Managers make things happen through strategic and entrepreneurial leadership. © 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation
by Mason Carpenter, Talya Bauer, and Berrin Erdogan
WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?
Reading this chapter will help
you do the following:
1.
Learn who
managers are and about the nature of their work.
2.
Know why you
should care about leadership, entrepreneurship, and strategy.
3.
Know the
dimensions of the planning-organizing-leading-controlling (P-O-L-C) framework.
4.
Learn how
economic performance feeds social and environmental performance.
5.
Understand what
performance means at the individual and group levels.
6.
Create your
survivor’s guide to learning and developing principles of management.
We’re betting that you already have a lot of
experience with organizations, teams, and leadership. You’ve been through
schools, in clubs, participated in social or religious groups, competed in
sports or games, or taken on full- or part-time jobs. Some of your experience
was probably pretty positive, but you were also likely wondering sometimes,
“Isn’t there a better way to do this?”
After participating in this course, we hope that you
find the answer to be “Yes!” While management is both art and science, with our
help you can identify and develop the skills essential to better managing your
and others’ behaviors where organizations are concerned.
Before
getting ahead of ourselves, just what is management, let alone principles of
management? A manager’s primary challenge is to solve problems creatively, and
you should view management as
“the art of getting things done through the efforts of other people.” [1] Theprinciples of management, then, are the means by which you actually manage, that is, get
things done through others—individually, in groups, or in organizations.
Formally defined, the principles of management are the activities that “plan,
organize, and control the operations of the basic elements of [people],
materials, machines, methods, money and markets, providing direction and
coordination, and giving leadership to human efforts, so as to achieve the
sought objectives of the enterprise.” [2] For this reason, principles of management are often
discussed or learned using a framework called P-O-L-C, which stands for
planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
Managers are required in all the activities of
organizations: budgeting, designing, selling, creating, financing, accounting,
and artistic presentation; the larger the organization, the more managers are
needed. Everyone employed in an organization is affected by management
principles, processes, policies, and practices as they are either a manager or
a subordinate to a manager, and usually they are both.
Managers
do not spend all their time managing. When choreographers are dancing a part,
they are not managing, nor are office managers managing when they personally
check out a customer’s credit. Some employees perform only part of the
functions described as managerial—and to that extent, they are mostly managers
in limited areas. For example, those who are assigned the preparation of plans
in an advisory capacity to a manager, to that extent, are making management
decisions by deciding which of several alternatives to present to the
management. However, they have no participation in the functions of organizing,
staffing, and supervising and no control over the implementation of the plan
selected from those recommended. Even independent consultants are managers,
since they get most things done through others—those others just
happen to be their clients! Of course, if advisers or consultants have their
own staff of subordinates, they become a manager in the fullest sense of the
definition. They must develop business plans; hire, train, organize, and
motivate their staff members; establish internal policies that will facilitate
the work and direct it; and represent the group and its work to those outside
of the firm.
[1] We
draw this definition from a biography of Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933)
written by P. Graham, Mary
Parker Follett: Prophet of Management (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1995). Follett was an
American social worker, consultant, and author of books on democracy, human
relations, and management. She worked as a management and political theorist,
introducing such phrases as “conflict resolution,” “authority and power,” and
“the task of leadership.”
[2] The
fundamental notion of principles of management was developed by French
management theorist Henri Fayol (1841–1925). He is credited with the original
planning-organizing-leading-controlling framework (P-O-L-C), which, while
undergoing very important changes in content, remains the dominant management
framework in the world. See H. Fayol, General
and Industrial Management (Paris:
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 1916).
1.1 Who Are Managers?
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.
Know what is
meant by “manager”.
2.
Be able to
describe the types of managers.
3.
Understand the
nature of managerial work.
Managers
We
tend to think about managers based on their position in an organization. This
tells us a bit about their role and the nature of their responsibilities. The
following figure summarizes the historic and contemporary views of
organizations with respect to managerial roles. [1] In contrast to the traditional, hierarchical
relationship among layers of management and managers and employees, in the
contemporary view, top managers support and serve other managers and employees
(through a process called empowerment), just as the organization ultimately
exists to serve its customers and clients. Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an
individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decision making
in autonomous ways.
Communication is a key managerial role.
© 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation
In
both the traditional and contemporary views of management, however, there
remains the need for different types of managers. Top managers are
responsible for developing the organization’s strategy and being a steward for
its vision and mission. A second set of managers includes functional, team, and
general managers. Functional managers are
responsible for the efficiency and effectiveness of an area, such as accounting
or marketing.Supervisory or team managers are
responsible for coordinating a subgroup of a particular function or a team
composed of members from different parts of the organization. Sometimes you
will hear distinctions made between line and staff managers.
A line manager leads
a function that contributes directly to the products or services the
organization creates. For example, a line manager (often called a product, or service manager)
at Procter & Gamble (P&G) is responsible for the production, marketing,
and profitability of the Tide detergent product line. A staff manager,
in contrast, leads a function that creates indirect inputs. For example,
finance and accounting are critical organizational functions but do not
typically provide an input into the final product or service a customer buys,
such as a box of Tide detergent. Instead, they serve a supporting role. A project manager has
the responsibility for the planning, execution, and closing of any project.
Project managers are often found in construction, architecture, consulting,
computer networking, telecommunications, or software development.
A general manager is
someone who is responsible for managing a clearly identifiable
revenue-producing unit, such as a store, business unit, or product line.
General managers typically must make decisions across different functions and
have rewards tied to the performance of the entire unit (i.e., store, business
unit, product line, etc.). General managers take direction from their top
executives. They must first understand the executives’ overall plan for the
company. Then they set specific goals for their own departments to fit in with
the plan. The general manager of production, for example, might have to
increase certain product lines and phase out others. General managers must describe
their goals clearly to their support staff. The supervisory managers see that
the goals are met.
The Nature of Managerial Work
Managers are responsible for the processes of getting activities
completed efficiently with and through other people and setting and achieving
the firm’s goals through the execution of four basic management functions:
planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Both sets of processes utilize
human, financial, and material resources.
Of
course, some managers are better than others at accomplishing this! There have
been a number of studies on what managers actually do, the most famous of those
conducted by Professor Henry Mintzberg in the early 1970s. [2] One explanation for Mintzberg’s enduring influence is
perhaps that the nature of managerial work has changed very little since that
time, aside from the shift to an empowered relationship between top managers
and other managers and employees, and obvious changes in technology, and the
exponential increase in information overload.
After following managers around for several weeks,
Mintzberg concluded that, to meet the many demands of performing their
functions, managers assume multiple roles. A role is an organized set of
behaviors, and Mintzberg identified ten roles common to the work of all
managers. As summarized in the following figure, the ten roles are divided into
three groups: interpersonal, informational, and decisional. The informational
roles link all managerial work together. The interpersonal roles ensure that
information is provided. The decisional roles make significant use of the
information. The performance of managerial roles and the requirements of these
roles can be played at different times by the same manager and to different
degrees, depending on the level and function of management. The ten roles are
described individually, but they form an integrated whole.
The three interpersonal roles are primarily concerned
with interpersonal relationships. In the figurehead role, the manager
represents the organization in all matters of formality. The top-level manager
represents the company legally and socially to those outside of the
organization. The supervisor represents the work group to higher management and
higher management to the work group. In the liaison role, the manager interacts
with peers and people outside the organization. The top-level manager uses the
liaison role to gain favors and information, while the supervisor uses it to
maintain the routine flow of work. The leader role defines the relationships
between the manager and employees.
The direct relationships with people in the
interpersonal roles place the manager in a unique position to get information.
Thus, the three informational roles are primarily concerned with the
information aspects of managerial work. In the monitor role, the manager
receives and collects information. In the role of disseminator, the manager
transmits special information into the organization. The top-level manager
receives and transmits more information from people outside the organization
than the supervisor. In the role of spokesperson, the manager disseminates the
organization’s information into its environment. Thus, the top-level manager is
seen as an industry expert, while the supervisor is seen as a unit or
departmental expert.
The unique access to information places the manager at
the center of organizational decision making. There are four decisional roles
managers play. In the entrepreneur role, the manager initiates change. In the
disturbance handler role, the manager deals with threats to the organization.
In the resource allocator role, the manager chooses where the organization will
expend its efforts. In the negotiator role, the manager negotiates on behalf of
the organization. The top-level manager makes the decisions about the
organization as a whole, while the supervisor makes decisions about his or her
particular work unit.
The supervisor performs these managerial roles but
with different emphasis than higher managers. Supervisory management is more
focused and short-term in outlook. Thus, the figurehead role becomes less
significant and the disturbance handler and negotiator roles increase in
importance for the supervisor. Since leadership permeates all activities, the
leader role is among the most important of all roles at all levels of
management.
So what do Mintzberg’s conclusions about the nature of
managerial work mean for you? On the one hand, managerial work is the lifeblood
of most organizations because it serves to choreograph and motivate individuals
to do amazing things. Managerial work is exciting, and it is hard to imagine
that there will ever be a shortage of demand for capable, energetic managers.
