitting information
  • Include roles such as monitor, disseminator, spokesperson
• Informational roles


  1. Monitor role: evaluate performance, take corrective action, watch for changes in environment

  2. Disseminator role: inform employees of changes, communicate company's vision and purpose

  3. Spokesperson role: communicate with external environment, advertise goods and services, inform community
• Management skills


  • Technical skill
  • Interpersonal skill
  • Conceptual skill
  • Diagnostic skill
  • Political skill
• Technical skill


  Involves understanding and demonstrating proficiency in a particular work
• Managerial tasks


  • Top manager may provide strategic information, middle manager may give a press release to a local newspaper, supervisor manager may give a presentation at a community meeting
• Management Skills


  • Technical skill
  • Interpersonal skill
  • Conceptual skill
  • Diagnostic skill
  • Political skill
• Technical skill


  Involves understanding and demonstrating proficiency in a particular workplace activity such as using a computer word processing program, creating a budget, operating machinery, or preparing a presentation
• Technical skill


  Differ in each level of management
• First-level managers


  • Engage in the actual operations of the organization, need to understand how production and service occur, skill in scheduling workers and preparing budgets
• Middle managers


  • Use more technical skills related to planning and organizing
• Top managers


  • Need skill to understand the complex financial workings of the organization
• Interpersonal skill


  Involves human relations, communication is critical, necessary at all levels of management
• Conceptual skill


  Manager's ability to see the organization as a whole, crucial for top managers, necessary for middle and supervisory managers
• Diagnostic skill


  Used to investigate problems, decide on a remedy, and implement a solution, involves technical, interpersonal, conceptual, and political skills
• Use of diagnostic skill

  Differs across the three levels of management based on the types of problems addressed
• Political skill


  Involves obtaining power and preventing others from taking away one's power, necessary for achieving organizational objectives, required at all levels of management
• Use of political skill

  Can lead to promoting a manager's own career rather than reaching organizational goals if used without appropriate levels of other skills
• Changes in organizational structures


  Influence how many managers are at each level of the organizational hierarchy and what tasks they perform each day
• Organizational structures


  • Flat
  • Tall
• Interacting with competitors, suppliers, customers, shareholders, government, and the public


  May require political skill
• Changes in management hierarchies


  Influence how many managers are at each level of the organizational hierarchy and what tasks they perform each day
• Types of organizational structures

  • Flat
  • Tall
• Tall organizational structures


  • Have many levels of middle management, each manager supervises a small number of employees or other managers, have a small span of control
• Flat organizational structures


  • Have fewer levels of middle management, each manager has a wider span of control, are less centralized, promote decentralization
• Many organizations are now more flat than they were in previous decades due to the desire for flexibility and responsiveness to complex environments
• Centralized organizational structures have most decisions and responsibility at the top, while decentralized organizations allow decision-making and authority at lower levels
• Flatter organizations that make use of decentralization are often more able to efficiently respond to customer needs and the changing competitive environment
• As organizations move to flatter structures, the ranks of middle-level managers are diminishing, leading to fewer opportunities for promotion for first-level managers
• Employees at all levels are likely to have more autonomy in their jobs in flatter organizations
• When organizations move from taller to flatter hierarchies, middle managers may lose their jobs or be demoted, creating a surplus of labor at that level
• Increased use of teams in organizations is due to their capability to perform at a higher level than individual employees, especially in tasks requiring speed, innovation, integration of functions, and a rapidly changing environment
• Team


  • A group of individuals with complementary skills who work together to achieve a common goal
• Team leader


  • Manages the team by acting as a facilitator and catalyst, may engage in work to help accomplish the team's goals
• Outsourcing


  • When an organization contracts with another company to perform work that it previously performed itself, intended to reduce costs and promote efficiency
• Outsourcing can reduce costs by having work done in other countries where labor and resources are less expensive