pkb contents > management | just under 1316 words | updated 01/14/2018

1. What is management?

1.1. Managerial hierarchy

Role Responsibility
CEO Coordinate C-Suite; interacts with Board and shareholders
Top management AKA C-Suite Cross-departmental decision-making
Middle management Make departmental decisions; develop expertise in functional area
First-line management AKA front-line management AKA supervisors Supervise employees, manage projects and products

1.2. Managerial skills

According to Jones and George (2015), management involves the following tasks, with upper-level managers more involved in planning and organizing while lower-level managers are more involved with leading and controlling:

Another typology comes from Mintzenberg (cited in Jones and George, 2015), who identifies 10 roles that managers play:

1.3. History of management thought

1.3.1. Pre-classical

Adam Smith and the division of labor

1.3.2. Classical management theories

1.3.2.1. Scientific management (1890-1945)

1.3.2.2. Administrative management (1890-1980)

1.3.2.3. Behavioral management theory (1915-1990)

1.3.2.4. Management science theory (1940-1990)

1.3.2.5. Organizational environment theory (1950-2005)

2. Strategic management

2.1. What generic strategies can companies pursue?

2.2. Strategic analysis

Import from Google Drive: notes on market research

2.2.1. Inputs to strategic decision-making

From Jones & George (2015):

Per Sharda et al. (2014, p. 7):

Table 1.1 Business Environment Factors That Create Pressures on Organizations
Factor Description
Markets
  • Strong competition
  • Expanding global markets
  • Booming electronic markets on the Internet
  • Innovative marketing methods
  • Opportunities for outsourcing with IT support
Consumer demands
  • Desire for customization
  • Desire for quality, diversity of products, and speed of delivery
  • Customers getting powerful and less loyal
Technology
  • More innovations, new products, and new services
  • Increasing obsolescence rate
  • Increasing information overload
  • Social networking, Web 2.0 and beyond
Societal
  • Growing government regulations and deregulation
  • Workforce more diversified, older, and composed more of women
  • Prime concerns of homeland security and terrorist attacks
  • Necessity of Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other reporting-related legislation
  • Increasing social responsibility of companies
  • Greater emphasis on sustainability

2.3. Strategic thinking

2.3.1. Analytic thinking

(vs synthetic, dialectic)

2.3.2. Design thinking

2.3.3. Systems thinking

Per Vassallo (2017):

Systems thinking operates on systems; systems are parts that are interconnected, leading to emergent behavior. This means a system must be studied as a whole; it is dangerous to study parts in isolation. And when the system is analyzed as a whole, it may reveal leverage points where interventions (which may be small) can trigger large or simply persistent changes in system states (i.e., design). Despite Vassallo's phrasing, this is not the same idea as incremental change or iteration, nor is it the same as the idea that a small change can have a large cumulative impact given a large user population.

"The vocabulary of formal systems thinking is one of causal loops, unintended consequences, emergence, and system dynamics. Practicing systems theorists employ tools such as systemigrams, archetypes, stock and flow diagrams, interpretive structural modeling, and systemic root cause analysis ... the Iceberg Model and ... leverage points.

2.3.3.1. Iceberg model

Per Vassallo (2017): Values (our aspirations and vision) inform our mental models, which "give birth to" systemic structures ("how the components of the system are organized") that are visible as patterns of events; any one of these levels can be points of intervention.

3. Management consulting

See Stewart, 2009.

4. Sources

4.1. Cited

Beneteau, E. (2017). Lecture for LIS 570. University of Washington.

Brown, T., & Wyatt, J. (2010). Design thinking for social innovation. Development Outreach, 12(1), 29-31.

Jones, G. R. & George, J. M. (2015). Contemporary management (9th ed.). Colombus, OH: McGraw-Hill Education.

Keller, J. M. (1983). Motivational design of instruction. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models: An overview of their current status. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Norman, D. (2013). The design of everyday things (revised and expanded edition). New York City, NY: Basic Books.

Sharda, R., Delen, D., & Turban, E. (2014). Business intelligence: A managerial perspective on analytics (3rd ed.). New York City, NY: Pearson.

Vassallo, S. (2017, May 1). Design thinking needs to think bigger. Co.Design. Retrieved from https://www.fastcodesign.com/90112320/design-thinking-needs-to-think-bigger

Wright, A. (2007). Glut: Mastering information through the ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

4.2. References

4.3. Read

4.4. Unread