A boundaryless organization implies

INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT: EXAM QUESTIONS

TOPIC 1: ORIGINS OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES Lecture + Robbins Ch. 1 1. What is management? Have these definitions changed over time?

The organization and coordination of the activities of a business in order to achieve defined objectives. Management is often included as a factor of production along with? machines, materials, and money. Management consists of the interlocking functions of creating corporate policy and organizing, planning, controlling, and directing an organization's resources in order to achieve the objectives of that policy. Other definition of management where directors and managers who have the power and responsibility to make decisions and oversee an enterprise. The size of management can range from one person in a small organization to hundreds or thousands of managers in multinational companies. Management changes can help a lot with timing. If a board of directors is serious about restructuring, they'll often hire someone from a best-in-class company to make it happen. Those people aren't cheap, which shows the board is serious, and the fact that the person is willing to come indicates they think they can add value. An executive from a first-class company taking over a laggard can mean an opportunity is ripe for the picking.

2. Explain the differences between effectiveness and efficiency. Give examples to illustrate your answer. Discuss ways that managers at each of the four levels of management can contribute to efficiency and effectiveness.

Effectiveness is the level of results from the actions of employees and managers. Employees and managers who demonstrate effectiveness in the workplace help produce high-quality results. Take, for instance, an employee who works the sales floor. If he’s effective, he’ll make sales consistently. If he’s ineffective, he’ll struggle to persuade customers to make a purchase. Companies measure effectiveness often by conducting performance reviews. The effectiveness of a workforce has an enormous impact on the quality of a company’s product or service, which often dictates a company’s reputation and customer satisfaction

While Efficiency in the workplace is the time it takes to do something. Efficient employees and managers complete tasks in the least amount of time possible with the least amount of resources possible by utilizing certain time-saving strategies. Inefficient employees and managers take the long road. For example, suppose a manager is attempting to communicate more efficiently. He can accomplish his goal by using email rather than sending letters to each employee. Efficiency and effectiveness are mutually exclusive. A manager or employee who's efficient isn’t always effective and vice versa. Efficiency increases productivity and saves both time and money.

To improve effectiveness, managers must take the initiative to provide thorough performance reviews, detailing an employee’s weakness through constructive criticism. Managers must make it a point to address effectiveness and explain how an employee’s performance affects the company as a whole. To avoid a workplace full of ineffective employees, companies must hire high-performing employees by weeding out candidates at the recruiting level.

To improve efficiency, employees and managers are often inefficient because they either don’t know how to be efficient or do not have the necessary tools to perform tasks efficiently. Ways to improve efficiency include meeting with managers and employees to outline ways to implement efficiency in the workplace and asking for opinions on what the workplace is missing. For example, a small business that lacks an employee email system prevents managers from communicating with employees efficiently.

3. In today’s environment, which is more important to organisations—efficiency or effectiveness? Explain your choice.

Efficiency is the most important factor that is preferred by organization in today’s environment in that Strategic management decisions that promote efficiency tend to be aimed at reducing the use of resources through maximizing return. Any action taken to reduce inventory waste, for example, would be a strategic management decision aimed at greater efficiency. Efforts to increase productivity would be included in this category. Another strategic management decision that would be efficiency-oriented would be having executives share an executive assistant, rather than hiring executive assistants for each executive.

4. Fayol, Mintzberg and Katz studied and wrote about management – though each in a different way. Discuss the focus of each contribution for the management of contemporary organisations.

Fayol is considered to be among the most influential contributors to the modern concept of management. The theory falls under the Administrative Management school of thought. Henri Fayol's Principle of Management Followings are the 14 principles of management developed by the Henry Fayol:

i. Division of Work: division of work means specialization

ii. Authority and Responsibility: Authority and responsibility go together or co-existing.

iii. Discipline: According to Henry Fayol discipline means sincerity about the work and enterprise, carrying out orders and instructions of superiors and to have faith in the policies and programs of the business enterprise

iv. Unity of Command: A subordinate should take order from only one boss and he should be responsible and accountable to him

v. Unity of direction: Fayol advocates "One head and one plan" which means that group efforts on a particular plan be led and directed by a single person

vi. Subordination of individual interests to general interests

vii. Fair Remuneration to employees: According to Fayol wage-rates and method of their payment should be fair, proper and satisfactory.

viii. Centralization and Decentralization: There should be one central point in the organization which exercises overall direction and control of all the parts

ix. Scalar chain: The scalar chain is a chain of supervisors from the highest to the lowest rank.

x. Order: According to Fayol there should be proper, systematic and orderly arrangement of physical and social factors, such as land, raw materials, tools and equipments and employees respectively

xi. Equity: The principle of equality should be followed and applicable at every level of management

xii. Stability of Tenure: Principle of stability is linked with long tenure of personnel in the organization.

xiii. Initiative: Under this principle, the successful management provides an opportunity to its employees to suggest their new ideas, experiences and more convenient methods of work

xiv. Spirit of Co-operation: In order to achieve the best possible results, individual and group efforts are to be effectively integrated and coordinated

Mintzberg: Henry Mintzberg discusses seven different forms of business organization, and six components that characterize all organizations. Henry Mintzberg's theory of organizational structure also breaks organizations' work down into six coordination mechanisms, illustrating how distinct tasks are performed and then coordinated to accomplish goals. The management theory of Henry Mintzberg also breaks down the manager's tasks into three areas: interpersonal, information processing and decision making. Managers' various roles, such as serving as a leader, a spokesman and a resource allocator, fit into one of these three areas of activity.

The Mintzberg theory of management continues to evolve as Henry Mintzberg does more work with active managers and businesspeople, as well as in the academy. Keeping up to date with Mintzberg's work can help you stay on the cutting edge of business management as well. Mintzberg's website provides comprehensive information about his past and ongoing publications. Henry Mintzberg advocates a basic management theory that is designed to be practiced and experiential.

Katz: Social psychologist Katz in 1974, in his article,” Skills of an Effective Administrator“ in Harvard Business thought about the relationship of managerial skills and hierarchical management levels. The result was the setting of the three areas of managerial skills and determination, for which level they are characterized:

· Technical skills - competencies important, particularly for lower management

· Human skills - competencies needed for all levels of management

· Conceptual skills - competencies with a substantial importance, particularly for top management

5. Describe the key similarities and differences between the management theories developed by Fayol, Mintzberg and Katz

Mintzberg obtained his theory as a result of research based on observation. Hence, his roles directly depict what managers do. He argues that Fayol’s functions ‘do not describe the actual work of managers at all; they describe certain vague objectives of managerial work’ (Mintzberg 1971). As he observed the managers in his research, he found that all activities captured at lease one of his ten roles in practice whereas they could not be simplified to be known singularly as one of Fayol’s functions

Fayol’s focus on what managers should do if they lived in an idealised state… Mintzberg’s concerns with what manager’s actually do, given on the demands they experience day-to-day.

