BUSİNESS MANAGEMENT

Information

Effectiveness  shows an
organization’s performance in achieving pre-set
goals.

Mintzberg’s managerial roles

Feedforward control

Low goal attainment, but good
use of resources

Team leaders

The monitor role, the disseminator role, and the spokesperson
role

Human skills

The disseminator role

Social responsibility is the belief that businesses should conduct their operations ethically and to benefit both employees and the larger society.

Management is the act of getting people work together to achieve organizational goals through effective and efficient use of resources. Management is essentially needed in all types of organizations regardless of the size and scope of operations at all organizational levels. Setting the organizational goals and strategies, building an organizational structure to enable organization to effectively and efficiently achieving these goals, motivating the members of the organization and leading people to achieve organizational goals, and finally monitoring and evaluating the organizational performance are the main activities within the boundaries of management. The answer is C.

Effectiveness and efficiency are the key concepts almost in all definitions of management. In brief, effectiveness is about making the right decisions and it also involves successful implementation of these decisions. Effectiveness basically shows an organization’s performance in achieving pre-set goals. On the other hand, efficiency is mainly about how organization uses its valuable resources. Efficiency refers to not wasting resources when achieving organizational goals. If an organization is wasting its resources when trying to achieve its goals, then the value of achieving the goals would be diminished. Both effectiveness and efficiency are the key concepts of management and successful organizations are those concurrently effective and efficient in their operations. The answer is C.

Management functions are not a random listing. Planning, organizing, leading/directing and controlling are listed in an order. Each function is followed by the next one. However, execution of management functions is not a linear process. All functions are interrelated and execution of all functions is a cyclical (continuous) process. The answer is D.

Planning is the first function of management. Planning requires an organization to perform certain tasks. First of these tasks is establishing the organizational goals. Others involve determining the steps necessary to achieve intended goals, identifying and acquiring the necessary resources required by the organization, setting up rules, policies, and procedures that regulate the organizational activities, developing solid plans, and making meaningful estimations regarding the future of the organization. The answer is D.

The leading function refers to mobilizing and directing people toward organizational goals. Motivating the members of the organization, building a shared vision, communicating organizational goals to employees, and dealing with the possible conflicts within the organization are the main issues covered by the leading function. The answer is B.

Organizational control mechanisms can focus on issues before, during and/or after a process. These different approaches are known as feedforward controls, concurrent controls and feedback controls accordingly. The answer is E.

All organizations have goals and business managers allocate and utilize the organizational resources effectively and efficiently to achieve these goals. These organizational resources can be classified into four groups:

1. Human resources

2. Monetary resources

3. Raw materials

4. Capital resources

The answer is B.

Although there are different approaches to classifying managers, common approaches classify managers
in two categories as vertical classification and lateral classification. