Questions and Answers of Essentials Contemporary Management

A second group of resistant employees consists of middle managers. Some middle managers resist using your company’s intranet. Although these middle managers do not resist the technology per se and
How can collaboration software help managers and their team communicate more effectively?
A third group of resistant employees is made up of members of groups and teams who do not want to use the collaborative software tools that have been provided to them. You think the tools could
Do you think differences in linguistic styles adversely affected the communication that took place? Why or why not?
Explain why employees might filter and distort information about problems and performance shortfalls when communicating with their bosses. What steps can managers take to eliminate filtering and
Explain why differences in linguistic style, when not understood by senders and receivers of messages, can lead to ineffective communication.
Interview a manager in an organization in your community to determine with whom he or she communicates on a typical day, what communication media he or she uses, and which typical communication
Briefly describe C1 and C2. What type of conflict was involved in each of these incidents?
The group members playing Rister and Schwartz assume their roles and negotiate a solution to these three problems.
Discuss why too little conflict in an organization can be just as detrimental as too much conflict.
Observers take notes on how Rister and Schwartz negotiate solutions to their problems.
Why are compromise and collaboration more effective ways of handling conflict than accommodation, avoidance, and competition?
Observers determine the extent to which Rister and Schwartz use distributive negotiation or integrative bargaining to resolve their conflicts.
Why should managers promote integrative bargaining rather than distributive negotiation?
What could you have done differently to more effectively manage conflict in C2?
When called on by the instructor, observers communicate to the rest of the class how Rister and Schwartz resolved their conflicts, whether they used distributive negotiation or integrative
How can managers promote integrative bargaining?
How was the conflict resolved in C1 and C2?
Why do organizational politics affect practically every organization?
Why do effective managers need good political skills?
What steps can managers take to ensure that organizational politics are a positive force leading to a competitive advantage, not a negative force leading to personal advantage at the expense of
Think of a member of an organization whom you know and who is politically powerful. What political strategies does this person use to increase his or her power?
Why is it best to use power unobtrusively? How are people likely to react to power that is exercised obtrusively?
Interview a manager in a local organization to determine the kinds of conflicts that occur in that manager’s organization and the strategies that are used to manage them.
To be useful, information must be of high quality, be timely, be relevant, and be as complete as possible. Why does a tall management hierarchy, when used as a management information system, have
Describe the management information systems that are used to coordinate and control organizational activities and to help make decisions.
Ethically speaking, how far should a company go to protect its proprietary information, given that it also needs to protect the privacy of its employees? What steps can it take?
What are the various forces in a specialty furniture maker’s task environment that have the most effect on its performance?
Compare the pros and cons of using a network structure to perform organizational activities versus performing all activities in house or within one organizational hierarchy.
How might advanced IT improve the competitive position of this organization? In particular, try to identify the impact that a new MIS might have on the organization’s efficiency, quality,
What kinds of IT or MISs can be used to help the company manage these forces?
When is it ethical for employees to give information about a company’s unethical or illegal practices to a third party, such as a newspaper or government agency?
Do you think that the organization’s existing MIS gives managers with high-quality, timely, relevant, and relatively complete information? Why or why not?
Royal Dutch Shell covers the supply chain for oil and gas, from extracting to refining to retailing. Oil demand is expected to peak during the 2030s, and international pressure for reducing carbon
Question a manager about his or her views of the relative importance of Fayol’s 14 principles of management.
What evidence do you see of a commitment to social responsibility at Chevron? If Chevron were to leave Venezuela, what do you think would be the impact on its employees and the communities where it
If Chevron continues to be unprofitable in Venezuela, should it leave? What if it finds a way to become more profitable again? How, if at all, does profitability change your answer?
You are planning to leave your job to go work for a competitor. Your boss invites you to an important meeting where you will learn about new products your company will be bringing out next year. Do
Why is it that an organization’s values and norms can become too strong and lead to unethical behavior?
What makes chewing gum acceptable in the United States and unacceptable in Singapore?
Why do the claims and interests of stakeholders sometimes conflict?
You’re the manager of sales in an expensive sports car dealership. A young executive who has just received a promotion comes in and wants to buy a car that you know is out of her price range. Do
What steps can a company take to prevent this problem—to stop its values and norms from becoming so inwardly focused that managers and employees lose sight of their responsibility to their
Why can you chew gum on the street but not in a church?
What evidence do you see of a commitment to social responsibility at Chevron? If Chevron were to leave Venezuela, what do you think would be the impact on its employees and the communities where it
Why should managers use ethical criteria to guide their decision making?
You sign a contract to manage a young rock band, and that group agrees to let you produce their next seven records, for which they will receive royalties of 5%. Their first record is a smash hit and
How can you use ethical principles to decide when gum chewing is ethical or unethical and if and when it should be made illegal?
