The role of management is complex and depends on the level of the manager performing the roles. Leadership is the ability to lead people to embrace the goals of the organization and is important for all levels of managers. First-line managers participate with their employees to help motivate them. Informational roles involve the sending and receiving of information. Top managers are the voice of the company and can also represent it in the public eye. Middle managers have to decide what information gets passed to lower level employees and how it’s transmitted. First line managers disseminate information and help the employees translate what it means. 

The four primary management decision roles are entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. Entrepreneurs are top level managers who direct the company and take the most risks. Disturbance handlers are usually top and middle management and react to both internal and external events. Resource allocators are involved in all levels of management and make decisions regarding resources for single activities to resources for an entire company. Negotiators are usually top and middle management, but all levels have to negotiate on occasion. 

Technical skills are important for managers, and especially front-line managers who often participate in the daily activities of the organization. Conceptual skills enable creativity and intuition which is more useful to upper level management who use it to create new ideas, unique strategies, and innovative solutions. Human skills are also integral for managers to learn because firms often expect managers to lead and guide their employees. 

Organizations use four strategies to increase corporate social responsibility (CSR), such as environmental efforts, philanthropy, ethical labor practices, and volunteerism. There is strong evidence to suggest a relationship between a company’s value and CSR, leading many to believe that CSR activities can increase a firm’s value. Some benefits a firm receives from CSR is a better reputation, product market gains, attracting highly qualified personnel, employee productivity and earnings quality. Sustainability refers to a company’s efforts to not adding problems to the environment.

Ethics are important in business because it prevents the company from harming anyone (or anything), and it benefits the organization internally. Business ethics refers to the behavior of the members of a business. A code of ethics is the company’s values, responsibilities, and conduct expectations. Its purpose is help employees handle ethical dilemmas in a way that won’t damage the company. These are usually posted online and in places easy to access by both the public and employees. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) had to be established after a number of ethical lapses came to light that encompassed companies across the globe. These ethical scandals cost investors billions of dollars and had worldwide implications. Under SOX, any individual who reports the misconduct of an authority figure in that company is offered protection from reporting the incident to OSHA.

Organizational culture is a term that describes an organization’s shared goals and values. When everyone shares these same goals and values a culture of mutual respect, collaboration, and support emerges. Corporate values are more easily recognizable, and it’s easier to build a brand, when the company’s corporate culture is strong.  

Diversity is recommended by many experts as a long-term strategy for successful companies. Diversity in a company has a broad meaning to include personality, cognitive style, education, social background, and more. New ideas and opportunities are able to emerge when people from all walks of life and backgrounds are heard and valued. 

Because of globalization there has been a greater demand for both global organizations and trade agreements. The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the rules of trade between countries and is composed of 148 member nations. Its two goals are to provide funds for developing countries and to help end extreme poverty, and to promote shared prosperity by helping the lowest 40% of the population to earn more income. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is composed of 189 member countries who work with developing nations for economic stability, growth, and to reduce poverty. Regional trade agreements, such as NAFTA and ASEAN, establish equally binding treaties with member countries that address trade barriers and tariffs. Custom unions allow free trade on products within the countries of the custom union, they may also all agree to having a common external tariff (CET). Common markets are very similar to common unions, but they include the free trade and movement of resources such as labor. Economic unions, such as the EU, adopt common economic policies, external barriers, internal barriers, and free movement of resources.    

Globalization had positive and negative effects in the political, economic, and cultural arenas. It isn’t possible for a country to remain totally isolated from the outside world, and therefore organizations such as the UN and WTO exist. Information is spread almost instantly from one country to another, and people are more aware now than ever of worldwide events. People can also trade with other countries over the internet just as easily as they can walk into a local store. Nations with rare resources can focus on that particular strength and trade on the world market. All of which has led to global competition which in turn has helped improve shipping channels, supply chains, reduce trade barriers, and centralized financial institutions.

When managing a global organization there are many things to consider since conditions can differ in other countries. There are many cultural differences that need to be taken into account in order for managers to be effective. The nine dimensions that characterize culture and are important for managing a global organization are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, permanence orientation, assertiveness, future orientation, humane orientation, institutional collectivism, ingroup collectivism, and gender egalitarianism. Managers must also be attuned to the cultural surroundings and consider things such as communication practices.

Global integration is the degree that a business can use the same products and methods in other countries, while local responsiveness is the degree that a business customizes the products to meet the needs of a specific country. There are four basic global business strategies: export, standardization, multidomestic, and transnational. 

 

When planning objectives must be defined and goals set, premises must be developed and may need to be adjusted as time passes. Managers must also evaluate alternatives and receive input from several sources while identifying alternatives. Resources need to be identified as well, not just current resources either but also ones that will be needed for future use. This information will help managers plan accordingly. 

 

Managers use many different types of planning tools as well. Short term plans are usually made for less than a year, while long term plans are over a year, and both must be monitored frequently. Standing plans refer to policies, procedures, and regulations, and as the name suggests they are used frequently. Single use plans address a onetime project or event. When companies successfully use tools and strategies to meet their goals, they create competitive advantage. It’s not a long-term goal but it does indicate a success to have a competitive advantage and a good plan creates sustainable competitive advantage. Management can use PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces to measure competitiveness and attractiveness in an industry. Once that’s been completed a SWOT analysis helps a company identify strengths, and a RBV can be used to look for assets that can be used to take advantage of external opportunities. 