On the other hand, managerial work is necessarily fast-paced and fragmented,
where managers at all levels express the opinion that they must process much more
information and make more decisions than they could have ever possibly
imagined. So, just as the most successful organizations seem to have
well-formed and well-executed strategies, there is also a strong need for
managers to have good strategies about the way they will approach their work.
This is exactly what you will learn through principles of management.
KEY TAKEAWAY
Managers are responsible for
getting work done through others. We typically describe the key managerial
functions as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The definitions
for each of these have evolved over time, just as the nature of managing in
general has evolved over time. This evolution is best seen in the gradual
transition from the traditional hierarchical relationship between managers and
employees, to a climate characterized better as an upside-down pyramid, where
top executives support middle managers and they, in turn, support the employees
who innovate and fulfill the needs of customers and clients. Through all four
managerial functions, the work of managers ranges across ten roles, from
figurehead to negotiator. While actual managerial work can seem challenging,
the skills you gain through principles of management—consisting of the
functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling—will help you to
meet these challenges.
EXERCISES
1.
Why do
organizations need managers?
2.
What are some
different types of managers and how do they differ?
3.
What are
Mintzberg’s ten managerial roles?
4.
What three
areas does Mintzberg use to organize the ten roles?
5.
What four
general managerial functions do principles of management include?
[1] S.
Ghoshal and C. Bartlett, The
Individualized Corporation: A Fundamentally New Approach to Management (New York: Collins Business, 1999).
[2] H.
Mintzberg, The
Nature of Managerial Work (New
York: Harper & Row, 1973).
1.2 Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Strategy
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.
Know the roles
and importance of leadership, entrepreneurship, and strategy in principles of
management.
2.
Understand how
leadership, entrepreneurship, and strategy are interrelated.
The principles of management are drawn from a number
of academic fields, principally, the fields of leadership, entrepreneurship,
and strategy.
Leadership
If
management is defined as getting things done through others, then leadership should be defined as the social and informal sources
of influence that you use to inspire action taken by others. It means
mobilizing others to want to struggle toward a common goal. Great leaders help
build an organization’s human capital, then motivate individuals to take
concerted action. Leadership also includes an understanding of when, where, and
how to use more formal sources of authority and power, such as position or
ownership. Increasingly, we live in a world where good management requires
good leaders and leadership.
While these views about the importance of leadership are not new (see “Views on
Managers Versus Leaders”), competition among employers and countries for the
best and brightest, increased labor mobility (think “war for talent” here), and
hypercompetition puts pressure on firms to invest in present and future
leadership capabilities.
P&G
provides a very current example of this shift in emphasis to leadership as a
key principle of management. For example, P&G recruits and promotes those
individuals who demonstrate success through influence rather than direct or
coercive authority. Internally, there has been a change from managers being
outspoken and needing to direct their staff, to being individuals who electrify
and inspire those around them. Good leaders and leadership at P&G used to
imply having followers, whereas in today’s society, good leadership means
followership and bringing out the best in your peers. This is one of the key
reasons that P&G has been consistently ranked among the top ten most
admired companies in the United States for the last three years, according to Fortune magazine. [1]
Whereas
P&G has been around for some 170 years, another winning firm in terms of
leadership is Google, which has only been around for little more than a decade.
Both firms emphasize leadership in terms of being exceptional at developing
people. Google has topped Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work for the past two
years. Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, built a company around
the idea that work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun. [2] Google’s culture is probably unlike any in corporate
America, and it’s not because of the ubiquitous lava lamps throughout the
company’s headquarters or that the company’s chef used to cook for the Grateful
Dead. In the same way Google puts users first when it comes to online service,
Google espouses that it puts employees first when it comes to daily life in all
of its offices. There is an emphasis on team achievements and pride in
individual accomplishments that contribute to the company’s overall success.
Ideas are traded, tested, and put into practice with a swiftness that can be
dizzying. Observers and employees note that meetings that would take hours
elsewhere are frequently little more than a conversation in line for lunch and
few walls separate those who write the code from those who write the checks.
This highly communicative environment fosters a productivity and camaraderie
fueled by the realization that millions of people rely on Google results.
Leadership at Google amounts to a deep belief that if you give the proper tools
to a group of people who like to make a difference, they will.
Leaders inspire the collective action of others toward a shared goal. © 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation
Views on Managers Versus Leaders
My definition of a leader…is a man who can persuade
people to do what they don’t want to do, or do what they’re too lazy to do, and
like it.
Harry S. Truman (1884–1972), 33rd president of the
United States
You cannot manage men into battle. You manage things;
you lead people.
Grace Hopper (1906–1992), Admiral, U.S. Navy
Managers have subordinates—leaders have followers.
Chester Bernard
(1886–1961), former executive and author of Functions of the Executive
The first job of a leader is to define a vision for
the organization…Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.
Warren Bennis (1925–), author and leadership scholar
A manager takes people where they want to go. A great
leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go but ought to.
Rosalynn Carter (1927–), First Lady of the United
States, 1977–1981
Entrepreneurship
It’s
fitting that this section on entrepreneurship follows the discussion of Google. Entrepreneurship is defined as the recognition of opportunities (needs,
wants, problems, and challenges) and the use or creation of resources to
implement innovative ideas for new, thoughtfully planned ventures. Perhaps this
is obvious, but an entrepreneur is
a person who engages in the process of entrepreneurship. We describe entrepreneurship
as a process because it often involves more than simply coming up with a good
idea—someone also has to convert that idea into action. As an example of both,
Google’s leaders suggest that its point of distinction “is anticipating needs
not yet articulated by our global audience, then meeting them with products and
services that set new standards. This constant dissatisfaction with the way
things are is ultimately the driving force behind the world’s best search
engine.” [3]
Entrepreneurs
and entrepreneurship are the catalysts for value creation. They identify and
create new markets, as well as foster change in existing ones. However, such
value creation first requires an opportunity. Indeed, the opportunity-driven
nature of entrepreneurship is critical. Opportunities are typically
characterized as problems in search of solutions, and the best opportunities
are big problems in search of big solutions. “The greater the inconsistencies
in existing service and quality, in lead times and in lag times, the greater
the vacuums and gaps in information and knowledge, the greater the
opportunities.” [4] In
other words, bigger problems will often mean there will be a bigger market for
the product or service that the entrepreneur creates. We hope you can see why
the problem-solving, opportunity-seeking nature of entrepreneurship is a
fundamental building block for effective principles of management.
Strategy
When
an organization has a long-term purpose, articulated in clear goals and
objectives, and these goals and objectives can be rolled up into a coherent
plan of action, then we would say that the organization has a strategy. It has
a good or
even great strategy
when this plan also takes advantage of unique resources and capabilities to
exploit a big and growing external opportunity. Strategy then, is the central, integrated, externally-oriented
concept of how an organization will achieve its objectives. [5] Strategic management is the body of knowledge that answers questions about
the development and implementation of good strategies.
Strategic management is important to all organizations
because, when correctly formulated and communicated, strategy provides leaders
and employees with a clear set of guidelines for their daily actions. This is
why strategy is so critical to the principles of management you are learning
about. Simply put, strategy is about making choices: What do I do today? What
shouldn’t I be doing? What should my organization be doing? What should it stop
doing?
Synchronizing Leadership,
Entrepreneurship, and Strategy
You know that leadership, entrepreneurship, and
strategy are the inspiration for important, valuable, and useful principles of management.
Now you will want to understand how they might relate to one another. In terms
of principles of management, you can think of leadership, entrepreneurship, and
strategic management as answering questions about “who,” “what,” and “how.”
Leadership helps you understand who helps lead the organization forward and
what the critical characteristics of good leadership might be. Entrepreneurial
firms and entrepreneurs in general are fanatical about identifying
opportunities and solving problems—for any organization, entrepreneurship
answers big questions about “what” an organization’s purpose might be. Finally,
strategic management aims to make sure that the right choices are
made—specifically, that a good strategy is in place—to exploit those big opportunities.
One way to see how leadership, entrepreneurship, and
strategy come together for an organization—and for you—is through a recent
(disguised) job posting from Craigslist. Look at the ideal candidate
characteristics identified in the Help Wanted ad—you don’t have to look very
closely to see that if you happen to be a recent business undergrad, then the
organization depicted in the ad is looking for you. The posting identifies a
number of areas of functional expertise for the target candidate. You can imagine
that this new position is pretty critical for the success of the business. For
that reason, we hope you are not surprised to see that, beyond functional
expertise, this business seeks someone with leadership, entrepreneurial, and
strategic orientation and skills. Now you have a better idea of what those key
principles of management involve.
Help Wanted—Chief of Staff
We’re hiring a chief of staff to bring some order to
the mayhem of our firm’s growth. You will touch everything at the company, from
finance to sales, marketing to operations, recruiting to human resources,
accounting to investor relations. You will report directly to the CEO.
