General Management - Term Paper Example

General Management Table of Contents When Hedin Asks For Your Professional Advice, Will You Recommend All Outsiders Or A Mix Of Employees And Outsiders To Fill The Director Positions? Justify Your Answer With Sensible Arguments Supported By Examples. 3 2. Explain How Present Day Managers Convert Potential “Threats” Into “Opportunities”. You May Use Examples To Elaborate The Answer. 5 4. In A Short Essay, List And Discuss 7 Of The 10 Managerial Roles Developed By Mintzberg. Include Specific Examples Of Each Role And Group Each According To Interpersonal, Informational, And Decisional Roles. 7 6. How Is Culture Transmitted To Employees Of An Organization? Explain The Four Primary Transmission Modalities And Provide Two Relevant Examples Of Each. 9 References 10 1. When Hedin Asks For Your Professional Advice, Will You Recommend All Outsiders Or A Mix Of Employees And Outsiders To Fill The Director Positions? Justify Your Answer With Sensible Arguments Supported By Examples. Directors play an imperative role in business management in the modern day context. They are not only responsible for determining the organizational policies, but are also accountable for the overall performance of the company. To be precise, evaluation of the organizational performance, planning of the organizational operations, executing the planning and re-evaluating the overall performance, i.e. the overall management functions are programmed and controlled by the directors (Wisconsin Rivers, n.d.). Therefore, it is quite important for the potential directors to be experienced and qualified to deal with the challenges to organize and execute the management operations of the business. The directors for an organization can be recruited both from the external environment of the organization, i.e. an outsider and also from the internal environment of an organization, i.e. the employee of the organization (Mittal, 2007). However, recruiting directors solely from the external environment or from the internal environment can raise various issues affecting the overall organisational well-being. Hiring directors with sole emphasis on the external environment raises the constraints of immorality and arguable accountability from the end of the outside directors, e.g. Delaware Corporations (Brown, 2010). On the similar context, recruiting employees of the organization as its director can raise the limitations of adequate and dependable qualifications and skills to perform the duty of the board of directors (Hermalin, 2004). Even in this case, it would be preferable to choose directors from internal as well as external environment which will mitigate the constraints of hiring only outside directors or internal directors with due consideration to their skills and qualifications in terms of academics and also in terms of personal traits. This in turn will reward enhanced performance of the organization. 2. Explain How Present Day Managers Convert Potential “Threats” Into “Opportunities”. You May Use Examples To Elaborate The Answer. In the modern day phenomenon, it is of no doubt that small businesses are facing remarkable stress in terms of increasing competition in almost every sector of the corporate world. In such a situation, it is quite certain that almost every manager will tend to grab the opportunities served by the business environment and mitigate the potential threats which are likely to obstruct the achievement of the organization. In order to face the challenges raised from steep competition, managers in the present day are becoming more focused on the conversion of potential “Threats” into expected “Opportunities” for their businesses (Hitt & Et. Al., 2010). Evidences have revealed that managers in the 21st century often apply strategies in order to convert potential “Threats” into advantageous “Opportunities”. Most of the strategies concentrate on the innovation and creation of fresh products and/or services with the assistance of modern technologies and greater emphasis on research and development. For example, P&G has been witnessed to continuously focus on the innovation strategies to convert the threats faced by the organization in terms of steep competition, regulatory and cultural barriers for fashion products in various countries, such as China, Brazil and others (Sakkab, 2007). Another remarkable and recent example of managers converting organizational “Threats” into significant “Opportunities” can be witnessed in the case of Infosys. Not only this IT (Information Technology) giant but other market players are also facing a threat in terms of cloud computing. Infosys in India created a Cloud Center of Excellence (CoE) concentrated on providing services to adopt cloud-based competencies. Subsequently, this strategy converted the threat into a significant opportunity (Srikanth, 2011). 4. In A Short Essay, List And Discuss 7 Of The 10 Managerial Roles Developed By Mintzberg. Include Specific Examples Of Each Role And Group Each According To Interpersonal, Informational, And Decisional Roles. With the purpose to represent the managerial functions in a comprehensive and organized manner, Henry Mintzberg had developed 10 different managerial roles. These were further grouped according to the major roles performed by managers, i.e. interpersonal, informational and decisional roles (Woodall & Winstanley, 1998). However, 7 of the 10 managerial roles, which can be recognized as the most crucial and widely implemented in the modern day context, are as follows. Interpersonal Roles: Leader and Liaison Informational Roles: Monitor and Disseminator Decisional Roles: Entrepreneur; Disturbance Handler and Resource Allocator (Woodall & Winstanley, 1998). The leadership role as an interpersonal responsibility of the managers is termed to be quite significant to determine the successiveness of an organization. The chief responsibilities of leaders are to motivate his/her subordinates, perform staffing operations along with training them. To be precise, leaders tend to perform almost every managerial activity related to the performance of his/her subordinates (Burgaz, 1997). One recent example of such leader can be illustrated as Alan R. Mulally who is designated as the CEO of Ford and played a significant