Fayol has five functions of management; planning, commanding, coordinating and controlling. These functions are to predict the future, plan for the future, developing different technique structure, managing activities, send information to staff members and make sure that things go according to what plan and also get feedback in order to correct inappropriate activities.

According to Mintzberg, he say that management is more than just planning, commanding, coordinating and controlling, it is having an interpersonal relationship and communicate with employees and customers. He describes management as the roles of management. It split into three broad groups, Informational, Interpersonal and decisional roles which comprises of monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, figurehead, leader, laision, entrepreneur, resource allocation and disturbance handler.

Both Fayol and Mintzberg describe management in their own term. Although management is a vague term, Fayol and Mintzberg use their own observation to describe how management works. They take different approaches to highlight how manager operation in an organization.

Katz believed that a successful manager would be sensitive to the needs of those around them with the ability to judge potential reactions and outcomes and to then make an educated decision on the correct course of action to carry out. Katz divided human skills into two categories, leadership ability within the unit and ability within interpersonal relationships. The third and final skill that Katz believed essential to a successful manager was conceptual. Fuyol concluded that it was a necessity for a successful manager to display and enhance three fundamental skills. These skills were technical, human and conceptual. He found that the importance of such skills depended upon the size of the organization and the extent of reliance that was placed on managerial responsibility.

TOPIC 2: MANAGING ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Lecture + Robbins Ch. 8

1. Describe the three ‘attitude orientations’ of organizational behavior and give an example for each. In your answer discuss why it is helpful for managers to be aware of these orientations.:

They include: job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment.

Job satisfaction is a collection of positive and negative feelings that an individual holds towards his/ her job. Example, how satisfied are people in their jobs? Job satisfaction has declined to 51% due to less control over work.

Job involvement involves identifying with the job, actively participating in it and considering performance important to self-worth.

Organizational commitment: involves identifying with a particular organization and it’s goals and wishing to maintain membership in the organization.

Managers should be aware of these orientations since satisfied workers are more friendly and responsive and helps to build long term relationship between customers and also this may help increase the productivity of the organization.

2. ‘Instead of worrying about job satisfaction, companies should be trying to create environments where performance is enabled.’ Discuss the implications of this statement for managers.

Job satisfaction has a great effect on employee performance, therefore, managers should take actions to retain high performers and weed out low performers. Thus employees who feel fairly treated by and are trusting of the organization are more willing to engage in behaviors that go beyond their normal expectations of their job.

3. Explain the challenges facing managers in managing generational differences and negative behavior in the workplace

i. Diversity

Employers may feel challenged to hire a more diverse work force while at the same time being concerned about the impact the diversity can have hence extra training is required and this may raise expenses.

ii. Employment interaction

Teams working together under the same roof there is bound to be friction from time to time. Introducing training to help employees learn how to manage work stress and get along with other people can be very beneficial.

iii. Handling customers

Customers also bring another level of challenge into the mix. Most employees get frustrated by the customers in situations where it is difficult to deal with on the notion that the customer is always right hence it becomes a challenge to managers to deal with this.

4. Describe the two approaches of perception and the categories in each approach. Discuss why it is important for individuals to be aware of these approaches and the barriers to accurate perception that can occur.

Perception is a cognitive process. People’s individual differences and uniqueness are largely the result of the cognitive process they use in processing the information they receive and conclusions they make.perception is the interpretation of the situation by a person and it is not an exact recording of it.

The approaches to perception, are classical approach and system approach.

Classical approach.

It professes the body of management based on the believe that employees have only economical and physical needs and the social needs and need for job satisfaction either does not exist or not important. It advocates high specialization of labor, centralized decision making and profit maximization. The categories of classical approach are: scientific, administrative and bureaucratic management.

Scientific management focuses on the best way to do a job.

Administrative management focuses on the manager and basic managerial functions.

Bureaucratic management focuses on the guidelines for structuring with formalization of rules, procedures and a clear division of labor.

Merits

i. Offers convenient framework for education and training.

ii. Helpful in drawing common principles out of past experiences

iii. Focuses attention on what managers actually do.

iv. Provides scientific basis for management practice.

System approach

It is a collection of interrelated parts acting together to achieve so goal which exists in the environment. It is also defined as a set of objects working together with relationships between the objects and their attributes related to each other and the environment.

Merits

i. This approach reflects the interests of all parties and it is not based on desires of one group alone.

Demerits

i. Broader than management and its practices

ii. Overlooks many management concepts, techniques and principles.

TOPIC 3: GROUPS AND TEAMS Lecture + Robbins Ch. 9 1. Explain the impact of work teams on productivity in countries such as the United States and Australia, whose national cultures place a high value on individualism.

Many countries use the word team in either one sense or the other that is, production and marketing processes. Examples are management team, production team or an entire organization can be referred to as a team. Work teams improves the overall results in an organization’s productivity in countries such as USA and Australia in the following ways.

· Work teams retain valuable organizational knowledge that comes with the continuity of staff and sharing of information

· Enhance the power and feeling of satisfaction of individuals working on the team

· Establish trust relationships that lead to better sharing of knowledge and understanding

· Achieve objectives because individuals are working together

· Hold team members accountable to one another accountable

Combine the talents of many individuals and therefore contribute more than the sum of its parts

- Create an environment where the input from people at all levels is valued

- Create new knowledge through working and learning with others

- Provide a process and place for multiple perspectives to be applied to complex problems and issues

- Generate new ideas and insights

- Turn knowledge into practical results that improve the organization´s services

-Use a variety of communication processes (including technology) to support the sharing of information, knowledge and experience

- Create a climate where innovation and new ideas are supported and members listen to diverse points of view

- Multiply impacts while maintaining or reducing the resources needed to do the job

- Promote a culture that questions the status quo and looks for innovative ways to improve services and reach goals

- Empower individuals, the team and the organizations

2. Compare how early scientific management theorists and behavioural science theorists might react to the increased use of teams in contemporary organiZations.

Scientific management, theories analyzes work flows to improve economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. Important components of scientific management include analysis, synthesis, logic, rationality, empiricism, work ethic, efficiency, elimination of waste, and standardized best practices. Behavioral science relies on the notion that managers will better understand the human aspect to workers and treat employees as important assets to achieve goals. Management taking a special interest in workers makes them feel like part of a special group.

3. Discuss ways in which norms and conformity can affect group behavior. In your answer provide an explanation of what is meant by ‘norms’ and ‘conformity’.

