Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Courtesy
Stephen P. Robbins
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Lecture Breakdown
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Lecture Contents Resources
Number
7 Managing change and innovation: Forces of change. The • Lecture notes
calm waters metaphor and the white water rapids metaphor. • Chapter 13,
Techniques for managing change. Contemporary issues in Reference book 1.
managing change. Stimulating innovation.
Review and issues for Discussion
8 Assignment Guidance and Discussion • Classroom discussion
9 Leading: Organisational behaviour. Attitudes, Personality, • Lecture notes
perception and related theories. • Chapter 14,
Reference book 1.
Review and issues for Discussion
Reference Books:
1. Stephen P. Robbins and Mary Coulter: Management, 7th edition, Prentice Hall, 2002.
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ORGANISATION THEORY AND PRACTICE
What is an organisation?
• Distinct purpose
• Deliberate structure
• Arrangement of people
Changing Organisation
• Open
• Flexible
• Responsive to changes
• Stable Dynamic
• Inflexible Flexible
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POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
Classification of managers
• Supervisors in general
• Foreman in manufacturing
• Coach of a sports team
• Middle managers: all levels of management between the supervisory level and the top level
of the organisation
• Department head
• Project leader
• Plant manager
• Dean
• Top managers: responsible for making organisation-wide decisions and establish policies
and strategies
• Vice president
• President
• Managing director
• Chief executive officer
• Chairman
2. Why it is not always easy to determine exactly who the managers are in organisations?
MANAGEMENT
Management: is the process of coordinating and integrating activities in order to complete them
efficiently and effectively with and through other people.
• Efficiency: Doing things right – the relationship between inputs and outputs, the goal of
which is to minimise resource costs.
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• Effectiveness: Doing right things – goal attainment.
Management: Efficiency and Effectiveness
• Planning
• Organising
• Commanding
• Coordinating
• Controlling
• Planning
• Organising
• Leading
• Controlling
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Defining goals, establishing strategy, Planning
and developing sub plans to
coordinate activities
Interpersonal Role
Informational Role
1. Monitor: Seeks and receives wide variety of special information to develop through
understanding of organisation & environment. Nerve centre of internal and external
information.
Example: Monitoring the environment for information.
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3. Spokesperson: Representing the organisation to outside agencies.
Example: Holding board meetings, giving information to media, …
Decisional Role
2. Disturbance Handler: Responsible for corrective action when organisation faces important,
unexpected disturbances.
Example: Disturbance and crises management.
2. What is the management process, and how does it reflect what managers do?
3. Describe Mintzberg’s ten management roles and how they are used to explain what
managers do.
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Management skills (Robert L. Katz)
Conceptual Skills
Top
Management
Interpersonal Skills
Middle
Management
Technical Skills
First line
Management
Conceptual Skills: The ability to think and conceptualise abstract situations, to see organisations as
a whole and the relationship among its various subunits, and to visualise how the organisation fits
into its environment.
Interpersonal Skills: The ability to work well with other people both individually and in groups.
Technical skills: Skills that include knowledge of and proficiency in a certain specialised field.
Evolution of Management
• 1776 Adam Smith: Classic economic doctrine “The Wealth of Nations” – division of
labour: the breakdown of jobs into narrow, repetitive tasks.
• 18th century: Industrial revolution in Britain – the advent of machine power, mass
production and efficient transportation.
Scientific Management
1. Frederick Winslow Taylor: Principles of Scientific Management (1911). This pioneering work
made him the Father of Scientific Management. He sought to create a mental revolution
among both workers and managers by defining clear guidelines.
• Develop a science for each element of an individual’s work, which replaces the old rule-of-
thumb methods.
• Scientifically select, train, teach and develop workers.
• Fully cooperate with the workers to ensure that all works are done in accordance with the
principles of the science that has been developed.
• Divide work and responsibility almost equally between management and workers.
Management takes over all the works which are better fitted for them than the workers.
2. Frank Gilbreth & Lillian Gilbreth (1912): Experimented in the design and use of proper tools
and equipment for optimistic work performance. Devised a classification scheme to label 17
basic motions such as search, select, grasp, hold, …This classification scheme for labeling 17
basic hand motions is called therbligs.
Persons who developed general theories of what managers do and what constitutes good
management practices.
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12. Stability of tenure of personnel,
13. Initiative, and
14. Esprit de corps
2. Max Weber: In the early part of the 20th century he developed a theory of authority
structures and described organisational activity based on authority relations. He brought in
the concept of bureaucracy – a form of organisation marked by division of labour, hierarchy,
rules and regulations, and impersonal relationships. His writings were less operational
compared to Taylor’s.
1. Division of labour
2. Authority of hierarchy
3. Formal selection
4. Formal rules and regulations
5. Impersonality
6. Career orientation
3. Ralph C. Davis: In his book The fundamentals of Top Management In 1951, he refined the
concept of management as the functional executive leadership.
Quantitative Approach
This approach was evolved during world war II through development of mathematical and
statistical solutions to military problems. This approach uses quantitative techniques to improve
decision making. The pioneers of this approach are: Robert McNamara and Thornton.
Organisational Behaviour (OB) is the field of study concerned with the actions (behaviour) of
people at work.
• Human relations movement: The belief that a satisfied worker will be productive.
• Behavioural science theorists: Psychologists and sociologists who relied on the scientific
method for the study of organisational behaviour.
• Process approach: Management performs the functions of planning, organising, leading and
controlling.
• Bi-modal workforce: Employees tend to perform either low-skilled service jobs for near
minimum wages or high-skilled well-paying jobs.
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• Learning organisation: An organisation that has developed the capacity to adapt and change
continuously.
• Downsizing: Organisational restructuring efforts in which individuals are laid off from their
jobs.
2. What were Foyal’s principles of management and how do they compare with Taylor’s?
3. Explain with examples how quantitative approach help in better decision making?
4. “Everyone wants a challenging job with opportunities for advancement”. How does this
statement reflect upon the organisational behaviour approach? How does it reflect upon
workforce diversity, empowerment and bi-modal workforce?
Omnipotent View: The view that managers are directly responsible for an organisation’s
success or failure.
Symbolic View: The view that managers have only a limited effect on organisational outcomes
because of large number of factors outside their control.
Real View: Managers are neither helpless nor all powerful. Managers operate within the
constraints imposed by the organisation’s culture and environment.
Managerial
Environment Discretion Culture
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Organisational Culture: A system of shared meaning within an organisation that determines, in
large degree, how employees act. When confronted with problems or work issues, the organisational
culture – the way we do things here – influences what employees can do and how they
conceptualise, define, analyse and resolve issues.
1. People Orientation
2. Team Orientation
3. Aggressiveness
4. Stability
5. Innovation and Risk Taking
6. Attention to Detail
7. Outcome Orientation
Each of these characteristics exists on a continuum from Low to High. These dimensions can be
mixed to create significantly different organisations
Attention to Detail
Low … High
Organisational Culture
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1. People Orientation: Degree to which management decisions take into account the effects on
the people in the organisation.
2. Team Orientation: Degree to which work is organised around teams rather than individuals.
3. Aggressiveness: Degree to which employees are aggressive and competitive rather than
cooperative.
5. Innovation and Risk taking: Degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative
and to take risk.
6. Attention to Detail: Degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis
and attention to detail.
7. Outcome Orientation: Degree to which managers focus on results or outcomes rather than
on how these outcomes are achieved.
Not all cultures have an equal impact on employee’s behaviours and actions.
Strong Cultures: Cultures in which the key values are deeply held and widely shared. The more the
employees accept the organisation’s key values and their commitment to those values, the stronger
the culture is.
