management process

I just took ChurpChurp How Malaysian Are You Quiz and I'm 90% Malaysian! Take the quiz to see How Malaysian Are You.

2011-09-11T18:35:00.000-07:00

I just took ChurpChurp How Malaysian Are You Quiz and I'm 90% Malaysian! Take the quiz to see How Malaysian Are You.

Tips For Interview Session

2010-09-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

Answering 16 Toughest Question

1. What was the toughest decision you ever had to make?

Be prepared with a good example, explaining why the decision was difficult and how you decided.

2. Why do you want to work for this organization?

Show that you’ve done your homework, and cite some things going on in the company that appeal to you.

3. Why should we employ you?

Emphasize your academic strengths, job skills, and enthusiasm for the firm. Tie specific skills to the employers’ needs, and give examples of how you can learn and become productive quickly. Cite past activities to prove you can work with others as part of a team.

4. If we hire you, what changes would you make?

No one can know what to change in a position before settling in and learning about the job and company operations. State that you would take a good hard look at everything the company is doing before making recommendations.

5. Can we offer you a career path?

Reply that you believe so, but you need to know more about the normal progression within the organization.

6. What are your greatest strengths?

Answer sincerely by summarizing your strong points: “I can see what must be done and then do it” or “I’m willing to make decision” or “I work well with others”.

7. What are your greatest weaknesses?

Describe a weakness so that it sounds like a virtue – honestly revealing something about yourself while showing how it works to an employers’ advantage. If you sometimes drive yourself too hard, explain that it has helped when you’ve had to meet deadlines.

8. What didn’t you like about previous jobs you’ve held?

Rather than talking about what you didn’t like, state that you liked some tasks better than others. Discuss what the experience taught you, and avoid making slighting references to former employers.

9. How do you spend your leisure time?

Rather than focusing on just one, mention a cross section of interests – active and quiet, social and solitary. But be careful not to give out any sort of personal information that interviewers are not allowed to ask about.

10. Are there any weaknesses in your education or experience?

Take stock of your weaknesses before the interview, and practice discussing them in a positive light. You’ll see they’re minor when discussed along with the positive qualities you have to offer.

11. Where do you want to be five years from now?

This question tests (1) whether you’re merely using this job as a stopover until something better comes along and (2) whether you’ve given thought to your long-term goals. Saying that you’d like to be company president is unrealistic, and yet few employers want people who content to sit still. Your answer should reflect your long-term goals and the organization’s advancement opportunities.

12. What are your salary expectations?

If you’ve asked this at the outset, say “Why don’t we discuss salary after you decide whether I’m right for the job?” If the interviewer this after showing real interest in you, speak up. Do your homework, but if you need a clue about salary levels, say, “Can you discuss the salary range with me?”

13. What would you do if… This question tests your resourcefulness. For example: “What would you do if your computer broke down during an audit?” Your answer is less important than your approach to the problem – and a calm approach is best.

14. What type of position are you interested in?

Job titles and responsibilities vary from firm to firm. So state your skills (“I’m good with numbers”) and the positions that require those skills (“accounts payable”).

15. Tell me something about yourself.

Answer that you’ll be happy to talk about yourself, and ask what the interviewer wants to know. If this point is clarified, respond. If it isn’t, explain how your skills can contribute to the job and the organization. This is a great chance to sell yourself.

16. Do you have any questions about the organization or the job?

Employers like candidates who are interested in the organization. Convey your interest and enthusiasm.

** Be sure that your answer are sincere, truthful, and positive. Take a moment to compose your thoughts before responding, so that your answers are to the point.

Successful Public Relation (PR)

2010-04-28T01:27:00.000-07:00

Public relations is the opposite of advertising. In advertising, you have to pay to placed you message in a newspaper. PR is the article that features your company is not paid for. The reporter (whether they broadcast or print, write about or films) about your company as a result of information he or she received and researched.

Definition – efforts to establish and maintain a company’s / organization’s image with the public.

How to tell corporate story effectively;

1. The starting point – a simple, recognizable truth. E.g; Nike’s slogan “Just do it”

2. The point of view must leave a space for the listener – good stories fire the listener’s imagination. They draw people in and include them in the story telling process.

3. The storyteller – author Mark Helprin believes that every good company requires a strong personality and a credible narrator whom people will want to listen to. Helprin asserts that a good storyteller “can’t help himself”. The passion comes through. He or she becomes a vessel in which an urgent story wells up and must be told. One person who exemplifies this is Steve Jobs.

**Steve Jobs – Steven Paul Jobs, he’s a co-founder and chief executive officer of apple Inc. he has contributed greatly to the myths of the idiosyncratic, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur where by he emphasizing the importance of design and understanding the crucial role aesthetics play in public appeal. His work driving forward the development of products that are both fractional and elegant has earned him a devoted following.

** Silicon Valley – situated in southern part of San Francisco where the large number of silicon chip investors and manufacturer is there. Now it eventually comes to refer to all the high tech business (some kind leader high-tech hub) because it’s large number of engineers and venture capitalists.

How can PR boost my business?

1. Increase sales – by targeting a pool of potential buyers, you can build visibility and thus grow your client base. Each time people read your company name and associate it with something positive, it will reinforce their awareness of your firm and help them differentiate your company from your competitors.

2. Build credibility – business start ups often need to build their credibility quickly to compete with more establish rivals. By positioning yourself as an expert in your filed, you can attract media attention and serve as a quoted source in published articles.

3. Forge a customer relationships – emerging-growth entrepreneurs will tell you that its not enough to win a new customer. You need to convince a new comer to come back and buy more. By aligning your PR campaign with your goal of attracting repeat business, you can build consumer confidence and trust. E.g; profiling some of your best customers on the web, you send a message that you value your customer and share a stake in their success.

4. Penetrate new market – when you enter a new market or launch a new product or services, you need to alert potential buyers that you have open for business. Effective PR can draw them in and educate them about what you offer.

9 PR tools

1. Press release – short document details about what’s new, different or exciting about your business. Press releases make it easy for journalist to understand how their audience might benefit by learning more.

2. Press kit – often includes in press release along with background information and your business card all packed neatly in a snazzy, eye-catching folder. Folder might also include photos, product info sheets, articles from other publication, customer testimonials, list of FAQ.

3. Newsletters – provide short articles and practical info that interest your target audience.

4. Bylined articles – the advantages of writing articles about your area of expertise and persuading editors to publish your submission for your name, phone no, websites and a few sentences about your business to appear at the end of the piece.

5. Awards – applying for industry or local awards provides great visibility if you win or earn recognition as a finalist. Many trade journals, government agencies and professionals association sponsor annual best of awards programs for entrepreneurs.

6. Outline outreach – smart, media-savvy entrepreneurs use chat rooms, their own websites and other internet based tools to launch awareness-building campaigns.

7. Special events – examples include fund-raises, contest and drawing, public celebrations of your company milestones such as your firm’s anniversary, book signing and client parties.

8. Trade shows / conferences – to maximize your presence at a large event, you may want to pay for a centrally-located booth that’s guaranteed heavy ‘foot traffic’. Or you can save money and strategically prowl the aisles to spread the message, perhaps by introducing yourself to key contacts on participating in ‘breakout’ sessions that relate to your business.

9. Speech – deliver a speech on your business to community groups, local schools, or nonprofit agencies.

Keys to successful PR

1. Blog – it is unlikely that you will get a positive response by directly blogging about your service and products. Selling yourself too directly is a turn off rather than a turn on. However companies are finding success from courting popular bloggers, sending them samples and invites them to launch parties in return for an endorsement. By gaining the support of popular bloggers, your company can reach a growing market that is taking over traditional forms of media. Why bloggers? Bloggers are seen as real people with no motive, not an organization trying to manipulate us into something we (organization) do not want. Bloggers have their own core audience and you can use this to seduce the authors into advertising your products. E.g: Redmummy is one of the famous blogger in Malaysia and organizations like MAS, Brands Singapore, Nippon Paint, Nestle, etc. Visit her website for more info.

2. Do not point finger – don’t blame anyone else or don’t point out the mistakes of your competitors just to launch your own product because it will not win you any supporters. PR is all about positivity. Don’t tend to do something so that other company will look bad. Focus on positive aspects and features of your product – uniqueness, good quality and value for money.

3. Get people talking about you – we know the power of advertisement through “word of mouth” a catchy phrase or the use of a well known song can get people talking and when a friend recommends a product to us, we will give it more credibility than if a stranger on the tv says we should buy it.

4. Be sociable – the rise of social networking sites has been immense with everyone. The most popular social networking sites have over 200 million members with half of these members logging on at least once a day. Internets with huge percentage of users have memberships to one or more social networking sites and they are proving successful way to target potential customers. Creating a positive way of your organization and keeping your followers up to date with promotions and new products is tried and tested PR activity.

5. Maintain good relations – successful PR campaign do not start and end with the launch of product. If your initial campaign was successful and your products or services were bought, so your next aim should be retain those customers and keeping them with exclusive offers and promotions.

** Long term commitment – send message (story telling on corporate story), launch of new product. When people love it and bought the product with a good customer service and maintain your product and service.

** Short term fix – e.g; Colgate toothpaste, halal or haram? Colgate toothpaste displaying the Halal seal because of consumer confusion, Colgate petitioned for and was granted, special approval to place the seal on the pack. So after 50 years of being Halal in Malaysia, Colgate now displays the seal.

Ethics and Social Responsibility

2010-04-28T01:23:00.000-07:00

Corporate social responsibility – form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. Business would embrace responsibility for the impact of their activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. Furthermore, business would proactively promote the public interest by encouraging community growth and development, and voluntarily eliminating practices that the sphere, regardless of legality.

Business ethics – form of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral on ethical problems that arise in a business conduct and is relevant to conduct of individuals and business organizations as a whole. Applied ethics is a field of ethics that deals with ethical questions in many fields such as medical, technical, legal and business ethics.

E.g; Multinationals company take advantage of international differences such as outsourcing production and services to law-wage countries.

E.g; Foreign countries often use dumping as a competitive threat, selling products at prices lower than their value. This can lead to problems in domestic markets. It becomes difficult for this market to compete with the pricing set by foreign market. It seen as unethical because large companies are taking advantage of other less economically advanced companies.