Norm: A norm is informal guideline about what is considered normal social behavior in a particular group or social unit. Norms form the basis of collective expectations that members of a community have from each other, and play a key part in social control and social order by exerting a pressure on the individual to conform. Conformity: This is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms. Norms are implicit, unsaid rules, shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others. This tendency to conform occurs in small groups and/or society as a whole, and may result from subtle unconscious influences, or direct and overt social pressure

Norms and conformity affect group behavior in the following ways

i. Individuals who breach norms that they accept may experience a range of negative emotional consequences, such as extreme self-consciousness, embarrassment, guilt, and shame.

ii. Breaches upset uncertainty-reducing activity, so organizations in these cultures may adopt structural formalization and centralization, thus reducing the degree of sharing of important information and decision making with subordinates.

iii. Individuals may obey norms to fulfill their own expectations about proper behavior. Individuals often feel duty bound to adhere to norms because, as responsible members of the group, they accept the legitimacy of the established norms and recognize the importance of supporting these norms.

iv. Not conforming to social norms and values is likely to make followers quickly perceive a leader as incompetent and not deserving of that position, regardless of his or her personal achievements. On the other hand, for most individuals, small breaches that reflect personal idiosyncrasies, if kept private, will likely be overlooked.

v. By conforming to group norms, idiosyncrasy credits can be earned, and if enough idiosyncrasy credits are earned, the person can, on occasion, breach norms without retribution from the group. Individuals who breach norms but cannot provide an acceptable explanation for their violation are often evaluated negatively and may experience peer aggression, violence, and lesser forms of mistreatment.

4. Discuss the challenges that managers face with managing global teams. In your answer provide a solution for overcoming each challenge.

a) Lack of clarity.

When working with team members who have different native tongues, it’s common for key messages to get lost in translation. Add poor phone connections and multitasking team members while on conference calls, and you start to realize why communication doesn’t always sink in the first time around.

Remedy: Put action items and key decisions in writing. Follow up conference calls with clear, written communication of the outcomes of the meeting. This ensures everyone walked away from the meeting with the same key takeaways.

b) Slow decision making

When there are only a few hours a day, it can take weeks to get a meeting scheduled that works for everyone’s calendar.

Remedy: Communicate strategy and direction face to face whenever possible. A regular in-person meeting is also a must to boost team morale and increase collaboration.

c) Disjointed conflict resolution.

Working predominantly through email makes it difficult to deal with tough issues and get everyone on the same page.

Remedy: Never communicate tough messages via email, as written messages can easily be misunderstood. By speaking live to the individual in a one-on-one conversation, you are much more likely to understand one another and communicate effectively.

d) Conflicting corporate culture.

Great company culture depends on constant interaction and team bonding among employees.

Remedy: invest in cultural training. hire a consultant to spend a day with the management team for cultural training.

5. Discuss the impact of group size on group behaviour, group cohesiveness, and productivity

The ideal size of a small group working on a shared task is of interest to both researchers that wish to understand fundamental processes and those who wish to design more effective work groups. Research has shown that larger groups generate more accurate answers to problems, are more likely to retain important information and generally have higher performance.

Sub-groups may form to reduce this stress that promote conflict between group members and harm group productivity. Individual level stressors may reduce group cohesion, which has been found to undermine group success and increases the likelihood that schisms will develop between group members.

Increasing group size has a negative impact on group member trust, cohesion, and commitment. Increasing group size likely reduces how aware group members are of one another, affecting cohesion and trust between group members. As cohesion is reduced, group members are more likely to focus on interactions with people they feel are more aware of them.

Increasing group size may make it more difficult to coordinate group member contributions, and may reduce people’s motivations to contribute to shared tasks. Such problems as within group coalition formation may result partly because increasing group size limits group members’ mutual awareness, the ability to monitor each other’s behavior, and leads to a reduction in the frequency of one-on-one interaction.

TOPIC 4: MANAGERIAL COMMUNICATION Lecture + Robbins Ch. 12

1. Explain why it is important to understand the different communication styles when communicating with people. In your answer discuss the barriers to communication that managers need to be aware of when communicating with culturally diverse teams.

i. Understanding different communication styles promotes individual awareness.

ii. It increases self-esteem and self-confidence.

iii. Helps to create good and lasting impressions on others

Barriers to communication that need to be aware include;

i. Close minded

ii. Poor listening

iii. Difficulty seeing the other person's point of view

iv. Interrupts

v. Monopolizing

2. You are a manager who is trying to get support from your colleagues for a new idea. Describe the three principles of communication as well as three influencing tactics you might use.

Principles of communication include:

1. Aggressiveness. I will be aggressive in delivering of the message by pointing frowning, shaking fingers and produce a loud yelling voice.

2. Passiveness. I will be passive by not expressing my true feelings, allowing others to make decision for me, being apologetic and self-conscious.

3. Assertiveness; I will be assertive by handling the situations as effectively as possible,being confident, open and flexible when communicating with my colleagues.

The influencing I might use are:

i. Being clear and keeping it simple by expressing myself directly and honestly.

ii. Being consistent so as I don’t confuse people.

iii. By stating observations, no labels or judgement.

4. Describe the foundations of good communication and how these can help minimise toxic communications in the workplace. In your answer discuss contemporary communication issues facing managers.

Good communication must possess the following features;

Be concrete. The details help the audience to picture in minds how something should be carried out. This means that communications about important initiatives should move beyond abstract statements to specific action items with detailed instructions. Include visual aids where possible.

Find new creative ways of expressing core values. With each new idea, event or project find ways to tie it back to a key company value and don’t be shy about explicitly stating the connection.

Being a leader in collaboration world. As there are more ways for employees to get information through collaborative technology and the web, it is important for managers to be able to capture people attention in order to effectively compete with other influences.

The contemporary communication issues facing managers include:

i. Wasting time and energy over supervising others

ii. Fostering resistance and defiance

iii. Building dependency relationships

iv. Giving up being him/ herself.

4).“’Silence’ can be a powerful language”. Describe four characteristics of nonverbal communication and how these can assist managers when communicating with others

Characteristics of non-verbal communication

i. Nodding of head comes across as pleading

ii. Smiles and nods in agreement

iii. Rigid posture

iv. Squints eyes critically

v. Fast, when anxious; slow, hesitant, when doubtful

These nonverbal cues helps in catching the attention of the audience that the message is being passed to hence it improves effective communication among people.

5.) ‘Ineffective communication is the fault of the sender.’ Discuss the communication process and three ways to ensure effective communication.