Here’s what you’re going to be asked to do across a
range of functional areas in the first ninety days, before your job evolves
into a whole new set of responsibilities:
Marketing
·
Leverage our
existing customer base using best-in-class direct marketing campaigns via
e-mail, phone, Web, and print or mail communications.
·
Convert our
current customer spreadsheet and database into a highly functional, lean
customer relationship management (CRM) system—we need to build the
infrastructure to service and reach out to customers for multiple users.
·
Be great at
customer service personally—excelling in person and on the phone, and you will
help us build a Ninja certification system for our employees and partners to be
like you.
·
Build our
Web-enabled direct sales force, requiring a lot of strategic work, sales-force
incentive design and experimentation, and rollout of Web features to support
the direct channel.
Sales
·
Be great at
demonstrating our product in the showroom, as well as at your residence and in
the field—plan to be one of the top sales reps on the team (and earn
incremental variable compensation for your efforts).
Finance and Accounting
·
Build our
financial and accounting structures and processes, take over QuickBooks, manage
our team of accountants, hire additional resources as needed, and get that
profit and loss statement (P&L) rocking.
·
Figure out when
we should pay our bills and manage team members to get things paid on time and
manage our working capital effectively.
·
Track our
actual revenues and expenses against your own projection—you will be building
and running our financial model.
Operations
·
We are building
leading-edge capabilities on returns, exchanges, and shipping—you will help
guide strategic thinking on operational solutions and will implement them with
our operations manager.
·
We are looking
for new headquarters, you may help identify, build out, and launch.
HR and Recruiting
·
We are
recruiting a team of interns—you will take the lead on the program, and many or
all of them will report to you; you will be an ombudsman of sorts for our
summer program.
·
The company has
a host of HR needs that are currently handled by the CEO and third parties; you
will take over many of these.
Production and Product Development
·
The company is
actively recruiting a production assistant/manager—in the meanwhile, there are
a number of Web-facing and vendor-facing activities you will pitch in on.
The Ideal Candidate Is…
·
a few years out
of college but is at least two or three years away from going to business or
other graduate school;
·
charismatic and
is instantly likeable to a wide variety of people, driven by sparkling wit, a
high degree of extraversion, and a balanced mix of self-confidence and
humility;
·
able to read
people quickly and knows how to treat people accordingly;
·
naturally
compassionate and demonstrates strong empathy, easily thinking of the world
from the perspective of another person;
·
an active
listener and leaves people with the sense that they are well heard;
·
exceptionally
detail-oriented and has a memory like a steel trap—nothing falls through the
cracks;
·
razor sharp
analytically, aced the math section of their SAT test, and excels at analyzing
and solving problems;
·
a perfectionist
and keeps things in order with ease.
KEY TAKEAWAY
The principles of management are
drawn from three specific areas—leadership, entrepreneurship, and strategic
management. You learned that leadership helps you understand who helps lead the
organization forward and what the critical characteristics of good leadership
might be. Entrepreneurs are fanatical about identifying opportunities and
solving problems—for any organization, entrepreneurship answers big questions
about “what” an organization’s purpose might be. Finally, as you’ve already
learned, strategic management aims to make sure that the right choices are
made—specifically, that a good strategy is in place—to exploit those big opportunities.
EXERCISES
1.
How do you
define leadership, and who would you identify as a great leader?
2.
What is
entrepreneurship?
3.
What is
strategy?
4.
What roles do
leadership, entrepreneurship, and strategy play in good principles of
management?
[1] Ranking
of Most Admired Firms for 2006, 2007, 2008. http://www.fortune.com (accessed October 15, 2008).
[2] http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/tenthings.html (accessed October 15, 2008).
[3] http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/tenthings.html (accessed October 15, 2008).
[4] J.
Timmons, The
Entrepreneurial Process (New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1999), 39.
[5] D.
Hambrick and J. Fredrickson, “Are You Sure You Have a Strategy?” Academy of Management Executive 15, no. 4 (2001): 2.
1.3 Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.
Know the
dimensions of the planning-organizing-leading-controlling (P-O-L-C) framework.
2.
Know the
general inputs into each P-O-L-C dimension.
A manager’s primary challenge is to solve problems
creatively. While drawing from a variety of academic disciplines, and to help
managers respond to the challenge of creative problem solving, principles of
management have long been categorized into the four major functions of
planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (the P-O-L-C framework). The
four functions, summarized in the P-O-L-C figure, are actually highly
integrated when carried out in the day-to-day realities of running an
organization. Therefore, you should not get caught up in trying to analyze and
understand a complete, clear rationale for categorizing skills and practices
that compose the whole of the P-O-L-C framework.
It
is important to note that this framework is not without criticism.
Specifically, these criticisms stem from the observation that the P-O-L-C
functions might be ideal but that they do not accurately depict the day-to-day
actions of actual managers. [1] The typical day in the life of a manager at any level
can be fragmented and hectic, with the constant threat of having priorities
dictated by the law of the trivial many and important few (i.e., the 80/20
rule). However, the general conclusion seems to be that the P-O-L-C functions
of management still provide a very useful way of classifying the activities
managers engage in as they attempt to achieve organizational goals. [2]
Planning
Planning is the function of management that involves
setting objectives and determining a course of action for achieving those
objectives. Planning requires that managers be aware of environmental
conditions facing their organization and forecast future conditions. It also
requires that managers be good decision makers.
Planning
is a process consisting of several steps. The process begins with environmental scanning which simply means that planners must be aware of the
critical contingencies facing their organization in terms of economic
conditions, their competitors, and their customers. Planners must then attempt
to forecast future conditions. These forecasts form the basis for planning.
Planners must establish objectives, which are
statements of what needs to be achieved and when. Planners must then identify
alternative courses of action for achieving objectives. After evaluating the
various alternatives, planners must make decisions about the best courses of
action for achieving objectives. They must then formulate necessary steps and
ensure effective implementation of plans. Finally, planners must constantly
evaluate the success of their plans and take corrective action when necessary.
There are many different types of plans and planning.
Strategic planning involves analyzing competitive opportunities and
threats, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, and then
determining how to position the organization to compete effectively in their
environment. Strategic planning has a long time frame, often three years or
more. Strategic planning generally includes the entire organization and
includes formulation of objectives. Strategic planning is often based on the
organization’s mission, which is its fundamental reason for existence. An
organization’s top management most often conducts strategic planning.
Tactical planning is intermediate-range (one to three years) planning
that is designed to develop relatively concrete and specific means to implement
the strategic plan. Middle-level managers often engage in tactical planning.
Operational planning generally assumes the existence of organization-wide
or subunit goals and objectives and specifies ways to achieve them. Operational
planning is short-range (less than a year) planning that is designed to develop
specific action steps that support the strategic and tactical plans.
Organizing
Organizing
is the function of management that involves developing an organizational
structure and allocating human resources to ensure the accomplishment of
objectives. The structure of the organization is the framework within which
effort is coordinated. The structure is usually represented by an organization
chart, which provides a graphic representation of the chain of command within
an organization. Decisions made about the structure of an organization are
generally referred to as organizational design decisions.
Organizing also involves the design of individual jobs
within the organization. Decisions must be made about the duties and
responsibilities of individual jobs, as well as the manner in which the duties
should be carried out. Decisions made about the nature of jobs within the
organization are generally called “job design” decisions.
Organizing at the level of the organization involves
deciding how best to departmentalize, or cluster, jobs into departments to
coordinate effort effectively. There are many different ways to
departmentalize, including organizing by function, product, geography, or
customer. Many larger organizations use multiple methods of
departmentalization.
Organizing
at the level of a particular job involves how best to design individual jobs to
most effectively use human resources. Traditionally,job design was based on principles of division of labor and
specialization, which assumed that the more narrow the job content, the more
proficient the individual performing the job could become. However, experience
has shown that it is possible for jobs to become too narrow and specialized.
For example, how would you like to screw lids on jars one day after another, as
you might have done many decades ago if you worked in company that made and
sold jellies and jams? When this happens, negative outcomes result, including
decreased job satisfaction and organizational commitment, increased absenteeism,
and turnover.
Recently,
many organizations have attempted to strike a balance between the need for
worker specialization and the need for workers to have jobs that entail variety
and autonomy. Many jobs are now designed based on such principles as
empowerment, job enrichment andteamwork.
For example, HUI Manufacturing, a custom sheet metal fabricator, has done away
with traditional “departments” to focus on listening and responding to customer
needs. From company-wide meetings to team huddles, HUI employees know and
understand their customers and how HUI might service them best. [3]
Leading
Leading involves the social and informal sources of
influence that you use to inspire action taken by others. If managers are
effective leaders, their subordinates will be enthusiastic about exerting
effort to attain organizational objectives.
The behavioral sciences have made many contributions
to understanding this function of management. Personality research and studies
of job attitudes provide important information as to how managers can most
effectively lead subordinates. For example, this research tells us that to
become effective at leading, managers must first understand their subordinates’
personalities, values, attitudes, and emotions.