E.g; Issue of child labor in India and other developing countries – its ethical to do but here in Malaysia and US, it is unethical.

Ethical issues can arise when companies must comply with multiple and sometimes conflicting legal on cultural standards as in the case of multinational companies that operate in countries with varying practices.

E.g; US law forbids companies from paying bribes either domestically or overseas. However, in other parts of the world, bribery is a customary accepted way of doing business.

** Wages – foreign companies like to hired labor from developing countries because its cheap.

** Misuse of the intellectual property systems to stifle competition, patent misuse, copy right misuse, patent troll. E.g; McDonald’s losses court battle against McCurry – the issue of local Indian food outlet, McCurry Restaurant to use ‘Mc’ in its business signage. McCurry signboard carried the words “Restoran McCurry” while McDonalds logo as a whole, consists of a distinctive golden arched “M” and using red color. While McCurry using white (lettering) and grey color. McDonalds accused McCurry copied their name and use it as a brand name / logo. But unfortunately, McDonald’s loss the case and McCurry continued using the name on their signboard.

What skills or competencies would be required for a Corporate Social Responsibility role? – it is vary according to the company / organizations:

Environmental responsibilities
PR oriented
Business skills, impact and vision – decision making, leadership, commercial awareness, IT, innovation, strategic awareness, problem solving
Communication, influencing and people skills – political awareness, building teams, open minded.
Professional and technical skills – technical expertise, understanding impacts, internal consultant, selling the business case, understanding human rights and society and understanding sustainability.

- Every private or public sector, international and non-profit concerns all need to consider corporate social responsibility. United Nation for example, launched the Global Impact as an initiative to convince international companies to commit to universal principles regarding protection of human rights, labor rights and the environment.

Some examples / cases that related to corporate social responsibility;

Shell Sustainability Report 2008 – committed to contribute sustainable development. For them, it means helping to meet the world’s growing need for energy in economically, socially and environmentally responsible way.
McDonald’s 2009 Global Best of Green – listed a few McDonalds outlet for people to vote as the best outlet who have done a great social responsibility. ( http://crmcdonalds.com ).
Nike – the ultimate resources for business side of Nike is considered design and environment. The purposes are to; (i) reduce waste generated across their entire supply chain, (ii) reduce CO2 emissions, (iii) use chemistry and design innovation to eliminate toxins and waste, (iv) design themselves into ultimate, aspiration goal of creating closed-loop products and business models (products that can be reused and recycled).

8 STEPS TO PREVENT COMMON ETHICAL LAPSES

2009-09-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

8 Steps to Prevent Common Ethical Lapses in Organizations

By James Gehrke

A review of case studies of ethical problems various organizations have encountered show that many common ethical problems that organizations find themselves facing arise from individuals protecting their own financial benefit and/or the short-term economic goals of their organizations and not protecting other key stakeholders of the business or organization. Organizations can avoid serious consequences by considering the consequences of their actions to six key stakeholders, including; business partners, customers, employees, opinion formers, community and authorities (Trevino and Nelson, 2005, p. 196). By analyzing decisions using these six groups as a guide; "one can begin to identify how a variety of calamities might affect a company's reputation and the value of its brand, and how much those calamities might cost" (p. 196).

By reviewing how companies have both effectively and ineffectively responded to severe ethical dilemmas, leaders of organizations can identify 8 steps for preventing ethical dilemmas in their own organizations.

1. Top down responsibility for ethical behavior must exist within an organization. The head of the organization must take responsibility to manage the ethical behavior of the organization. This responsibility cannot be delegated. Furthermore, this responsibility cannot be downplayed to a lesser role than other key leadership responsibilities, such as, short term profits. Top leadership must set the ethical tone of the organization. They must communicate their vision regarding ethical behavior to employees often and with as much emphasis and clarity as they do with other organization goals. The leader cannot leave the ethical tone of the organization to chance or to others within the organization.

2. Organizations must design a code of ethics for the organization. This code should be developed with input from a broad section of individuals within the organization. It should be distributed to every member of the organization and referred to often in training and other types of communication to employees so that it is not just a manual that sits in a file but is seen as a valid document for answering questions regarding what is accepted and not accepted as appropriate behavior within the organization.

3. Policies must be established and reinforced in the organization regarding how to report ethical abuses. Employees must understand how to report problems and know that they can do so without fear of retribution. Care must be taken that this is not just a theoretical exercise but that examples of real reporting be given and employees are rewarded for reporting ethical dilemmas.

4. Ethical responsibility must be taught to members of the organization. This must be done in various settings including on boarding of new employees, ongoing workshops, business meetings, round-table discussions with leaders, newsletters, websites, etc... Training should include case studies where employees must examine and discuss ethical dilemmas that they realistically might face and possible actions they should take. These case studies should include real cases that have occurred or theoretical cases that may occur in the organization so individuals can understand the proper way to handle real life issues. Employees must clearly understand what they have a shared individual ethical responsibility to each of the stakeholders along with the responsibility of the organization.

5. Practices must be incorporated to ensure that discussions regarding ethics are included in the decision making process. For example, a "devil's advocate" should challenge decisions in order to explore whether unforeseen stakeholders may be jeopardized as a result of the decision; or decisions should be reviewed by an ethics committee or department to evaluate whether other stakeholders may be at risk. The practice of questioning decisions and openly exploring their consequences must be encouraged and rewarded.

6. Accountability for ethical behavior must be taken seriously by all levels of the organization. Unethical behavior should be punished and not allowed to continue. Ethical behavior must be rewarded. Performance management systems should include ethical behavior as well as other key aspects of job performance. Those higher in an organization should be punished equally as those lower in the organization. In fact, it could be justified to punish those higher in the organization more severely than those at entry level positions because they should know better and because of the example it sets for others in the organization.

7. Organizations should act swiftly to protect stakeholders when dilemmas occur. Contingency plans should be made for dealing with a crisis in order to act quickly to protect stakeholders in times of emergencies.

8. Members of the organization must know that their primary responsibility is to defend and maintain the high reputation of the organization at all times. Leaders should encourage standards of behavior to be set higher than what the law requires. What is lawful should be considered a minimum standard; however, standards should be set higher than this minimum in order to enhance and protect the reputation of the organization. Conduct below that standard should not be accepted and raising the bar higher should be rewarded and recognized by senior leaders.

References:

Trevino, L., and Nelson, K., (2005). Corporate social responsibility and managerial ethics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

i've got it!!!! ^0^

2009-06-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

Salam and hello

am so happy today, alhamdulillah, Praise to Allah, after waiting for 21 days, finally i accepted to do my master degree. Now, am waiting for my offer letter from the postgraduate centre.

hhhmmm... i hv lots on my mind now... but dunno where to start. currently am VERY busy with sulu-sulawesi expedition... in the mean time, am oso handling the BIMP-EAGA - forum on Seaweed R&D. i need a plan... i must manage my time wisely.... till then, will update you on my activity and please pray for my success as i pray the same for you all ^-^

(",)v

Scholarship

2009-06-03T00:04:00.000-07:00

Am still waiting for my offer letter from postgraduate UMS. I've been calling the person who is in charge for the application but he was on leave till Thursday. And the man whose answering the phone told me to check it on the web.

By all means, i must talk to him on Friday. A friend said, my application might hv been processed and accepted but they have not issue the letter yet. So a friend suggested I call them and ask for the letter. The reason I need the letter urgently because i need to apply for the scholarship.

Do you know that our government offered scholarship and study loan for those who has not get a permanent job or those who involved in retrenchment due to the economic crisis. I'm planning to apply for that while waiting for other offer from my boss and from UMS itself.

I really hope i can get it. Need to discuss the matter with my supervisor and my boss regarding my application since i applied for part time. While the government scholarship is only open for full time master or PhD applications. Maybe i have to change to full time but have to consider about my job also since the scholarship only covers the study fees and not my allowances.

(",)v

BIMP-EAGA Seaweed Forum

2009-05-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

Salam and hi everyone...

Just to inform u all that UMS will join BIMP-EAGA in organizing "Research & Development Forum - Towards Finding Solution To The Challenges Facing The Seaweed Industry In BIMP-EAGA". The forum will be held in Kota Kinabalu (will updates about the place later once it's confirmed) from 1st - 3rd July 2009.

I'm one of the committee member of the forum and i will be so occupied from next week onwards. As you all know BIMP-EAGA stands for Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines - East Asia Growth Area. And since last two years, we've (UMS) been a committee member of Seaweed R&D for BIMP-EAGA. It is been a great opportunity for us to build a 'solid body' for our seaweed community here in Malaysia that will helps to bust the development of the commodity itself.

Our fifth prime minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has been so kind to includes seaweed in high impact project and our government has injected a big sum of money to make sure this project growing. And it is really a good news for us!! We've (UMS) been in this project since 1999 and together with Department Fisheries of Sabah, Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia (SABAH and KL), MoA, Ministry of Rural, we worked hard to bring this project to a local community in Sabah especially to help the hard core poor.

Hence, we hope from the forum, we will come out with one solution to maintain seaweed industry in Malaysia and hopefully seaweed will become one of main commodity export besides palm oil and rubber. In future, we really hope that there will be "Seaweed Development Authority of Malaysia"!!

was learning how to tied the seaweed. this was taken during our visit to seaweed farm in Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia

our workers at Serunding Reef Research Center in Kudat

me and my colleague

me and the workers at Banggi Island, Kudat

***am excited about the coming forum because i've already identified few people to interview. will talk to as many key resources person as i can for my thesis!!

(",)v

my first proposal

2009-05-10T17:24:00.000-07:00

I finished my proposal last saturday. It's ready to be send to my supervisor and then to postgraduate center... alhamdulillah...

Hopefully, they will accept it and i can start interview my key resource person!! hmmm... new experience... got a few names on my mind, but who should be the first???

after so long...