Communication process

Communication process consists of some interrelated steps or parts through which messages are sent form sender to receiver. The process of communication begins when the sender wants to transmit a fact, idea, opinion or other information to the receiver and ends with receiver’s feedback to the sender. The main components of communication process are sender, message, channel, receiver and feedback.

Communication process consists of the following eight steps

1. Developing idea by the sender: In the first step, the communicator develops or conceptualizes an idea to be sent. It is also known as the planning stage since in this stage the communicator plans the subject matter of communication.

2. Encoding: Encoding means converting or translation the idea into a perceivable form that can be communicated to others.

3. Developing the message: After encoding the sender gets a message that can be transmitted to the receiver. The message can be oral, written, symbolic or nonverbal. For example, when people talk, speech is the message; when people write a letter, the words and sentences are the message; when people cries, the crying is the message.

4. Selecting the medium: Medium is the channel or means of transmitting the message to the receiver. Once the sender has encoded his into a message, the next step is to select a suitable medium for transmitting it to the receiver. The medium of communication can be speaking, writing, signaling, gesturing etc.

5. Transmission of message: In this step, the sender actually transmits the message through chosen medium. In the communication cycle, the tasks of the sender end with the transmission of the message.

6. Receiving the message by receiver: This stage simply involves the reception of sender’s message by the receiver. The message can be received in the form of hearing, seeing, feeling and so on.

7. Decoding: Decoding is the receiver’s interpretation of the sender’s message. Here the receiver converts the message into thoughts and tries to analyze and understand it. Effective communication can occur only when both the sender and the receiver assign the same or similar meanings to the message.

8. Feedback: The final step of communication process is feedback. Feedback means receiver’s response to sender’s message. It increases the effectiveness of communication. It ensures that the receiver has correctly understood the message. Feedback is the essence of two-way communication.

Ways of Effective communication

1. Open meeting

It is easier to communicate your passion and how you feel to your team via open meetings. In this kind of forum, they will not only hear what you are saying, they will also see and feel it. This approach still remains one of the best approaches to communicate effectively with a team.

2. Emails

In official settings, communication via email remains potent. It will enable you to pass messages to members of your team without pulling them out of their work stations.

3. One on One

Experts have been able to prove that some people understand better when you take them aside and talk to them on a one-on-one basis. Ensure that you maintain eye contact with them to enable the message to sink in.

4. Use Presentations

Some people grasp messages easily when pictures and sounds are involved. Using presentations like Microsoft Power Point to communicate with your team will give them the opportunity to refer back to it if they aren’t clear about certain things.

5. Communication via Training

Your training should be tailored towards communicating certain information to your team members. Most employees take training serious, especially when it’s part of their appraisal.

6. Display Confidence and Seriousness

Ensure that you display confidence and seriousness to ensure that you will not be taken for granted. When your team members notice any uncertainty and lack of seriousness when you’re communicating with them, they are likely to treat the information with disdain or disregard.

7. Use Simple Words

The truth is that everybody cannot be on same page when it comes to vocabulary. Therefore, to be effective in your communications with your team members, use words that can be easily understood. When ambiguous words are used, you can be misunderstood and/or waste precious time having to explain yourself.

TOPIC 5: MANAGING CSR AND ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR Lecture + Robbins Ch. 2 1. Taking a systems view of organisations, discuss the influence of systems culture and values on corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The following are as a result of influence of systems culture and values on corporate social responsibility (CSR).

· Profits efficiently earned may not constitute a sufficient CSR standard.

· Companies should engage in strategic philanthropy whereby good acts improve operating conditions and quality of life—and serve society.

· Companies should partner with non-profits and government agencies to solve social, economic, and psychological problems in society.

· Companies should meet or exceed stakeholder expectations of performance standards needed to satisfy the moral rectitude that business contributes to the long-term business climate by collaborative decision making and operating in the public interest.

CR reduces the propensity and rationale activists have to call for excessive and punitive legislation/regulation and the cost of such mistakes.

CR protects organizations, at least for a while, during a crisis and can reduce various costs, such as litigation and related punitive damages.

CR increases the likelihood, on the part of non-profits and governmental agencies, that they will get funding they need because they are accomplishing a mission which stakeholders support

2.) Secchi developed three theories of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Describe the differences between the three theories and give an example for each.

Broadly, there are three theoretical approaches to these new responsibilities: Corporate social responsibility (CSR), the triple bottom line and stakeholder theory

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
The title corporate social responsibility has two meanings. First, it’s a general name for any theory of the corporation that emphasizes both the responsibility to make money and the responsibility to interact ethically with the surrounding community. Second, corporate social responsibility is also a specific conception of that responsibility to profit while playing a role in broader questions of community welfare.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is composed of four obligations:

i. The economic responsibility to make money. Required by simple economics, this obligation is the business version of the human survival instinct.

ii. The legal responsibility to adhere to rules and regulations. Like the previous, this responsibility is not controversial.

iii. The ethical responsibility to do what’s right even when not required by the letter or spirit of the law.

iv. The philanthropic responsibility to contribute to society’s projects even when they’re independent of the particular business.

The Triple Bottom Line
The triple bottom line is a form of corporate social responsibility dictating that corporate leaders tabulate bottom-line results not only in economic terms but also in terms of company effects in the social realm, and with respect to the environment. There are two keys to this idea. First, the three columns of responsibility must be kept separate, with results reported independently for each. Second, in all three of these areas, the company should obtain sustainable results. The notion of sustainability is very specific. At the intersection of ethics and economics, sustainability means the long-term maintenance of balance.

· Economic sustainability values long-term financial solidity over more volatile, short-term profits, no matter how high

· Social sustainability values balance in people’s lives and the way we live

· The fair trade movement fits this ethical imperative to shared opportunity and wealth. Developed and refined as an idea in Europe in the 1960s, organizations promoting fair trade ask businesses.

· Environmental sustainability begins from the affirmation that natural resources, especially the oil fueling our engines, the clean air we breathe, and the water we drink are limited.

Stakeholder Theory
Stakeholder theory, which has been described by Edward Freeman and others, is the mirror image of corporate social responsibility. Instead of starting with a business and looking out into the world to see what ethical obligations are there, stakeholder theory starts in the world. It lists and describes those individuals and groups who will be affected by (or affect) the company’s actions and asks, “What are their legitimate claims on the business?” “What rights do they have with respect to the company’s actions?” and “What kind of responsibilities and obligations can they justifiably impose on a particular business?”