role to facilitate the growth of the company in an unfavorable scenario caused by the recent global recession. He not only performed the leadership role but also concentrated on his role as a liaison between the company’s employees and the board, relating the individual aims and organizational aims with the purpose of providing effectivity to the overall organizational performance (Hesselbein, 2011). Another example of the informational role of managers can be witnessed in the strategic concerns of Andrea Jung and Susan Krof, both recognized as the CEOs of Avon Products. The managers in this context performed informational roles as a monitor of and disseminator in the recent years to provide higher competency to the organization (Nordnet, 2003). With an overall perspective, managers have also been witnessed to perform the roles of an entrepreneur, a disturbance handler and a resource allocator. Notably, the functions performed by organizational managers are related to the identification and utilization of the opportunities existing in the business environment, mitigating the organizational weaknesses and allocating resources to enhance the overall organizational effectivity (Burgaz, 1997). The decisional roles played by the managers are often termed to reflect their accountability for the organizational failure. James Morgan, the former CEO of Silicon Valley, Lindsey Owen-Jones, the CEO of L’Oreal and many others can be observed to perform the decisional roles of the management in order to stimulate the growth prospects of the company (Hesselbein, 2011). 6. How Is Culture Transmitted To Employees Of An Organization? Explain The Four Primary Transmission Modalities And Provide Two Relevant Examples Of Each. The four primary transmission modalities which are implemented to transmit culture to the employees are identified as, stories, material symbols, rituals, and language. Stories are intended to generate awareness among employees regarding the organisational culture, the challenges faced and the success stories (Graduate School of Business, n.d.). This modality is used in various organizations, including Nike, Apple Computers and others (Benkler, 2006). Rituals are performed with an intention to express the organizational values (Graduate School of Business, n.d.). Examples of organizations implementing rituals as modalities of cultural transmission to employees include, Toyota and Mitsubishi in Japan (Basu, 2003). Material symbols are defined as the interior decoration of the organization, awards and recognition provided by the organization and others to depict the favorable behavior from the end of the employees to revitalize the organizational culture (Graduate School of Business, n.d.). Organizations, such as, Apple and Cambro, implement this modality to transmit cultural value in their employees (Apple Inc., 2011; Cambro Manufacturing Company, 2011). Organizations often tend to develop a unique vocabulary to signify the cultural and/or subcultural members and even the day to day working behaviors reflected by the subordinates (Graduate School of Business, n.d.). Microsoft and E-bay can be identified as two examples of companies which implement language as a significant modality to transmit cultural values (Lieberman, 2002). References Apple Inc., (2011). Guidelines for Using Apple Trademarks and Copyrights. Trademark. Retrieved Online on May 18, 2011 from http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/guidelinesfor3rdparties.html Basu, D. R., (2003). National Culture, Organizational Culture and Corporate Performances of Japanese Multinational Companies: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. Keiei To Keizai, Vo1: 83, pp. 207-231. Brown, J. A., (2010). Board and Top Management Changes over the Decades Responses to Governance and CSR Issues. Lehigh University, Vol: 4. Benkler, Y., (2006). The Wealth of Networks How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Yale University Press. Burgaz, B., (1997). Managerial Roles Approach and the Prominent Study of Henry Mintzberg and Some Empirical Studies upon the Principals Work. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, Vol: 13, pp. 9-20. Cambro Manufacturing Company, (2011). Intellectual Property Marking and Attribution Guidelines. Terms of Use. Retrieved Online on May 18, 2011 from http://cool.cambro.com/terms_of_use.aspx Graduate School of Business, (No Date). Organizational Culture. Instructor Manual: Essentials of Organizational Behavior. Retrieved Online on May 18, 2011 from http://www.grad.au.edu/downloads/content/files/school%20of%20business/MBA/MBA%20Comprehensive/ProMBAEveB3/Robbins_EOB9_IM_CH15.pdf Hermalin, B. E., (2004). Trends in Corporate Governance. The Journal of Finance. Hesselbein, F., (2011). Leadership by Example. Hesselbein & Company. Retrieved Online on May 18, 2011 from http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/pdf/FH-309/9-article-l2l_journalarticle_1.pdf Hitt, M. A. & Et. Al., (2010). Strategic Management: Competitiveness & Globalization, Concepts. Cengage Learning. Lieberman, A. E., (2002). Taking Ownership: Strengthening Indigenous Cultures and Languages Through the Use of ICTs. Academy for Educational Development. Mittal, S., (2007). Effects of Tenure on CEO Performance. Northwestern University. Retrieved Online on May 17, 2011 from http://www.iems.northwestern.edu/docs/undergraduate/honors/shaileshreport.pdf Nordnet, (2003). Strategic Leadership. Strategic Actions: Strategic Implementations. Retrieved Online on May 17, 2011 from http://asso.nordnet.fr/adreg/Hitt%20et%20al%20strategic%20leadership.pdf Sakkab, N. Y., 2007. Growing Through Innovation. Industrial Research Institute. Srikanth, R. P., (2011). Infosys Converts Cloud Threat into Opportunity. Information Week. Retrieved Online on May 18, 2011 from http://www.informationweek.in/Cloud_Computing/11-02-28/Infosys_converts_cloud_threat_into_opportunity.aspx Wisconsin Rivers, (No Date). A Series of Helpful Tools for River and Watershed Advocates – Effective Boards. Building an Effective Board of Directors. Retrieved Online on May 17, 2011 from http://www.wisconsinrivers.org/documents/Board%20of%20Directors.pdf Woodall, J. & Winstanley, D., (1998). Management Development: Strategy and Practice. Wiley-Blackwell. Read More