2009-04-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

hi there... i've been neglecting this blog for quite some time... it's not that i don't like this blog, its just that i really don't hv anything to post. my mind blocked!! and after doing a lot of thinking, and talked to my hubby, i finally decided to further my study... yup, am pursuing my master degree... here at UMS!!

i met my supervisor last week, act it's not official yet, i still preparing all the documents to be send to "Center for Postgraduate Student". btw, i finished my proposal and is about to email it to Dr. Arsiah, my supervisor, and one more thing to do is i need to see Prof. Ridzwan.... there are things i need to clarify with him especially on budget part.. hhhmmmm, i need fund for my master... uuhuuuuu...

and this coming July, i would be very busy with thesis write up, field trip, collecting data, yada... yada... yada... blalalalalalalala..... early July, i hv to go to semporna again for seaweed R&D workshop... i think Dr. Suhaimi wants me to be the chairperson... again.... hhhmmmm, that would be my 3rd times being the chairperson. i remember those two are 'last minit punya pasal...' and this time around i must confirm it first so that i can prepare something that related to my thesis.

and the most important part is... my tutorial class will also start in July... and am meeting new students... with new attitude. act, i don't hv any problem with my previous student... i don't mind their dressing coz some lecturers are a bit fussy about the way the student dress up, i mean girls especially... "takut mengalahkan pensyarah la ba tu kuuuununnn... teda2 la ba tuh!!"

anw, i hv a big hope for me and hubby this year!! Insya Allah, everything's going to be perfect... hhmmm... ok, maybe not perfect, perfect.... i mean as long as we achieve what we already planned, then we're satisfied... am G.L.A.D i found hubby, very understanding!!

friends out there, wish me luck (",)v ok... and good luck to all of you too...

catch ya later!!! ^0^

I PRAY FOR U ALL....

2008-11-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

i received a call from one of my student today. they just finished final paper for management. thanks to you, am really appreciate it. for those of you who answered in bahasa, not to worry, it's not gonna harm your marks. be cool, and be smart...

you've managed to get this level in your life, so don't ever give up for your future... being a uni student, it's just another episode of your adventure. you still have a lot to explore, give yourself time to cope...don't rush, and don't get too excited, there is more awaits you out there...remember, don't forget where you come from... cheers ya \(^0^)/

big thank you ^-^

2008-10-30T23:56:00.000-07:00

Salams,

Final exam is just around the corner. I hope you guys doing well in the exam.

I would like to thank you all for being in my class. This is my 1st experience as a tutor and I hope I can improve my skills in a future. So, good luck on your exam ya.... (^_~)

~~ ganbatte!! ~~ p(^0^)q

** FYI, for an essay question you can answered in English or Bahasa.

MORE NOTES ON CONTROLLING

2008-10-30T23:48:00.000-07:00

What's the transformation process in a service business like a dry cleaners or a VCR-repair shop?

The transformation process in a service business is very similar to that of a manufacturing organization. That is, a service business takes in inputs, transforms them or processes them into the service being provided which, in effect, is the output. What makes it somewhat difficult to understand this transformation process in service businesses is the fact that you don't "see" the output of a service business. The transformation process and the output are inseparable since the service is produced and consumed simultaneously.

Is productivity an individual or an organizational measure?

Both! And it's also an industry or a national (country) measure! Very simply, productivity is a measure of output divided by the inputs needed to generate that output. It's an identical term to efficiency. The term "productivity" typically is used as a measure of organizational, industry, or country performance although you may hear references to how productive an individual is. Government agencies collect productivity information for various sectors of the economy and use these as measures of how well our economy is doing. Likewise, organizations will collect information about resource usage and level of outputs in order to determine organizational productivity. Some organizations even collect productivity information for their various divisions, departments, or units.

Why have operations issues become so important to organizations?

Operations issues have become important to organizations because every single organization "produces" something-even not-for-profit organizations. Doing this in a way that is efficient and effective and that leads to an organization's being globally competitive requires strict attention to operations issues. Those organizations that expect to successfully and profitably compete in the future are incorporating operations decisions into their strategic plans and are approaching the operations processes as carefully as the marketing, financial, and human resource management processes. Do you think that Southwest Airlines would be where it is today if it hadn't paid attention to its operations? Would it be able to have the quick gate turnarounds that it does if it didn't pay close attention to operations inputs and processes? After all, as Southwest's CEO Herb Kelleher says, "You don't make money sitting on the ground." Successful companies know that operations management issues are important ingredients in success.

Why have organizations recently become so enamored with building strong supplier relationships?

Organizations have begun to recognize the interdependent relationship they have with their suppliers. Since suppliers provide the "inputs," the organization is heavily dependent on them. Their fortunes are closely linked! In this supplier-organization relationship, two goals that tend to be quite important are controlling costs and increasing quality. By collaborating and partnering with suppliers, organizations are discovering that they can achieve better quality of inputs, fewer defects in finished products and services, and lower costs. Wal-Mart is an example of an organization that has a system of highly developed alliances with its suppliers. This hand-in-hand collaboration is good for Wal-Mart because it gives them greater control over costs and quality. And it's good for the suppliers because they have assurances that their products are being sold through the world's largest retailer!

How does value chain management provide value?

Well, first off, let's define what value is-the performance characteristics, features and attributes, and any other aspects of goods and services for which customers are willing to give up resources. Value is created through the transformation of raw materials and other resources into some product or service that customers need or desire when, where, and how they want it. Value means different things to different people. For instance, your next class starts in 30 minutes and you're hungry. You're willing to give up resources (money) for a product and service that's quick and filling. You see a Subway Sandwiches poster on a campus bulletin board and decide to go there because it's close by. You willingly hand over $3.99 for a sandwich at Subway. You received value because you got a product that met your specific needs at that time and place. How did Subway provide that "value?" It was created through the value chain-which simply is the entire series of organizational work activities that add value at each step. From the purchasing of the food supplies to the assembling of the sandwich to the advertising that you saw on the campus bulletin board, each work activity was designed to provide value to customers. Because every organization needs customers if it's going to survive and prosper, it's important to understand how value is created and delivered to those customers. By the way, that's the whole concept behind value chain management.

Why should an organization want to closely integrate its work activities with other outside organizations?

This does seem counter-productive, doesn't it? After all, wouldn't this type of close collaboration seem to give managers less control over important work activities? And since when can you trust others outside your organization? These cultural beliefs are among the hardest to change as an organization pursues a value chain management approach. Yet, we have to remember that the goal of value chain management is to create a value chain strategy that meets and exceeds customers' needs and desires and allows for full and seamless integration among all members of the value chain-inside and outside. For this value chain strategy to work, all value chain participants must collaborate. That's the only way to provide the value that customers want and are willing to pay for. The result of this collaboration-better customer solutions. And, when value is created for customers and their needs and desires are satisfied, everyone along the chain benefits.

How can an organization successfully manage its value chain?

The first thing to recognize is that it's not easy to manage the value chain because it can be difficult for managers to know and understand what the organization's value chain encompasses. However, successful value chain management is possible if six main requirements are met. These include (1) a close coordination and collaboration among value chain partners, (2) a significant investment in technology, (3) a critical evaluation of organizational processes to determine where value is being added and making changes, if necessary, (4) strong, supportive, competent leadership, (5) human resource requirements including flexible approaches to job design, an effective hiring process, and ongoing training, and (6) very important...a supportive organizational culture and attitudes.

A business model sounds a lot like a strategy. Is it?

You're very perceptive. Yes, a business model is simply a strategic design for how the company intends to profit from its strategies, processes, and activities. As today's managers face a dynamic competitive marketplace, they're having to experiment with new business models that will allow them to be more efficient and effective.

***Big thank you to Stephen P. Robbins & Mary Coulter, Robbins Online Learning System (R.O.L.L.S), Pearson, Prentice Hall

NOTES FOR CONTROLLING

2008-10-30T23:32:00.000-07:00

CONTROLLING

If things are going as planned, why is control necessary?                                        

I think this question can be answered by saying how do you know things are going as planned unless you do control. Control is much more than just taking care of problems that have come up. It also involves monitoring activities, comparing performance to standards, and then taking action as needed.

How is controlling related to the other functions of management?

Controlling is the final link in the ongoing management process. It's the only way we know whether goals are being met and why they are or are not being accomplished as planned. Managing doesn't involve just one or two or even three of the functions. It takes a manager performing all four management functions-planning, organizing, leading, and controlling-to ensure that organizational members' work activities are completed effectively and efficiently.

What's the difference between immediate corrective action and basic corrective action? Which is more difficult to do? When should each be used?

These are all good questions! What options does a manager have when he or she discovers that actual performance isn't measuring up to standards? One option is immediate corrective action. This involves correcting problems immediately in order to get performance back on track. It's "putting out fires" as they arise. The other option for correcting performance is more general and comprehensive in nature. Basic corrective action involves digging deeper-determining why and how performance has deviated and then correcting the source of that deviation. Because it's more thorough, basic corrective action tends to be more difficult to do because it takes time and effort to look for reasons why performance is deviating and then taking action to correct these deviations. Immediate corrective action is real-time, right-now, get-it-solved. There's not the search for reasons behind the deviation. The focus is on getting the problem solved immediately. Each of these approaches does have its place, however. A manager should use immediate corrective action when a problem arises that must be addressed immediately. Let me share an example. One school night I was running late and stopped at a local fast food restaurant to pick up something quick for dinner. When I got home and set out the food for my family, we discovered that part of our order was missing. I got back in my car, drove back to the restaurant, and asked for the manager. When I explained what had happened-trying my best to remain calm-she gladly gave me the missing items and even threw in dessert for all of us. The manager took immediate corrective action to resolve the performance deviation. However, let's say that this problem keeps occurring. Customers aren't getting what they ordered. At this point, the manager needs to take basic corrective action. She needs to uncover where the problem lies. Do employees need better training in order taking and order filling? Is there too much noise in the kitchen and work area for people to properly hear what is being ordered? Is there a problem with the cash register? Knowing when immediate corrective action is appropriate and when basic corrective action needs to be taken is something that managers must learn.

Can managers delegate control?

Yes, managers can delegate, and have been delegating, control to subordinates. Many employees have been empowered to measure actual performance, compare that performance against standards, and then take any necessary action. This doesn't relieve the manager of the ultimate responsibility for work performance, however. The manager's job is to coordinate work efforts so that goals are being met efficiently and effectively. And this means keeping an eye on things even if control has been delegated.

Why is what we control probably more important than how we control?

What we control is more important than how we control because the criteria we choose to focus on determines what organizational members will attempt to excel at. What performance measures will be used to determine whether goals are being met? The choice of performance measures will influence employees' work behaviors.

Which is more serious: overvariance or undervariance?