The outer limits of stakeholding are blurry. In an abstract sense, it’s probably true that everyone in the world counts as a stakeholder of any serious factory insofar as we all breathe the same air and because the global economy is so tightly linked that decisions taken in a boardroom in a small town on the East Coast can end up costing someone in India her job and the effects keep rippling out from there. Once a discrete set of stakeholders surrounding an enterprise has been located, stakeholder ethics may begin. The purpose of the firm, underneath this theory, is to maximize profit on a collective bottom line, with profit defined not as money but as human welfare. The collective bottom line is the summed effect of a company’s actions on all stakeholders.

3.) Discuss how ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) evolved and the early influences on the multidisciplinary interconnections evident in contemporary corporations.

Traditionally, the directors of companies have had an extremely difficult but very narrowly defined responsibility: guide the enterprise toward money. The best companies have been those generating the highest sales, gaining the most customers, and clearing the largest profits. As for ethical questions, they’ve been arranged around the basic obligation to represent the owners’ central interest, which presumably is to profit from their investment. Consequently, the field of business ethics has mainly concerned conflicts and dilemmas erupting inside the company as people try to work together to win in the very competitive economic world. In Woburn, Massachusetts, in the early 1980s, this conflict between two ways of running a business played out in the Hollywood depiction of the lawyer played by John Travolta. At the movie’s beginning, right and wrong for a business got decided in dollars and without broader sensibility. Travolta’s law firm existed to make money and operated by accepting only cases that promised big payouts. That’s what brought Travolta to Woburn, the chance to sue deep-pocketed W. R. Grace for poisoning the land with toxic runoff and for destroying the lives of families living near the pools of contamination. Over the course of the movie, however, Travolta becomes attached to Woburn’s cause and the social good of fighting for a clean environment.

In terms of business ethics, it’s not difficult to interpret Travolta’s transformation from a businessman taking care of the bottom line, to one engaged by a broader vision of social responsibility. In terms of corporate social responsibility, Travolta came to believe that his job as the law firm’s leader obligated him to satisfy his economic responsibility to make money for the firm by suing for financial damages while also acting legally. In terms of the triple bottom line of economics, society, and the environment, Travolta came to believe that his job as the law firm’s leader obligated him to take account of and do well in all three areas. In terms of stakeholder ethics, Travolta came to believe that his job as the law firm’s leader obligated him not only to work for the firm’s owners but also to take direction from those who would be affected by the firm’s actions.

4. In terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR), discuss the levels of influence that managers actually have on an organisation’s success or failure.

A company’s organizational structure is the foundation of what brings job design, task grouping, business goals, employee relations, employee mindset, efficiency, and efficacy together in a visual and interactive map of reporting and working relationships. Strategies, resources, technology, and goals are factors to consider when implementing a structure.

· A good manager shares information to the people concerned in the organization

· A good manager puts a lot of thoughts into hiring quality personnel so as to improve productivity of an organization

· A good manager is accountable for the team’s performance.

5. You are a manager developing a CSR (corporate social responsibility) statement for key stakeholders in your organisation. Describe with examples four components that the manager should consider when communicating to stakeholders.

i. Identifying your stakeholders, it is important to identify the correct individual stakeholders within a stakeholder organization.

ii. Prioritizing of my stakeholders, by mapping them and classifying them with power over my work and by their interest in my work.

iii. Communicating to ensure intended message is understood and the desired response achieved.

iv. Understanding my key stakeholders, I should know how best to engage them in my project and how best to communicate with them.

Topic 6: Managerial Leadership

1. Explain with examples what a manager might need to know when using Fiedler’s contingency model.

When using Fiedler’s contingency model, a manager should know his type of leadership style. This is determined by whether he or she is a relationship oriented leader or a task oriented leader. This is measured using the Least –Preferred co-worker scale where one takes the person they have least enjoyed working with and rates how much they feel about this person using a variety of factors. These factors include the rate of unfriendliness, unpleasantness, coldness, hostility and many others. The manager should also consider the situational favorableness of his or her given situation which depends on three different factors: Leader- member relations, the task structure and the manager’s position power.

2. All managers should be leaders but not all leaders should be managers. Discuss this statement and support your argument with examples. In your answer explain the circumstances that might make organizational leaders irrelevant.

A manager is a person who has gained years of experience in the specific area he specializes in and does things the same way they have been done over the years. He is appointed to keep the company going and bring in as much profit as possible. He does not need to have a passion for what he is doing as long as he does everything right. A leader however is a person who has a great influence on people and inspires them and builds them to things according to his goals. Leaders make decisions to build people up while every decision the manager makes in the company is to contribute to more profit. Hence managers can be said to be systematic in their ways while leaders are more like mentors. Organizational leaders become irrelevant when they don’t make enough profit the organizations they are in charge of. Great organizational leaders should be revolutionaries that come up with ideas that are in line with the fast changing world. They should know their market places and the type of customers to target every time they have a new idea.

3. ‘It is the leaders in organizations that make things happen.’ Critically discuss this statement explaining the implications for understanding behavioral leadership theories.

The leaders in every organization have no alternative other than success. They therefore have to everything in their capability to make things work. They go out of their way to find out what works for the company and in addition to that they have to stay in touch with the market. They sometimes make mistakes as this is inevitable but they have to quickly come up with a way of making up for the mistakes. According to the behavioral leadership theories, whether one is a task oriented leader or a relationship leader, they all do the best they can to keep the engine going. This is because a relationship leader will do what it takes to make sure that the workers and the customers are satisfied while the task oriented leader will make sure everything is done within the time limit it was to be done hence all of these leader make things happen in the organizations.

4. Draw on your knowledge of the conventional leader-celebratory approaches to leadership. Describe Adair’s three circles model. In your answer explain the model’s core management responsibilities.

John Adair came up with his three circles approach when he observed how effective leaders gained the support and commitment of their followers. He found out that these leaders concentrated on three areas that the members of the teams needed. The three areas included the task, team and individual. The task needs included setting a clear goal and objectives and organization and management of the process. The team needs included things like effective social interaction, shared work and communication within the team and with other teams. Individual needs varied from person to person but these leaders paid attention on how each individual behaved.

5. Bass and Avolio developed a model of transformational leadership. Discuss the key features of the model including what is meant by the term ‘Transformational Leadership’.

Transformational leadership is a type of leadership method where the leader works closely with the subordinates to identify the various areas that need change, he then creates a vision to lead them through the inspiration and later works on executing these changes with the committed members of the group. According to Bass, transformational leadership included various aspects such as appealing to the needs of followers, raising awareness of moral standards, highlighting important priorities and many others. Effective leadership comprises of four components commonly known as the 4I’s. These include: idealized influence where the leader acts as a role model to the followers, inspirational motivation where the leader is able to inspire his or her followers, Individualized consideration where the leaders are genuinely concerned with the needs of the followers and finally, intellectual stimulation where the leader dares the followers to be creative. Transformational leadership is said to be a success when the leaders and the followers motivate each other to greater levels of morality.