 

There are cognitive biases and other barriers that can interfere with decision making. There are different methods that can be used to help stop barriers from interfering, such as the rational decision-making process or decision trees. Using brainstorming within a group or playing 🤬’s advocate can really help to look at issues from different angles.  

four key elements of an organization’s structure: common purpose, coordinated effort, division of labor, and hierarchy of authority.

 

As a company grows it goes through many stages and encounters different struggles in each, how a company handles these obstacles determines if it will succeed or not. In the first phase, creativity, the entrepreneurs struggle to grow. During the second phase, direction, management needs to take more control and guide the company with capital focused goals. In the third phase of delegation, employees are more comfortable with their roles and middle management gains more autonomy. In the fourth phase of coordination, structure becomes more centralized. In the fifth phase of collaboration, teams combine across the organization and systems are simplified.

 

The organizational culture refers to the collective behavior of the people who make the organization and includes their values, visions, norms, working language, systems, symbols, and beliefs. It affects how employees interact with each other and the public, clients, and stakeholders. A strong culture is also very important for a successful business. A high performing culture is a result driven culture that generates efficiency and completes their objectives. Organizations have to be productive in order to achieve their goals, and once a culture becomes high performance it becomes second nature for the employees. 

 

It’s very important for HR managers to know discrimination laws and to make policies to avoid discrimination. If discrimination does occur HR managers and upper management must work together to take action. There are several laws about discrimination and the EEOC is responsible for enforcing them, some examples are the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. 

 

HR use advertisements in news papers and trade publications, online sources, and apps to find potential employees. To narrow it down HR examines resumes carefully, do background checks, and conduct preliminary phone interviews so that only the most promising candidates are called in for interviews. These candidates are passed to the hiring manager who will sit down with each one for a personal interview and possibly a second interview if one is needed. After the interviewing process a new employee must go through onboarding and then a rigorous training program. Performance evaluations are a tool for determining how quickly and how well an employee is developing and are used to act as fillers in an employees training. Management and HR also handle both voluntary and involuntary terminations. 

 

For communication to be effectively exchanged the receiver has to understand the message of the sender and can be sent via speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behavior. Business communication is the transmission and exchange of information between people in an organization  to facilitate business activities. These communications can include marketing, brand management, customer relations, reputation management, and event management amongst others. It is held to a higher degree than everyday communication because the chances to recognize and correct a mistake are lower and the risk is high. Miscommunication can happen when there are barriers to effective communication that distort, obscure, or misrepresent the message. The size and structure of an organize also affect how communication flows, and can hinder or improve it. 

Goal-setting Theory is an influential and practical theory of motivation that needs to be specific enough to answer who, what, when, where, why, and how of the goal. Setting challenges for employees that are specific and attainable help them perform better, with the more challenging the goal the more they focus. Feedback on a goal is also important for the progression of the employee. 

While leadership is about establishing direction and influencing others, management is about operating the business. They’re both very important skills to learn and have a lot of overlap with each other. There are different types of leaders, including charismatic, heroic, and transformational leaders. They use different leadership styles to motivate the behaviors and actions to achieve organizational goals. Leaders also use vision to set the direction so that all areas of a business are working towards the same goal. Leaders also use different types of influence to motivate employees, who will have differed in how susceptible they are to each type. 

An engaging leadership style includes employees in decision making and can help retain employees for a long time. An autocratic leadership style is the complete opposite, employees are given no say in decisions and it’s not successful in engaging employees or maintaining job satisfaction. Laissez-faire leadership styles allow subordinates to have a free hand in deciding their own policies and methods. Participative leadership involve employees who feel invested in decisions and committed to the choices. Transformational leadership is when “leaders and followers make each other advance to a higher level of morality and motivation.” These leaders work to enhance motivation and engagement of followers towards a shared vision and is change oriented. Transactional leaders are focused on supervision, organization, and group performance and operate within existing boundaries of process, structures, and goals. Emotional leadership is a process that leaders use to influence followers to accomplish common goals.      

Studies have found that most leader’s traits can be grouped into personality, demographic, task competence, and interpersonal attributes. Situational contingency states that different leadership types are needed for different situations which are identified in the Cognitive Resource Theory (CRT). In the Path-Goal Theory a leaders’ behavior should change depending on the satisfaction, motivation, and performance of their subordinates. 

 

Project managers use critical path method and PERT charts to determine potential delays and deciding tasks. They also help to visualize the tasks chronologically and are used to develop each stage of development to ensure ideal resource allocation. Critical path helps a project manager prioritize and set effective deadlines. A Break-even analysis can be used to determine the amount of company needs to sell to break even. A ratio analysis may be used to determine how efficiently a project manager is controlling resources. Managers can also use scorecards to convey performance across a range of strategic criteria or a visual scorecard to display a graphic representation.  

 

Key elements in use when a manager designs the control systems include the characteristic or condition being controlled, the sensor, the comparator, and the activator. Managing control is necessary for properly working systems and processes within an organization. Some common barriers to managing control are lack of resources, inaccurate measurements, improper information flow, and incorrect analyses.