Lecture 1: Managing in a Changing World
Manager:
● The person who coordinates and oversees other people's work so that
organizational goals can be accomplished efficiently and effectively.
Benefits of being a manager:
- Management is required everywhere
- Responsible for creating a productive work environment.
- Strong values of sustainability.
- Take higher risks in compensation for higher salaries etc.
Levels of Managers:
● First-Line Managers: Manage work of the non-managerial employees
● Middle Managers: Manage the work of first-line managers
● Top Managers: Responsible for making organization-wide decisions and
establishing plans and pals that affect the entire organization.
Importance of Managers:
● All types and sizes of organizations must need managerial skills and abilities for
them to function properly.
● Managers are critical to getting things done
Management Functions:
● Planning: Defining and establishing strategies to achieve goals. Develop plans to
integrate and coordinate activities.
● Organizing: Arranging and structuring work to accomplish organizational goals
● Leading: Working with and through people to accomplish goals
● Controlling: Monitoring, comparing and correcting work.
Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles and a Contemporary Model of Managing:
● Interpersonal:
- Figurehead, leader, liaison (Someone who always has connection with the
people)
● Informational:
, - Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson
● Decisional:
‒ Entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator
Management Skills:
● Technical Skills:
- Knowledge and proficiency in a specific field
- At least minimal knowledge about certain fields
● Human skills:
- The ability to work fluently with other people
● Conceptual skills:
- The ability to think and conceptualize about abstract and complex
situations concerning the organization.
Focus on Disruptive Innovation:
- One of the most critical challenges facing managers today is dealing with
disruptive innovation.
- Disruptive innovation involves new products, processes, or services that
radically change the rules of the game.
- One example is how the automobile destroyed the horse-drawn buggy industry.
- Uber disrupts taxis
- Law falls behind
- Social media
Focus on Political Uncertainty
● In the past, major democratic nations like the U.S, Canada, and the UK have been
relatively stable politically.
● In the last 10 years, these countries have shifted to greater political uncertainty
● Brexit and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) are examples
of that shift.
More focus on customers:
- Customers are the center
- More demanding
- High quality service required.
,Lecture 2: Making Decisions - Influential Factors/Cultures
8 step decision making process:
Decision: A choice among two or more alternatives.
1) Identify a problem:
○ An obstacle that is difficult to achieve a desired goal or purpose.
○ Every decision starts with a problem, a discrepancy between an existing
and a desired condition.
○ Ex: Amanda is a sales manager whose reps need new laptops.
2) Identify the Decision Criteria: (Example: laptops need storage and memory
upgrades.)
3) Allocate Weights to the Criteria:
○ Deciding which one is more important (example: the storage carries more
weight in terms of importance)
4) Develop Alternatives: List viable alternatives that could solve the problem.
5) Analyze the Alternatives: (Criteria weight multiplied by alternative rating.)
6) Select an Alternative: Choose the alternative that generates the highest total
(best rating).
7) Implement the Alternative: Create a team to apply the alternative. Include and
motivate people in your decision.
8) Evaluate Decision Effectiveness: Evaluating the quality of the decision by
comparing your expected results and reality.
Decisions Managers May Make: Planning, Organizing, Leading, & Controlling
, Rationality:
● Rational Decision Making: choices that are logical, consistent, & maximize
value.
● Assumptions of Rationality:
○ Rational decision making is logical & objective.
○ Problem is clear & ambiguous.
○ Decision maker would have a clear & specific goal while being aware of all
alternatives & consequences.
○ Alternative that maximizes achieving this goal will be chosen.
○ Decisions are always made in the best interest of the organization.
● Bounded Rationality:
○ Decision making that’s rational but limited by an individual’s ability to
process information.
○ Satisfice: accepting solutions that are “good enough.”
Intuition:
● Intuitive Decision Making: Making decisions on the basis of experience,
feelings, & accumulated judgement.
● 5 Different types of intuition
Evidence-Based Management (EBMgt):
● The systematic use of the best available evidence to improve management
practices.
Crowdsourcing:
● A decision-making approach where you solicit ideas from a group of individuals
outside of the traditional set of decision-makers.
Types of Decisions:
● Structured Problems: Straightforward, familiar, easily defined problems.