Topic 7: MANAGING STRATEGICALLY

1. ‘The primary means of sustaining a competitive advantage is to adjust faster to the environment than your competitors do.’ Critically discuss this statement explaining the implications for the organization and the benefits of managers understanding the six-step strategic management process.

The six-step strategic management process is advantageous to managers as it helps them stay ahead of the other companies. The first step involves identifying the organization’s current goals and missions. It is however advisable to perform step 6 of the process first where the company evaluates whether it has been able to achieve the goals. Step 3 involves analyzing the internal and the external environment. The management should then formulate strategies and make sure they are executed. Finally, step to is about analyzing what the other organizations and knowing what they are up to and the type of factors that could affect their businesses. This therefore makes them stay ahead of the competition.

2. You have just been appointed as a strategic manager. In your planning you are considering undertaking either a macro analysis or an organizational analysis. Discuss the key features of both approaches and in what circumstances you would apply each analytical tool.

Research shows that there is a connection between the organization’s strategic decision and its environment. In macro analysis, we focus on the analysis of the macro environment. The macro environmental forces that affect all organizations are political-legal, social, technological and economic forces. Examples of the political-legal forces include the outcome of elections, legislation and the decisions made by various agencies. The political sctor affects the way an organization operates in terms os taxation, privatization and expenditure. The economic forces reer to the direction in which the organization is operating. The statepf the economy largely affect organizations in terms of interest rates, inflation, monetary policy, balance of payments and the many others. Technological forces affect the way an organization operates especially in this modern day when theres a lot of technological advancements. Technology can change the demand of an organization’s raw material or product. Social forces are inclusive of consumer expectation, traditions and values. These forces affect customer behavior hence organizations can use these to determine which goods are needed.

Organizational analysis is the process of reviewing the work environment in an organization. It is mainly conducted when a company or an organization is undergoing crisis thus every system is analyzed to know the efficient and inefficient systems.

3. You have just been appointed as the strategic manager. In your planning you re considering undertaking either an industry/ sector analysis or ana organizational analysis. Discuss the key features of both approaches and in what circumstances you would apply each analytical tool.

Sector analysis is the process of analyzing the current situation and the future prospects of a given sector of the economy. It is mainly used by investors as it gives information of how well a group of companies are expected to perform while organizational analysis is the process of reviewing the work environment in an organization. It is mainly conducted when a company or an organization is undergoing crisis thus every system is analyzed to know the efficient and inefficient systems. In case an organization is interested investing a certain amount of money, then sector analysis is recommended but when an organization is interested in finding out what it could do better to maximize profit, then an organizational analysis is recommended.

4. Discuss two tools that could be applied by managers when facing a strategic dilemma. Explain which tool would be more useful in this context.

The manager can use SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis method to analyze the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats that a company faces. It helps a company to maximize on its strengths, minimize its weaknesses, use the opportunities available and minimize the threats. The leader should also make decisions based on principles. Managers sometimes used principled decision making to manage risks and uncertain investments. For unsolvable complex risk management problems, portfolio managers turn to principled decision making.

5. Discuss how understanding and managing ‘communities of practice’ can contribute strategic value in organizations.

Communities of practice are a group of people who share a common interest on a certain topic and desire to learn more as they interact regularly. When a community decides to have a management system and makes it a learning interactive session, then a lot of valuable strategic plans and ideas can come from the members of the community. Their comments on some of the investment matters and advice on certain strategic plans can give rise to the best ideal strategic plan because of thee contribution from various expertises on the subject matter.

TOPIC 8: ORGANISATIONAL ANALYSIS Lecture + Robbins Ch. 5

1. Explain the contingency factors that affect organisational design

i. Strategy:
Logically structure follows strategy because organisational structures are built to achieve objectives by implementing the strategies

ii. Environment:
Environment has an impact on decision making – specifically the difficulty of making decisions in an uncertain or unpredictable environment. An unstable environment that changes rapidly and is less predictable has two requirements:

· The organisation must be able to adapt to change, for which it needs to be flexible and responsive.

· The organisation needs greater coordination among departments.

iii. Size of the organisation:
The number of employers working in an organisation indicates its size. It is observed that large organisations differ structurally from small ones in terms of division of labour, rules and regulations, performance appraisal and budgeting procedures.

iv. Technology:
Some kind of technology is used to convert the resources into outputs in every organisation. Technology includes the knowledge, machinery, work procedures, and materials that convert the inputs into outputs. The technology used to manufacture the products decides the kind of the organisation for the production system

v. Age of the organisation:
With age; an organisation incorporates standardised systems, procedures and regulations. Like people, organisations evolve through stage of life cycle – birth, youth, midlife and maturity. In the birth stage, the organisation created by the entrepreneur is informal, with no rules and regulations.

2.) Compare the similarities and differences between ‘subjective’ factors and ‘objective’ frameworks for organisational analysis. Give examples to illustrate your answer.

Subjective performance evaluation are based on personal impressions and judgementsthey are nonverifiable.

Subjectivity can be used in any of a number of ways, and it can provide multiple benefits.

If both objective and subjective performance evaluations are used, One possibility is that they are highly correlated. The subjective evaluators might be highly influenced by the objective performance ratings, causing them not to differentiate individuals’ performances on any other basis

objective measures can sometimes provide good indicators of an individual’s performance while Subjective ratings can be more focused on individual performance, can consider a broader range of factors

3.) Discuss why analysing ‘subjective’ factors are important when analysing organisations. In your answer define what is meant by ‘subjective’ factors.

Subjective factors Based on attitudes, beliefs, or opinions, instead of on verifiable evidence or phenomenon. Subjective factors always functions within the framework of objective relationships and conditions, which to a considerable extent are crystallized forms of previous human activity.

Importance of subjective factors

It is a source of information for strategic planning.

Builds organization’s strengths.

Reverse its weaknesses.

Maximize its response to opportunities.

Overcome organization’s threats.

It helps in identifying core competencies of the firm.

It helps in setting of objectives for strategic planning.

4.) Describe what the objective frameworks for organisational analysis are. Discuss when the ‘systems principles’ are not desirable for businesses to apply.

Objective frameworks are re short-term and medium-term goals that an organization seeks to accomplish. An organization's objectives will play a large part in developing organizational polices and determining the allocation of organizational resources.

Businesses conduct a SWOT analysis where they identify their internal Strengths and Weaknesses as well as external Opportunities and Threats. This information allow you to develop strategies that are relevant and realistic to your organization. Investigate what the future trends may be in your industry. You want to develop objectives that will give you a competitive advantage.