Studies of motivation and motivation theory provide
important information about the ways in which workers can be energized to put
forth productive effort. Studies of communication provide direction as to how
managers can effectively and persuasively communicate. Studies of leadership
and leadership style provide information regarding questions, such as, “What
makes a manager a good leader?” and “In what situations are certain leadership
styles most appropriate and effective?”
Quality control ensures that the organization delivers on its promises. © 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation
Controlling
Controlling involves ensuring that performance does
not deviate from standards. Controlling consists of three steps, which include
(1) establishing performance standards, (2) comparing actual performance
against standards, and (3) taking corrective action when necessary. Performance
standards are often stated in monetary terms such as revenue, costs, or profits
but may also be stated in other terms, such as units produced, number of
defective products, or levels of quality or customer service.
The measurement of performance can be done in several
ways, depending on the performance standards, including financial statements,
sales reports, production results, customer satisfaction, and formal
performance appraisals. Managers at all levels engage in the managerial
function of controlling to some degree.
The managerial function of controlling should not be
confused with control in the behavioral or manipulative sense. This function
does not imply that managers should attempt to control or to manipulate the
personalities, values, attitudes, or emotions of their subordinates. Instead,
this function of management concerns the manager’s role in taking necessary
actions to ensure that the work-related activities of subordinates are
consistent with and contributing toward the accomplishment of organizational
and departmental objectives.
Effective controlling requires the existence of plans,
since planning provides the necessary performance standards or objectives.
Controlling also requires a clear understanding of where responsibility for
deviations from standards lies. Two traditional control techniques are budget
and performance audits. An audit involves an examination and verification of
records and supporting documents. A budget audit provides information about
where the organization is with respect to what was planned or budgeted for,
whereas a performance audit might try to determine whether the figures reported
are a reflection of actual performance. Although controlling is often thought
of in terms of financial criteria, managers must also control production and
operations processes, procedures for delivery of services, compliance with
company policies, and many other activities within the organization.
The management functions of planning, organizing,
leading, and controlling are widely considered to be the best means of
describing the manager’s job, as well as the best way to classify accumulated
knowledge about the study of management. Although there have been tremendous
changes in the environment faced by managers and the tools used by managers to
perform their roles, managers still perform these essential functions.
KEY TAKEAWAY
The principles of management can
be distilled down to four critical functions. These functions are planning,
organizing, leading, and controlling. This P-O-L-C framework provides useful
guidance into what the ideal job of a manager should look like.
EXERCISES
1.
What are the
management functions that comprise the P-O-L-C framework?
2.
Are there any
criticisms of this framework?
3.
What function
does planning serve?
4.
What function
does organizing serve?
5.
What function does
leading serve?
6.
What function
does controlling serve?
[1] H.
Mintzberg, The
Nature of Managerial Work (New
York: Harper & Row, 1973); D. Lamond, “A Matter of Style: Reconciling Henri
and Henry,” Management
Decision 42, no. 2 (2004): 330–56.
[2] D.
Lamond, “A Matter of Style: Reconciling Henri and Henry,” Management Decision 42,
no. 2 (2004): 330–56.
[3] http://www.huimfg.com/abouthui-yourteams.aspx (accessed October 15, 2008).
1.4 Economic, Social, and Environmental Performance
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.
Be able to
define economic, social, and environmental performance.
2.
Understand how
economic performance is related to social and environmental performance.
Webster’s
dictionary defines performance as “the execution of an action” and “something
accomplished.” [1] Principles of management help you better understand
the inputs into critical organizational outcomes like a firm’s economic
performance. Economic performance is very important to a firm’s stakeholders particularly its investors or owners, because this
performance eventually provides them with a return on their investment. Other
stakeholders, like the firm’s employees and the society at large, are also
deemed to benefit from such performance, albeit less directly. Increasingly
though, it seems clear that noneconomic accomplishments, such as reducing waste
and pollution, for example, are key indicators of performance as well. Indeed,
this is why the notion of the triple bottom line is gaining so much attention in the business press.
Essentially, the triple bottom line refers to The measurement of business
performance along social, environmental, andeconomic
dimensions. We introduce you to economic, social, and environmental performance
and conclude the section with a brief discussion of the interdependence of
economic performance with other forms of performance.
Economic Performance
In a traditional sense, the economic performance of a
firm is a function of its success in producing benefits for its owners in
particular, through product innovation and the efficient use of resources. When
you talk about this type of economic performance in a business context, people
typically understand you to be speaking about some form of profit.
The
definition of economic profit is the difference between revenue and the
opportunity cost of all resources used to produce the items sold. [2]This definition includes implicit returns as costs.
For our purposes, it may be simplest to think of economic profit as a form ofaccounting profit where profits are achieved when revenues exceed the
accounting cost the firm “pays” for those inputs. In other words, your
organization makes a profit when its revenues are more than its costs in a
given period of time, such as three months, six months, or a year.
Before
moving on to social and environmental performance, it is important to note that customers play
a big role in economic profits. Profits accrue to firms because customers are
willing to pay a certain price for a product or service, as opposed to a
competitor’s product or service of a higher or lower price. If customers are
only willing to make purchases based on price, then a firm, at least in the
face of competition, will only be able to generate profit if it keeps its costs
under control.
Social and Environmental
Performance
You have learned a bit about economic performance and
its determinants. For most organizations, you saw that economic performance is
associated with profits, and profits depend a great deal on how much customers
are willing to pay for a good or service.
With
regard to social and environmental performance, it is similarly useful to think
of them as forms of profit—social and environmental profit to be exact.
Increasingly, the topics of social and environmental performance have garnered
their own courses in school curricula; in the business world, they are
collectively referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR)
CSR is a concept whereby organizations consider the
interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their
activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities, and
the environment in all aspects of their operations. This obligation is seen to
extend beyond the statutory obligation to comply with legislation and sees
organizations voluntarily taking further steps to improve the quality of life
for employees and their families, as well as for the local community and
society at large.
Two
companies that have long blazed a trail in CSR are Ben & Jerry’s and S. C.
Johnson. Their statements about why they do this, summarized in Table 1.1 "Examples of leading firms with strong CSR
orientations",
capture many of the facets just described.
Table 1.1 Examples
of leading firms with strong CSR orientations
|
Why We Do It? |
|
|
Ben & Jerry’s |
“We’ve
taken time each year since 1989 to compile this [Social Audit] report because
we continue to believe that it keeps us in touch with our Company’s stated
Social Mission. By raising the profile of social and environmental matters
inside the Company and recording the impact of our work on the community,
this report aids us in our search for business decisions that support all
three parts of our Company Mission Statement: Economic, Product, and Social.
In addition, the report is an important source of information about the
Company for students, journalists, prospective employees, and other
interested observers. In this way, it helps us in our quest to keep our
values, our actions, and public perceptions in alignment.” [3] |
|
S. C. Johnson |
“It’s
nice to live next door to a family that cares about its neighbors, and at S.
C. Johnson we are committed to being a good neighbor and contributing to the
well-being of the countries and the communities where we conduct business. We
have a wide variety of efforts to drive global development and growth that
benefit the people around us and the planet we all share. From exceptional
philanthropy and volunteerism to new business models that bring economic
growth to the world’s poorest communities, we’re helping to create stronger
communities for families around the globe.” [4] |
Figure 1.8
Environmentally Neutral Design (END) designs shoes with the goal of eliminating the surplus material needed to make a shoe such that it costs less to make and is lighter than other performance shoes on the market. Photo used with permission of Environmentally Neutral Design (END).
Integrating Economic, Social, and
Environmental Performance
Is there really a way to achieve a triple bottom line
in a way that actually builds up all three facets of performance—economic,
social, and environmental? Advocates of CSR understandably argue that this is
possible and should be the way all firms are evaluated. Increasingly, evidence
is mounting that attention to a triple bottom line is more than being
“responsible” but instead just good business. Critics argue that CSR detracts
from the fundamental economic role of businesses; others argue that it is
nothing more than superficial window dressing; still, others argue that it is
an attempt to preempt the role of governments as a watchdog over powerful
multinational corporations.
While
there is no systematic evidence supporting such a claim, a recent review of
nearly 170 research studies on the relationship between CSR and firm
performance reported that there appeared to be no negative shareholder effects
of such practices. In fact, this report showed that there was a small positive
relationship between CSR and shareholder returns. [5] Similarly, companies that pay good wages and offer
good benefits to attract and retain high-caliber employees “are not just being
socially responsible; they are merely practicing good management.”[6]
The
financial benefits of social or environmental CSR initiatives vary by context.
For example, environment-friendly strategies are much more complicated in the
consumer products and services market. For example, cosmetics retailer The Body
Shop and StarKist Seafood Company, a strategic business unit of Heinz Food,
both undertook environmental strategies but only the former succeeded. The Body
Shop goes to great lengths to ensure that its business is ecologically
sustainable. [7] It actively campaigns against human rights abuses and
for animal and environmental protection and is one of the most respected firms
in the world, despite its small size. Consumers pay premium prices for Body
Shop products, ostensibly because they believe that it simply costs more to
provide goods and services that are environmentally friendly. The Body Shop has
been wildly successful.