• Stories
• Material Symbols
• Rituals
• Language
Stories: These typically contain a narrative of significant events or people including such things
• Organisation’s founders
• Rule breaking
• Reactions to past mistakes
• Company’s heritage
Rituals: are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the values of the
organisation.
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• Training Programmes.
Material Symbols: When we walk into an organisation we get a feel of place like: formal, casual,
fun, serious. These are the effects of materials symbols such as:
• Colleague
• Do or Die
• Work judo
Planning
1. The degree of risk that plans should contain
2. Plans to be developed by individuals or teams
3. Degree of environmental scanning to be done.
Organising
1. Level of autonomy to be designed into employee’s jobs
2. Tasks to be done by individuals or teams
3. Degree of interaction between departmental managers
Leading
1. Degree to which managers are concerned with increasing employees’ job satisfaction
2. The appropriate leadership styles
3. Degree of tolerance with disagreements
Controlling
1. Whether to impose external controls or to allow employees to control their actions
2. What criteria to be emphasized in employee performance appraisals
3. Consequences of exceeding one’s budgets
As the composition of workforce changes, managers must take a long hard look at their
organisational culture to see if the shared meaning and beliefs that were appropriate for a more
homogeneous workforce will support diverse views.
Environment
External environment: refers to the forces outside the organisation that potentially can influence
the organisation’s performance.
1. Specific environment: includes those that have direct and immediate impact on managers’
decisions and actions and are directly relevant to the achievement of the organisation’s goals.
The main ones are:
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• Customers
• Suppliers
• Competitors
• Pressure groups
2. General environment: includes broad external conditions that may affect the organisation.
These include:
• Economic conditions
• Political/Legal conditions
• Sociocultural conditions
• Demographic conditions
• Technological conditions
• Global conditions
Complexity: The number of components and the extent of an organisation’s knowledge about its
environmental components.
Simple
Degree of Change
Stable Dynamic
Complex
Complexity
Degree of
Cell 1 Cell 2
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• Dynamic and unpredictable environment
• Few components in environment
• Components are somewhat similar but are in continual process of change.
• Minimal need for sophisticated knowledge of components
PLANNING
1. DECISION MAKING
Levels of decision-making
Strategic level: Decisions at this level include diversification, product/market development, merger,
…
Tactical level: Decisions at this level include budget allocations, personnel assignments,
promotional mix decisions, ….
Technical (operational) level: Decisions at this level include quality control, payroll, transportation,
credit acceptance or rejection, ..
Informational requirements to make decisions at these three different levels are different.
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Intuitive decision-making: A subconscious process of making decisions on the basis of experience
and accumulated judgement.
Step 1: Identifying a Problem: The decision making process begins with the existence of a problem
or more specifically, a discrepancy between an existing and desired state of affairs.
Step 2: Identifying decision Criteria: Once the manager identifies a problem that needs attention,
the decision criteria important to resolving the problem must be identified. That is, managers must
determine what is relevant in making the decision.
Step 3: Developing Alternatives: This step requires the decision maker to list the viable alternatives
that could resolve the problem. No attempt is made in this step to evaluate the alternatives.
The Decision-making process
Step 4: Analysing Alternatives: Once the alternatives have been identified, the decision maker
critically analyse each one. Each alternative is evaluated by appraising it against the criteria
established in Step 2. This will enable to find out the strengths and weaknesses of each alternative.
Step 5: Selecting an Alternative: After analysing the alternatives and matching them with the
criteria, the appropriate alternative is selected.
Step 6: Implementing the decision: Implementation involves conveying the decision to those
affected by it and getting their commitment to it.
Step 7: Evaluating Decision Effectiveness: This involves appraising the outcome and to see if the
problem has been solved.
DECISION-MAKING STYLES
Directive style: A decision making style characterised by low tolerance for ambiguity and a rational
way of thinking. Managers having this style have low tolerance for ambiguity and are rational in
their way of thinking. Their efficiency and speed in making decisions often result in making
decisions with minimal information and assessing few alternatives.
Analytical style: A decision making style characterised for a high tolerance for ambiguity and a
rational way of thinking. Managers with this style need more information and consider more
alternatives before making the decisions.
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Conceptual style: A decision making style characterised by high tolerance for ambiguity and an
intuitive way of thinking. They are good at making creative decisions.
Behavioural style: A decision making style characterised by a low tolerance for ambiguity and an
intuitive way of thinking. These managers work well with others. They are concerned about the
achievements of colleagues and are receptive to suggestions from others. Acceptance by others is
important to this decision making style.
High
Analytic Conceptual
Directive Behavioural
Low
POINTS FOR DISCUSSION:
Way of thinking
1. Why is decision-making often described as the essence of manager’s job? Describe the
Rational Intuitive
decision making process with a suitable example.
2. “As managers use computers and software tools more often, they will be able to make more
rational decisions”. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?
3. Case 1: You probably would not know quite what to expect from a business named Pyro
Media, but you would figure it was going to be something pretty unusual. Grace Tsujikawa
Boyd’s business, Pyro Media, has pursued a pretty unusual direction, but the decision to do
something different was not made randomly or without thought. Boyd’s Pyro Media started
as a manufacturer of huge ceramic glazed pots such as the ones you might see holding trees
or plants in the lobbies of large hotels. Using her degree of art Boyd herself initially made
the high quality glazed pots, which sold for about $ 1500 each. As her business grew to the
point at which it had backorders of 8 to 12 weeks, Boyd decided it was time to move to a
bigger facility and to invest in equipment and employees. She says, “WE were in business
making money and assumed that business was going to grow at the same rate it had been”.
Grace soon found, however that Pyro Media’s revenues did not keep increasing by 30% as
they had been but were dropping off. Upon investigating the situation, she found that big
corporations had begun importing and distributing terra cotta planters, essentially stealing
away her business. Boyd knew that she had to do something. She had invested in equipment,
a 56000 facility and employees who knew ceramics. She called in some consultants to see
what other markets her business might pursue. Their study, which took about six months,
recommended that Pyro Media look into high-tech ceramic applications: In other words,
take the same technology that Boyd had developed and used in making ceramic pots and
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apply to a new area. On the basis of that information, Boyd hired a ceramic engineer and
went after the ceramic castables market. The company’s decision to move into this new
market proved to be successful. Recognising that business was falling off and analysing the
reason behind the loss of revenue were instrumental in Pyro Media’s continued success.
Boyd says that being able to recognise the problem is critical, especially in small businesses.
Why? Because small businesses have no money or time to waste. If problems are ignored
and not analysed, the business might face quick failure.
Questions:
a) A decision to move into a new market as Boyd’s Pyro Media did is a major decision.
How could Boyd have used the decision-making process to help her make this
decision?
b) Would you call declining revenues a problem or a symptom? Why?
c) Identify the decision-making style you think Boyd has used. Explain your choice.
d) Do you agree with Boyd’s assertion that being able recognise a problem is critical,
especially for small business? Why or why not?
Research over the past few decades has shown us the need for understanding the sociocultural
factors among people from different countries. Individuals from countries where power distance
is high, for example, are frequently accustomed societies composed of “Haves” and “Have-
nots”. The haves possess significant power to make decisions. Yet, when these Haves leave the
comforts of their homeland, they, too, often must make some adjustments in their decision-
making styles. That is precisely what Loida Nicholas Lewis did.
Lewis grew up in the Philippines. She was born into a politically well-connected family that still
operates the country’s largest and most successful furniture company. Her early years were
filled with all the privileges and amenities associated with high society: the best schools, foreign
travel, and a large base of support and assistance. One thing that her upbringing did not include,
however, was having decisions made for her.