TOPIC 9: CREATIVITY, INNOVATION & DESIGN Lecture + Robbins Ch.- 7, 13 1.) Define each of the following types of innovation and give an appropriate example for each from the motorcar industry: Product/Service innovation; Marketing innovation; Technology innovation

Product/service innovation is the development and market introduction of a new, redesigned or substantially improved good or service. Examples of product innovation by a business might include a new product's invention; technical specification and quality improvements made to a product; or the inclusion of new components, materials or desirable functions into an existing product. A marketing innovation is the implementation of a new marketing method involving significant changes in product design or packaging, product placement, product promotion or pricing.

Technological innovations comprise new products and processes and significant technological changes of products and processes. An innovation has been implemented if it has been introduced on the market (product innovation).

2.) Explain why it is necessary, and very important, to measure innovation within organizations. In your answer discuss what would be appropriate metrics for product and technology innovation.

Metrics can be important levers of innovation in the following ways:

· Create an organizational culture that supports and drives strategic innovation

· Establish critical capabilities tuned to the evolving competitive business landscape

· Evaluate innovation efforts to ensure both return on investment and support feedback loops of learning and improvement

· Drive profitable growth

The appropriate metrics include:

· Annual R&D budget as a percentage of annual sales

· Number of patents filed in the past year

· Total R&D headcount or budget as a percentage of sales

· Number of active projects

· Number of ideas submitted by employees

· Percentage of sales from products introduced in the past X year(s)

3.) Discuss what Peter Drucker meant when he said “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In your answer describe two counter arguments in favour of strategy.

Peter Drucker allegedly said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. If strategy is for breakfast then your structure is for lunch. Culture will overcome any structural chart or any reorganization. Companies fail because they believe that a restructure will change the culture of the company. Even if a restructure creates temporary success, culture will reassert itself. Often senior managers ignore organizational culture because it works for them, by ignoring culture; the senior managers indicate that the organization cannot learn because they engage in single loop learning.

If structure determined culture, why would we talk about culture? The question captures the tension between culture and structure. What links them is organizational learning. A hierarchical learning organization will behave differently than a matrix or decentralized organization that cannot learn. What we find in organizations that can learn or have a learning culture is that teams and units work well because they can learn and adapt. As a result, they do not need to restructure.

Does your structure reflect your culture? In a learning organization, the answer is yes. The reason why it will be a yes is that the managers are asking questions and challenging the organization on a regular basis. When managers claim to have a decentralized and empowering culture often referred to as tight/loose, but the structure is hierarchical and centralized, you can see a gap.

4.) Discuss what the main purposes of innovation portfolio management are. In your answer explain how creativity and innovation differ. Provide examples to illustrate your answer.

i. Strategic and priority based resource allocation. As the prioritization of the portfolio is supposed to show impact, resources are required to be allocated accordingly

ii. Release and exit of innovation initiatives. The selection of new, strategically-aligned initiatives has to be carried out with due diligence.

iii. Allocation of scarce resources and capital across a range of initiatives to maximize value.

Creativity is about unleashing the potential of the mind to conceive new ideas. Creativity is subjective, making it hard to measure, as our creative friends assert. Innovation, on the other hand, is completely measurable. Innovation is about introducing change into relatively stable systems. It’s also concerned with the work required to make an idea viable.

5.) Describe the circumstances in which an innovative culture can make an organisation both more effective and less effective. Provide examples to illustrate your answer.

Organizational culture is different from world cultures, those tapestries of shared histories, languages, beliefs, and foods, which are the source of our identity. Organizational cultures are not so encompassing, lacking the broad links that help define how we understand our-

selves among others. This weakness also implies that organizational cultures are dynamic.

Changing of culture can strongly influence that organization’s potential for success or failure. In addition, the ability of an organization and its leaders to cope with change and encourage innovation also impacts mission effectiveness. Changing an organization’s culture does depend on having a common framework. The framework can be used in various ways to get people to share stories about how people across the organization deliver exceptional performance.

TOPIC 10: MANAGING WORK IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY Lecture + Robbins Ch. 2, 5 1.) The availability of advanced information technology allows an organisation’s work to be done anywhere at any time.’ Discuss if ‘organising’ is still an important managerial function in a global society. Provide examples to illustrate your answer.

Organizing is the function of management which follows planning. It is a function in which the synchronization and combination of human, physical and financial resources takes place. All the three resources are important to get results. Therefore, organizational function helps in achievement of results which in fact is important for the functioning of a concern, organizing is an important managerial function in the following ways.

pecialization - Organizational structure is a network of relationships in which the work is divided into units and departments. This division of work is helping in bringing specialization in various activities of concern.

Well defined jobs - Organizational structure helps in putting right men on right job which can be done by selecting people for various departments according to their qualifications, skill and experience. This is helping in defining the jobs properly which clarifies the role of every person.

Clarifies authority - Organizational structure helps in clarifying the role positions to every manager

2.) Argue why it is important for managers to pay attention to demographic trends and shifts when operating in a global society. Provide examples of demographic trends and shifts to illustrate your answer.

Economic trends; For many marketers there is a relationship between level of sales and how customers are doing financially. For most products this relationship is a direct one – as customers’ financial condition improves so will selling opportunities for the marketer. A clear example of this can be seen with the sale of luxury products where marketers are likely to see their sales improve as the target market’s economic condition improves.

Government environment, Marketing decisions must be made with an understanding of how they are impacted by international, national, regional and local laws and regulations. The number and variety of laws and regulations can be overwhelming even for the most seasoned marketer.

Influencial stakeholders, The most important of these groups are those that have an interest or stake in the company. While such groups are not backed directly by the power of a government they can still command a great deal of power especially in terms of swaying public opinion, which sometimes leads to governmental action.

Cultural and social change; Society is made up of many different cultural groups. As we noted in the Consumer Buying Behavior tutorial, members of a cultural group share similar values and beliefs which are learned and reinforced by others within the same cultural group. These shared values and beliefs, lead members of a cultural group to behave in similar ways.

Innovation; Arguably the external force possessing the greatest potential for changing how marketers and industries compete are those associated with innovation. When most people think of innovation they immediately assume it has to do with computers and other high-tech equipment.

3.) ‘The boundaryless organisation has the potential to create a major shift in the way we work.’ In your answer describe what is meant by a ‘boundaryless organisation’ and its implications for managing work in a global society.

A boundaryless organization is a contemporary approach in organization design. It is an organization that is not defined by, or limited to, the horizontal, vertical, or external boundaries imposed by a predefined structure. This term was coined by former General Electric chairman Jack Welch because he wanted to eliminate vertical and horizontal boundaries within the company and break down external barriers between the company and its customers and suppliers. Developing a business into a boundaryless organization might include creating a more horizontal management structure, encouraging interdepartmental projects, and empowering staff members.

