Knowledge of the Core Learning Outcomes - Term Paper Example

? Management Concepts By: October 5, of “Management can be defined as the organization and coordination of the activities of an enterprise in accordance with certain objectives and in achievement of defined objectives” (Businessdictionary, 2011). Managers are responsible for both the performance the company and its employees. The employees visualize the manager as a role symbol of success. The employees view the manager as the boss of the company. Managers get paid lots of money for their professional services, but also their work is very stressful and most managers work over 50 hours a week without added compensation for the extra hours above the normal 40 hour week. Efficiency means to achieve the best results using the minimum amount of resources. Effectiveness implies being able to perform a work task good and in a timely manner. Recycling is a practice that increases the efficiency of the company by processing the recycled material and subsequently using it as raw material for production. Recycling is one if the hottest green practices throughout the world because it is safeguarding our natural resources by reducing the consumption in the limited reserves of certain important commodities such as petroleum. A second example of efficiency is after a downsizing strategy being able to produce the same output with a lower amount of workers. A third example of efficiency could be changing the inventory acquisition strategy of the company to a just-in-time mechanism. Another example of efficiency is performing inventory audits to determine the presence of expired or obsolete merchandise would should disposed off and written off the accounting books. A person is effective when they select to purchase at the same store instead of shopping at three or more places because the customer achieves time and gasoline. Effectiveness can be achieved in the workplace by sharing the work tasks in an equal manner without forcing one employee of doing too much. “The four functions of management are plan, organize, direct, and control” (Rue & Byars, 2011). Planning involves creating objectives, goals, and action plans for the future. In finance the use of pro-forma financial statements is an example of planning because it provides forecasts of financial statements for future period of time. Pro forma financial statements are typically prepared up to three years in the future. Planning can also be used to estimate the resource the company is going to need in the future. When an organization visits college campus to recruit students they are planning for their future human resource needs. Budgets are prepared to determine what purchases a company must perform during a fiscal year. The second function of management is organizing. The resources of the company must be well organized in order to optimize its use (Buzzle, 2011). An example of an organization practice dealing with human resources is separating employees in work groups. Managers that are organized a better able to deal with the pressures and stress the profession causes. The third managerial function is directing. Managers direct their employees through motivation. Direction also means overseen the work performed by the workers in the company. Direction works best when the employees are able to provide feedback and can contradict the manager without any repercussion for expressing their opinion. The fourth managerial function is control. Control can be achieved by providing specific guideless and processes to perform at work. Control involves evaluating the employees work and taking corrective actions to fix the problems. Controls mechanism can be used to safe guard the assets of the company to put cameras at point of sale terminals and in the warehouse where the inventory is located. Leadership and management are two completely different concepts, but they are often interconnected. “Leadership can define as a special case of interpersonal influence that gets an individual or group to do what the dealer wants done” (Schermerhorn & Hunt & Osborn, 2003). A leader is able to inspire others of to achieve great things. A manager is a position that exists within an organization. Most managers are also leaders, but others are not good at displaying leadership abilities in the workplace. Within organizations there are many leaders who are not managers simply because the corporation has not noticed or because they are not willing to give the person a change at a supervisory role due to a lack of formal education in business administration. Business organizations are structure as either mechanist or organic organizations. There are many differences between these two types of organizations. Mechanistic organizations are centralized, while organic organizations are decentralized. The lines of communication are more open in organic organizations because verbal communication is used to communicate among the employees. In mechanistic organizations written communications such as emails and memos are used. The human resources of the company are handled differently in each type of organization. Employees in mechanist organizations work in specialized tasks. They work separately of each other performing the task assigned to them. Organic organizations use a joint strategy that divides the workers in different work teams. These groups are expected to work as at team to accomplish and meet the goals of the project. Mechanist organizations tend to be bureaucratic and they have a clear hierarchy of command. The chief executive officer (CEO) seats at the top of the organizational chart, but he must report the board of directors of a company. The organic power structure is flexible and it has been delegated among the project managers of the different groups. The CEO must oversee the work done by the different in executive meetings with the project and other member of the executive management team. Social responsibility strategies have become a critical success factor in the 21st century. There are several ways in which companies can implement social responsibility strategies. The use of social responsibility can be used as a strategy to increase the brand value of the company. A way for the company to perform social responsibility is by donating money to non-profit organization that is working towards solutions to word problem. One of those organizations is Feed the Children which collects donations from people to buy food to feed childrens in Africa, South America and Asia. A second social responsible program the company could start is to start a community service volunteering program. Each employee would donate one week a year to work at a non-profit organization of their choice. The company would pay the employees the normal employee’s salary for that week. It is a win-win proposition. A third social responsibility strategy is to start a recycling program at the firm. The fourth social responsibility strategy is to have monthly food driven in which all employee of the last of the month would bring as many groceries as possible of non-perishable food such as vegetables. Canned food items are preferred and well as rice and cereal boxes. Synergy occurs when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. For instance in a group setting all the team members participate willingly, they share responsibilities, and they depend on each other for support. The communication lines are open when synergy is present. The performance of group teams that has synergy will be better and the results will be delivered in a faster manner. When a team lacks synergy conflicts are often an occurrence. Time that is spent in a verbal confrontation between two employees is time wastages. That time could have been used to produce more. Ten minutes arguing has a combine effect of 20 minutes of wasted labor for the company. There are several characteristics in all business organizations. A person or groups of people are owners of the firm. A private company has only one owner. A partnership has two or more partners that owned the company and shared the profits. A corporation has thousands of shareholders or at times millions of people that own the common stocks. All businesses have employees that must be paid every week or biweekly. Businesses have an obligation to pay income taxes every year and to collect sales taxes daily to be forwarded to the government. Every company needs a good corporate culture to secede an achieve longevity in the market. Another common characteristic of all business with that they need a manager to run the company. The manager in a sole proprietorship is often the owner since small business cannot afford to pay the high salaries required to recruit a good manager. The need to access to capital is required by all companies to achieve growth. All business organizations are required to comply with regulation and business laws. Some of the regulations that businesses must comply with include anti-trust laws, environmental laws, sanitation and heath standards, labor laws including discrimination and sexual harassment. Customer service is an import function companies must comply with in order to keep the customers satisfied. All businesses in the United States of America can accept only the U.S. dollar as the only currency that can be used to make and receive payments during business transactions. The majority of businesses have a code of conducts or ethics that addresses how employees should behave at work. References Businessdictionary.com (2011). Management. Retrieved October 5, 2011 from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/management.html Buzzle.com (2011). Management Concepts: The Four Management Functions. Retrieved October 5, 2011 from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/management.html Rue, L., Byards, L. (2011). Management Skills & Application (13 ed.). Read More