Defining the Goals of a Manager Business Essay

A person who works with other people as well as making sure that things are done right and efficiently. What are the functions of a manager? Which is the most important? Explain. A manager; Plan Organize Lead Monitor Planning is the most important of all, because it concerned with the future impact of today's decisions. It is the fundamental function of management from which the other four stem. The need for planning is often apparent after the fact. However, planning is easy to postpone in the short-run. Postponement of planning especially plagues labor oriented, hands on managers.

EXPLAIN MINTZBERG'S MANAGERIAL ROLES

 Figurehead: All social, inspiration, legal and ceremonial obligations. In this light, the manager is seen as a symbol of status and authority. Leader: Duties are at the heart of the manager-subordinate relationship and include structuring and motivating subordinates, overseeing their progress, promoting and encouraging their development, and balancing effectiveness. Liaison: Describes the information and communication obligations of a manager. One must network and engage in information exchange to gain access to knowledge bases. Monitor: Duties include assessing internal operations, a department's success and the problems and opportunities which may arise. All the information gained in this capacity must be stored and maintained. Disseminator: Highlights factual or value based external views into the organization and to subordinates. This requires both filtering and delegation skills. Spokesman: Serves in a PR capacity by informing and lobbying others to keep key stakeholders updated about the operations of the organization. Entrepreneur: Roles encourage managers to create improvement projects and work to delegate, empower and supervise teams in the development process. Disturbance handler: A generalist role that takes charge when an organization is unexpectedly upset or transformed and requires calming and support. Resource Allocator: Describes the responsibility of allocating and overseeing financial, material and personnel resources. Negotiator: Is a specific task which is integral for the spokesman, figurehead and resource allocator roles.

DESCRIBE THE SKILL THAT A MANAGER NEEDS TO HAVE IN OTHER TO ACHIEVE HIS/HER OBJECTIVES. WHICH ONE DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AND EXPLAIN?

For a manager to achieve his/her objectives, he must have these skills. Technical skills : The manager should be proficient at specific tasks. This in turn helps to provide the credibility or knowledge to persuade people to do certain things. Human skills : The manager has to know how to work with people. Conceptual skills: The manager can see the organization as a whole. In other words, there has to be some ideas of the organization and what it does and how it interacts with other organizations to achieve positivity. Conceptual skills are used in planning, dealing with ideas and abstractions to make a good decision. In this case, permit me to say that Conceptual skills is the most important of all, hence the most important skill of a manager is to understand people and what makes them motivated to do the work in the achievement of certain goals. 6. Is a sales representative (an entry level job in a making organization) in charge of a territory considered a manager? A sales representative is someone who deals with the customer directly and while a manager is the person who set's the strategic plans, organize, monitor and deriving the company or organization. In this case a sales representative is not in any condition considered the manager. 

LIST THE SIX MANAGEMENT THEORIES AND DESCRIBE HOW EACH IS USED BY MANAGER TODAY.

(i) Contingency Theory: When managers make a decision, they must take into consideration all aspects of the current situation and act on the main situation at hand. Basically, it can say to be the approach that "it depends." For example, the continuing effort to identify the best leadership or management style might now conclude that the best style depends on the situation. (ii) System Theory: First we define a system: It is an organized or complex whole; A combination of things or part forming a complex or unitary whole. Systems Theory is based upon the analytic division of the natural world into environment and systems. A system can be looked at as having inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes. Systems share feedback among each of these four aspects of the systems. Let's take for instance an organization. Inputs would include resources such as raw materials, money, technologies and people. These inputs go through a process where they're planned, organized, motivated and controlled, ultimately to meet the organization's goals. Outputs would be products or services to a market. (iii) Chaos Theory:

It deals with the changing relationship between order and disorder in the behavior of natural or social systems. It offers management science insight about where and when management control is reasonable or possible and at what scale of organization such control efforts are best directed. In short, the dialectics between freedom and necessity vary across causal fields; (iv) Expectancy Theory: Talking about the mental processes regarding choice, or choosing. It explains the processes that an individual undergoes to make choices. Expectancy theory predicts that employees in an organization will be motivated when they believe that: * putting in more effort will yield better job performance * Better job performance will lead to organizational rewards, such as an increase in salary or benefits * These predicted organizational rewards are valued by the employee in question. "This theory emphasizes the needs for organizations to relate rewards directly to performance and to ensure that the rewards provided are those rewards deserved and wanted by the recipients. (v)Path-Goal Theory:

The Path-Goal Theory otherwise known as path-goal theory of leader effectiveness was developed to describe the way that leaders encourage and support their followers in achieving the goals they have been set by making the path that they should take clear and easy. The revised version also argues that the leader engages in behaviors that complement subordinate's abilities and compensate for deficiencies. (vi)Goal Setting Theory: Setting goals and objectives is considered very important for people to be successful in starting their own business. Looking at how goal setting theory and practical techniques can serve your personal interests. Personal goal setting helps not only your productivity and motivation, but also your self-realization, self-image, self-esteem and confidence. Not only in your job or business, but in all spheres of your life. 

LIST THE SEVEN DIMENSIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND WHICH YOU BELIEVE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AND THE REASON FOR YOUR BELIEF

a. Aggressive b. Team Oriented c. Outcome Oriented d. Stable. e. People Oriented f. Innovation g. Detail Oriented Team Oriented (the most important and the reason for my belief) Today in the business world team-oriented work plays vital role; Simply the organizations won't perform but the people. When it comes to people there should be a team individuals can't perform whatever they want in an organization they have to form a team and perform individually as well as teams.

RANK THE EIGHT CHARACTERISTICS OF AN INNOVATIVE CULTURE AND YOUR REASONS FOR RANKING THEM IN SUCH ORDER

Challenger, Modifier, Dreamer, Practicalize, Sustainer, Synthesizer, Planner and Innovator. The value of course is in the combinations of each of these orientations within teams and the organization. The Creative Inventory is an on-line questionnaire that enables individuals to identify their own orientation and underlying drivers. When shared with others this becomes a powerful tool that helps understanding and appreciation of the strengths each brings in our world. 

LIST ALL THE STAKEHOLDERS OF A COMPANY AND STATE WHICH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT IN YOUR VIEW AND WHY?

A company shareholders group may include the below as the case maybe depending on the type of company; Director, Management, Suppliers, Government, Employees and the Community. In my own view, Director or board of Directors are the most important of all because a board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization.

IF YOU ARE THE CEO OF A GLOBAL CORPORATION, WHICH ONE OF THESE ATTITUDES WOULD YOU ADVOCATE IN YOUR ORGANIZATION- ETHNOCENTRIC, POLYCENTRIC, OR GEOCENTRIC?

Geocentric is the best attitude to advocate into my organization. As a CEO of a global corporation it is vital to understand where your business is operating, in order words I do think geocentric, it's a world oriented view that focus on using the best approaches and people from around the globe. 12. Define the following (i) Corporate Social Responsibility: Corporate Social Responsibility provides a practical resource for the ever increasing number of organizations concerned about social responsibilities in the context of sustainable development on economic and are interested in developing tools to improve their performance and accountability in these areas. The focus of the journal is on practical advice for the development of tools, practical case studies and an assessment of the relative strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. It encourages debate over the development of issues as well as monitoring the demands being made of various stakeholder groups. It discusses issues of methodology, principles, practice, science, technology and law. It is a refereed journal and contributions of a high quality aimed at an interdisciplinary audience are invited. (ii) Ethics: Defining the word itself; Ethics (also known as moral philosophy) is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality; that is, about concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong, justice, and virtue as the case may be.

OUTLINE THE EIGHT STEPS IN THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS. 14. IF YOU ARE AN ENTREPRENEUR WHO HAS JUST STARTED A COMPANY, WHICH DECISION MAKING STYLE WOULD YOU TEND TO GRAVITATE TOWARDS? EXPLAIN

For a new company to stay on top of its competitors I believe that participative decision making style will be suitable. Participative decision making, as a leader I will involve all members of the organization. Other perspectives of the situation are discovered because the leader deliberately asks and encourages others to participate by giving in their ideas, perceptions, knowledge, and information concerning the task. 14. What are the common decision making errors and biases? How can a manager avoid them? a). Overconfidence bias: This occurs when decision makers tend to think that they know more than they do or hold unrealistically positive views of themselves and their performance. b) Self - Serving bias: is where decision makers are quick to take credit for their successes and blame failure on outside factors. c). Availability bias: It occurs when decision makers remember events that are the most recent d). Confirmation bias occurs when decision makers seek out information that reaffirms their past choices and discounts information that is contradictory. e). Selective perception bias: This is when decision makers selectively organize and interpret events based on their biased perceptions.

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