StarKist, too, adopted a CSR approach, when, in 1990,
it decided to purchase and sell exclusively dolphin-safe tuna. At the time,
biologists thought that the dolphin population decline was a result of the
thousands killed in the course of tuna harvests. However, consumers were
unwilling to pay higher prices for StarKist’s environmental product attributes.
Moreover, since tuna were bought from commercial fishermen, this particular
practice afforded the firm no protection from imitation by competitors.
Finally, in terms of credibility, the members of the tuna industry had launched
numerous unsuccessful campaigns in the past touting their interest in the
environment, particularly the world’s oceans. Thus, consumers did not perceive
StarKist’s efforts as sincerely “green.”
You might argue that The Body Shop’s customers are
unusually price insensitive, hence the success of its environment-based
strategy. However, individuals are willing to pay more for organic produce, so
why not dolphin-safe tuna? One difference is that while the environment is a
public good, organic produce produces both public and private benefits. For
example, organic farming is better for the environment and pesticide-free
produce is believed to be better for the health of the consumer. Dolphin-free
tuna only has the public environmental benefits (i.e., preserve the dolphin
population and oceans’ ecosystems), not the private ones like personal health.
It is true that personal satisfaction and benevolence are private benefits,
too. However, consumers did not believe they were getting their money’s worth
in this regard for StarKist tuna, whereas they do with The Body Shop’s
products.
Somewhere
in our dialogue on CSR lies the idea of making the solution of an environmental
or social problem the primary purpose of the organization. Cascade Asset
Management (CAM), is a case in point. [8] CAM was created in April 1999, in Madison, Wisconsin,
and traces its beginnings to the University of Wisconsin’s Entrepreneurship
program where the owners collaborated on developing and financing the initial
business plan. CAM is a private, for-profit enterprise established to provide
for the environmentally responsible disposition of computers and other
electronics generated by businesses and institutions in Wisconsin. With their
experience and relationships in surplus asset disposition and computer hardware
maintenance, the founders were able to apply their skills and education to this
new and developing industry.
Firms
are willing to pay for CAM’s services because the disposal of surplus personal
computers (PCs) is recognized as risky and highly regulated, given the many
toxic materials embedded in most components. CAM’s story is also credible
(whereas StarKist had trouble selling its CSR story). The company was one of
the original signers of the “Electronic Recyclers Pledge of True Stewardship.” [9] Signers of the pledge are committed to the highest
standards of environmental and economic sustainability in their industry and
are expected to live out this commitment through their operations and
partnerships. The basic principles of the pledge are as follows: no export of
untested whole products or hazardous components or commodities (CRTs, circuit
boards) to developing countries, no use of prison labor, adherence to an
environmental and worker safety management system, provision of regular testing
and audits to ensure compliance, and support efforts to encourage producers to
make their products less toxic. CAM has grown rapidly and now serves over 500
business and institutional customers from across the country. While it is
recognized as one of the national leaders in responsible, one-stop information
technology (IT) asset disposal, its success is attracting new entrants such as
IBM, which view PC recycling as another profitable service they can offer their
existing client base. [10]
KEY TAKEAWAY
Organizational performance can be
viewed along three dimensions—financial, social, and environmental—collectively
referred to as the triple bottom line, where the latter two dimensions are
included in the definition of CSR. While there remains debate about whether
organizations should consider environmental and social impacts when making
business decisions, there is increasing pressure to include such CSR activities
in what constitutes good principles of management. This pressure is based on
arguments that range from CSR helps attract and retain the best and brightest
employees, to showing that the firm is being responsive to market demands, to
observations about how some environmental and social needs represent great
entrepreneurial business opportunities in and of themselves.
EXERCISES
1.
Why is financial
performance important for organizations?
2.
What are some
examples of financial performance metrics?
3.
What dimensions
of performance beyond financial are included in the triple bottom line?
4.
How does CSR
relate to the triple bottom line?
5.
How are financial
performance and CSR related?
[1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/performance (accessed October 15, 2008).
[2] W.
P. Albrecht, Economics (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1983).
[3] http://www.benjerrys.com/our_company/about_us/social_mission/social_audits (accessed October 15, 2008).
[4] http://www.scjohnson.com/community (accessed October 15, 2008).
[5] J.
Margolis and Hillary H. Elfenbein, “Doing well by Doing Good? Don’t Count on
It,” Harvard Business Review 86 (2008): 1–2.
[6] R.
Reich, Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and
Everyday Life (New
York: Knopf, 2007).
[7] http://www.bodyshop.com (accessed October 15, 2008).
[8] http://www.cascade-assets.com (accessed October 15, 2008).
[9] http://www.computertakeback.com/the_solutions/recycler_s_pledge.cfm (accessed October 15, 2008).
[10] Search
on “asset disposal solutions” at http://www.ibm.com/ibm/environment/ (accessed October 15, 2008).
1.5 Performance of Individuals and Groups
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.
Understand the
key dimensions of individual-level performance.
2.
Understand the
key dimensions of group-level performance.
3.
Know why
individual- and group-level performance goals need to be compatible.
Principles of management are concerned with organization-level
outcomes such as economic, social, or environmental performance, innovation, or
ability to change and adapt. However, for something to happen at the level of
an organization, something must typically also be happening within the organization
at the individual or team level. Obviously, if you are an entrepreneur and the
only person employed by your company, the organization will accomplish what you
do and reap the benefits of what you create. Normally though, organizations
have more than one person, which is why we introduce to you concepts of
individual and group performance.
Individual-Level Performance
Individual-level
performance draws upon those things you have to do in your job, or in-role performance, and those things that add value but which aren’t
part of your formal job description. These “extras” are called extra-role
performance ororganizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). At this point, it is probably simplest to consider
an in-role performance as having productivity and quality dimensions associated
with certain standards that you must meet to do your job. In contrast, OCBs can
be understood as individual behaviors that are beneficial to the organization
and are discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward
system. [1]
In
comparison to in-role performance, the spectrum of what constitutes extra-role
performance, or OCBs, seems be great and growing. In a recent review, for
example, management researchers identified 30 potentially different forms of
OCB, which they conveniently collapsed into seven common themes: (1) Helping
Behavior, (2) Sportsmanship, (3) Organizational Loyalty, (4) Organizational
Compliance, (5) Individual Initiative, (6) Civic Virtue, and (7)
Self-Development. [2] Definitions and examples for these seven themes are
summarized in Table 1.2 "A current survey of organization citizenship
behaviors". [3]
Table 1.2 A
current survey of organization citizenship behaviors
|
Helping Behavior (Taking on the forms of
altruism, interpersonal helping, courtesy, peacemaking, and cheerleading.) |
Altruism ·
Voluntary actions that help
another person with a work problem. ·
Instructing a new hire on how to
use equipment, helping a coworker catch up with a backlog of work, fetching
materials that a colleague needs and cannot procure on their own. Interpersonal
helping ·
Focuses on helping coworkers in
their jobs when such help was needed. Courtesy ·
Subsumes all of those
foresightful gestures that help someone else prevent a problem. ·
Touching base with people before
committing to actions that will affect them, providing advance notice to
someone who needs to know to schedule work. Peacemaking ·
Actions that help to prevent,
resolve, or mitigate unconstructive interpersonal conflict. Cheerleading ·
The words and gestures of
encouragement and reinforcement of coworkers. ·
Accomplishments and professional
development. |
|
Sportsmanship |
A
citizenlike posture of tolerating the inevitable inconveniences and
impositions of work without whining and grievances. |
|
Organizational
Loyalty |
Identification
with and allegiance to organizational leaders and the organization as a
whole, transcending the parochial interests of individuals, work groups, and
departments. Representative behaviors include defending the organization
against threats, contributing to its good reputation, and cooperating with
others to serve the interests of the whole. |
|
Organizational
Compliance (or Obedience) |
An
orientation toward organizational structure, job descriptions, and personnel
policies that recognizes and accepts the necessity and desirability of a
rational structure of rules and regulations. Obedience may be demonstrated by
a respect for rules and instructions, punctuality in attendance and task
completion, and stewardship of organizational resources. |
|
Individual
Initiative (or Conscientiousness) |
A
pattern of going well beyond minimally required levels of attendance,
punctuality, housekeeping, conserving resources, and related matters of
internal maintenance. |
|
Civic
Virtue |
Responsible,
constructive involvement in the political process of the organization,
including not just expressing opinions but reading one’s mail, attending
meetings, and keeping abreast of larger issues involving the organization. |
|
Self-Development |
Includes
all the steps that workers take to voluntarily improve their knowledge,
skills, and abilities so as to be better able to contribute to their
organizations. Seeking out and taking advantage of advanced training courses,
keeping abreast of the latest developments in one’s field and area, or even
learning a new set of skills so as to expand the range of one’s contributions
to an organization. |
As
you can imagine, principles of management are likely to be very concerned with
individuals’ in-role performance. At the same time, just a quick glance through Table 1.2 "A current survey of organization citizenship
behaviors" should
suggest that those principles should help you better manage OCBs as well.