Lewis, has always been an independent women, making her own choices, not those her family
wanted her to make. For example, her father urged her to become a lawyer, a politician, and an
instrumental member of the ruling class in the Philippines. She rejected that alternative; she
wanted to dedicate her life to two goals – raising a family and helping others less fortunate than
her. She wanted to help Phili[inos enter the United States so that they could escape the political
repression in the Philippines. She married Reginald F. Lewis, the major owner and chairman of
Beatrice International Holdings, Inc., the new York based global supermarket and speciality
foods company.
Lewis was living her dream – raising a family and helping others. Her life was uncomplicated.
At least until 1993, when Reginald Lewis – who was known as the world’s richest African-
American man and had become a national role model – passed away. In his will, he left the job
of running Beatrice to his wife. Lewis inherited a $1.7 billion company, but this company was
stagnating.
Lewis did not have the business acumen or the experience of her late husband. In fact, this soft-
spoken, petite woman has a persona that was directly opposite to Reginald’s “macho, bruising
style”. Understandably anxious, she nevertheless took over the company and began moulding it
in her image.
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She recognised that the company was losing money. Its tremendous growth through
diversification in the 1980s was hurting Beatrice. Many of the status symbols her late husband
had accumulated – a corporate jet, high-priced New York real estate, and the like – were now
financial drains leading in the part to a $17 million loss. So she made several major decisions.
She pared down the company to enhance its core business operations of making ice cream in the
canary Islands and producing snack foods in Ireland. She also decided to sell of the company
limousine and the corporate jet, cut headquarters staff in half, and sell off many of the less
profitable ice cream companies that Beatrice held in Denmark, Germany, and Italy. She also
focused on reducing Beatrice’s debt in an effort to take the company public.
One would think that following a strong leader like Reginald would have posed problems for
Lewis. It didn’t. Although her style is very different from her husband’s, she has achieved
remarkable success. She involves her inner group in decisions and uses compassions to develop
a “focussed, disciplined, sensitive, and collegial atmosphere”. And the numbers support that her
approach is working. Her actions – while reducing company annual revenues to about $350
millions – have led to nearly 35 percent increase in the net earnings.
Questions:
a) What types of problems do you see Loida Lewis having to deal with in this case?
Explain your choices.
b) What decisions did Loida Lewis make that helped turn around the ailing company?
Would you classify them as programmed or nonprogrammed? Why?
c) How would you describe Lewis’ decision-making style? Cite specific examples.
Note: Programmed decision: A repetitive decision that can be handled by a routine approach.
Nonprogrammed decisions: Decisions that must be custom-made to solve unique and
nonrecurring problems.
2. FOUNDATIONS OF PLANNING
Planning is a process that involves defining the organisation’s goals, establishing an overall
strategy for achieving those goals, and developing a comprehensive set of plans to integrate and
coordinate organisational work.
Purposes of planning: Among others planning helps the managers in the following ways.
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Planning Vs Performance
• Formal planning is associated with higher profits, higher return on assets and other
positive financial results.
• Planning and appropriate implementation of the plans enhances the performance. In spite
of appropriate planning if the performance does not improve it could be due to external
factors.
• Planning – Performance relationship is influenced by planning time frame. Studies have
proved that a reasonable period of time (depending on the size and nature of business) is
required to feel the impact of planning.
Goals: are desired outcomes for individuals, groups or entire organisation. Stated goals are official
statements of what an organisation says and what it wants its various stakeholders to believe its
goals are. Real goals are goals that an organisation actually pursues as defined by the actions of its
members.
Plans: are documents that outline how goals are going to be met including resource allocations,
schedules and other necessary actions to accomplish the goals.
TYPES OF PLANS
Strategic Plans: are plans that apply to the entire organisation. They establish the organisation’s
overall goals and seek to position the organisation in terms of its environment. They are long term
and directional.
Operational Plans: Plans that specify the details of how the overall goals are to be achieved.
Operational plans tend to cover short time periods and are specific.
Long-term and short-term Plans: With the environment being so dynamic and uncertain,
distinction between long-term and short-term has become too difficult. However, plans with a time
frame of over three years are called long-term plans and plans with a time frame of one year or less
are classified as short-term plans.
Specific Plans: Plans that are clearly defined and leave no room for interpretation. For example, the
plan to increase the productivity by 10% over a one-year period.
Directional Plan: These plans are flexible plans that set out general guidelines. When uncertainty is
high and flexibility is required to respond to the unexpected changes such plans are essential. For
example, the plan is to increase the productivity b by 6% to 10% over a period of one year.
Single-use Plan: This is a one-time plan specifically designed to meet the needs and challenges of a
unique and specific situation.
Standing Plans: These are ongoing plans that provide direction for activities performed repeatedly.
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3. PROCESS OF GOAL SETTING
Before getting into the steps of the goal setting process, let us list the characteristics of well-
designed goals. Goals possess the following:
Step 1: Review the organisations mission, which states the purpose of the organisation. This is
necessary since the goals set must reflect what the mission statement says.
Step 2: Review the resources available. This is necessary for the reason that goals must be
achievable even though they have to be challenging.
Step 3: Determine the goals individually or with input from others. This will ensure consistency of
purpose. These goals must be measurable, specific and include a time frame for accomplishment.
Step 4: Write down the goals and communicate to all the members of the organisation who need to
know.
Step 5: Review the results to see whether the goals are being met with or achieved. Based on the
feedback amend or change the goals as needed.
Level in the organisation: Strategic planning is the responsibility of top executive of the
organisational using internal and external information available whereas lower level managers
mainly do operational planning.
Degree of environmental uncertainty: Based on the environmental uncertainty the plans have to be
flexible to cater to the changes in the environment.
Length of future commitments: This is required that the plans extend far enough to meet those
commitments made when the plans are developed.
Criticisms of Planning
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POINTS FOR DISCUSSION:
Identify the
organisation’s Formulate
current mission, SWOT Analysis strategies
objectives and
strategies
Evaluate
results
Strengths: Activities the organisation does well or any special/unique resources it has.
Weaknesses: Activities the organisation does not well or any special/unique resources it needs but
does not possess.
Core competencies: An organisation’s major value creating skills, capabilities and resources that
determine its competitive weapons.
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SWOT Analysis: Analysis of an organisation’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
6. ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGIES
Organisational strategies include three levels: Corporate level – managers at the top level are
responsible, Business level – managers at the middle level are responsible, and Functional level –
managers at the lower levels are responsible.
Corporate Multibusiness
Level Corporation
Business
Level SBU 1 SBU 2 SBU 3
Functional
Level R&D Manufacturing Human Marketing Finance
Resources
a) Corporate Level Strategy: This strategy seeks to determine what businesses a company wants
to be in or should be in. Major corporate strategies are listed below:
Growth Strategy: A corporate level strategy that seeks to increase the level of operation of the
organisation. Growth can be achieved through:
• Direct expansion: achieved by internally increasing a firm’s sales, production capacity
or workforce.
• Vertical Integration: to grow by backward vertical integration to gain control of inputs,
forward vertical integration to gain control of outputs or both.
• Horizontal Integration: to grow by combining with other organisations in the same
industry. That is combining operations with competitors.
• Related Diversification: Merging with or acquiring firms in different but related
industries.
• Unrelated Diversification: Merging with or acquiring firms in different and unrelated
industries.
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Retrenchment Strategy: is a corporate level strategy designed to address organisational weaknesses
that are leading to performance declines. When an organisation is facing performance problems, a
retrenchment strategy helps it stabilise operations, revitalise organisational resources and
capabilities and prepare to compete once again.
