Short Questions and Answers - Management

Question: What is Globalization?
Answer: Organizational operations no longer stop at geographic borders. Managers in all types and sizes of organizations are faced with the opportunities and challenges of globalization.

Question: Why we use quantitative approach to management?
Answer: The quantitative approach involves the use of quantitative techniques to improve decision making. This approach has also been labeled operations research of management science. It includes applications of statistics, optimization models, information models, and computer simulations

Question: How many branches of quantitative management?
Answer: There are three main branches in the Quantitative Management Viewpoint: management science, operations management, and management information systems Management science (or operations research as it has been called) is an approach aimed at increasing decision effectiveness through the use of sophisticated mathematical models and statistical methods. This is NOT a term to be used synonymously with either the term “Scientific Management” described earlier featuring Taylor and others or “The Science of Management,” a term that usually refers broadly, to a deliberate, rational approach to management issues. Operations Management is the function or field of expertise that is primarily responsible for the production and delivery of an organization’s products and services. Management information systems (MIS) is the name often given to the field of management that focuses on designing and implementing computer-based information systems for use by management

Question: Who are early advocates?
Answer: Four people stand out as early advocates of the OB approach. These include Robert Owen Hugo Munsterberg, Mary Parker Follett, and Chester Barnard.

Question: What reflects the Hawthorne Studies?
Answer: 1. In the first set of studies, no correlation was found between changes in lighting conditions and individual work performance. In fact, performance nearly always went up with any change—brighter or darker—in illumination. 2. In the second set of studies, the concept of the Hawthorne
effect emerged. The Hawthorne effect refers to the possibility that individuals singled out for a study may improve their performance simply because of the added attention they receive from the researchers, rather than because of any specific factors being tested in the study. 3. The third set of
studies centered on group production norms and individual motivation

Question: In which areas psychologists help industry according to Hugo Munsterbeg ?
Answer: He argued that psychologists could help industry in three major areas:
a. Finding ways to identify individuals best suited to particular jobs.
b. Identifying the psychological conditions for optimum efficiency.
c. Finding ways to influence individual behavior to be congruent with management’s objectives
Question: What are the assumptions of Maslow’s need theory?
Answer: Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) developed a theory of motivation that was based on three assumptions about human nature:
a. Human beings have needs that are never completely satisfied.
b. Human behavior is aimed at satisfying the needs that are yet unsatisfied at a given point in time.
c. Needs fit into a somewhat predictable hierarchy ranging from basic, lower-level needs to higher-level needs:
1) Physiological (lowest)
2) Safety
3) Belongingness or social
4) Esteem Self-actualization (highest and NOT achieved by everyone)

Question: What is social responsibility?
Answer: Social responsibility is an obligation, beyond that required by the law and economics, for a firm to pursue long-term goals that are good for society

Question: What are two opposing views of social responsibility?
Answer: There are two opposing views of what social responsibility is.

1. The classical view is the view that management’s only social responsibility is to maximize profits. 
2. The socioeconomic view is the view that management’s social responsibility goes well beyond the making of profits to include protecting and improving society’s welfare.

Question: What is E-business?
Answer: E-business (electronic business) is a comprehensive term describing the way an organization does its work by using electronic (Internet-based) linkages with its key constituencies (employees, managers, customers, suppliers, and partners) in order to efficiently and effectively achieve its goals.

Question: Compare and contrast national culture and organizational culture?
Answer: Like organizational culture, national culture is shared by all or most inhabitants of a country and shapes their behavior and the way they see the world. Organizational and national cultures differ in that national culture has a greater effect on employees than does organizational cul¬ture

Question: What is Management?
Answer: Simply speaking, management is what managers do. However, this simple statement doesn’t tell us much. We define management as the process of coordinating and integrating work activities so that they are completed efficiently and effectively with and through other people.

Question: What is mega-enviornment?
Answer: The mega-environment, or general environment as it is sometimes called, is that segment of the external environment that reflects the broad conditions and trends in the societies within which an organization operates.

Question: what is task environment?
Answer: The task environment is that segment of the external environment made up of specific outside elements (usually organizations) with which an organization interfaces in the course of conducting its business

Question: what are the different ways for employees to learn an organization’s culture?
Answer: Employees “learn” an organization’s culture in different ways.
1. Organizational stories are one way that employees learn the culture. These stories typically involve a narrative of significant events or people.
2. Rituals are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organization, what goals are most important, which people are important.

Question: Who are Managers?
Answer: A manager is someone who works with and through other people by coordinating their work activities in order to accomplish organizational goals.

Question: What do managers do?
Answer: We can focus on following five categorization schemes while making mind what do managers do: Traditionally, a manager’s job has been classified according to the following four functions i.e.:
Planning: determining organizational goals and the means for achieving them
Organizing: deciding where decisions will be made, who will do what jobs and tasks, and who will work for whom
Leading: inspiring and motivating workers to work hard to achieve organizational goals
Controlling: monitoring progress towards goal achievement and taking corrective action when needed Good managers are those who assure themselves to perform these functions

Question: What is an Organization?
Answer: An entity where two or more persons work together to achieve a goal or a common purpose is called Organization.

Question: What are the four major approaches to the study of management?
Answer: The four major approaches to the study of management are scientific, general administrative, quantitative, and organizational behavior. Each is correct and makes an important contribution to our overall understanding of management.

Question: Discuss the three important themes in the definition of entrepreneurship?
Answer: First, is the pursuit of opportunities, because entrepreneurship is about pursuing environmental trends and changes that no one else has seen or paid attention to. Second, is innovation, because entrepreneurship involves changing, revolutionizing, transforming, and introducing products or services or new ways of doing business. Third, is growth, because entrepreneurs are not content to stay small or to stay the same in size.

Question: What are the functions of management in the hirarachy?
Answer: A number of aspects of the management process differ within the hierarchy. The importance of each of the functions of management differs from one managerial level to another. a. Planning tends to be more important for top-level managers. b. Organizing tends to be more important for both top and middle-level managers. c. Leading is more important for first-line managers. d. Controlling is important among all levels of the hierarchy.

Question: What is scientific management?
Answer: Scientific management is defined as the use of the scientific method to define the “one best way” for a job to be done.

Question: Quantitative Approach to Management:
Answer: The quantitative approach involves the use of quantitative techniques to improve decision making. This approach has also been labeled operations research of management science. It includes applications of statistics, optimization models, information models, and computer simulations

Question: What is total quality management?
Answer: Total quality management is a philosophy of management that is driven by customer needs and expectations and focuses on continual improvement in work processes

Question: What is objective of total qulity management(TQM)?
Answer: The objective of TQM is to create an organization committed to continuous improvement

Question: What is system?
Answer: A system is a set of interrelated and interdependent parts arranged in a manner that produces a unified whole.

Question: Describe Frederick W. Taylor’s contributions to scientific management?
Answer: Frederick Taylor defined four principles of management—develop a science for each element of an individual’s work; scientifically select, train, teach, and develop each worker; cooperate with workers to ensure that all work is done in accordance with the principles of science; and divide work and responsibility almost equally between management and workers.

Question: Explain Frank and Lillian Gilbreth’s contributions to scientific management?
Answer: Frank and Lillian Gilbreth studied work arrangements to eliminate wasteful hand and body motions. They also experimented with the design and use of proper tools and equipment for  optimizing work performance.

Question: What is organizational behavior?
Answer: Organizational behavior is the field of study concerned with the actions or behavior of people at work.

Question: How is globalization affecting the way managers do their jobs?
Answer: Management is no longer constrained by national borders, and managers in organizations of all sizes and types around the world are faced with the opportunities and challenges of operating in a global market.