PART 1: Intro to management

Chapter 1: Managing in organizations

1.1 Introduction
Organisation - a group of two or more people working together in a structured fashion in order to attain a set
of goals that create value.
1.2 Managing to add value to resources
Tangible resources - physical assets such as plant, people, finance; things you can see and touch.
Intangible resources - non-physical assets such as information, reputation, knowlegde.
Competence - ''way of working'', skills and abilities by which resources are deployed effectively.
Value - it is added to resources when they are transformed into goods or services; worth more than their
original cost plus the cost of information (producing an output more valuable than input).
Entrepreneuer - someone with a new project/activity, and is usually associated with creative thinking, driving
innovation and championing change.
makes organizations work.
1.3 Meanings of management
Universal human activity
Management is this way occurs whenever people take responsibility for activity and consciously try to shape its
progress and outcome.
Manager - someone who gets things done with the aid of people and other resoruces.
Management - activity of getting things done with the aid of people and other resources.
Distinct role
Management in this way develops when activities previously being part of the work become the responsibility
not of the employee but of owners of their agents.
Role - sum of the expectations that other people have of a person occupying a position (expresses specific
responsibilities and requirements of the job).
1.4 Specialisation between areas of management
Functional specialisation
General managers - responsible for the performance of a distinct unit of the organisation
Functional managers - responsible for the performance of an area of work.
Line managers - performance of activities that directly meet customers' needs.
Staff managers - performance of activities that support line managers.
Project managers - responsible for managing a project, usually intended to change some element of an
organisation or its context.
Management hierarchies
Performing direct operations: doing manual and mental work to deliver products and services (from shop
workers to lawyers)
Supervising stuff on direct operations: directing and controling the dialy work of a group or process (supervisor
of a production team, head chef in a hotel) --> supervisors/first-line managers
Managing supervisors or first-line managers: ensuring that first-line managers work in line with company
policies; provide communication link, telling first-line managers what they expect, and briefing senior managers
about current issues --> middle managers
Managing the business: work of a small group establishing policy and having a particular responsibility for
managing relations with people and institutions in the world outside (shareholders or media...) --> board of
directors
1.5 Influencing trough the process of managing
Direct methods: interpersonal skills - persuading a boss or customer.
Indirect methods:

- through the proces of managing

- through the tasks of managing
- through shaping the context
Rosemary Stewart
She studied how managers spend their time. She asked 160 senior and middle managers to keep a diary for
four weeks --> they tipically worked in a fragmented, interrupted fashion.
Henry Mintzberg - 10 management roles
Category: Informational - obtaining information & passing it to others
Role: monitor - seeking out, receiving, screening information (websites, reports, oral: gossip, personal contact,
conversations with customers)
Role: disseminator - sharing information (forwarding reports, passing on rumours, briefing stuff)
Spokerperson - transmiting information to people outside the organisation (speaking at conference, briefing
media)
Category: Interpersonal - shaping relationships with people within and beyond organisation
Role: figurehead - performing ceremonial, symbolic and legal duties (receiving visitors signing legal documents,
presenting retirment gifts or quality awards)
Role: leader - directing, motivating, communicating, training other people, developing their skills and
confidence)
Role: liaison - maintaining information links in beyond the organisation
Category: Decisional
Role: entrepreneur - spotting opportunities, demonstrating creativity, initiating change (introducing a new
product)
Role: disturbance handler - dealing with problems and changes that are unexpected (resolving conflicts among
stuff)
Role: resource allocator - choosing among competing demands for money, equipment, personnel and other
resources (how much to spend on advertising etc.)
Role: negotiator - seeking agreement with other parties on whom they depend, defending interests
Managers as networkers
Networking -socialising, politicking, interacting with outsiders.
Conclusion of study (work by Luthans in 1988) - more successful managers spent much more time networking
than the less successful.
Wolf and Moser (2009) - confirmed link between networking and career success. Effective networkers seek out
useful connections and contacts, and use the information and ideas they gather to create something valuable.
1.6 Influencing thorugh the tasks of managing
A second way - when they manage the transformation of resources into more valuable outputs.
External environment
Organisations depend on the external environment for the tangible and intanigble resources they need to do
their work - so they depend on people in that environment being willing to buy or value their inputs
(commercial firms sell their goods and services and use the revenue to buy resources).
1. Planning
- sets out the overall direction of the work to be done (deciding on the direction of the business, areas of work
in which to engage, how to use resources)
2. Organising
- moves abstract plans closer to reality by deciding (how to allocate time and effort - create structurewhat
equipment people need, how to implement change)
3. Leading
- activity of generating effort and commitment (influencing people of all kinds, communicating - individually or
in team)
4. Controlling
- task of monitoring progress, comparing it with plan and taking corrective action
1.7 Influencing through shaping the context
Dimensions of context
Internal context - contains elements that make up the internal environment within which managers work (they
represent the immediate context of the manager's work):
culture - norms, beliefs, underlying values of units

 objectives - a desired future state of an organisation unit

structure - how tasks are divides and co-ordinated to meet objectives
technology - facilities and equipment to turn inputs in outputs
power - their knowlegde, skills, attitudes, goals
people business processes - activities to transform materials and information
finance - available financial resources
Historical context - past, present and future events (managing takes place within the flow of history, as what
people do now reflect past events and future uncertainities).
External context - includes an immediate competitive - micro and a general - macro environment (part of the
manager's work is to identify and adapt to external changes)
Managers and their context
Managers use one of three theories (even subconsciously) of links between their context and their action:
Determinism - factors in the external context determine and organisation's performance
(micro - industry a company is in, macro - country's laws and regulations)
Context --> independent variable
Choice - people are able to influence events and shape their context
(people on powerful positions choose which business to enter or leave)
Context --> dependent variable
Interaction - people are influenced and influence context
(interpret existing context and act to change it to promote objectives)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1.8 Critical thinking
It is a positive activity that enables people to see more possibilities, rather than a single path. There are four
skills of critical thinking:
- questioning assumptions
- analysing context
- considering alternatives
- recognising limitations
(career benefits if u can do al of them)
Identifying and challenging assumptions - looking for assumptions that underlie taken-for-granted ideas, beliefs
and values; question their accuracy and validity
Recognising the importance of context - context influences thought and action; ideas and methods in one
context will not work equally in other
Imagining and exploring alternatives - asking how others dealt with a situation, seeking evidence about the
effectiveness of different approaches
Seeing limitations - limitation of knwolegde and proposals
1.9 Integrating themes
Managers are expected to:
- achieve environmentally sustainable performance
- meet expectations about governance and control
- work in an increasingly international economy