Questions and Answers of Contemporary Management

3. Would a management science theory approach to staging the Olympics ensure success? Why or why not?
2. Do you consider Brazil’s approach to managing the Olympics a closed or open system? Explain your answer.
1. Describe how the contingency theory of management would help or hinder Brazilian officials with getting the country ready to host the Olympic Games.
2. Which parts would be the most important for an effective system to organize and control employees?
1. How do the various management theories discussed in this chapter offer clues for organizing and controlling hotel employees?
3. What are some of the challenges faced by GE’s current leadership team?
2. How were early acquisitions and mergers related to one another?
1. What do you think precipitated General Electric’s growth strategy based on merger and acquisition?
3. Search the web for changes occurring in the meatpacking business.
2. Use theories to discuss the ethical issues involved in the way the meatpacking business is being conducted today.
1. Use the theories discussed in the chapter to debate the ethical issues involved in the way the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. business operated.
2. Which management approach (for example, Theory X or Y) do you propose to use to run your organization?In 50 or fewer words, write a statement describing the management approach you believe will
1. Use the principles of Weber and Fayol to decide on the system of organization and management that you think will be most effective for your growing organization.How many levels will the managerial
9. Visit at least two organizations in your community, and identify those that seem to operate with a Theory X or a Theory Y approach to management. [LO2-4]
8. Question a manager about his or her views of the relative importance of Fayol’s 14 principles of management. [LO2-3, 2-4]
7. Why are mechanistic and organic structures suited to different organizational environments? [LO2-4, 2-6]Action
6. What is contingency theory? What kinds of organizations familiar to you have been successful or unsuccessful in dealing with contingencies from the external environment? [LO2-6]
5. How are companies using management science theory to improve their processes? Is this theory equally applicable for manufacturing and service companies? If so, how? [LO2-4, 2-5]
4. Which of Weber’s and Fayol’s principles seem most relevant to the creation of an ethical organization?[LO2-4, 2-6]
3. In what ways are Weber’s and Fayol’s ideas about bureaucracy and administration similar? How do they differ? [LO2-3]
2. Apply Taylor’s principles of scientific management to improve the performance of the organization you chose in topic 1. [LO2-2]
1. Choose a fast-food restaurant, a department store, or some other organization with which you are familiar, and describe the division of labor and job specialization it uses to produce goods and
LO2-6 Explain why the study of the external environment and its impact on an organization has become a central issue in management thought.
LO2-5 Explain the contributions of management science to the efficient use of organizational resources.
LO2-4 Trace the changes in theories about how managers should behave to motivate and control employees.
LO2-3 Identify the principles of administration and organization that underlie effective organizations.
LO2-2 Explain the principle of job specialization and division of labor, and tell why the study of person–task relationships is central to the pursuit of increased efficiency.
LO2-1 Describe how the need to increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness has guided the evolution of management theory.
3. Do you think the focus of managers in an algorithm-based business will change dramatically in the near future? Explain.
2. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of replacing human managers with“robo-advisers”?
1. What management challenges does the financial services industry face as more and more jobs are automated?
2. What kinds of management changes need to be made to solve them?
1. What kinds of organizing and controlling problems is Achieva suffering from?
4. For each managerial task, list the issues to solve, and decide which roles will contribute the most to your restaurant’s success.
3. Discuss the most important decisions that must be made about (a) planning, (b) organizing, (c) leading, and (d) controlling to allow you and your partners to use organizational resources
2. Which building blocks of competitive advantage do you need to establish to help your restaurant succeed?What criteria will you use to evaluate how successfully you are managing the restaurant?
1. Decide what each partner’s managerial role in the restaurant will be. For example, who will be responsible for the necessary departments and specific activities?Describe your managerial
2. What steps might you take to prevent such unethical behavior and encourage people to behave in an ethical way?
1. Either by yourself or in a group, give three reasons you think the behavior was unethical. For example, what rules or norms were broken? Who benefited or was harmed by what took place? What was
8. How attuned are the managers in the organization to the need to increase efficiency, quality, innovation, or responsiveness to customers? How well do you think the organization performs its prime
7. If you could give your manager one piece of advice or change one management practice in the organization, what would it be?
6. Describe how the organization treats its human resources. How does this treatment affect the attitudes and behaviors of the workforce?
5. Think about the organization and its resources. Do its managers use organizational resources effectively?Which resources contribute most to the organization’s performance?
4. How does your supervisor’s approach to management affect your attitudes and behavior? For example, how well do you perform as a subordinate, and how motivated are you?
3. Do you think the tasks, roles, and skills of your supervisor are appropriate for the particular job he or she performs? How could this manager improve his or her task performance? How can IT
2. How do you characterize your supervisor’s approach to management? For example, which particular management tasks and roles does this person perform most often? What kinds of management skills
1. Think about your direct supervisor. Of what department is he or she a member, and at what level of management is this person?