If Chevron continues to be unprofitable in Venezuela, should it leave? What if it finds a way to become more profitable again? How, if at all, does profitability change your answer?
As an employee of a company, what are some of the most unethical business practices that you have encountered in its dealing with stakeholders?
What are the main determinants of business ethics?
Find a manager and ask about the most important ethical rules he or she uses to make the right decisions.
Find an example of (a) A company that has an obstructionist approach to social responsibility (b) One that has an accommodative approach.
Goldman Sachs is an investment bank headquartered in New York that serves clients worldwide. It helps companies obtain financing and carry out mergers and acquisitions, works with governments to
Discuss why violations of the principles of distributive and procedural justice continue to occur in modern organizations. What can managers do to uphold these principles in their organizations?
The payment of bribes violates the U.S. Foreign Corruption Practices Act, which forbids payment of bribes by U.S. companies to secure contracts abroad. Companies in violation of this law can be
Best Buy operates more than 1,000 electronics stores and employs around 125,000 people. That the electronics retailer continues to exist at all at the time of this writing is a testimony to
Warfare has largely changed from the army-against-army model to one of army-against-insurgent. The freedom fighters/insurgents are innovative and make weapons from unconventional items, which can be
Huawei Technologies, based in China, is the world’s largest maker of telecommunications equipment and second-largest maker of cellphones. It builds fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks for
Think about a situation in which you would have benefited from mentoring, but a mentor was not available. What could you have done to try to get the help of a mentor in this situation?
Why is mentoring particularly important for minorities?
Why is it important to consider the numbers of different groups of employees at various levels in an organization’s hierarchy?
Discuss an occasion when you may have been treated unfairly because of stereotypical thinking. What stereotypes were applied to you? How did they result in your being treated unfairly?
How does the implicit bias influence your own behavior and decisions?
Discuss the ways in which schemas can be functional and dysfunctional.
Some workers might resent accommodations made for disabled employees. As a manager, what could you do to ensure all employees are treated fairly?
Sometimes employees who test positive for HIV experience discrimination in the workplace. As a manager, what would you do to ensure such discrimination is eliminated?
How can scenario planning help managers predict the future?
What kinds of decisions and actions were taken by GE and the managers at Lawrence Park and Fort Worth? Categorize these as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
How have new technologies utilized at the Lawrence Park facility help save local jobs?
In your opinion, what responsibilities do GE and Wabtec have toward their employees and the communities in which they operate?
Use the theories discussed in the chapter to debate the ethical issues involved in the way the Westland/ Hallmark Meat Co. business operated.
How do the various management theories discussed in this chapter offer clues for organizing and controlling hotel employees?
How do you think Mary Parker Follett would have addressed the challenge of improving productivity in Red Robin’s restaurants? Would her approach have helped the company? Why or why not?
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
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
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
Use the theories to discuss the ethical issues involved in the way the meatpacking business is being conducted today.
Which parts would be the most important for an effective system to organize and control employees?
Give an example of a type of problem management science could solve for Red Robin. What limits, if any, do you see on the ability of management science to help Red Robin’s managers solve business
Search the web for changes occurring in the meatpacking business.
Apply the theory of dynamic capabilities to the situation at Red Robin. How well would you say management has performed at sensing, seizing, and transforming? Would you describe Red Robin as dynamic?
Which of Weber’s and Fayol’s principles seem most relevant to the creation of an ethical organization?
How are companies using management science theory to improve their processes? Is this theory equally applicable for manufacturing and service companies? If so, how?
What is contingency theory? What kinds of organizations familiar to you have been successful or unsuccessful in dealing with contingencies from the external environment?
Why are mechanistic and organic structures suited to different organizational environments?
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.
Choose your preferred course of action and justify why you will take this route.
Appoint one group member to write down the alternatives as they are identified.
1. How might fluctuating job roles affect employees’ productivity?2. As an employee, what advantages and disadvantages do you see to Holacracy?3. Search the Internet and outline additional changes
Using SWOT analysis, analyze the pros and cons of each alternative.
In what ways is the organizational culture communicated to organizational members?
Why do you think that the decision maker acted unfairly in this situation?
What could you or the person who was treated unfairly have done to improve matters and rectify the injustice on the spot?
What training and development do people who hold this job receive? Are the training and development appropriate? Why or why not?
What advantages can you tell accountants they will obtain when they use the new information technology?
1. How does the managerial task of leading affect employee performance?2. As the economy continues to improve, workers will be looking to change jobs (and companies) at a faster pace. What can
What values are emphasized in this culture?
What norms do members of this organization follow?
Who seems to have played an important role in creating the culture?

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