Group-Level Performance
A group is a collection of individuals. Group-level
performance focuses on both the outcomes and process of collections of
individuals, or groups. Individuals can work on their own agendas in the
context of a group. Groups might consist of project-related groups, such as a
product group or an entire store or branch of a company. The performance of a
group consists of the inputs of the group minus any process loss that result in
the final output, such as the quality of a product and the ramp-up time to
production or the sales for a given month. Process loss is any aspect of group interaction that inhibits good
problem solving.
Why
do we say group instead of team? A collection of people is not a team, though they
may learn to function in that way. A team is
a cohesive coalition of people working together to achieve the team agenda
(i.e., teamwork). Being on a team is not equal to total subordination of personal
agendas, but it does require a commitment to the vision and involves each
individual directly in accomplishing the team’s objective. Teams differ from
other types of groups in that members are focused on a joint goal or product,
such as a presentation, completing in-class exercises, discussing a topic,
writing a report, or creating a new design or prototype. Moreover, teams also
tend to be defined by their relatively smaller size. For example, according to
one definition, “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are
committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they
are mutually accountable.” [4]
The purpose of assembling a team is to accomplish
bigger goals that would not be possible for the individual working alone or the
simple sum of many individuals’ independent work. Teamwork is also needed in
cases where multiple skills are needed or where buy-in is required from certain
key stakeholders. Teams can, but do not always, provide improved performance.
Working together to further the team agenda seems to increase mutual
cooperation between what are often competing factions. The aim and purpose of a
team is to perform, to get results, and to achieve victory in the workplace and
marketplace. The very best managers are those who can gather together a group
of individuals and mold them into an effective team.
Compatibility of Individual and
Group Performance
As a manager, you will need to understand the
compatibility of individual and group performance, typically with respect to
goals and incentives. What does this mean? Looking at goals first, there should
be compatibility between individual and group goals. For example, do the
individuals’ goals contribute to the achievement of the group goal or are they
contradictory? Incentives also need to be aligned between individuals and
groups. A disconnect between these is most likely when individuals are too far
insulated from the external environment or rewarded for action that is not
consistent with the goal. For example, individuals may be seeking to perfect a
certain technology and, in doing so, delay its release to customers, when
customers would have been satisfied with the current solution and put a great
priority on its timely delivery. Finally, firms need to be careful to match
their goals with their reward structures. For example, if the organization’s
goal is to increase group performance but the firm’s performance appraisal
process rewards individual employee productivity, then the firm is unlikely to
create a strong team culture.
KEY TAKEAWAY
This section helped you
understand individual and group performance and suggested how they might roll
up into organizational performance. Principles of management incorporate two
key facets of individual performance: in-role and OCB (or extra-role)
performance. Group performance, in turn, was shown to be a function of how well
individuals achieved a combination of individual and group goals. A team is a
type of group that is relatively small, and members are willing and able to
subordinate individual goals and objectives to those of the larger group.
EXERCISES
1.
What is in-role
performance?
2.
What is
extra-role performance?
3.
What is the
relationship between extra-role performance and OCBs?
4.
What
differentiates a team from a group?
5.
When might it
be important to understand the implications of individual performance for group
performance?
[1] D.
W. Organ, Organizational
Citizenship Behavior: The Good Soldier Syndrome (Lexington, M Lexington Books, 1988).
[2] P.
M. Podsakoff, S. B. MacKenzie, J. B. Paine, and D. G. Bachrach, “Organizational
Citizenship Behaviors: A Critical Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature
and Suggestions for Future Research,” Journal
of Management 26 (2000):
513–63.
[3] These
definitions and examples are adapted from D. W. Organ, “The Motivational Basis
of Organizational Citizenship Behavior,” in Research in Organizational Behavior 12 (1990): 43–72; J. Graham, “An Essay on Organizational Citizenship
Behavior,” Employee
Responsibilities and Rights Journal 4 (1991): 225, 249–70; J. M. George, and G. R. Jones, “Experiencing
work: Values, attitudes, and moods,” Human
Relations 50 (1997):
393–416; J. M. George, and G. R. Jones, “Organizational Spontaneity in
Context,” Human
Performance 10 (1997):
153–70; J. W. Graham, “An Essay on Organizational Citizenship Behavior,”Employee
Responsibilities and Rights Journal 4 (1991): 249–70; D. W. Organ, “Personality and Organizational
Citizenship Behavior,” Journal
of Management 20(1994): 465–78; R. H. Moorman,
and G. L. Blakely, “Individualism-Collectivism as An Individual Difference
Predictor of Organizational Citizenship Behavior,” Journal of Organizational Behavior, 16 (1995): 127–42.
[4] J.
R. Katzenbach, and D. K. Smith, The
Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-performance Organization (Boston: Harvard Business School, 1993).
1.6 Your Principles of Management Survivor’s Guide
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.
Know your
learning style.
2.
Know how to
match your style to the circumstances.
3.
Use the
gauge-discover-reflect framework.
Principles of management courses typically combine
knowledge about skills and the development and application of those skills
themselves. For these reasons, it is helpful for you to develop your own strategy
for learning about and developing management skills. The first part of this
strategy should be based on your own disposition toward learning. The second
part of this strategy should follow some form of the gauge-discover-reflect
process that we outline at the end of this section.
Assess Your Learning Style
You
can assess your learning style in a number of ways. At a very general level,
you can assess your style intuitively (see “What Is Your Intuition about Your
Learning Style?”); however, we suggest that you use a survey instrument like
the Learning Style Index (LSI), the output from which you can then readily
compare with your intuition. In this section, we discuss the dimensions of the
LSI that you can complete easily and quickly online. [1] The survey will reveal whether your learning style is
active or reflective, sensory or intuitive, visual or verbal, and sequential or
global. [2]
What Is Your Intuition About Your Learning Style?
Your learning style may be defined in large part by
the answers to four questions:
1.
How do you
prefer to process information: actively—through engagement in physical activity
or discussion? Or reflectively—through introspection?
2.
What type of
information do you preferentially perceive: sensory (external)—sights, sounds,
physical sensations? Or intuitive (internal)—possibilities, insights, hunches?
3.
Through which
sensory channel is external information most effectively perceived:
visual—pictures, diagrams, graphs, demonstrations? Or verbal—words, sounds?
(Other sensory channels like touch, taste, and smell are relatively untapped in
most educational environments, and are not considered here.)
4.
How do you
progress toward understanding: sequentially—in continual steps? Or globally—in
large jumps, holistically?
TRY
IT OUT HERE: http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html
Active and Reflective Learners
Everybody is active sometimes and reflective
sometimes. Your preference for one category or the other may be strong,
moderate, or mild. A balance of the two is desirable. If you always act before
reflecting, you can jump into things prematurely and get into trouble, while if
you spend too much time reflecting, you may never get anything done.
“Let’s try it out and see how it works” is an active
learner’s phrase; “Let’s think it through first” is the reflective learner’s
response. If you are an active learner, you tend to retain and understand
information best by doing something active with it—discussing it, applying it,
or explaining it to others. Reflective learners prefer to think about it
quietly first.
Sitting through lectures without getting to do
anything physical but take notes is hard for both learning types but
particularly hard for active learners. Active learners tend to enjoy group work
more than reflective learners, who prefer working alone.
Sensing and Intuitive Learners
Everybody is sensing sometimes and intuitive
sometimes. Here too, your preference for one or the other may be strong,
moderate, or mild. To be effective as a learner and problem solver, you need to
be able to function both ways. If you overemphasize intuition, you may miss
important details or make careless mistakes in calculations or hands-on work;
if you overemphasize sensing, you may rely too much on memorization and
familiar methods and not concentrate enough on understanding and innovative
thinking.
Even if you need both, which one best reflects you?
Sensors often like solving problems by well-established methods and dislike
complications and surprises; intuitors like innovation and dislike repetition.
Sensors are more likely than intuitors to resent being tested on material that
has not been explicitly covered in class. Sensing learners tend to like
learning facts; intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities and
relationships.
Sensors tend to be patient with details and good at
memorizing facts and doing hands-on (laboratory) work; intuitors may be better
at grasping new concepts and are often more comfortable than sensors with
abstractions and mathematical formulations. Sensors tend to be more practical
and careful than intuitors; intuitors tend to work faster and to be more
innovative than sensors.
Sensors don’t like courses that have no apparent
connection to the real world (so if you are sensor, you should love principles
of management!); intuitors don’t like “plug-and-chug” courses that involve a
lot of memorization and routine calculations.
Visual and Verbal Learners
In most college classes, very little visual
information is presented: students mainly listen to lectures and read material
written on whiteboards, in textbooks, and on handouts. Unfortunately, most of
us are visual learners, which means that we typically do not absorb nearly as
much information as we would if more visual presentation were used in class.
Effective learners are capable of processing information presented either
visually or verbally.
Visual learners remember best what they see—pictures,
diagrams, flowcharts, time lines, films, and demonstrations. Verbal learners
get more out of words—written and spoken explanations. Everyone learns more
when information is presented both visually and verbally.