Overvariance and undervariance refer to the range of variation between actual performance and the established standard. Determining which is more serious really depends on the performance being measured. For example, undervariance on a measure such as quality or profits can be serious. But undervariance on safety violations can be a positive thing. Likewise, overvariance on a measure such as product defects can be serious, but overvariance on number of sales calls completed can be good. Either way, when there is a variation outside the acceptable range, a manager needs to assess the situation to determine if action is needed.

Why would managers want to control for organizational performance?

Performance is the end result of an activity. It's "how you do" on a test after reading and studying your textbook and class notes. It's the score you receive on a term paper after researching, writing, editing, and rewriting the material. It's how a sales rep for Eli Lilly does in convincing physicians to prescribe one of the company's new drugs. It's how an organization is doing in its work. The performance that results lets us know how well we've done at what we said we were going to accomplish. And, of course, managers want to control for organizational performance since that's how they know the end results of all the work processes and activities that are taking place, whether the organization has 100, 1,000, or 10,000 employees.

Isn't MBWA a subjective and inferior way to control work activities?

Quite the contrary! MBWA (management by walking, or wandering, around) is a great way to find out "up close and personal" what your subordinates are dealing with and the types of issues they're facing. You may have the impression that just because MBWA doesn't generate quantitative measures that it's too subjective and thus is inferior to other methods of controlling. However, by getting out and personally observing employees at work, you're getting first-hand information that's not filtered or subject to someone else's interpretation.

***Big thank you to Stephen P. Robbins & Mary Coulter, Robbins Online Learning System (R.O.L.L.S), Pearson, Prentice Hall

more NOTES!!

2008-10-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

LEADING

Leadership is the process of influencing a group to achieve goals. The person or someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority is the leader. In leading, there are many motivation theories that can be applied. One of the theories is Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. We know human need physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization needs. Maslow’s theory is a motivation theory because it addresses unsatisfied needs. If a need is already substantially satisfied, it won’t motivate. Those needs that are unsatisfied and dominant are motivators.

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, is also one of the motivation theories. Theory X is the assumption that the workers are lazy, avoid responsibility and dislike work. While Theory Y is the assumption that the workers are creative, seek responsibility and can exercise self-direction. In reality, either set of assumptions may be appropriate. It depends on the situation – the type of job being done, the experience and skills of the worker, and so forth. If the manager followed the X theory, he/she can be effective, if they doing the job they like, and have experience about the job.

How can managers motivate high achievers? – the secret to motivating high achievers is designing jobs that score high on personal responsibility, feedback, and offer moderate risks. Interestingly, that probably makes working on teams less appealing. It doesn’t mean that high achievers won’t perform well on teams. But it does mean that you should probably make sure they have their own clear area of responsibility, let them know how they’re doing, make their tasks challenging but not too challenging, and provide individual as well as team rewards.

Isn’t it possible for goals to hinder motivation and performance? – Goals can hinder motivation and performance when they are set unrealistically high. Employees are likely to give up or only go through the motions if they realize their goals are reachable. Additionally, some people are likely to take offense if the goals are given to them without the being able to provide any input. This is particularly true among professionals. So assigned goals with such types could have negative results.

Do effective leaders have common traits (characteristics)? – Media seems to think that effective leader do have common traits. They always stated that in their articles. The research tells us that there are some common traits that regularly seem to differentiate leaders from others, which are ambition and energy, the desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, intelligence, and job-related knowledge. But those traits provide no guarantee success because it depends on the cause and effect.

For example, are leaders self-confident, or does success as leader build self-confidence. But the fact is that an individual can show his/her traits and others will think that he/she is the leader, but not necessarily mean that the individual is successful at getting his/her team to achieve its goals.

Are leadership styles fixed? – Some people have a fixed style and some people are not. The reason for the person have fixed style because they are comfortable with it and regardless of the situation, they stay with it. Leadership success will require this leader (with fixed style) to select situation that match-up well with their style.

Do effective leaders treat all followers alike? – Leaders often act very differently toward different individual or groups. They put people they like into their “in-group” and people they dislike into their “out-group”. Those who are in the “in-group” normally have the same characteristics (age, gender, and attitudes) as the leaders have or have a higher-level of competence than out-group members. They are more trusted, get a disproportionate amount of the leader’s attention, and are likely to receive special privileges.

It seems like a lot of readers really can’t lead, but they do a good job of looking like a leader. Are such leaders still effective? – To answer this question, you must know how you define effectiveness. If you define effectiveness by looking at objective performance, then you are looking for leaders that can perform very well in achieving the organization’s goals. If the leaders perform poorly on objective measures, but you see him/her as smart, attractive, verbally adept, friendly, with good sense of humour; their consistent and unwavering in their decision making. People often mistakenly confuse these qualities with leadership, because they look at the person by perceptual measures. So, in reality, we need to be aware that in situations where hard and objectives measures of performance aren’t used, leaders are likely to be judge by their ability or inability to exhibit the appearance of leadership.

Is charisma a desirable characteristic for every leader? As a leader, how would you know when you needed to use charisma and when you didn’t need to use it? – Charismatic leader is someone with an enthusiastic, self-confident leader whose personality and action influence people to behave in certain ways. All situations don’t require a charismatic leader. Charisma is most appropriate when there is a strong ideological component. Charisma is something that most of us can turn off and on. Even if we could, I don’t think that’s such a good idea. People will see you as manipulative and inconsistent-neither characteristic which is desirable in a leader. On the other hand, if you can develop it, do so. It’s not going to hurt you.

new notes!!!

2008-10-28T01:22:00.000-07:00

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE & DESIGN

Organizing defined as arranging and structuring work to accomplish the organization’s goals. While organizational structure is the formal arrangement of jobs within an organization. Every management level will have to organize the company/organization, even the lower level manager. As a lower-level manager, the kind of organizing he will be doing is to be concerned with the design of specific jobs. He/she has to find out; should a job be done by individuals or teams? What tasks need to be completed? What’s the best way of completing these tasks? Who in the given department is best qualified for doing the tasks?

Nowadays, lower-level managers always are asked to participate in decisions that affect the structure above them. For example, a department supervisor might be on a committee involved with reorganizing her/his division.

Normally if we’re the manager, we have authority. But it is not necessary we will have power over people. Authority is the rights inherent in a managerial position to tell people what to do and expect them to do it. Authority is actually a subset or power. Power is the large concept. All managerial positions come with a degree of authority. But you don’t have to be a manager to have power. You have power if you have something that others want and which you control. People will look up to you, admire your expertise and accomplishment, and willing to follow your directives. In today’s organizations, a lot of technical specialist has power not because they have managerial authority, but because they have an expertise that others need.

Organizational structure that can be applied with several ways, such as;

1. Work specialization – dividing work activities into separate job tasks. Work specialization can be done either in groups or by individuals. Sometimes people will ask either working in groups will undermine work specialization. As a fact, teams can do specialized, repetitive, and routine activities too. Hence, no matter how hard or simple the job is, it can be done in groups. So, teams are not going to undermine work specialization.

2. Span of control – the number of employees a manager effectively and efficiently manage. To make sure the span of control structure being applied effectively by identifying the type of job being done, the amount of training and experience the workers have, the degree of formalization, and the presence or absence of supportive colleagues.

e.g : consider two company, company A have employees that are doing routine tasks, they’ve all been doing them for years, there are specific rules and regulations to govern their jobs, and department members help each other out with problems. The supervisor in this department might be able to directly oversee 20 or 25 people. While company B made up of mostly new employees with little experience. The jobs are complicated; the company doesn’t have many formal rules and regulations. And there are no manuals to go to when employees have a problem. Moreover, workers tend to be not friendly with each other. In such situation, a supervisor might not be able to handle more than 4 or 5 employees.

The most effective span of control depends on a number of contingency factors. The fact that organizations is giving managers wider spans is largely made possible by hiring people with better skills and providing these employees with increased training.

3. Formalization – how standardized on organization’s jobs are and the extent to which employees behaviour is guided by rules and procedures. There are pros and cons for high formalization, the pros are:

a. Reduces the need for tight supervision or a strong culture – the rules and regulations provide employees with guidance in how they should behave.

b. Allows organizations to hire less qualified and less costly applicants.
And the cons is costly to create and can demoralize workers who desire autonomy and decision discretion.

Amongst all the organizational structure, high specialization tends to increase organizational politics because it creates separate groups that people try to protect. While high formalization tends to reduce politics because of the rules and regulations. Narrow spans of control probably discourage politics because managers have a closer contact with employees and so they are likely to have clearer and more accurate picture of employee performance. This makes it harder for people to act politically and to promote their self-interest.

Organizational Design Decision

There are two types of organizational design, i.e:

1. Organic structure – highly adaptive and flexible.
2. Mechanistic structure – rigid and tightly controlled.

Managers have choices which organizational structure to implement. They can choose between mechanistic and organic forms. Which one they select depends on four variables of contingency approach, which are size, technology, strategy and environment. Mechanistic structure is better matched to cost-minimization strategies, large size, routine technology and a stable environment. Organic structure work best with innovative strategies, small size, non-routine technologies and a dynamic environment.

Because of the increase in environmental uncertainty, for a better respond to global competition, for example, companies need greater flexibility which offered by organic structure.

Selamat Hari Raya

2008-10-06T20:05:00.001-07:00

Salams,

Selamat hari raya , maaf zahir batin... It was a sunny, tiring yet exciting aidilfitri holiday. Will start tutorial class next week. This week is still the presentation week. Am hoping you guys (students) will get a good credit in this subject. So, good luck guys!!

Innovation & Change

2008-09-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

The calm water metaphor is always related to Lewin’s three step change process – unfreeze, change and refreeze. The calm water metaphor views changes as a response to some occasional disruption in an otherwise calm and stable world. But the 3-step change process is not appropriate for the white-water rapids metaphor because the changes are continual and chaotic. It is not just a simple 3-step process, instead it requires flexible, adaptable change management techniques and organization should react and anticipate with the change.

Organizational change defined as any alteration of people, structure or technology in an organization. The best way to manage the continual and constant change is by being alert to what is happening both inside and outside the organization. We will never be able to eliminate change so the best solution is learning how to deal with it.

