Management final paper
malharb10
Section2OrganizationalAnalysisFirstLectureMaterialCompleteSpring2018.pptxBUAD 6400 Results-Based Management
Spring 2018
Section #2
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Sixty-Second Interview
Find four people and discuss a hobby or outside interest that each person has and how it might help them on the job.
Changing Organizational Modules
Objective
Examine old and new organizational structures
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Comment
New organizations are radically different from those of the past: It is customer-focused; team-based; networked in alliances with suppliers, customers, and even competitors; flat, flexible and innovative, diverse, and global. Its workforce is empowered and committed; its managers act as coaches, not bosses; it is a “learning organization,” constantly striving to improve and innovate.
Comment
These new organizations often contain problems and challenges of their own.
Working and managing in the old organization may have been boring, constricting, and frustratingly slow.
However, working and managing in a networked, team-based, flat, flexible, diverse, and global organization often involves long hours, high levels of uncertainty, and rapid personnel turnover that get in the way of developing the networks needed to make an organization work.
Comment
Stress and burnout take their toll, and many people quit in search of less stressful work.
Involuntary departures have also increased.
Individual incomes of employees overall in the US are not rising (although household incomes tended to rise as women joined the labor force), except for top executives.
The wage gap between the highest and lowest paid worker in a company has been rising steadily (400 times that of the average worker).
Comment
A lot of “old models” still exist.
Many more organizations exhibit features of the old in combination with aspects of the new.
Regardless, organizations desperately need people who can take effective action in the complex world of the new organization.
To understand more clearly what these needs mean, we must examine more closely the key features of the old model and the new.
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Organizational Theory
An organization is a collection of people working together under a defined structure for the purpose of achieving predetermined outcomes through the use of financial, human, and material resources.
*Organizations are created to fulfill some purpose or objective
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How We Got to Today’s Management Outlook
Evidence based management
translating principles based on best evidence into organizational practice, bringing rationality to the decision making process
Pfeffer and Sutton
Evidence-Based Management
“facing the hard facts about what works and what doesn’t, understanding the dangerous half-truths that constitute so much conventional wisdom about management and rejecting the total nonsense that too often passes for sound advice will help organizations perform better.”
Discussion Point
Why do you think managers get “stuck in a rut,” and are unwilling to try new approaches?
Discussion Point
When do you think organizations are more likely to be creative and flexible, when organizational performance is high or low?
Discussion Point
Why does low performance so often trigger inflexibility?
Young, innovative, or high-tech firms often adopt the strategy of ignoring history or attempting to do something radically new. In what ways will this strategy help them? In what ways will this strategy hinder them?
This strategy can be useful because it completely jettisons older systems, eliminating some of the problems they had.
For example, the virtual firm is a radically different way of organizing that allows the company to call upon the best talent anywhere in the world, eliminate the expenses of maintaining a headquarters facility, and give creative workers the freedom to work in whatever way, place, and time works best for them.
However, the strategy also throws out what was best about the traditional ways of doing business, which can lead to problems.
For example, many virtual firms are finding that employees prefer to spend at least some time in face-to-face interaction.
Major Question: If the name of the game is to manage work effectively and efficiently, what can the study of different viewpoints teach me?
The Importance of Theory and History
Why Use Theories/Models?
Theory: a conceptual framework for organizing knowledge and providing a blueprint for action.
Management theories are grounded in reality.
Managers develop their own theories about how they should run their organizations.
Why History?
Understanding historical developments in management aids managers in the development of management practices and in avoiding the mistakes of others.
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“Business history lets us look at what we did right and, more importantly, it can help us be right the next time”
– Alfred Chandler, Harvard University,
1992
Comments about what theories or models do for us
Tell you what factors are important and critical to pay attention when dealing with different organizational challenges or problems.
Shows how these factors are related or how combinations of factors cause other factors to change.
Think of it as a road map of the organizational terrain.
Models are critical because they guide our analysis and action: determine what information we collect, potential solutions we consider, how we diagnose problems.
Note: Everyone has an implicit model of how people should behave or why problems occur or what are appropriate solutions. The trouble is that these implicit models differ in quality, validity, and sophistication. Remember, common sense answers are frequently wrong or give contradictory advice.
What are the reasons for President Trump’s popularity/unpopularity?
Comment
Your explanations are theories.Theories are simply frameworks of thought and most people hold a number of different theories.
Five Practical Reasons for Studying Past Theories
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Understanding of the present
Guide to action
Source of new ideas
Clues to meaning of your managers’ decisions
Clues to meaning of outside events
Comment
1. Understanding of the present. “Sound theories help us interpret the present, to understand what is happening and why,” say Christensen and Raynor. Understanding history will help you understand why some practices are still favored, whether for right or wrong reasons.
Comment
2. Guide to action. Good theories help us make predictions and enable you to develop a set of principles that will guide your actions.
3. Source of new ideas. It can also provide new ideas that may be useful to you when you come up against new situations.
Comment
4. Clues to meaning of your managers’ decisions. It can help you understand your firm’s focus, where the top managers are “coming from.”
5. Clues to meaning of outside events. Finally, it may allow you to understand events outside the organization that could affect it or you.