High Low
Market Share
High
Stars Question
Marks
Low
Cash Cows: This is a combination of Low Growth and High Market Share. Businesses in this
category generate big cash but the prospect of their future growth is limited. Managers should milk
the cow for as much as they can, limit new The
investment in them and use the large amounts of cash
BCG Matrix
generated to invest in Stars and question marks with strong potential to improve market share.
Stars: This is a combination of High Growth and High Market Share. These businesses are in a fast
growing market and hold a dominant share of that market. Their contribution to cash flow depends
on their need for resources. Heavy investments in Stars will help take advantage of the market’s
growth and help maintain high market share. The stars will eventually develop into Cash Cows as
their markets mature and sales growth slows.
Question Marks: This is a combination of High Growth and Low Market Share. These businesses
are in an attractive industry but hold a small market share percentage. The hardest decision for
managers is related to the Question Marks. After close and careful analysis, some will be sold off
and others turned into Stars.
Dogs: This is a combination of Low Growth and Low Market Share. Businesses in this category do
not either produce or consume much cash. They have a low market share in a low growth industry.
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The Dogs should be sold off or liquidated as they have low market share in markets with low
growth potential.
b) Business Level Strategy: This strategy seeks to determine how an organisation should compete
in each of its businesses. Organisations in multiple businesses each division will have its own
strategy that defines the products and services it will offer, the customers it will reach and similar
focuses. Each single business which is treated as independent and that formulates its own strategies
is called a Strategic Business Unit (SBU).
One of the key concepts of strategic management is Competitive Advantage. Competitive advantage
is what sets an organisation apart; its distinct edge.
According to Michael Porter has identified five competitive forces that dictate the rules of
competition. These five forces determine industry attractiveness and profitability.
1. Threat of new entrants: Factors such as economies of scale, brand loyalty, capital requirements
determine how easy or hard it is for new competitors to enter an industry.
2. Threat of substitutes: Factors such as switching costs and buyer loyalty determine the degree to
which customers are likely to buy a substitute product.
3. Bargaining power of buyers: Factors such as number of customers in the market, customer
information and the availability of substitutes determine the amount of influence that buyers have in
an industry.
4. Bargaining power of suppliers: Factors such as the degree of supplier concentration and
availability of substitute inputs determine the amount of power that suppliers have over firms in the
industry.
5. Existing rivalry: Factors such as industry growth rate, increasing or falling demand, and product
differences determine how intense the competition rivalry will be among existing firms in the
industry.
Once these five forces are analysed, the managers can select any one of the following strategies.
Cost leadership strategy: A business level strategy in which the organisation is the lowest cost
producer in its industry.
Differentiation strategy: A business level strategy in which a company offers unique products that
are widely valued by the customers.
Focus strategy: A business level strategy in which a company pursues a cost or differentiation
advantage in a narrow industry segment.
c) Functional Level Strategy: An organisational level strategy that seeks to determine how to
support the business level strategy.
Of the six scheduled discount airlines started in Canada in the last 20 years, only Westjet, based in
Calgary, Alberta, is still flying. It serves 13 western Canadian cities and has 5 percent of the
Canadian market. But Stephen C. Smith, president of Westjet, has made a strategic decision to take
the company national.
Westjet, started in 1996, mimics the Southwest Airlines strategic model. Southwest Airlines, a U.S.
airline, has enjoyed phenomenal success with a strategic formula of low fares and short-haul routes.
Westjet’s fares are an average of 40 percent lower than Air Canada’s. It offers one class of seating,
has no meals on board or executive lounges in airports, and concentrates on flights of 400miles or
less. Passengers don’t have tickets, only confirmation numbers. And, to cut costs, Westjet
encourages ticket sales through the Internet, which now accounts for about 11 percent of its tickets
sold. Whenever possible, it lands at smaller airports that charge low user fees. One deviation from
Southwest’s strategy is that Westjet does assign passengers – or guests – to specific seats.
As many of these strategies illustrate, Smith has made a commitment to keeping operating costs
low. In addition, like Southwest, Westjet flies one class of jet, the Boeing 737, which minimizes
pilot training, maintenance costs, and gate turnaround time. To keep its employees (over 1,100 of
them) nonunionized and, thus, giving the company more control over wages and salaries, Westjet
uses several incentives. A major one is that all workers who have been with the company at least
three months participate in a profit-sharing - $4 million was shared among eligible employees in
1999. In addition, 70 percent of the employees participate in a stock purchase plan, in which Westjet
matches employee contributions up to 20 percent of their salary.
Smith’s no-frills model appears to be working. During its four years of operation, Westjet’s growth
has been steady. Revenue passenger miles (a key operating measure in the airline industry) were up
54 percent for the first four months of 2000. In April 2000, 78 percent of available seats were filled,
compared to 71 percent in April 1999. Westjet also consistently makes a profit. A spokesperson for
a Canadian consumer group said, “Westjet is tightly run and well managed… There are not many
[passenger] complaints”. However, some experts say that Smith’s strategic decision to compete
nationally is a gamble that will either make or break Westjet. “It’s a risk, and this isn’t an industry
that tolerates a lot of mistakes”. To accommodate its national expansion, Westjet ordered 20 new
Boeing 737 jets to be delivered over eight years and plans to lease 10 more. Also, Westjet’s
28
competitor, Air Canada, started its own discount carrier in summer 2000, serving Westjet’s
stronghold, Western Canada. Although industry analysts say that unionized Air Canada will have a
hard time matching nonunionized Westjet’s cost structure, some feel that Westjet may be
overextending itself and expanding faster than demand for its services.
Questions:
a) What competitive advantage(s) do you think Westjet has? What competitive advantages do you
think Air Canada has? Explain your choices.
b) What competitive strategy does Westjet appear to be following? Explain your choice.
c) How could Stephen Smith have used SWOT analysis in developing his strategy to go national?
Do an abbreviated SWOT analysis using information from the case.
d) What do you think of Westjet’s strategic decision to compete nationally? What suggestions
might you make to Stephen Smith?
ORGANISING
1. ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
An organisational structure is the formal framework by which job tasks are divided, grouped and
coordinated. When managers develop or change an organisation’s structure, they are said to be
engaged in organisational design. In organisational design decisions about six key elements are
taken: work specialisation, departmentalisation, chain of command, span of control, centralisation
and decentralisation, and formalisation.
Work specialisation: The degree to which tasks in an organisation are divided into separate jobs;
also known as division of labour (Adam Smith).
29
• Customer departmentalisation – Groups jobs on the basis of common customers.
Chain of command: The continuous line of authority that extends from upper organisational levels
to the lowest levels and clarifies who reports to whom. Authority refers to the rights inherent in a
managerial position to tell people what to do and to expect them to do it. The obligation or
expectation to perform is known as responsibility. Unity of command states that a person should
report to only one manager (Fayol).
Span of control: Refers to the number of employees a manager can efficiently and effectively
manage.
Formalisation: Formalisation refers to the degree to which jobs within the organisation are
standardised and the extent to which employee behaviour is guided by rules and procedures.
Learning Organisation: An organisation has developed the capacity to continuously adapt and
change because all members take an active role in identifying and resolving work-related issues.
Organisational Design
Boundaryless
Teams
Empowerment
1. Describe the factors that influence greater centralisation and those factors that influence
greater decentralisation.
2. Describe the characteristics of a learning organisation.
3. Can an organisation’s structure be changed quickly? Why or why not?
2. ORGANISATIONAL COMMUNICATION
Formal Communication: Communication that takes place within prescribed organisational work
arrangements.