But organization always faces difficulties while making changes in an organization because employees will not tolerate with the changes. They don’t like it. Employees fight change because they are comfortable with the status quo. They are familiar with the way things are now (the way they do their work now) and they uncertain about what the change will do to them. They might even realize that change is needed but still fight it because they don’t like the uncertainties associated with changing.

We know that organizational culture is made up of relatively stable and permanent values, myths, symbols, practises, beliefs and rituals. There are 3 reasons organization needs to change the culture, that is:

(1) The was no longer appropriate and weak
(2) Dramatic crisis – for example unplanned drop in revenues or a major customer decided to go with another supplier
(3) Change in organization’s top leadership – normally goes hand-in-hand with dramatic crisis.

Stress will happened when the members of an organization is not agreed with the change. But not all stress are bad, there are times when stress is positive and good. Stress is the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure placed on them from extraordinary demands, constraints or opportunities. Stress is good when it stimulates a person on to high levels of effort and performance. Stress can be bad when it involves uncontrollable constraints and demands, and we normally get easily distracted.

Success in business today demands innovation. For most organization, with today’s rapidly changing and complex environment, innovation is important. There may be some organization that doesn’t need to be innovating, but the number is decreasing. Innovation is going to continue to be a key competency for successful organizations.

For an organization to be creative and innovative, first thing to have is having an innovative and creative members / employees. Creativity is the ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make unusual associations between ideas. Innovation is taking creative ideas and turning them into useful product or work methods. But how do you get people to be creative and innovative? There are 3 sets of variables that are absolutely required. They are:

(1) Structure – creative and innovative organization must have flexible, open, adaptable structure where flow of ideas and resources is much easier because few structural mechanisms that acts as a barrier to creativity and innovative process.
(2) Culture – the culture needs to encourage risk taking, focus on goals and emphasize the realities of the organization as an open system.
(3) Human resources practises – organizations must promote the training and development of employees so that their knowledge is “cutting edge”. Organizations also need to give support, embrace, celebrate and reward the idea champions.

All three of these variables contribute to an organization’s ability to be creative and innovative.

Strategic Management

2008-09-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

Strategic management is closely related to planning function because it is one specific type of planning. Managers will use the strategic management process to create plans and strategies that will enable the organization to achieve its short-run and long-run goals. There are six processes in strategic management process, they are;

1. Identified organization’s mission
2. External analysis
3. Internal analysis
4. Formulate the strategy
5. Implementation of strategy
6. Evaluate the strategy

Company’s mission is a statement of the purpose of an organization. Once the organization identified the mission, it must be communicated to the organizational members and must be understood. Having the mission writing is the simplest way of making employees know and understood it.

External analysis is the second process in strategic management processes. The easiest way of getting the external information is from the internet or World Wide Web, trade association publications, government publications, competitor intelligence, business periodicals, and general news periodicals.

Doing internal analysis you must know the difference between core competencies and competitive advantage. An organization’s core competencies are its major value those things that it has or it does particularly well, such as skills, capabilities and resources. But not all the core competencies are going to be significant sources of competitive advantage. If the organization is not good enough of doing something, so it is not a competitive advantage. Whereas competitive advantage is something that sets us apart from our competitors; something that makes customers go for our product and not the competitor’s product.

In internal analysis, organization’s culture plays an important role in its strategy. The culture will affect what strategies are formulated and how they’re formulated. It is also affected how the chosen strategy is implemented.

External and internal analysis also known as SWOT analysis. SWOT – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. By analysing the organization’s internal functional areas, the managers will be able to identify where the organization has strengths and where it has weaknesses. And, once the external environment has been analyzed, managers can locate the opportunities and the threats facing the organization. In other words, we wouldn’t know what strategies were appropriate unless we had information from SWOT analysis.

We understand how strategies are formulated, but how are they implemented? A strategy has to be implemented depending on the type of strategy and what level the organization in. For corporate level, there 3 types of strategies which are growth, stability and retrenchment. Growth strategy is implemented through internally increasing the levels of business operations, through creating new business, and through merging with or acquiring other businesses. A stability strategy is implemented simply by keeping everything at the current level of operations. Retrenchment strategies are implemented by two methods:

(1) Cutting cost
(2) Restructuring the organization through divesting, liquidating, reengineering, downsizing or filing for bankruptcy.

At the business level, the competitive strategies are implemented through the competencies, skills, and resources found in organization’s various functions: marketing, production/operations, research and development, and so forth.

Changing the organization’s strategy is a compulsory if the organization is not meeting its goals. Corporate strategies unlikely to change its strategies continually and frequently. It will change the strategy if there is a change in external and internal circumstances.

At the business level, changes are common and frequently because the competitors change what they do and the market place change what it values.

Foundation of Planning

2008-09-10T19:28:00.002-07:00

Foundation of Planning

Planning is defining the organization’s goals, establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals, and developing plans for organizational work activities. Managers plan whenever there is need to establish goals and to address how these goals are going to be achieved. You are planning if you have set your goals or objectives and develop a plan for achieving those goals.

Some planning is done daily, weekly, monthly or annually. Most of the organization will have specific time period or requirements for when and what plans need to be completed. The organizational planning depends on what level the manager is on, if he/she at the top level management, the plan is not done very often but comprehensive and more future-oriented.

Sometimes when we spending all our time planning but not seeing that those plans are carried out, we are doing too much planning. Once we’ve planned, the plan has to be implemented. For example, you want to finish you degree within 2½ years and not taking the necessary courses in the right sequences to meet graduation requirements, then you are planning too much.

During planning, the manager has to identify the organization’s goal/objectives to achieve. A for-profit organization has a primary objective which is to increase profit. However, if the manager wants the organization to survive in the long run, they should concentrate on other objectives as well. For instance, increased market share, strong product development, strong employee training and development, or effective planning processes.

Some organizations have their own stated objectives that organizations profess/believes as their intentions. However, these stated objectives are not often agreed by all the stakeholders. For them, it is just a ‘window-dressing’ to make the organizations look responsible and rational. This is happened because there is a conflict between what the organizations say and what they actually do. The content of stated objectives is substantially determined by what those audiences want to hear. But it is not make the information in the stated objectives is wrong. It is just means that what managers were writing the stated objectives, they were responding to what they realized as the demands of certain stakeholders.

Large or small organizations will create rules and procedures whenever they can because they’re efficient. Rules and procedure are standing plan to guide the manager’s decision and actions. This rules and procedures are ready to use whenever the situation arise, and managers don’t have to waste time or resources studying the situation and making plans. This standing plan contributes to doing work efficiently.

Traditional objective setting = objectives that sets up by the upper level of the organization and broken down into sub-goals for each lower level. The objectives sets by upper level because they know what’s best for the organization since only they know what is happening inside and outside the organization. However, the problem with this system is each manager is applying his/her own set of interpretations to the objectives as they pass from level to the next. as they pass this objectives, it often lose clarity and unity as they make their way down from top to the bottom of the organizations.

Management by objectives (MBO) = a process of setting mutually agreed upon goals and using those goals to evaluate employee performance. There 4 problems with MBO;

1. Time consuming – need a long-time period to achieve goals
2. More to quantity – overemphasis on strictly quantitative goals
3. Goals are set too high; or too low and too inflexible
4. Concentrate only on goals
– MBO system is on goals or ends, employees may concentrate on achieving their goals regardless of the means they use to get there – lead to unethically or irresponsible action and decision.

There are issues on planning and it normally happened when you want to implement your plans. Two examples that always arise are;

1. External environment are increasingly dynamic and complex and that make strategic and long-term planning look obsolete – managers can’t really expect to plan effectively when there is so much changes outside the organizations. One other thing to note in relation to strategic and long-term planning is that the time frame of long-term planning has changed considerably. For instance, back in 1970’s, long-term was considered to be anything over 15-20 years. But it is impossible to plan 15 years in the future nowadays! Long-term now are generally considered to be in the range of 2-3 years in the future. However, it still can be difficult to predict and plan for changes in the external environment especially for organizations in rapidly changing industries such as computers or the like. On the other hand, strategic and long-term planning must be considered because it is too valuable and important to do that.

2. Sometimes when plans are determined, we have to change those plans. Plans are created in static time frame. However, once those plans are put into action, it’s no longer a static scenario. Instead, organizational members are doing their work according to the plans. You have to change your plans even though you planned well. This is happens because the organizations are dynamic, and your environment change rapidly. You had to change your plan according to the particular situation that arises during the implementation.

Planning & Decision Making

2008-09-10T19:23:00.000-07:00

In decision making, managers (decision makers) will put a weight to the decision criteria. If the relevant criteria aren’t equally important, the decision makers must weight the items in order to give them the correct priority in the decision. You will know what weight to give to a given criteria based on the importance you give to it. Weights reveal your personal values because only you know what weight to give to the criteria. In organizations, a strong culture is likely to influence managerial decision making by shaping the criteria chosen and the weight assigned.
For example, if the organization’s culture is to cut the cost, then the manager’s priority is likely to make a decision that are involving lower costs. If they make any decision without following the culture, he’s likely to have a short career in this organization.

In organizational decision making, politics play a major role especially the major ones. Politics is how to influence (use power to influence) people to agree with your decision. This is happened because there are different individuals or groups in the organization with different values, goals and interests. The differences will create conflict over limited resources such as departmental budget, space allocation, project responsibilities and salary adjustment. The most important factor leading to politics within organizations is the realization that most of the “facts” that are used to allocate the limited resources are open to interpretation. Sometimes when you make a decision, some of your colleagues are not agreed because they think you do it to further your interests. People in the organization will use their influence to taint the facts to support their goals and interests.

There are times when you already made decision and when you want to implement it, you found out that it didn’t solved the problem. This not means that you make a bad decision. All you can do is reassessing the problem and do the decisions process again.

When the decision maker fined a choice that is good enough to solve the problem, they will quit looking at other choices because he’s satisfied with the choice. Others will think that the manager is settling for the second best. Satisfying choice means satisfactory and sufficient. There is nothing wrong with it. Either you are making decision for your life or for the organization; it won’t required the making of optimizing choices. Satisfying model result shows that no significant loss in organizational performance, the manager accept the decisions that are good enough to solve the problem.

Using intuition to make a decision, can improve the decision making. But, by rely on the intuition only will not helping you making a good decision. You need to combine it with your experience. As you increase your experience, your gut-feelings will gain increasing validity. If you want to make a quality decision making, you need to add rational analysis in your decision making process. There is time when you cannot use your intuition, which is when you don’t have the experience or your experience irrelevant to a specific decision.