9. Like Mintzberg, try to find a cooperative manager who will allow you to follow him or her around for a day. List the roles the manager plays, and indicate how much time he or she spends performing
8. Ask a middle or top manager, perhaps someone you already know, to give examples of how he or she performs the managerial tasks of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. How much time does
7. Visit an organization, and talk to first-line, middle, and top managers about their respective management roles in the organization and what they do to help the organization be efficient and
6. Choose an organization such as a school or a bank;visit it; then list the different organizational resources it uses. How do managers use these resources to maintain and improve its performance?
5. In what ways do you think managers’ jobs have changed the most over the last 10 years? Why have these changes occurred? [LO1-6]Action
4. What are the building blocks of competitive advantage?Why is obtaining a competitive advantage important to managers? [LO1-5]
3. Identify an organization that you believe is highperforming and one that you believe is low-performing.Give five reasons you think the performance levels of the two organizations differ so much.
2. In what ways can managers at each of the three levels of management contribute to organizational efficiency and effectiveness? [LO1-3]
1. Describe the difference between efficiency and effectiveness, and identify real organizations that you think are, or are not, efficient and effective. [LO1-1]
LO1-6 Discuss the principal challenges managers face in today’s increasingly competitive global environment.
LO1-5 Discuss some major changes in management practices today that have occurred as a result of globalization and the use of advanced information technology (IT).
LO1-4 Distinguish among three kinds of managerial skill, and explain why managers are divided into different departments to perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively.
LO1-3 Differentiate among three levels of management, and understand the tasks and responsibilities of managers at different levels in the organizational hierarchy.
LO1-2 Distinguish among planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (the four principal managerial tasks), and explain how managers’ ability to handle each one affects organizational performance.
Describe what management is, why management is important, what managers do, and how managers use organizational resources efficiently and effectively to achieve organizational goals.
How could hospital control systems be improved to increase efficiency and effectiveness?
What are the pros and cons of these control systems?
What kind of control systems are being used to measure the performance of hospitals and their different kinds of employees such as doctors and nurses?
How would you help managers develop a culture to promote high team performance?Questions
How does Google design its organizational structure and workspace to shape its culture?
What relative importance do you put on (a) output control, (b) behavior control, and (c) organizational culture in this design? e Web [L011-1, 11-5]
Discuss the relationship between organizational control and change, and explain why managing change is a vital management task.
Identify the main behavior controls, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages as a means of coordinating and motivating employees.
Identify the main output controls, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages as means of coordinating and motivating employees.
Describe the four steps in the control process and the way it operates over time.
Define organizational control and explain how it increases organiza- tional effectiveness.
Go to the Internet and find some articles about the performance of the new venture.
How will the new company be organized? In what ways will it help speed the development of new drugs and reduce costs?
Why are GSK and Pfizer creating a new "specialist organization" to manage the sales and development of their HIV drugs?
Click on featured brands, and look at products like its Oreo cookies. How is Kraft managing its different brands to increase global sales? What do you think are the main challenges Kraft faces in
Given the way it describes its brands, what kind of divisional structure do you think Kraft uses? Why do you think it uses this structure?
List the four sources of organizational culture, and explain why and how a company's culture can lead to competitive advantage.
Explain why managers must coordinate jobs, functions, and divisions using the hierarchy of authority and integrating mechanisms.
Describe the types of organizational structures managers can design, and explain why they choose one structure over another.
Explain how managers group tasks into jobs that are motivating and satisfying for employees.
Identify the factors that influence managers' choice of an organiza- tional structure.
Search the Web for more examples of companies who are finding ways to manage their value chains to increase responsiveness to customers.
How can companies best increase responsiveness to customers while controlling costs to increase efficiency?
List the various value chain strategies the companies discussed here used to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
How has Toyota changed its strategies toward value chain management as a result of these quality and safety problems?1. Identify the product attributes that a typical sandwich shop customer wants the
How have the recalls that Toyota announced in early 2010 affected current public opinion about the company's record for quality and reliability?
In what ways do you think you will be able to improve on the operations and processes of existing sandwich shops and increase responsiveness to customers through better product quality, efficiency,
Try to identify improvements that might be made to the organization's value chain to boost its responsiveness to customers, quality, efficiency, and innovation. -4]
Differentiate between two forms of innovation, and explain why innovation and product development are crucial components of the search for competitive advantage.
Explain why achieving superior efficiency is so important, and under- stand the different kinds of techniques that need to be employed to increase efficiency.
Explain why achieving superior quality is so important, and under- stand the challenges facing managers and organizations that seek to implement total quality management.
Describe what customers want, and explain why it is so important for managers to be responsive to their needs.
Explain the role of functional strategy and value chain management in achieving superior quality, efficiency, innovation, and responsiveness to customers.
In what ways is it using other kinds of strategies, such as acquisitions and business partnerships, to build its competitive advantage?
What kind of competencies does it possess that allow it to pursue this strategy?
What kind of business-level strategy is Procter & Gamble pursuing?
What business-level strategies is Google pursuing? Why?
Think about the various clothing retailers in your local malls and city, and analyze the choices they have made about how to compete along the low-cost and differentiation dimensions.

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