summary of chap 1 by komal

Introduction to management and organization

· Who are managers?
Managers co-ordinate and oversees the work of other people so that organizational goals can be accomplished.
Following are the types of managers:
Ø Top level managers
Ø Middle level managers
Ø First line mangers
· What is management?
Co-coordinating and over-seeing the work of other people so the organizational goals can be accomplished and activities are completed efficiently and effectively.
Ø Efficiently: getting most output from the least amount of input. Doing things right.
Ø Effectiveness: doing those activities which help the organization reach its goals; doing the things right.

· What do managers do?

· Managerial functions
Ø Planning; defining goals, establishing strategies and developing plans.
Ø Organizing; arranging and structuring of work.
Ø Leading; working with and through people.
Ø Controlling; evaluating whether things are going planned.
.
· Managerial roles
Ø Interpersonal : figurehead,leader,liaison
Ø Informational :monitor,disseminator,spokesperson
Ø Decisional :entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocater,negotiator

· Managerial skills
Ø Technical,human,conceptual
Ø Importance of these skills depending on managerial level.

What is an organization?
Deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish some specific purpose.
Multiple choice questions

Getting large output from least amount of input is
1. effectiveness
2. planning
3. efficiency

Arranging and structuring of work
1. organizing
2. controlling
3. leading


Mangers that make strategies are
1. lower level managers
2. top level managers
3. middle level managers

Managers engaged with productive activities are
1. middle level managers
2. top level managers
3. first level managers

summary of chapter 6

Decision making
· How do managers make decisions?
Managers at all levels and all organization make decisions.
Decision making is simply defined as “choosing among alternatives”.
Top level managers make decisions about their organization’s goals.
Where to locate manufacturing facilities, what new markets to move
Into and what products to offer? While middle and lower level managers make decisions about production, quality and employees.
· How are decisions made?
Decisions made on three foundations:
Ø Rationality: consistent, value-maximizing choices where the problem is clear and unambiguous, the decision maker’s goal is clear and specific and decision maker must go for alternatives.
Ø Bounded rationality: decisions are made rationally but decision maker is bounded by limited ability to process information. decision making strongly influenced by organization’s culture, politics and power consideration
Ø Intuition: in this term managers make decision on the basis of their experiences, feelings and judgements.
· Types of problems and decisions:
Ø Structured problem: straightforward, familiar and easily defined problems are called structured problems. Example costumer’s returning a purchase to a store; college’s handling of student wanting to drop a class. Such cases are belonging to structured problems.
Ø Unstructured problems; are problems new or unusual and for which information is ambiguous or incomplete.
· Decision making conditions: three conditions managers may face while decision making.
Certainty: a situation in which a manager can make accurate decisions because all outcomes are known.
Uncertainty: a situation in which a decision maker has neither certainty nor reasonable probability estimates available.
Risk: a situation in which the decision maker is able to estimate the likelihood certain outcomes.
· Decision making styles: following are the styles of decision making.
Ø Directive style: a decision-making style characterized by low tolerance for ambiguity and a rational way of thinking.
Ø Analytic style: a decision-making style characterized by a high tolerance for ambiguity and an intuitive way of thinking.
Ø Conceptual style: a decision-making style that is characterized by a high tolerance for ambiguity and intuitive way of thinking.
Ø Behavioural style: a decision-making style characterized by a low tolerance for ambiguity and an intuitive way of thinking.
· How do managers need to know about making decisions in today’s world?
Ø Understand cultural difference.
Ø Know when it’s time to call it quit.
Ø Use an effective decision-making process.
Ø Develop highly reliable organizations.


Multiple choice questions

· Under how many conditions managers make decisions?
1. one
2. two
3. three

· kinds of problems that managers face;
1. rational
2. structured, unstructured problems · How many steps are there in decision making?
1. two
2. five
3. none of these

· when managers use rule of thumb in decision-making it is known as:
1. heuristics
2. policy
3. implementation of alternative

· what’s relevant in a decision ,defined

1. decision criteria
2. identifying problem
3. selection of alternative
3. none of these


· decisions are made by
1. all organizations
2. tall organizations
3. short organizations

Chapter 7, Planning

Planning

· What is planning and why it is important?
It is the establishment of the work methods and practices to ensure that predetermined objectives are efficiently met at all levels. This involves determining objectives, strategies, policies, programmes and procedures for achieving those objectives for the organisation and its sub units.

· How do managers plans?
When managers plan, they focus on two basic things; goals and objectives. These act as foundation to it and it is these goals and objectives without which the planning is baseless.

· How do managers set goals?
Managers set their goals by keeping in view the nature and the purpose/objectives of the organisation. For instance, the goal of the profit making organisation is the maximisation of the profit whereas the goal of not for profit organisation would be the welfare of the public.
Here we can refer to the MBO approach.

· What do managers need to keep in mind while developing plans?
Contingency factors: arrangements for what should be done if changes or problems occur e.g. computer system failure or industrial action.
Environmental uncertainty: the manager has to cope up with the dynamic environment where things change over night. These changes could be of fashion, taste, demand, innovation and so on and so forth.

I never knew that Covey's 7 habbits would bring about such a positive change within me. I was reactive and never had the courage to take an initiative, but after reading the book, I realised that I've really gained something worth gaining!! And I must say that Sir Manan's methodology of teaching is very effective!!