Decisions made by the manager are guided by the policies. Policy is a guideline for making decision. Its create parameter that limit the managers but don’t make a choices for them. For example, the company policy is to pay competitive wages. If the data shows that the pay range for certain job in your community is $9.50 to $12.00 an hour, offering a new hire $8.00 or $13.00 would be inconsistent with the pay policy. But within the pay range, you have discretion.

In decision making, experience and creativity will interact. Experience is valuable in decision making because it allows you to draw on previous decisions so you can make effective choices quickly. Experience tends to be more helpful for handling routine decisions on structured problems. Meanwhile, creativity is valuable because it helps you to see problem others don’t see and develop new and unique alternatives. You can use creativity when handling non-routine decision on unstructured problems.

But there’s an irony here. Sometimes the senior executive have more experience but making the non-routine decision. Conversely, the lower-level manager tends to have less experience but they are more likely a creative person. Yet the types of problems they most often face are of the structured variety.

When organization wants to hire a manager, during the selection process the organization tend to select a person that fit with the organization’s culture. Decision style is relatively fixed. But if the manager can adjust his/her decision style to fit the organization’s culture, there isn’t likely to be a problem. But if there is a mismatch, don’t expect the person to change.

Last but not least, in decision making there is no “best” decision style. Any style can be effective under certain circumstances.

ETHICS & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

2008-09-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

Organizational managers, especially the for-profit business organizations seem to be a favourite target of the news media. Their social responsibility or lack of social responsibility always gets everyone’s attentions. This is because they play an important role in our society. This organization controls almost all the resources and provides the goods and services for the society.

Sometimes we always ask either the organization is being responsible or can they improve their contribution to society. If we feel they are not being responsible, we will ask why and what are they going to do about it. Fortunately, we don’t always dwell on the negatives, but we also commend on the positives.

There are people that argue on organization being socially responsible. For us to understand this argument, we need to understand with whom the organization responsible and how big the responsibility is. For those who argue about this says that organizations do have social responsibility but not to the society or the stakeholders, but to the stockholders. The main reason is because these organizations attend strictly to their economic interests.

Using time frame, we can differentiate between social responsibility and social responsiveness. Social responsibility is an obligation of a firm to pursue long-term goals that are good for society. Being socially responsible, it reflects the desire to do something good because it is the moral and ethical thing to do. An easy example for organizations being socially responsible is by promoting the awareness programme, for instant, the Aspin Skiing Company, built a green building in US in purpose of environmentally sustainable. Social responsiveness, on the other hand, is much more pragmatic. It focuses on medium and short-term goals. Organization’s desire is to respond to changing societal norms and demands. The organization being socially responsive when a firm engages in actions in response to some popular social needs. For example, KFC sell a bookmark to the customers’ to help the hunger society in Africa.

Now, think of a people who work with the alcohol manufacturer, tobacco companies, or food manufacturers whose products have high fat content, can be socially responsible to the society. Some companies produce products that can injure and even kill people. It might be difficult for a person who feels strongly about the social role of business and who is strongly committed to the idea of businesses being socially responsible. However, just because a person working with a company whose products can injure or even can kill people doesn’t make that person is socially irresponsible. He or she still can be responsible to the society by giving strong commitment in educating people about their products and what the misuse of these products can do.

All organizations have shared values as defined by their culture and these values do guide decisions and actions. However, in companies that practice value-based management, these values reflect a broad-based commitment to being socially responsive. The important or value-based management is embrace a social component-a commitment to making decisions and taking actions that are in the best interests of an organization’s broad spectrum of stakeholders.

Most typical business executive are seen as a morally upstanding, ethical and responsible individuals. They don’t have two different sets of ethical standard for business activities and for his personal life. Unfortunately, an organizations can knowingly or unknowingly steer people into making ethically questionable decisions and involve with ethically questionable actions because of the processes, systems and rewards it has in place.

An organizations can shape employee ethics and attitudes toward socially responsible by emphasizing and rewarding those ethical and socially responsible behaviours that are desired. The employees will engage in these behaviours if they see that it is the one that are important and supported. For example, a well-known personal-care product manufacturer, the Tom’s of Maine, have a culture where every managerial decision in light of the ethical value the company espouses. If they follow the culture, they are rewarded and if they don’t, they are subtly encourage to rethink decisions they have made or the actions they have taken.

Every country has different values that have been practice. Some country such as US, bribing the local government officials is norms. For example, Coca-Cola has consistently turned down requests for bribes from Egyptian officials but the company still has managed to gain support and public trust by sponsoring a project to plant fruit trees. Because of the differences, managers need to change their ethical behaviour if they want to market their products in that particular country.

ETIKA & TANGGUNGJAWAB SOSIAL

2008-08-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Pada masa kini, isu tanggungjawab sosial dan etika sering menjadi bahan bualan masyarakat. Tanggungjawab sosial sesebuah organisasi yang berorientasikan perniagaan dan keuntungan (for-profit business organization) menjadi sasaran utama pihak media massa dan masyarakat. Perkara ini berlaku kerana organisasi perniagaan ini mengawal sebahagian besar sumber bahan mentah yang ada untuk mengeluarkan produk dan perkhidmatan untuk masyarakat di persekitaran organisasi tersebut. Sama ada organisasi ini bertanggungjawab atau tidak bertanggungjawab kepada masyarakatnya, mereka tetap menjadi perhatian.

Adakalanya kita mempersoalkan sama ada organisasi ini telah melaksanakan tanggungjawab mereka kepada masyarakat. Kadang-kala kita bertanya sejauhmana peranan/ sumbangan mereka dan bagaimana mereka memperbaiki kualiti perkhidmatan organisasi ini kepada masyarakat. Sekiranya kita merasakan bahawa sesebuah organisasi itu tidak bertanggungjawab kepada masyarakat, kita ingin mengetahui sebab dan langkah yang akan diambil bagi memperbaiki keadaan tersebut.

Walau bagaimanapun, kita tidak selalunya menilai perkara yang negatif sahaja, tanggungjawab organisasi juga sering dilihat dari sudut positif. Contohnya sebuah kilang kain di Malden, US, milik Aaron Feuerstein. Semasa berlaku kebakaran, kilangnya telah musnah akibat kebakaran tersebut. Walau bagaimanapun, menyedari tanggungjawab sosialnya kepada pekerja-pekerja beliau, Aaron telah membayar gaji kepada semua pekerjanya sehinggalah kilang tersebut siap dibina semula. Perbuatan ini menjadikan Aaron seorang yang terkenal dengan seorang pengurus yang beretika dan bertanggungjawab kepada masyarakatnya.

Sebaliknya, terdapat sesetengah pendapat yang menentang bahawa organisasi mempunyai tanggungjawab sosial terhadap masyarakatnya. Mereka mengatakan bahawa organisasi sememangnya mempunyai tanggunjawab sosial tetapi bukan kepada masyarakat atau individu di dalam organisasi itu sendiri, sebaliknya tanggungjawab sosial tersebut adalah terhadap pemegang-pemegang saham syarikat. Kenapa? Hal ini terjadi disebabkan oleh kepentingan ekonomi yang menjadi keutamaan. Organisasi perlu menjaga kepentingan sosial pemegang-pemegang saham ini kerana mereka yang menentukan untung-rugi sesebuah organisasi tersebut. Justeru, organisasi ini mempunyai tanggungjawab sosial kepada pemegang saham mereka dan bukannya kepada masyarakat atau individu dalam organisasi itu sendiri.

Terdapat dua kesan yang berbeza kepada tanggungjawab sosial sesebuah organisasi apabila ia melibatkan jangka masa pendek atau panjang. Kunci utama untuk melihat perbezaan ini ialah dari segi tanggungjawab sosial dan tindak-balas sosial. Tanggungjawab sosial merupakan kewajipan melakukan sesuatu yang baik terhadap masyarakat di persekitaran organisasi bagi mencapai matlamat jangka panjang. Kewajipan ini perlu dipenuhi kerana ia merupakan satu perbuatan yang bermoral dan beretika. Contoh yang sering digunakan ialah seperti menganjurkan program kesedaran terhadap alam sekitar. Sesebuah organisasi seperti syarikat pengeluar minuman tin atau minuman kotak, sedar akan kewajipan mereka menjaga alam sekitar, justeru adalah menjadi tanggungjawab organisasi tersebut untuk memberikan maklumat kepada masyarakat tentang perkara tersebut. Salah satu cara yang dilakukan oleh syarikat terbabit ialah dengan menggunakan lambang/logo “kitar semula” dalam setiap produk keluaran mereka.

Bagi kesan jangka pendek atau sederhana pula, matlamat organisasi lebih kepada tindak-balas sosial kepada persekitaran. Ini kerana organisasi mempunyai keperluan untuk bertindak-balas terhadap perubahan norma/kebiasaan dan permintaan masyarakat pada ketika itu. Perubahan sosial yang berlaku dalam masyarakat akan menjadikan organisasi lebih bertindak-balas kerana sedar bahawa ia penting kepada keperluan masyarakat. Contohnya, organisasi bertindak-balas dengan kempen membantu rakyat Afrika yang kebuluran dengan melancarkan produk baru di mana hasil jualan produk tersebut akan disalurkan kepada rakyat kebuluran di Afrika.

Bagaimana pula dengan individu yang bekerja dengan organisasi yang mengeluarkan produk atau perkhidmatan yang boleh memberi kesan buruk/negatif kepada masyarakat. Adakah mereka masih boleh menjadi seorang yang beretika dan bertanggungkawab kepada sosialnya? Contohnya individu yang bekerja dengan syarikat tembakau, pengeluar arak atau produk racun serangga. Saya lebih suka menggunakan contoh syarikat tembakau kerana ia lebih dekat dengan masyarakat. Bagi mereka yang bekerja dengan syarikat ini, masih boleh menjalankan tanggungjawab sosial mereka terhadap masyarakat walaupun menyedari produk mereka boleh mendatangkan kemudaratan kepada pengguna.

