part 1

Question 1

What is Management?

Answer 1

Getting things done in organisations through other people

Question 2

What is an organisation?

Answer 2

• Formal entities in which complex interactions between people, money and materials are used in the creation and distribution of goods & services
• There is a common set of objectives
• there is a governing body and an organizational structure

Question 3

What is the main goal of management?

What are some of the other goals?

Answer 3

• Maximizing shareholder value (main goal)
• Profitability
• other goals coming out of objectives
• employee welfare (health, happiness, etc.)
• social responsibility
• personal goals (agent problem)

Question 4

What are the steps in the management process? briefly define each

Answer 4

POLC:
Planning - goal setting and how to achieve
Organizing - dividing work into tasks and assigning staff
Leading - influencing staff to perform efficiently
Controlling - gathering information and correcting deviations from goals
(DEMING CYCLE)

Question 5

What are the three key manager skills? How do the importance of these skills differ for top management and supervisors?

Answer 5

Technical Skills (more important for supervisors)
Human Skills (important for ALL supervisors)
Conceptual Skills (more important for top management)

Question 6

What are the Characteristics of Managerial Work?

Answer 6

-Decision Making
-People Work
-Carry Responsibility
-Getting around the organisation
-Fragmented and interrupted
Multi-focussed

Question 7

Define Bureaucracy

How is a Bureaucracy characterized?

Answer 7

the organizational structure in place to control activity
Characterized by:
-standardized procedures
-formal division of responsibility
-hierarchy
-impersonal relationships

Question 8

Pros and Cons of Bureaucracy

Answer 8

Pros:
Formal rules ensure honesty
Quick throughput for standard work
No whims

Cons: 
Requires large amounts of forward planning
Unique cases fall outside rules
Impersonal / no compassion
No control over jobs

Question 9

Scientific Management - who is its god?

How does it work?

Answer 9

Fredrick Winslow Taylor
Replaces traditional methods with more effective scientific methods to increase efficiency
e.g. iron ingot case

Question 10

What is HRM

Answer 10

Human Relations Movement, believes work is a social experience and is required to satisfy social needs.
Organisations move towards working in natural groups (social based).

Question 11

Does HRM believe in having considerate supervision?

Answer 11

Yes, it believes considerate supervision -> job satisfaction -> increased productivity (not a very strong assumption)

Question 12

Explain what Cultural Approaches are?

Answer 12

e.g. armed forces, sports teams etc.
believe in formal & non formal procedures
acknowledges that results come from teams, leading to a ‘moral’ system & behavioral code of conducte

Question 13

How many forces are there in Porters Model and what are they?

Answer 13

five forces
Potential entrants
Buyers
Suppliers
Substitutes
Industry Competitors

Question 14

What is Strategy?

Answer 14

a plan of action or policy

Question 15

What is the purpose of strategy?

Answer 15

provide direction and coherence
basis for assessment and risk analysis
basis to make decsions

Question 16

What are the levels of organizational strategy

Answer 16

Corporate, Business, Funstional

Question 17

What are the schools of thought in Classical management theory?

Answer 17

Scientific, bureaucracy theory, administrative

Question 18

What is work specialization and why employ it?

Answer 18

organizing work in to the narrowest possible task, creating efficiency and minimizing training. However, removes social satisfaction of work due to isolation and de-skilling of workers.

Question 19

What is the main assumption that was made in classical management theory that turns out to not always be true?

Answer 19

What is good for the company is good for the employer

Question 20

What are the 5 key principles of Bureaucracy Theory

Answer 20

Division of Labor
Hierarchy of Authority
Formal Rules & Procedures
Impersonality
Career System

Question 21

What are Fayols 14 general principles of management? when should they be applied?

Answer 21

Division of work
Authority
Discipline
Unity of Command
Subordination of individual to general interests
Remuneration
Centralisation
Scalar chain
Order
Equity
Stability of Tenure
Initiative
Esprit de corps

Question 22

What does Administrative Management do?

Answer 22

emphasizes principles that can be applied to the whole structure and functioning of any organisation

Question 23

Who developed Bureaucracy Theory?

Answer 23

Max Webber

Question 24

Who developed Administrative Management?

Answer 24

Henri Fayol

Question 25

What is the name of the most famous Hawthorne Experiment? Who was in charge?

Answer 25

Relay Assembly test room experiment

Elton Mayo

Question 26

What is the Hawthorne Effect?

Answer 26

the effect of people behaving and performing differently because they know they have been singled out for special attention

Question 27

What did Abraham Maslow believe people needed to discover through work?

Answer 27

Self-actualisation, the need to develop ourselves to our full potential

Question 28

What is Theory X

Answer 28

a view that people dislike work and try to avoid it

Question 29

What is Theory Y and who defined it?

Answer 29

a view that people find work natural and that they will respond to rewards of self esteem and self acutalisation
Douglas McGregor

Question 30

What is Systems Theory?

Answer 30

The analysis of organizations as total systems

Question 31

What is Contingency Theory?

Answer 31

the replacement of the ‘universalistic’ ideas with good management ideas for specific situations