TOPIC 11: FUTURE TRENDS Lecture + Robbins Ch. 10

1.) Describe three effects of globalisation on organisations.

Globalization may be defined as the integration of the world's people, firms and government. In the modern context, globalization is usually the result of closer ties in international trade, known as bilateral trade agreements. The following are effects of globalization on oprganizations;

Expanded Markets
From the business perspective, one effect of globalization is that of expanded markets. This means that a business that had previously only sold its goods domestically can start selling products to other countries.

Cheaper Resources
Another consequence of bilateral trade agreements is the access to cheaper resources. Until the start of the 1990's, the People's Republic of China was largely closed off to the rest of the world. Many companies in the United States produced their goods either domestically or in areas with slightly less expensive labor.

International Development
International development, as a consequence of globalization, arises out of a combination of both expanded markets as well as cheaper resources. This technological know-how spread to local firms, who in turn grew as a result of expanded markets both in India as well as the rest of the world

2.) Discuss five challenges that managers face in motivating today’s workforce and ways in which these challenges can be overcome.

Changing workforce. The employees become a part of their organization with various needs and expectations. Different employees have different beliefs, attitudes, values, backgrounds and thinking. But all the organizations are not aware of the diversity in their workforce and thus are not aware and clear about different ways of motivating their diverse workforce.

Changing the job role of the employees, or have lessened the hierarchy levels of hierarchy, or have chucked out a significant number of employees in the name of down-sizing or right-sizing. Certain firms have chosen to hire and fire and paying for performance strategies nearly giving up motivational efforts. These strategies are unsuccessful in making an individual overreach himself.

Diversity,the vigorous nature of needs also pose challenge to a manager in motivating his subordinates. This is because an employee at a certain point of time has diverse needs and expectations. Also, these needs and expectations keep on changing and might also clash with each other. For instance-the employees who spend extra time at work for meeting their needs for accomplishment might discover that the extra time spent by them clash with their social neds and with the need for affiliation.

Manage performance.
Managers must balance meeting goals, managing workloads and motivating employees. These issues, coupled with the fact that many managers are ill-equipped to provide regular and constructive feedback and may not understand the importance of documenting performance, can make managing performance challenging.
Administer policies fairly and consistently.
One of the most common challenges for managers is treating employees fairly and consistently. A manager may allow policies and rules to be disregarded by some employees and not others – or may disregard employment policies altogether. “Stretching” the rules for some employees can open up a range of potential liabilities and perceptions of bias and favoritism that have negative far-reaching effects in the workplace.
Overcoming the challenges;

 Performance appraisal system should be very effective.

 Ensure flexibility in working arrangements.

 A sound motivation system must be correlated to organizational goals. Thus, the individual/employee goals must be harmonized with the organizational goals.

 The motivational system must be modified to the situation and to the organization.

 A sound motivation system requires modifying the nature of individual’s jobs. The jobs should be redesigned or restructured according to the requirement of situation. Any of the alternatives to job specialization - job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment, etc. could be used

3.) ‘The workforce has changed in recent years.’ Discuss four changes that have occurred since the year 2005, and their implications for managers.

Rising shares of workers will have over 25 years of experience or less than seven years of labor market experience. Fewer will be in their early careers. The age shifts in the labor force should exert little or no impact on the aggregate unemployment rate. Given today's unemployment rates within age categories, the overall unemployment rate in 2006 will be identical to today's average rate. Changes in the age distribution of the workforce will neither raise nor lower the overall unemployment rate.

The declining numbers of 25- to 34-year-olds, together with their changing ethnic mix, may portend shortfalls in key professional areas. The number of earned BA degrees will remain constant over the next decade (at about 1 million per year) despite the rising demand for skilled workers and the increasing size of the labor force. As a result, new BAs will decline as a proportion of all new entrants to the labor force from 32 percent in the 1986-96 period to 30 percent over the following decade.

Demographic trends raising the percentage of older workers and potential workers have implications for individual, firm-based, and government training. According to a recent OECD report, he U.S. is distinctive in that training peaks in the 45- to 54-year-old years and drops off only moderately among the 55-to 64-year-olds. U.S. firms are less likely to finance training for younger workers than firms in other countries. Still, to the extent that the U.S. attempts to raise participation rates of older workers, the current moderate amounts of training provide a base on which to build. Labor markets are generating jobs with higher skill requirements, but taking advantage of these opportunities requires expanded training opportunities, especially among older workers trying to avoid the effects of obsolescence.

The workforce will increasingly become more heterogeneous by educational status and by gender. The proportions with BA degrees are especially variable by ethnic status among younger workers. As of March, 1997, a striking 51 percent of Asian 25- to 29-year-olds had earned a BA, compared to 29 percent of whites, 14 percent of blacks, and 11 percent of Hispanics. Except for Hispanics, rates of high school completion were similar across groups, at about 85 percent. Another recent phenomenon is the emerging gender differences among black and Hispanic workers. Among 25- to 29-year-olds in the labor force, 20 percent of black women but only 13 percent of black men had earned BA degrees; among Hispanics, 17 percent of women but only 9 percent of men had graduated college. These educational patterns are indicative of broader trends indicating that minority worker problems are becoming more concentrated among men.

4.) Many job design experts who have studied the changing nature of work say that people do their best work when they’re motivated by a sense of purpose rather than by the pursuit of money. Discuss what the implications of this statement are for managers

This statement was mentioned in the magazine “Training”, which is related to the thoughts of the motivation. People look for job and want to work in satisfaction. Some people believe that the factor of the job satisfaction is money, which means employees are motivated to do their work by money and do their best work. However, through money, we cannot buy a motivated, committed, productive, enthusiastic, and creative work force. Researchers who study of motivation for job satisfaction introduced the theories like Herzberg’s two-factor Theory, Alderfer’s ERG Theory, Equity Theory McClelland’s Theory, Expectancy Theory, McGregor’s theory X and Y,. All the theories, which were mentioned above, have been used to prove that employees are motivated other factors not money and factors of motivation.

According to the studies of experts, people made the best performance in their job when they are motivated by intrinsic matters which are making job satisfaction, rather than extrinsic matters. I strongly agree with this notion regarding relationship between money and motivation for job. This will provide the reasons why money is neither a factor of motivation nor a factor making good performance. According to the Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy, human basic needs are divided into five levels, and are arranged in a hierarchy. First is the physiological need; basic physical needs or drive, such as hunger. Money is not a factor that gives people motivation to perform most efficiently for their goal. There are more specific factors that motive people in organizations.