Lateral Communication: Communication that takes place among any employee on the same
organisational level. This horizontal communication is frequently needed to save time and facilitate
coordination.
Diagonal Communication: Communication that cuts across work areas and organisational levels.
The variety of patterns of vertical and horizontal flows of organisational communication. The three
common networks are:
• Chain network – Communication flows through the formal chain of command, both downward
and upward.
• Wheel network – Communication flows between a clearly identifiable leader and others in a
work group or team. The leader serves as a hub through whom all communications passes.
• All-channel network – Communication flows freely among all members of a work team.
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HRM aims at high performance work practices that lead to both high individual and high
organisational performance.
Environment
Human resource
planning Recruitment Selection
Environment
Decruitment
Environment
Identification &
Training Orientation selection of
competent
employees
Environment
32
Human resource planning: The process by which managers ensure that they have the right number
and kinds of people in the right places and at the right times, who are capable of effectively and
efficiently performing assigned tasks.
• Job analysis – An assessment that defines jobs and the behaviours necessary to perform them.
• Job description – A written statement of what a jobholder does, how it is done and why it is
done.
• Job specification – A statement of the minimum qualification that a person must possess to
perform a given job successfully.
Recruitment: The process of locating, identifying and attracting capable applicants. Sources are:
Internal search, Advertisements, Employee referrals, public employment agencies, private
employment agencies, School placements, employee leasing and independent contractors, web-
based advertisements.
Decruitment: Techniques for reducing the labour supply within an organisation. Options are:
Firing, layoffs, attrition (not filling openings created by voluntary resignations or normal
retirements), transfers, early retirements, job sharing.
Selection: The process of screening job applicants to ensure that the most appropriate candidates
are hired. Few of the selection devices are: Application form, written tests, performance-simulation
tests, interview, background investigation, and physical examination.
Orientation: Introduction of the new employee to his or her job and the organisation.
Training: Employee skills can be grouped into three categories: technical, interpersonal, and
problem solving. Most training activities seek to modify an employee’s skills in one or more of
these areas. The training could be through Sample on-the-job training methods (job rotation,
understudy assignments) and / or Sample off-the-job training methods (classroom lectures, films &
videos, simulation exercises, vestibule training).
Compensation and benefits: Managers must develop a compensation system that reflects the
changing nature of work and the workplace in order to keep people motivated. Organisational
compensation includes base wages and salaries, wage and salary add-ons, incentive payments and
skill based pay.
Career development: Career is defined as the sequence of positions held by a person during his or
her lifetime.
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4. MANAGING CHANGE AND INNOVATION
Both external and internal forces constrain managers. These same forces also bring about the need
for change. External forces include: market place, Government laws and regulations, Technology,
labour market and economic changes. Internal forces include: organisation’s strategy, workforce,
equipment and employee attitude. Managers have to play the role of change agents – people who
act as catalyst and assume the responsibility for managing the change process.
People • Attitudes
• Expectations
• Perceptions
• Behaviour
• Communicate with the employees to help them see the logic of change
• Educate employees through one-to-one discussions, memos, group meetings or reports
• Mutual trust and credibility between managers and employees
b) Participation
• Provide supportive efforts such as employee counselling, new skill training, short paid leave
of absence
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• Can be time consuming and expensive
d) Negotiation
f) Coercion
Even under the most favourable conditions cultural changes are difficult and may have to be viewed
in years, not weeks or even months. However the following may lead to cultural change:
5. STIMULATING INNOVATION
Creativity is the ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make unusual associations between
ideas. Innovation is the process of taking a creative idea and turning it into a useful product, service
or work method.
Structural Variables
Organic Structures
Abundant Resources
High Interunit
Communication
Cultural Variables
Acceptance of Ambiguity
STIMULATE Tolerance of the Impractical
INNOVATION Low External Controls
Tolerance of Risk
Tolerance of Conflict
Focus on Ends
Open-system Focus
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LEADING
To lead an organisation effectively, managers have to understand the behaviour of the people in
the organisation. More so, managers have to understand the organisation behaviour of the
people around.
OB first looks at the individual behaviour such as attitudes, personality, perception, learning,
and motivation. Then, OB looks at group behaviour, which includes norms, roles, team building,
leadership, and conflict.
Components of attitude
Cognitive component
Affective component
Attitude
The part of an attitude that is the
emotional or feeling part.
Behavioural component
37
Managers are more concerned with the attitudes related to job-related matters. The most
common job-related attitudes are:
• Job satisfaction: An employee’s general attitude toward his or her job. A person with a
high level of satisfaction holds positive attitude toward his or her job, while a person
who is dissatisfied with the job holds negative attitudes towards the job.
• Job involvement: The degree, to which an employee identifies with his or her job,
actively participates in it, and considers his or her job performance to be important to
self-worth.
Another overall attitude that managers may find important is Organisational Citizenship
Behaviour (OCB), which is discretionary behaviour that is not part of an employee’s formal job
requirements but that nevertheless promotes the effective functioning of the organisation.
There are strong evidences that committed and satisfied employees have low turnover and
absenteeism. In addition, research has shown that job satisfaction influences organisational
citizenship behaviour, primarily through perceptions of fairness. Also, studies have found that
the goal of making employees happy on the assumption that their being happy will lead to
higher productivity is probably misread. Managers who follow this strategy could end up with a
very content, but very unproductive, group of employees. Managers would get better results by
directing their attention primarily to what will help employees become more productive. Then
successful job performance should lead to feeling of accomplishment, increased pay,
promotions, and other rewards – all desirable outcomes – that then lead to job satisfaction.
• Five-factor Model
These indicators assess how people usually act or feel in different situations.
• An extrovert is someone who is outgoing, dominant, and often aggressive and who
wants to change the world. Such persons need a work environment that is varied and
action oriented, and gives them a variety of experiences.
• Sensing people dislike new problems unless there are standard ways to solve them. They
like established routine, show patience with routine details, and tend to be good at
precise work.
• Intuitive people are individuals, who like to solve new problems, dislike doing the same
thing over and over again, jump to conclusions, are impatient with routine details, and
dislike taking time for precision.
• Feeling type of individuals is aware of other people and their feelings, like harmony,
need for occasional praise, dislike telling people unpleasant things, tend to be
sympathetic, and relate well with most people.
• Thinking types are unemotional and uninterested in people’s feelings, like analysis and
putting things into logical order, are able to reprimand people and fire them when
necessary, may seem hard hearted, and tend to relate well only to other thinking types.
• Perceptive types are curious, spontaneous, flexible, adaptable, and tolerant. They focus
on starting a task. Postpone decisions, and want to find out all about the task before
starting it.
• Judgemental types are decisive, good planners, purposeful, and exacting. They focus on
completing a task, make decisions quickly, and want only the information necessary to
get a task done.
MBTI has been used to help managers select employees who are well matched to certain types
of jobs. MBTI can be a useful tool for understanding personality and predicting people’s
behaviour.
2. Agreeableness: The degree to which someone is good natured, cooperative, and trusting.
4. Emotional Stability: The degree to which someone is calm, enthusiastic, and secure or
tense, nervous, depressed, and insecure.
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5. Openness to experience: The degree to which someone is imaginative, artistically
sensitive, and intellectual.
1. Perceiver: When an individual looks at the target and attempts to interpret what he or
she sees, the individual’s personal characteristics will heavily influence the
interpretation. These personal characteristics include attitudes, personality, motives,
interests, experiences, and expectations.
2. Target: The characteristics of the target being observed can also affect what is perceived.
3. Situation: The context in which we see objects or events is also important. The time at
which an object or event is seen can influence attention, as can location, light, heat,
colour, and any number of other situational factors.