Salah satu usaha yang boleh dilakukan ialah dengan memberi maklumat atau penerangan tentang kesan yang akan dihadapi sekiranya produk tersebut digunakan dengan jumlah yang berlebihan tanpa mengikut had yang telah ditetapkan. Adakalanya amat sukar untuk individu yang bekerja dengan organisasi seperti ini untuk melaksanakan tanggungjawab sosial dan mempersoalkan siapa sebenarnya yang perlu melaksanakan tanggungjawab tersebut. Walau bagaimanapun, ini tidak bermakna mereka adalah orang yang tidak bertanggungjawab. Mereka boleh melaksanakan tanggungjawab tersebut dengan bekerjasama dengan pengurus dan organisasi untuk memastikan maklumat tentang pilihan yang baik dan tindakan yang betul menggunakan produk tersebut sampai kepada masyarakat.

Setiap organisasi mempunyai budaya yang berbeza dan budaya ini melambangkan nilai sesebuah organisasi yang menjadi panduan untuk membuat keputusan atau mengambil tindakan. Pengurusan yang berasaskan prinsip/nilai yang baik merupakan organisasi yang mempunyai kewajipan dan bertindak-balas kepada masyarakat di persekitaran organisasinya. Nilai ini merangkumi semua komponen sosial di dalam organisasi tersebut dan mereka mempunyai tanggungjawab untuk menbuat keputusan dan mengambil tindakan yang telah dipersetujui oleh semua pemegang saham syarikat.

Seseorang pengurus sesebuah organisasi tidak membezakan standard etika antara urusan peribadi dan aktiviti pekerjaan mereka. Masyarakat melihat seseorang pengurus itu sebagai seorang yang beretika, bertanggungjawab dan bermoral tinggi. Walau bagaimanapun, sama ada kita sedar atau tidak, kadang-kala pengurus ini boleh mendorong kita untuk melakukan sesuatu yang tidak beretika disebabkan oleh proses, sistem atau ganjaran yang dijanjikan oleh organisasi. Perkara ini bergantung kepada keadaan atau situasi kerja dan organisasi yang berbeza. Namun begitu, setiap pengurus tidak mempunyai dua set standard etika yang berbeza, sebaliknya mereka dilihat sebagai seorang yang bermoral dan bertanggungjawab.

Budaya sesebuah organisasi boleh membentuk etika dan perangai pekerja mereka agar bertanggungjawab kepada masyarakat. Salah satu cara yang berkesan ialah dengan memberi dorongan dan ganjaran terhadap pekerja yang beretika dan berkelakuan baik kepada masyarakat di persekitaran organisasi. Sekiranya pekerja ini melihat kelakuan beretika ini sebagai sesuatu yang penting dan mendapat galakan, maka mereka akan menjadikannya sebagai suatu pegangan atau amalan.

Contonhnya, sebuah syarikat pengeluar barangan penjagaan diri yang terkenal, iaitu Tom’s Of Maine, budaya yang diamalkan ialah mewajibkan seseorang pekerja itu membuat penilaian dari segi etika (light of the ethical values) sebelum membuat keputusan. Pekerja-pekerja syarikat menyedari akan kepentingan mengikut budaya ini dan mereka akan diberi ganjaran yang sepatutnya jika mengikut budaya tersebut. Sebaliknya, jika mereka membuat keputusan tanpa merujuk kepada budaya ini, mereka dengan sendirinya akan menyedari kesilapan yang dilakukan dan akan mempertimbangkan semula keputusan yang telah dibuat agar selaras dengan budaya yang dipegang oleh organisasi tersebut. Kesedaran inilah yang dibentuk oleh budaya syarikat tersebut agar pekerja mereka lebih beretika.

Walau bagaimanapun, terdapat keperluan untuk pengurus itu mengubah tingkah laku sosial mereka sekiranya mereka ingin membuat hubungan dagangan/perniagaan di negara lain. Ini kerana setiap negara mempunyai etika yang berbeza, dan sesetengah negara seperti US membenarkan amalan rasuah dan menganggapnya sebagai suatu amalan yang biasa. Perbezaan sosial, politik, dan budaya setiap negara akan mempengaruhi etika sesebuah organisasi yang beroperasi di negara tersebut. Contohnya, amalan rasuah atau pemberian ganjaran wang di kalangan kakitangan kerajaan adalah satu kesalahan besar di Mesir. Justeru, Syarikat Coca-Cola mengambil langkah dengan menaja projek penanaman pokok buah-buahan bagi membolehkan produk mereka dipasarkan di negara tersebut.

BUDAYA DAN PERSEKITARAN ORGANISASI

2008-08-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

Budaya & Persekitaran Organisasi

Pengurus omnipotent (maha berkuasa) = merupakan pengurus yang bertanggungjawab ke atas kejayaan atau kegagalan sesebuah organisasi.

Pendapat mengenai pengurus yang omnipotent melihat pengurus sebagai seorang yang sangat berkuasa, mempunyai pengetahuan tentang semua perkara dan dapat melihat semua situasi. Tindakan pengurus merupakan penyebab utama kejayaan atau kegagalan sesebuah organisasi. Salah satu contoh yang paling baik untuk menerangkan pengurus omnipotent ini ialah pengurus di negara Jepun. Sekiranya berlaku peristiwa atau kejadian yang boleh menjatuhkan martabat atau keuntungan syarikat, pengurus menjadi orang pertama yang dipersalahkan dan berhenti kerja. Ada juga yang sanggup membunuh diri.

Walau bagaimanapun, dalam dunia realiti, pengurus bukanlah seorang yang berkuasa sepenuhnya ke atas kejayaan atau kegagalan sesebuah organisasi. Terdapat faktor-faktor luaran yang menjadi pemangkin kepada kejayaan dan kegagalan ini. Contohnya dalam organisasi kewangan atau pelaburan, hipotesis pasaran cekap mengatakan bahawa harga saham dapat menggambarkan ekonomi dan syarikat yang disenaraikan dalam bursa saham. Berdasarkan hipotesis ini juga, tiada seorang individu yang dapat menandingi pasaran saham. Sebaliknya, bagi penganalisis bursa saham Wall Street, mereka percaya bahawa kejayaan atau kegagalan seseorang pelabur/syarikat adalah bergantung kepada tuah/nasib.

Sebagai kesimpulannya, pengurus mempunyai pengaruh terhadap kejayaan atau kegagalan organisasi. Walau bagaimanapun pengaruh tersebut bukanlah faktor utama perkara ini berlaku kerana pengurus bukanlah seorang yang berkuasa dan bukan juga seorang yang lemah.

Budaya organisasi

Setiap organisasi mempunyai budayanya sendiri. Budaya yang dipegang oleh organisasi merupakan sesuatu yang boleh didefinisikan sebagai cara/kaedah yang betul untuk melakukan sesuatu. Setiap organisasi ini mempunyai ciri-ciri yang tersendiri yang perlu ada pada pekerja mereka. Pengurus akan memberi ganjaran kepada pekerja yang menurut budaya yang diterapkan tetapi akan menghukum pekerja yang tidak mematuhi budaya tersebut. Setiap ciri-ciri, amalan, perbuatan, ganjaran dan hukuman adalah berbeza antara organisasi.

Budaya organisasi selalunya akan stabil dan tidak berubah berdasarkan kepada kaedah merekrut pekerja dan bagaimana pekerja itu mengadaptasikan diri kepada budaya sesebuah organisasi. Organisasi akan mengambil pekerja yang boleh menerima budaya yang diamalkan. Setelah berjaya, pekerja ini akan melalui proses orientasi dan latihan bagi membentuk mereka selaras dengan apa yang dikehendaki oleh organisasi tersebut. Justeru, organisasi selalunya akan memilih, menarik dan mengekalkan mereka yang mempunyai ciri-ciri umum (common characteristics). Ciri-ciri umum inilah yang akan menjadi penghalang utama kepada perubahan budaya sebaliknya dapat mengekalkan kestabilan budaya tersebut.

Bagaimana kita boleh mengetahui budaya yang diamalkan oleh sesebuah organisasi? Terdapat beberapa perkara yang boleh dilakukan bagi mengenalpasti budaya yang diamalkan oleh organisasi di mana kita ingin bekerja. Antaranya ialah;
1. Perhatikan keadaan sekeliling pejabat - kenalpasti sekiranya ada papan tanda tertentu, gambar, cara berpakaian, perabot pejabat
2. Dengan siapa anda akan bertemu? Dapatkan maklumat siapa yang akan menemu-duga anda. Kenalpasti bakal rakan sekerja, eksekutif senior, pengurus dari jabatan lain dll.
3. Bagaimana anda mengenalpasti ciri-ciri kakitangan organisasi tersebut? Kenalpasti sama ada mereka mempunyai ciri-ciri formal, kasual, serius/bersungguh-sungguh, ceria semasa bekerja.
4. Selidik sekiranya organisasi tersebut mempunyai undang-undang atau tatatertib yang ditetapkan dalam manual polisi personaliti. Sekiranya ada, sejauhmana kandungan manual tersebut mudah untuk difahami.
5. Bertanya soalan kepada kakitangan di organisasi tersebut dan sebaiknya ajukan soalan yang sama dengan kakitangan yang berbeza bagi melihat sama ada mereka mempunyai pendapat yang sama tentang organisasi tersebut. Sekiranya pendapat mereka sama bermakna budaya yang diamalkan di organisasi tersebut adalah kuat dan stabil.

Kestabilan sesuatu budaya itu adakalanya baik dan kadang-kala buruk/negatif. Kestabilan budaya organisasi dalam keadaan baik/positif sekiranya organisasi berhadapan dengan keadaan persekitaran yang kekal dan tidak berubah. Budaya yang stabil ini akan bertindak menyatukan organisasi tersebut dengan menyediakan panduan kepada pekerja tentang apa yang patut diperkatakan dan apa yang perlu dilakukan. Budaya yang tidak stabil atau negatif pula berlaku sekiranya budaya itu berhadapan dengan situasi atau persekitaran yang dinamik. Sesetengah keadaan, budaya seperti ini akan menjadi halangan utama kepada perubahan yang ingin dilakukaan dan ia menghadkan keupayaan organisasi untuk beradaptasi dengan keadaan persekitaran.