Manager:
● The person who coordinates and oversees other people's work so that
organizational goals can be accomplished efficiently and effectively.
Benefits of being a manager:
- Management is required everywhere
- Responsible for creating a productive work environment.
- Strong values of sustainability.
- Take higher risks in compensation for higher salaries etc.
Levels of Managers:
● First-Line Managers: Manage work of the non-managerial employees
● Middle Managers: Manage the work of first-line managers
● Top Managers: Responsible for making organization-wide decisions and
establishing plans and pals that affect the entire organization.
Importance of Managers:
● All types and sizes of organizations must need managerial skills and abilities for
them to function properly.
● Managers are critical to getting things done
Management Functions:
● Planning: Defining and establishing strategies to achieve goals. Develop plans to
integrate and coordinate activities.
● Organizing: Arranging and structuring work to accomplish organizational goals
● Leading: Working with and through people to accomplish goals
● Controlling: Monitoring, comparing and correcting work.
Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles and a Contemporary Model of Managing:
● Interpersonal:
- Figurehead, leader, liaison (Someone who always has connection with the
people)
● Informational:
, - Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson
● Decisional:
‒ Entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator
Management Skills:
● Technical Skills:
- Knowledge and proficiency in a specific field
- At least minimal knowledge about certain fields
● Human skills:
- The ability to work fluently with other people
● Conceptual skills:
- The ability to think and conceptualize about abstract and complex
situations concerning the organization.
Focus on Disruptive Innovation:
- One of the most critical challenges facing managers today is dealing with
disruptive innovation.
- Disruptive innovation involves new products, processes, or services that
radically change the rules of the game.
- One example is how the automobile destroyed the horse-drawn buggy industry.
- Uber disrupts taxis
- Law falls behind
- Social media
Focus on Political Uncertainty
● In the past, major democratic nations like the U.S, Canada, and the UK have been
relatively stable politically.
● In the last 10 years, these countries have shifted to greater political uncertainty
● Brexit and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) are examples
of that shift.
More focus on customers:
- Customers are the center
- More demanding
- High quality service required.
,Lecture 2: Making Decisions - Influential Factors/Cultures
8 step decision making process:
Decision: A choice among two or more alternatives.
1) Identify a problem:
○ An obstacle that is difficult to achieve a desired goal or purpose.
○ Every decision starts with a problem, a discrepancy between an existing
and a desired condition.
○ Ex: Amanda is a sales manager whose reps need new laptops.
2) Identify the Decision Criteria: (Example: laptops need storage and memory
upgrades.)
3) Allocate Weights to the Criteria:
○ Deciding which one is more important (example: the storage carries more
weight in terms of importance)
4) Develop Alternatives: List viable alternatives that could solve the problem.
5) Analyze the Alternatives: (Criteria weight multiplied by alternative rating.)
6) Select an Alternative: Choose the alternative that generates the highest total
(best rating).
7) Implement the Alternative: Create a team to apply the alternative. Include and
motivate people in your decision.
8) Evaluate Decision Effectiveness: Evaluating the quality of the decision by
comparing your expected results and reality.
Decisions Managers May Make: Planning, Organizing, Leading, & Controlling
, Rationality:
● Rational Decision Making: choices that are logical, consistent, & maximize
value.
● Assumptions of Rationality:
○ Rational decision making is logical & objective.
○ Problem is clear & ambiguous.
○ Decision maker would have a clear & specific goal while being aware of all
alternatives & consequences.
○ Alternative that maximizes achieving this goal will be chosen.
○ Decisions are always made in the best interest of the organization.
● Bounded Rationality:
○ Decision making that’s rational but limited by an individual’s ability to
process information.
○ Satisfice: accepting solutions that are “good enough.”
Intuition:
● Intuitive Decision Making: Making decisions on the basis of experience,
feelings, & accumulated judgement.
● 5 Different types of intuition
Evidence-Based Management (EBMgt):
● The systematic use of the best available evidence to improve management
practices.
Crowdsourcing:
● A decision-making approach where you solicit ideas from a group of individuals
outside of the traditional set of decision-makers.
Types of Decisions:
● Structured Problems: Straightforward, familiar, easily defined problems.