1. Explain the three components of attitude and the three job related attitudes.
The first stage, forming, has two aspects. First, people join the group either because of a work
assignment, in the case of a formal group, or for some other benefit desired (such as status, self-
esteem, affiliation, power, or security), in the case of an informal group. This stage is complete
when members begin to think of themselves as part of a group.
The storming stage is one of intragroup conflict. Members accept the existence of the group
but resist the control that the group imposes on individuality. Furthermore, there is conflict over
who will control the group. When this is complete, there will be relatively clear hierarchy of
leadership within the group and agreement on the group’s direction.
The norming stage is complete when the group structure solidifies and the group has
assimilated a common set of expectations of what defines correct member behaviour.
The fourth stage is performing. The group structure at this point is fully functional and
accepted. Group energy has moved from getting to know and understand each other to
performing the task at hand.
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Performing is the last stage in the development of permanent work groups. Temporary groups
have a limited task to perform have a fifth stage, adjourning. In this stage the group prepares to
disband.
Work teams: They are formal groups made up of interdependent individuals who are
responsible for the attainment of a goal.
Types of teams
1. Functional Team: A type of work team composed of a manager and his or her subordinates
from a particular functional area.
2. Self-managed team: A type of work team that operates without a manager and is responsible
for a complete work process or segment.
3. Cross-functional team: A type of work team that is a hybrid grouping of individuals who are
experts in various specialisations and who work together on various tasks.
4. Virtual team: A type of work team that uses computer technology to link physically dispersed
members in order to achieve a common goal.
• Clear goals
• Relevant skills
• Mutual trust
• Unified Commitment
• Good Communication
• Negotiating Skills
• Appropriate Leadership
• Internal Support
• External Support
The successful teamwork on which the firm is built relies on seven key ingredients: a clear
mission, positive thinking, unselfish effort, mutual respect, trust, small size, and strong
management. The team leader or manager must always be on the lookout for distractions,
tangents, and unproductive or ancillary issues. If the leader spots the project going astray, it is
his or her responsibility to get it back on track.
1. What type of planning, organising, and leading issues must be addressed when managing
a team?
41
MOTIVATION
Motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach organisational goals,
conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need. In general, motivation refers
to effort exerted toward any goal. The effort is a measure of intensity or drive. A motivated
person tries hard. But high levels of efforts are unlikely to lead to favourable job performance
unless the effort is channelled in a direction that benefits the organisation.
Theories of motivation
1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: The best known theory of motivation is Abraham Maslow’s
theory of hierarchy of needs. Maslow proposed that within every person is a hierarchy of five
needs:
Physiological needs: Food, drink, shelter, sexual satisfaction, and other physical requirements.
Safety needs: Security of protection from physical and emotional harm, as well as assurance
that physical needs will continue to be met.
Esteem needs: Internal esteem factors such as self-respect, autonomy, and achievement and
external factors such as status, recognition, and attention.
Self-actualisation needs: Growth, achieving one’s personal goals, and self-fulfilment; the drive
to become what is capable of becoming.
Achievement Supervision
42
Recognition Company policy
Work itself Relationship with supervisor
Responsibility Working conditions
Advancement Salary
Growth Relationship with peers
Status
Security
Designing Motivating Jobs
Any organisation is composed of thousands of tasks. These tasks are aggregated into jobs.
Job design: Job design refers to the way tasks are combined to form complete jobs.
Job scope: The number of different tasks required in a job and the frequency with which those tasks
are repeated.
Job enrichment: The vertical expansion of a job by adding planning and evaluating responsibilities.
Job depth: The degree of control employees has over their jobs. Job enrichment increases job
depth.
• Combine tasks: Managers should put existing fragmented tasks back together to form a new,
larger module of work (job enlargement) to increase skill variety and task identity.
• Create natural work units: Managers should design tasks that form an identifiable and
meaningful whole to increase employee ownership of the work and encourage employees to
view their work as meaningful and important rather than as irrelevant and boring.
• Establish client relationships: The client is the internal and external user of the product or
service on which the employee works. Whenever possible managers should establish direct
relationship between workers and their clients to increase skill variety, autonomy, and feedback.
• Expand job vertically: Vertical expansion (job enrichment) gives employees responsibilities
and controls that were formerly reserved for managers. It partially closes the gap between the
doing and the controlling aspects of the job and increases employee autonomy.
• Open feedback channels: Feedback lets employees know not only how well they are
performing their jobs but also whether their job performance is improving, deteriorating, or
remain the same. Ideally, employees should receive performance feedback directly as they do
their jobs rather than from managers on an occasional basis.
Employees have different personal needs and goals that they are hoping to satisfy through their job.
Hence, apart from the normal motivation measures, a manager has to think in terms of flexibility.
• Skill-based pay: A pay system that rewards employees for the job skills they can demonstrate.
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• Compressed workweek: A workweek in which employees work longer hours per day but work
fewer days per week.
• Flexible work hours: A scheduling system in which employees are required to work a certain
number of hours per hours per week but are free, within limits, to vary the hours of work.
• Job sharing: The practice of having two or more people split a full-time job.
• Pay-for-performance programs: Compensation plans that pay employees on the basis of some
performance measure.
1. Most of us have to work for a living, and a job is a central part of our life. So why do managers
have to worry so much about employee motivation issues?
2. Could managers use any of the motivation theories or approaches to encourage and support
workforce diversity? Explain.
3. Explain any two of the motivation theories with relevance to performance of employees in
workplaces.
LEADERSHIP
Leader is someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority. Leadership is the
process of influencing a group toward the achievement of goals.
Leadership research has identified the following leader traits – characteristics that might be used to
differentiate leaders from nonleaders:
• Drive: Leaders exhibit high effort level, high desire for achievement, ambitious, tirelessly
persistent in their activities, and show initiative.
• Desire to lead: Leaders have a strong desire to influence and lead others, and demonstrate
willingness to take responsibility.
• Honesty and integrity: Leaders build trusting relationships between themselves and followers
by being truthful, and by showing high consistency between word and deed.
• Intelligence: Leaders need to be intelligent enough to gather, synthesise, and interpret large
amount of information, and they need to be able to create visions., solve problems, and make
correct decisions.
• Job-relevant knowledge: In-depth knowledge allows leaders to make well informed decisions
and to understand the implications of those decisions.
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Behavioural Theories of Leadership
1. University of Iowa Studies: The university of Iowa studies explored three leadership theories.
• Autocratic Style: A leader who tended to centralise authority, dictate work methods, make
unilateral decisions, and limit employee participation.
• Democratic Style: A leader who tended to involve employees in decision making, delegate
authority, encourage participation in deciding work methods and goals, and use feedback as an
opportunity for coaching employees.
• Laissez-faire Style: A leader who generally gives the group complete freedom to make
decisions and complete the work in whatever way it saw fit.
2. Ohio State Studies: The Ohio state studies identified two important dimensions of leader
behaviour.
• Initiating Structure: The extent to which a leader was likely to define and structure his or her
role and the roles of group members in the search for goal attainment.
• Consideration: The extent to which a leader had job relationships characterised by mutual trust
and respect for group members’ ideas and feelings.
A leader high in both initiating structure and consideration behaviours is called a high-high leader.
• Employee oriented: Leaders who were employee oriented were described as emphasising
interpersonal relationships, and taking care of employees’ needs.
• Production oriented: Leaders who were production oriented emphasised technical or task
aspects of jobs.
Team Leader
Role
45
Few other leadership Styles
• Transactional Leaders: Leaders who guide or motivate their followers in the direction of
established goals by clarifying role and task requirements.