Sequential and Global Learners
Sequential learners tend to follow logical, stepwise
paths in finding solutions; global learners may be able to solve complex
problems quickly or put things together in novel ways once they have grasped
the big picture, but they may have difficulty explaining how they did it.
Sequential learners tend to gain understanding in linear steps, with each step
following logically from the previous one. Global learners tend to learn in
large jumps, absorbing material almost randomly without seeing connections, and
then suddenly “getting it.”
Many people who read this description may conclude
incorrectly that they are global since everyone has experienced bewilderment
followed by a sudden flash of understanding. What makes you global or not is
what happens before the light bulb goes on. Sequential learners may not fully
understand the material, but they can nevertheless do something with it (like
solve the homework problems or pass the test) since the pieces they have
absorbed are logically connected. Strongly global learners who lack good
sequential thinking abilities, however, may have serious difficulties until
they have the big picture. Even after they have it, they may be fuzzy about the
details of the subject, while sequential learners may know a lot about specific
aspects of a subject but may have trouble relating them to different aspects of
the same subject or to different subjects.
Adapt Your Style
OK, so you’ve assessed your learning style. What
should you do now? You can apply this valuable and important information about
yourself to how you approach your principles of management course and the
larger P-O-L-C framework.
Active Learners
If you act before you think, you are apt to make hasty
and potentially ill-informed judgments. You need to concentrate on summarizing
situations and taking time to sit by yourself to digest information you have
been given before jumping in and discussing it with others.
If you are an active learner in a class that allows
little or no class time for discussion or problem-solving activities, you should
try to compensate for these lacks when you study. Study in a group in which the
members take turns explaining different topics to one another. Work with others
to guess what you will be asked on the next test, and figure out how you will
answer. You will always retain information better if you find ways to do
something with it.
Reflective Learners
If you think too much, you risk doing nothing—ever.
There comes a time when a decision has to be made or an action taken. Involve
yourself in group decision making whenever possible, and try to apply the
information you have in as practical a manner as possible.
If you are a reflective learner in a class that allows
little or no class time for thinking about new information, you should try to
compensate for this lack when you study. Don’t simply read or memorize the
material; stop periodically to review what you have read and to think of
possible questions or applications. You might find it helpful to write short
summaries of readings or class notes in your own words. Doing so may take extra
time but will enable you to retain the material more effectively.
Sensory Learners
If you rely too much on sensing, you tend to prefer
what is familiar and concentrate on facts you know instead of being innovative
and adapting to new situations. Seek out opportunities to learn theoretical
information and then bring in facts to support or negate these theories.
Sensors remember and understand information best if
they can see how it connects to the real world. If you are in a class where
most of the material is abstract and theoretical, you may have difficulty. Ask
your instructor for specific examples of concepts and procedures, and find out
how the concepts apply in practice. If the teacher does not provide enough
specifics, try to find some in your course text or other references or by
brainstorming with friends or classmates.
Intuitive Learners
If you rely too much on intuition, you risk missing
important details, which can lead to poor decision making and problem solving.
Force yourself to learn facts or memorize data that will help you defend or
criticize a theory or procedure you are working with. You may need to slow down
and look at detail you would otherwise typically skim.
Many college lecture classes are aimed at intuitors.
However, if you are an intuitor and you happen to be in a class that deals
primarily with memorization and rote substitution in formulas, you may have
trouble with boredom. Ask your instructor for interpretations or theories that
link the facts, or try to find the connections yourself. You may also be prone
to careless mistakes on tests because you are impatient with details and don’t
like repetition (as in checking your completed solutions). Take time to read
the entire question before you start answering, and be sure to check your
results.
Visual Learners
If you concentrate more on pictorial or graphical
information than on words, you put yourself at a distinct disadvantage because
verbal and written information is still the main preferred choice for delivery
of information. Practice your note taking, and seek out opportunities to
explain information to others using words.
If you are a visual learner, try to find diagrams,
sketches, schematics, photographs, flowcharts, or any other visual
representation of course material that is predominantly verbal. Ask your
instructor, consult reference books, and see whether any videotapes or CD-ROM
displays of the course material are available. Prepare a concept map by listing
key points, enclosing them in boxes or circles, and drawing lines with arrows
between concepts to show connections. Color-code your notes with a highlighter
so that everything relating to one topic is the same color.
Verbal Learners
As with visual learners, look for opportunities to
learn through audiovisual presentations (such as CD-ROM and Webcasts). When
making notes, group information according to concepts, and then create visual
links with arrows going to and from them. Take every opportunity you can to
create charts, tables, and diagrams.
Write summaries or outlines of course material in your
own words. Working in groups can be particularly effective: you gain
understanding of material by hearing classmates’ explanations, and you learn
even more when you do the explaining.
Sequential Learners
When you break things down into small components you
are often able to dive right into problem solving. This seems to be
advantageous but can often be unproductive. Force yourself to slow down and
understand why you are doing something and how it is connected to the overall
purpose or objective. Ask yourself how your actions are going to help you in
the long run. If you can’t think of a practical application for what you are
doing, then stop and do some more “big picture” thinking.
Most college courses are taught in a sequential
manner. However, if you are a sequential learner and you have an instructor who
jumps around from topic to topic or skips steps, you may have difficulty
following and remembering. Ask the instructor to fill in the skipped steps, or
fill them in yourself by consulting references. When you are studying, take the
time to outline the lecture material for yourself in logical order. In the long
run, doing so will save you time. You might also try to strengthen your
global-thinking skills by relating each new topic you study to things you
already know. The more you can do so, the deeper your understanding of the
topic is likely to be.
Global Learners
If grasping the big picture is easy for you, then you
can be at risk of wanting to run before you can walk. You see what is needed
but may not take the time to learn how best to accomplish it. Take the time to
ask for explanations, and force yourself to complete all problem-solving steps
before coming to a conclusion or making a decision. If you can’t explain what
you have done and why, then you may have missed critical details.
If you are a global learner, it can be helpful for you
to realize that you need the big picture of a subject before you can master
details. If your instructor plunges directly into new topics without bothering
to explain how they relate to what you already know, it can cause problems for
you. Fortunately, there are steps you can take that may help you get the big
picture more rapidly. Before you begin to study the first section of a chapter
in a text, skim through the entire chapter to get an overview. Doing so may be
time consuming initially, but it may save you from going over and over
individual parts later. Instead of spending a short time on every subject every
night, you might find it more productive to immerse yourself in individual
subjects for large blocks. Try to relate the subject to things you already
know, either by asking the instructor to help you see connections or by
consulting references. Above all, don’t lose faith in yourself; you will
eventually understand the new material, and understanding how it connects to
other topics and disciplines may enable you to apply it in ways that most
sequential thinkers would never dream of.
Gauge-Discover-Reflect
You have already begun to apply the spirit of what we
recommend in this third part of the development of your principles of
management survival kit, by gauging your learning style. The three essential
components are (1) gauge—take stock of your knowledge and capabilities about a
topic; (2) discover—learn enough about a topic so that you can set specific
development goals on which you can apply and practice, and later gauge again
your progress toward your set goals; and (3) reflect—step back and look at the ways
you have achieved your goals, take the opportunity to set new ones, and
chronicle this experience and thought process in a daily journal.
Gauge
It
is always good to start any self-development process by getting some sense of
where you are. That is why we commence with the gauge stage.
For learning and developing in the area of principles of management, such
knowledge is essential. By analogy, let’s say you want to take a road trip out
of town. Even if you have a map and a compass, it still is pretty important to
know exactly where you are starting on the map!
Your instructor will likely introduce you to a number
of different types of management assessment tools, and you should experiment
with them to see how they work and the degree to which results resonate with
your intuition. A word of caution here—just because some assessment results may
clash with your intuition or self-image, do not immediately assume that they
are wrong. Instead, use them as an opportunity and motivation for further
probing (this can fuel your work in the discovery and reflect stages).
The obvious value of commencing your learning process
with some form of assessment is that you have a clear starting point, in terms
of knowledge. This also means that you now have a basis for comparing your
achievement to any relevant specific goals that you set. Less obvious perhaps
is the experience you will gain with principles of management skill assessments
in general. More and more organizations use some form of assessment in the
recruiting, human resources development, and yes, even promotion processes.
Your experience with these different surveys will give you the confidence to
take other surveys and the knowledge needed to show organizations that you are
aware of your areas of strength and development opportunities.
Discover
The discovery stage
of your principles of management survival kit has four related facets: (1)
learn, (2) set goals, (3) apply, and (4) practice. Let us look at each one in
turn.
Learn
You have probably learned a little about a certain
subject just by virtue of gauging your depth in it. In some cases, you might
even have read up on the subject a lot to accurately gauge where you were
strong or weak. There is not an existing survey for every subject, and it is
beneficial to learn how you might gauge this or that area of interest.