Budaya organisasi yang kuat akan menghalang/menghadkan idea yang baru dan perubahan sekiranya budaya tersebut tidak menerima pendapat yang boleh menyebabkan berlaku konflik di kalangan ahli-ahli dalam organisasi. Sesetengah budaya yang kuat adakalanya boleh menerima budaya yang baru dan membenarkan pertentangan pendapat. Walau bagaimanapun, daripada kajian dan pengumpulan data yang dibuat menunjukkan perkara sebaliknya.

Bagi pengurus yang mempunyai budaya yang bertentangan dengan budaya organisasi selalunya tidak akan berada lama dalam organisasi. Sekiranya terdapat pengurus yang tidak bersetuju dengan budaya yang diamalkan, organisasi tidak akan mengambil inisiatif untuk memujuk atau mengubah pandangan pengurus mereka. Begitu juga dengan pengurus tadi menyedari pertentangan budaya ini menyebabkan kadar kepuasan bekerja akan menurun dan mereka mula mecari peluang kerja di organisasi yang lain. Perbezaan pendapat tentang budaya organisasi ini merupakan punca utama pengurus dipecat atau meletak jawatan.

Persekitaran organisasi

Seseorang pengurus akan mengenalpasti persekitaran organisasinya dengan menentukan siapa yang lebih mempengaruhi pencapaian organisasi. Persekitaran organisasi ini termasuklah pelanggan, pesaing, pembekal, agensi kerajaan, media dan kumpulan yang mempunyai hak istimewa terhadap organisasi tersebut. Contoh mudah yang boleh diberikan ialah perbandingan di antara Boston University (sekolah swasta) dan University of Massachusetts (sekolah kerajaan) yang terletak 5 kilometer antara satu sama lain. Persekitaran yang dapat dikenalpasti bagi Boston Uni ialah para alumni kerana sejumlah dana yang disalurkan adalah daripada alumni mereka. Manakala U-Mass pula, persekitaran yang dikenalpasti boleh mengancam pencapaian organisasi tersebut ialah kerajaan tempatan kerana dana yang disalurkan bergantung kepada bajet kewangan kerajaan tempatan.

Organizational Culture & Enviroment

2008-08-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

Omnipotent managers = managers are directly responsible for success or failure of an organization.

Omnipotent view sees managers as all powerful and they are the direct cause of an organization’s success or failure. The view refers to being all powerful and managers are all knowing and all seeing. The examples for omnipotent managers are Japanese manager. When a Japanese firm is involved in scandal or a disaster, the CEO typically resigns and some even commit suicide.

But in reality, managers are not all powerful. There are forces that are outside the influence of managers. For example, in finance we have the efficient-market-hypothesis. The hypothesis says that stock prices tend to reflect everything know about the economy and any given company. Based on this hypothesis, no individual is going to be able to beat the market. On the other hand, the Wall Street analysts think that any successes beyond average advances are attributed to luck.

As a conclusion, managers do have some influence over organizational success or failure but they are neither impotent nor all powerful.

Organizational culture

Every organization has a culture. Cultures in organizations are defines the proper ways things are to be done. Every organizational has certain characteristics it prefers in employees. It rewards certain behaviours and penalizes others. These employees characteristics, rituals, practices, rewards and penalties differ from organization to organization.

Organization’s cultures tend to be stable and unchanging because of the way people hired and socialized into an organization. New employees will selected by looking at who will fit into the organizations. Once hired, they are given orientations and training that shapes them even more into the type of employee the organization wants. Organizations tend to select, attract and retain people with common characteristics. The common characteristics will act as a major barrier to change and keep cultures stable and unchanging over time.

How can we know what organization’s culture is like? There are few things that we can do to learn about a potential organizational culture;

1. Observe the physical surroundings - by paying attention to signs, pictures, and style of dress, length of hair, office furnishings and arrangements.
2. With whom did you meet? - are you going to see your immediate supervisor, potential colleagues, managers from other department, senior executives and so forth.
3. How would you characterize the style of the people you met? - are they casual, formal, serious or jovial?
4. Does the organization have formal rules and regulations set out in a personnel policy manual? If so, how detailed are these policies?
5. Ask questions of people with whom you meet. Don’t afraid to ask a same question of different people to check of their degree of agreement.

Stability of culture can be good and can be bad. The stability is good when organization faces a relatively unchanging environment. A stable culture acts as a social glue that holds the organization together by providing appropriate standards for what employees should say and do. A stable culture is negative when organization faces a dynamic environment. In such cases, the culture restricts and limits the ability of the organization to adapt. It acts as a major barrier to change.

Strong cultures can limit new ideas and change if the culture is risk-aversive and is intolerant of conflict. Some strong cultures are effective at stimulating new ides and encouraging dissenting voices. But from observation and collecting data, suggest there are far more strong cultures that inhibit such behaviours.

Managers who are not fit in the organization’s cultures don’t tend to last very long. The organization isn’t likely to reward managers who are seen as misfits. And as these managers become aware of the incongruence, their satisfaction decreases and they begin to look for other opportunities in other organizations.

Organization’s environment

A manager assesses who is in his/her environment by determining who outside the organization can affects its performance. Look at customers, suppliers, competitors, government agencies, media and special interest groups. The organizations will find out who among these outsiders will create environmental uncertainty (degree of change and complexity in the organization’s environment). For example Boston University (private school) and University of Massachusetts (public school). Both university are located within 5 miles of each other and both are at Boston. For Boston Uni., it relies on alumni and friends for its financial resources, but for U-Mass relies on state legislature for much of its budget. From this examples, we find that the outsiders that can affects Boston Uni. and U-Mass perfomances is the alumni and the state legislature respectively.

History / Origins of Mangement

2008-08-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

Management history / Origins of management

There are two significant historical events that lead to management study. They are;

1. Division of labor
Also known as job specialization. Stated by Adam Smith in 1776, concludes that division of labor increased productivity by increasing each workers skill, saving time lost in changing task, and by creating labor-saving inventions and machinery.

2. Industrial revolution
The substitution of machine power for human power, which made it more economical to manufacture goods in factories rather than at home. Large efficient factories need one person to forecast demand, ensure that enough material for making the products, assign tasks to people, direct daily activities and so forth. And the person is the manager.

An understanding of this history makes you appreciate current practices and realize that, in today’s global market, success can be fleeting if managers become complacent.

Development of major management theories;

1. Scientific management

Found by Frederick W. Taylor. He made important contributions to scientific management theory and known as the father of scientific management. He stated 4 principles of management. Taylor’s focus was on the factory floor because that’s where he thought the greatest increase in productivity. He scientifically applying different combination of procedures, techniques and tools and he put the right person on the job. He believes it was management’s job to instruct workers to do their job “the one best way”.

2. Administrative management

Found by Henry Fayol. He identified 5 functions of managers; planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling. His belief that management was an activity common to all business practitioners, government agencies and even in home. He also develops 14 principles of management. His theory focused on describing what managers do and what constitutes good management practice.

3. Bureaucracy management

Found by Max Weber. It is a form of organization characterized by division of labor, a clearly defined hierarchy, detailed rules and regulations, and impersonal relationship.

4. Behavioral approach of management

Organization behaviour is the study of people at work. Hawthorne studies were most important contribution, started as scientific management experiment and went through several phases including illumination phase and group studies. A Hawthorne study is done during the 1920s and 1930s that provided new insights into individual and group behaviour. The conclusion to the studies is people’s behaviour and attitudes are closely related. It led to a new emphasis on human behaviour factor in the management of organizations. The studies provided the transition from mechanistic view of workers to a more humanistic view.

Systems perspectives

This system is a good way to view organizations because it reflects how organizations really work. There are two aspects you need to understand about systems perspectives;

1. Continuous cycle - organizations need resources (inputs) in order to functions. The organizations will process the input to get the output (goods & services). If the consumers purchase or use the organization’s output, the financial resources (profit) will flow back to the organization so that additional resources can be obtained.
2. Concept of open systems – important for understanding how organizations function. Organization are open (interact with and influences its environment). The organization obtains the resources (input) from environment and processes it into output. Then the output will placed (market) in the environment.

Contingency approach

Contingency approach/perspective can be describe as “if, then” (if this is the way my situation is, then this is the best way for me to manage). In contingency perspective, the way to manage ‘depends on the situation’. In management approach, it says that organizations are different, will face different situations (contingency) and require different ways of managing. In contingency theory, ‘a common body of knowledge is needed for different situations’. Because of this differences in managerial situation, it doesn’t mean that we can’t develop common information (common body of knowledge) for understanding how best to manage in those situations.

Introduction to management

2008-08-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

What is management?

According to Robbins and Mary Coulter (Management – 9th edition) management include coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so that their activities are completed efficiently and effectively.

Managers must make sure that all the works or activities are effectively and efficiently done by the people who are responsible for doing them.

Efficiency and effectiveness in management;
- efficiency means that all the resources are wisely used (low waste). The efficient managers will use a small amount of resources to get the most output for organization to market it.

- effectiveness is an ends with goal attainment. The effective managers doing the right things to meet the organization’s goals.

When the managers use the resources wisely but not getting the organization’s goal, means the managers are efficient but no effective. On the other hand, if the managers succeeded in attaining the organization’s goal by using all the resources, that means the managers are being effective but not efficient. All in all, the management strives for high efficiency and high effectiveness.

Why study management?

You may not understand how studying management is going to help you in your career. But we can explain the importance of studying management by looking at at these 3 things, i.e.:

1. The universality of management
Management is needed in all types of organization, all sizes of organization, all organizations levels and even needed in all organizational areas manufacturing e.g. marketing, human resources, accounting, information technology, etc.

2. The reality of work
Either you are going to be a manager or be managed, you need to learn about management. If you decided want to be a manager, you can practise good management skills by taking the management course. But if you want to work with a manager and be managed, you still need to take management course because it will educate you on way of your boss will behave and how organization functions.

3. Challenges and rewards of being a manager
You need to know and understands what are the challenges of being a manager and what are the rewards for being a good manager.

In addition, you need to understand the importance of studying management by looking at the management functions (planning, organizing, leading & controlling) and management tasks.

*** For this post, i wrote this "introduction to management" so that you can get a picture of what management is all about... Read and memorize these notes ARE NOT a wise thing to do. The best thing that you should do is to read the notes, understand it, jot down questions that you need to ask and try to find the answer. If you still don't get the picture/answer for your question, you can leave a comment. Tq. STRIVE TO EXCELL...