• Visionary Leaders: Leaders who have the ability to create and articulate a realistic, credible,
and attractive vision of the future that improves upon the present situation.
1. If you were to ask people why a given individual is a leader, they tend to describe the person in
terms such as competent, consistent, self-assured, inspiring, and enthusiastic. How do these
descriptions fit in with the leadership concepts you have studied?
2. What are leadership traits? What has leadership research shown about traits?
CONTROLLING
The process of monitoring activities to ensure that activities are being accomplished as planned and
of correcting any significant deviations is control. The three approaches to control systems are:
• Market control: An approach to control that emphasises the use of external market
mechanisms to establish the standards used in the control systems.
The control process is a three step process having the following steps:
1. Measuring the actual performance: measuring can be done by the manager by personal
observation. This is often called as management by walking around wherein a manager is
out in the work area, interacting directly with employees, and exchanging information about
what is going on. Measuring could be through statistical reports, oral reports, or written
reports.
46
2. Comparing actual performance against standard: The comparison is between the actual
performance and the expected standard levels of performance. In most cases there is an
acceptable range of variation between actual performance and the standard.
3. Taking managerial action: Managerial action could be immediate corrective action or basic
corrective action. However, if the variance is a result of unrealistic standard, a corrective
attention has to be given to the standard itself.
Compare Is Yes
actual Standard
performance being Do nothing
with attained?
standard
No
Yes
Is variance Do nothing
acceptable?
Measure
Objectives Standard actual No
performance
Identify
Yes
Is Standard cause of
acceptable? variation
No
Revise Correct
standard performance
Types of control
47
Managers can implement controls before the start of an activity, during the progress of an activity,
or after an activity has been completed.
1. Feedforward control: This type of control focuses on preventing anticipated problems and
variations since it takes place in advance of the actual work activity.
2. Concurrent control: This type of control takes place while a work activity is in progress.
3. Feedback control: This type of control takes place after a work activity is done.
6. Reasonable criteria: An effective control system has control standards which are reasonable
and attainable.
7. Strategic placement: Since managers cannot control everything, they must choose those
factors that are strategic to the organisation’s performance.
8. Emphasis on exceptions: Because managers cannot control all activities, control devices
should call attention only to exceptions.
10. Corrective action: An effective control system not only indicates significant deviations but
also suggests appropriate corrective action.
1. “Every individual employee in the organisation plays a role in controlling work activities”.
Do you agree, or do you think control is something for which only managers are
responsible? Explain.
2. Contrast the advantages and drawbacks of feedforward, concurrent, and feedback control.
3. Explain the methods by which managers can acquire information about actual performance
of activities.
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OPERATIONS AND LOGISTIC MANAGEMENT
Operations Management: The design, operation and control of the transformation process that
converts resources into finished goods and services.
Operations System
Inputs
People Outputs
Transformation Goods
Technology
Process Services
Capital
Equipment
Materials
Information
Manufacturing Organisations: Organisations that produce physical goods such as steel, vehicles,
textiles and farm machinery.
Service Organisations: Organisations that produce outputs such as medical, educational and
transportation services which are intangible.
Characteristics of Services:
Planning Operations
• Aggregate Planning: What is the overall production plan for all products?
• Master Scheduling: How many units of each product will be produced?
• Material Requirement Planning: What materials are needed to satisfy the master schedule?
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Capacity
What is to be produced?
Planning S
T
Location
R
Planning
A
Process T
Planning E
G
Layout I
Planning C
Aggregate
Planning T
A
Master C
Scheduling T
I
Comprehensive
C
Operations MRP A
Plans L
Operations can take many different forms. The transformation process can be:
51
• Organising work
• Selecting processes
• Arranging layouts
• Location facilities
• Designing jobs
• Measuring performance
• Controlling quality
• Scheduling work
• Managing inventory
• Planning production
1. Finance / Accounting:
• Production & Inventory data
• Capital budgeting requests
• Capacity expansion & technology plans
• Budgets
• Cost analysis
• Capital investments
• Stockholder requirements
2. Marketing
• Product/Service availability
• Lead time estimates
• Status of order
• Delivery schedules
• Sales forecasts
• Customer orders
• Customer feedback
• Promotions
3. Human Resources
• Personnel needs
• Skill sets
• Performance evaluations
• Job design
• Work measurements
• Hiring/firing
• Training
• Legal requirements
• Union contract negotiations
4. Production (Operations)
• Orders of materials
• Production and delivery schedules
• Quality requirements
• Design/Performance specifications
• Material availability
• Quality data
• Delivery schedules
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• Designs
Operations in an E-Business environment
1. What activities are involved in the operations function? How does operations interact with
other functional areas?
All these decisions fit like pieces in a puzzle. A tight strategic fit means competitors must replicate
the entire system to obtain its advantages.
Make-to-order: Products and services are made to customer specifications after an order has been
received. Operations issues: Satisfying the customer and minimising the time required to
complete the order.
Make-to-stock: Products and services are made in anticipation of demand. Operations issues:
Forecasting future demand and maintaining inventory levels that meet customer service goals.
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Assemble to order: Products and services are produced in standard modules to which options are
added according to customer specifications. Operations issues: Minimizing the inventory level of
standard components as well as the delivery time of the finished product.
Batch production: processes many different jobs at the same time in groups or batches.
Examples: Printers, bakeries, machine shops, education, furniture making.
Mass production: produces large volumes of a standard product for a mass market.
Examples: Automobiles, televisions, personal computers, fast food, mast of consumer goods.
Continuous production: processes very high volume commodity products that are very
standardised. Examples: Refined oil, paints, chemicals, treated water.
Capacity decisions affect: product lead times, customer responsiveness, operating costs and the
firm’s ability to compete. Critical decisions: When, where, how much, what process.
4. Human resources
Strategic issues involve determining skill levels, degree of autonomy required to operate the
production systems, training requirements and selection criteria, policies for performance
evaluations, compensation and incentives.
5. Quality
Target level for quality, quality measurement, employees’ involvement in quality, training
requirements, systems to ensure quality, maintenance of quality awareness, determination of
customers’ quality perception, influence of decisions in functional areas on quality.
6. Sourcing
Vertical integration: is the degree to which a firm produces the parts that go into its products. The
strategic decision is to decide on how much work should be done out side the firm. Make or buy
decisions and outsourcing decisions.
7. Operating Systems
Operating systems execute strategic decisions on a day to day basis. Planning and control systems
must be set up with timely feedback loops and consistent decision making criteria.
54
Strategic Planning
Voice of the
Business Corporate Voice of the
Customer
Strategy
Process Planning
Process planning determines how a product will be produced or a service is provided. It decides
which components will be made in-house and which will be purchased from a supplier, selects
processes and specific equipment, and develops and documents the specification s for manufacture
and delivery.
1. Make-or-buy decisions: Companies that control the production of virtually all of its component
parts, including the source of raw materials are said to be vertically integrated. Today,
outsourcing is more common. For process planning which items will be purchased from an
55
outside supplier and which items are to be made inside is to be decided. This sourcing decision
is called make-or-buy. The make-or-buy decision depends on the following:
• Cost
• Capacity
• Quality
• Speed
• Reliability
• Expertise
2. Specific Equipment Selection: After making the make or buy decision, specific equipment
decision has to be made. Capital investment analysis has to be carried out. Few techniques for
this are: pay back period, net present value, and internal rate of return. The factors to be
considered are:
• Purchase cost
• Operating cost
• Annual savings
• Revenue enhancement
• Replacement analysis
• Risk and uncertainty
3. Process plans: The set of documents that details manufacturing and delivery specifications is
called a process plan. This includes:
• Blue prints
• Bill of materials
• Assembly chart
• Operations process chart
4. Process analysis: Process analysis is the systematic examination of all aspects of a process to
improve its operation – to make it faster, more efficient, or more responsive to the customer.