The learning facet essentially asks that you build
your knowledge base about a particular topic. As you know, learning has
multiple facets, from simply mastering facts and definitions, to developing knowledge
of how you might apply that knowledge. You will typically want to start with
some mastery over facts and definitions and then build your knowledge base to a
more strategic level—that is, be able to understand when, where, and how you
might use those definitions and facts in principles of management.
Set SMART Goals
The
combination of gauging and learning about a topic should permit you to set some
goals related to your focal topic. For example, you want to develop better team
communication skills or better understand change management. While your goals
should reflect the intersection of your own needs and the subject, we do know
that effective goals satisfy certain characteristics. These
characteristics—specific, measurable, aggressive, realistic, and time
bound—yield the acronym SMART. [3] Here is how to tell if your goals are SMART goals.
Specific
Specific goals are more likely to be achieved than a general
goal. To set a specific goal, you must answer the six “W” questions:
·
Who: Who is
involved?
·
What: What do I
want to accomplish?
·
Where: At what
location?
·
When: In what
time frame?
·
Which: What are
the requirements and constraints?
·
Why: What
specific reasons, purpose, or benefits are there to the accomplishment of the
goal? [4]
EXAMPLE: A general goal would be, “Get a job as a
retail store manager.” But a specific goal would say, “Identify my development
needs in the next three weeks to become a retail store manager.” “Are You Ready
to Be a Great Retail Store Manager?” provides you with an introductory list of
survey questions that might help you accelerate your progress on this
particular goal set.
Are You Ready to Be a Great Retail Store Manager?
The service sector employs more than 80% of the U.S.
workforce, and the position of retail store manager is in increasing demand.
Have you already developed the skills to be a great store manager? Score
yourself on each of these 10 people skills. How close did you get to 100?
Identify two areas to develop, and then move on to two more areas once that
goal is achieved.
1.
“I challenge
employees to set new performance goals.”
Never: 1 Seldom: 3 Often: 5
Regularly: 10
2.
“I coach
employees to resolve performance problems.”
Never: 1 Seldom: 3 Often: 5
Regularly: 10
3.
“I encourage
employees to contribute new ideas.”
Never: 1 Seldom: 3 Often: 5
Regularly: 10
4.
“I take an
interest in my employees’ personal lives.”
Never: 1 Seldom: 3 Often: 5
Regularly: 10
5.
“I delegate
well.”
Never: 1 Seldom: 3 Often: 5
Regularly: 10
6.
“I communicate
my priorities and directions clearly.”
Never: 1 Seldom: 3 Often: 5
Regularly: 10
7.
“I resolve
conflicts in a productive way.”
Never: 1 Seldom: 3 Often: 5
Regularly: 10
8.
“I behave in a
professional way at work.”
Never: 1 Seldom: 3 Often: 5
Regularly: 10
9.
“I inspire my
employees with a dynamic personality.”
Never: 1 Seldom: 3 Often: 5
Regularly: 10
10.
“I am a good listener.”
Never: 1 Seldom: 3 Often: 5
Regularly: 10
Measurable
When
goals are specific, performance tends to be higher. [5] Why? If goals are not specific and measurable, how
would you know whether you have reached the goal? Any performance level becomes
acceptable. For the same reason, telling someone, “Do your best” is not an
effective goal because it is not measurable and does not give the person a
specific target.
Aggressive
This may sound counterintuitive, but effective goals
are difficult, not easy. Aggressive goals are also called stretch goals. Why
are effective goals aggressive? Easy goals do not provide a challenge. When
goals are aggressive and when they require people to work harder or smarter,
performance tends to be dramatically higher.
Realistic
While goals should be difficult, they should also be
based in reality. In other words, if a goal is viewed as impossible to reach,
it does not have any motivational value. Only you can decide which goal is
realistic and which is impossible to achieve; just be sure that the goal you
set, while it is aggressive, remains grounded in reality.
Timely
The goal should contain a statement regarding when the
proposed performance level will be reached. This way, it provides the person
with a sense of urgency.
Apply and Practice
Your knowledge of the subject, plus your SMART goals,
give you an opportunity to apply and test your knowledge. Going back to our
road-trip analogy, gauging gives you a starting point, learning gives you a
road map and compass, and goals give you a target destination. Practice, in
turn, simply means some repetition of the application process. Your objective
here should be to apply and practice a subject long enough that, when you gauge
it again, you are likely to see some change or progress.
Reflect
This final stage has two parts: (1) gauge again and
(2) record.
Gauge Again
As suggested under “Apply and Practice,” you will want
to gauge your progress. Have you become more innovative? Do you better
communicate in teams? Do you have a better understanding of other key
principles of management?
Record
Many
people might stop at the gauge again point, but they would be missing out on an
incredibly valuable opportunity. Specifically, look at what you have learned
and achieved regarding your goals, and chronicle your progress in some form of
a journal. [6] A journal may be a required component of a principles
of management course, so there may be extrinsic as well as intrinsic motives
for starting to keep a journal.
There are also various exercises that you can partake
in through your journaling. These allow you to challenge yourself and think
more creatively and deeply. An effective journal entry should be written with
clear images and feelings. You should aim to include your reactions along with
the facts or events related to your developmental goals. The experience of
certain experiments may not necessarily be what you thought it would be, and
this is what is important to capture. You are bound to feel turmoil in various
moments, and these feelings are excellent fodder for journaling. Journaling
allows you to vent and understand emotions. These types of entries can be
effective at giving yourself a more rounded perspective on past events.
In addition to the goals you are evaluating, there are
numerous things to write about in a journal. You can reflect on the day, the
week, or even the year. You can reflect on events that you have been a part of
or people you have met. Look for conclusions that you may have made or any
conflicts that you faced. Most important, write about how you felt. This will
allow you to examine your own emotional responses. You may find that you need
to make a personal action or response to those conflicts. The conclusions that
you make from your journal entries are the ingredients to self-growth. Facing
those conflicts may also change your life for the better, as you are able to
grow as a person.
You should also always go back and review what you
have written. Think about each journal entry you have made and what it means.
This is the true aspect of self-growth through journaling. It is easy to
recognize changes in yourself through your journaling. You may find that you
had a disturbing idea one day, but the next your attitude was much better. You
may also find that your attitude grows and improves day by day. This is what
makes journaling a true self-growth tool.
Journaling may be inexpensive, but it does require
time and commitment. The time factor itself can be small, only about 10 minutes
a day or maybe 30 minutes a week, depending on how you would like to summarize
your life. You do, however, have to be motivated to write on a regular basis.
Even if you do not have a lot of time to write, you will still be able to enjoy
the large amount of personal growth that is available through journaling.
Perhaps this suggests that your first goal set relates to time set aside for
journaling.
KEY TAKEAWAY
You have seen how different
individuals approach the learning process and that an understanding of these
differences can help you with your objectives related to principles of
management. Beyond this general understanding of your own learning style, you
also have an opportunity to put together your own survival kit for this course.
Your kit will have answers and resources based on the gauge-discover-reflect
framework. The development of SMART goals are particularly important in the
successful application of the framework.
EXERCISES
1.
What is your
learning style?
2.
How does your
style compare with your prior intuition?
3.
What target
learning issue could you use to experiment with the gauge-discover-reflect
framework?
4.
What does the
acronym SMART refer to, in the context of goal setting?
5.
What SMART
goals could you apply to your target learning issue?
[1] B.
A. Soloman, and R. M. Felder. http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html (accessed October 15, 2008).
[2] This
section is based heavily on the work of Richard K. Felder and Linda K.
Silverman. In addition to their research, there is an online instrument used to
assess preferences on four dimensions (active or reflective, sensing or
intuitive, visual or verbal, and sequential or global) of a learning style
model formulated by Felder and Soloman of North Carolina State University. The Learning
Styles Index (LSI) may be used at no cost for noncommercial purposes by
individuals who wish to determine their own learning style profile and by
educators who wish to use it for teaching, advising, or research. See R. M.
Felder, and R. Brent, “Understanding Student Differences,” Journal of Engineering Education 94, no. 1 (2005) : 57–72, for an exploration of differences in
student learning styles, approaches to learning (deep, surface, and strategic),
and levels of intellectual development, with recommended teaching practices to
address all three categories. R. M. Felder, and J. E. Spurlin, “Applications,
Reliability, and Validity of the Index of Learning Styles,” Journal of Engineering Education 21, no. 1 (2005): 103–12, provides a validation study of the LSI.
Also see T. A. Litzinger, S. H. Lee, J. C. Wise, and R. M. Felder, “A
Psychometric Study of the Index of Learning Styles,” Journal of Engineering Education 96, no. 4 (2007): 309–19.
[3] In
his seminal 1954 work, The
Practice of Management (New
York: Collins), Peter Drucker coined the usage of the acronym for SMART
objectives while discussing objective-based management.
[4] http://www.topachievement.com/smart.html (accessed October 15, 2008).
[5] M.
E. Tubbs, “Goal setting: A Meta-analytic Examination of the Empirical
Evidence,” Journal
of Applied Psychology 71 (1986):
474–83.
[6] K.
Bromley, Journaling:
Engagements in Reading, Writing, and Thinking (New York: Scholastic, 1993).
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