The basic tools of process analysis are:
• Process flowcharts
• Process diagrams
• Process map.
5. Process reengineering: Process reengineering is the total redesign of a process. Processes are
planned in response to new facilities, new products, new technologies, new markets, or new
customer expectations. Principles of reengineering are:
56
6. Process selection with Break-Even analysis: Break-even analysis examines the cost trade-off
associated with demand volume. The components of break-even analysis are volume, cost,
revenue and profit. Break-even point is given by
cf
v= , Where v = volume (number of units produced and sold
p − cv
cv = var iable cos tperunit
c f = fixed cos t
p = priceperunit
1. Describe the four basic types of production processes. What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each? When should each be used?
2. What are the major cost factors considered in process selection? How is break-even analysis
used for process section?
3. List and explain six factors that affect the make-or-buy decision.
4. What is reengineering? Explain how you would reengineer a process you find troubling?
5. Mikey W. Smitty, an emerging rapper, is getting ready to cut his first CD, called “Western
Rap”. The cost of recording the CD is $ 5000 but copies are $ 5 apiece. If the CDs can be
sold for $ 15 each, how many CDs must be sold to break even? What is the break even point
in dollars?
2. Facilities
Facilities have impact on both quality and productivity. Facility layout refers to the arrangement of
machines, departments, workstations, storage areas, and common areas within an existing or
proposed facility. Effective layouts:
57
Layouts: There are three basic types of production layouts: process, product, and fixed-position;
and three hybrid layouts: cellular layouts, flexible manufacturing systems, and mixed-model
assembly lines.
1. Process Layout: Process layout groups together similar activities in departments or work
centres according to the process or function they perform. This is also called as functional
layout. Examples are Supermarkets, Manufacturing shop floors.
Drilling Milling
Lathe Painting
Grinding
Assembly
Receiving & shipping
2. Product Layout: Activities are arranged in line according to the sequence of operations for a
particular product or service. This is also known as assembly lines. Process layouts are flexible
whereas product layouts are efficient.
IN
OUT
3. Fixed-Position layout: This layout is used in projects in which the product produced is too
large, fragile, or heavy to move. Ships, houses, aircrafts are examples.
Hybrid layouts modify and/or combine some aspects of product and process layouts.
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4. Cellular layout: Cellular layouts attempt to combine the flexibility of a process layout with the
efficiency of a product layout. Based on the concept of group technology (GT), dissimilar
machines or activities are grouped into work centers, called cells, to process families of parts or
customers with similar requirements. The cells are arranged in relation to each other so that
material movement is minimised. Large machines that cannot be split among cells are located
near to the cells that use them. The layout of machines within each cell resembles a small
assemble line. Thus, line balancing procedures, with some adjustment, can be used to arrange
the machines within the cell. The layout between cells is a process layout.
An FMS can produce an enormous variety of items efficiently because of the versatility of the
machine centers in the FMS, the speed with which machines can be set up for different
processing requirements, and the speed and flexibility of material transport between centers.
6. Mixed-Model Assembly Lines: These assemble lines process more than one product model.
Her the time needed to change over the line to produce different models is reduced. The workers
are trained to perform a variety of tasks and are allowed to work at more than one workstation
on the line, as needed.
1. Does layout make a difference? Think of a time when the layout of a facility impeded a
process with which you were involved. Think of a time when a layout made it easier for a
process to be completed.
• A grocery shop?
• Home construction?
• Electronics assembly?
• A university?
State reasons for your choices.
4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of cellular layouts. How does a cellular layout
combine a product and process layout?
A supply chain encompasses all activities associated with the flow and transformation of goods and
services from the raw materials stage to the end user, as well as the associated information flows. It
is also a sequence of business processes and activities from suppliers through customers that
provide the products, services, and information to achieve customer satisfaction. The suppliers are
referred to as upstream supply chain members, while distributors, deliverers, are termed as
downstream supply chain members.
Information
Suppliers
Producers Distributors Customers
• Materials
• Parts Finished Package Satisfaction
Delivery with Price,
• Sub Products goods Products Products
End products Quality,
assemblies Services Services Services
Services Delivery,
• Services Service
Inventory Inventory
Inventory
Cash
SCM focuses on managing the flow of goods and services and information through the supply chain
in order to attain the level of synchronisation that will make it more responsive to customer needs
while lowering total costs.
Inventory is the insurance against supply chain uncertainty. Distorted information, or lack of
information, from one end of the supply chain is one of the main causes of uncertainty, and it can
lead to excessive inventory, poor customer service, lost revenues, missed production schedules,
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wrong capacity plans, ineffective transportation, and high costs. Keys to effective supply chain
management are information, communication, cooperation, and trust.
1. Information in the supply chains: Information links all aspects of the supply chain. Information
technology can provide the following functions to improve supply chain management:
• Cost saving and price reduction derived from lower transaction costs
• Reduction or elimination of the role of intermediaries and retailers, thus reducing
costs
• Shorting supply chain transaction times for ordering and delivery
• Greater choices and more information for customers
• Improved service as a result of instant accessibility to services
• Levelling the playing field for small companies, which lack resources to invest in
infrastructure and marketing
• Gaining global access to markets, suppliers, and distribution channels
Bar Codes: Using bar coding, computer readable codes are attached to items flowing through the
supply chain, including products, containers, packages and even vehicles. Bar code might include
things such as product description, item number, its source, destination, special handling
procedures, cost, and order number. Big packaging delivery companies like FedEx, UPS and DHL
use bar codes to provide themselves and customers with instantaneous detailed tracking
information.
Point-of-sale is generated by bar codes at check-out counters. This piece of information can be
instantaneously transmitted throughout the supply chain to update inventory records. This helps
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suppliers, producers, and distributors to quickly identify trends, order parts and materials, schedule
orders and production, and plan for deliveries.
Intranets and Extranets: Intranets are computer networks within an organisation, while extranets
are intranets connected to Internet. Intranets allow companies to implement internal applications
without having to develop custom interfaces, avoiding expensive hardware and special dial-in
procedures. Internet applications typically allow unlimited access. Extranets allow access by
restricted partners and customers from outside the company.
2. Suppliers: Companies need materials, parts, and services necessary to produce their products to
be delivered on time, to be of high quality, and to be low cost which are the responsibilities of the
suppliers. Procurement – purchasing goods and services from suppliers – plays a crucial role in
supply chain management.
• On-demand delivery: requires the supplier to deliver goods when demanded by the
customer.
• Continuous replenishment: supplying orders in a short period of time according to a
predetermined schedule.
• Sourcing: is the selection of suppliers.
• Outsourcing: is the purchase of goods and services from outside supplier.
• Single-sourcing: In single-sourcing, a company purchases goods and services from
only a few (or one) suppliers.
3. Distribution: Distribution is the actual movement of products and materials between locations.
Distribution management involves managing the handling of materials and products at receiving
docks, storing products and materials, packaging, and shipment of orders.
• Rail
• Trucking
• Air
• Package Carriers
• Water
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• Pipelines
1. Define the strategic goals of supply chain management and indicate how each element of a
supply chain (purchasing, production, inventory, and transportation and distribution) has an
impact on these goals.
2. Select a company and determine the type of suppliers it has and indicate the criteria that you
think the company might use to evaluate and select suppliers.
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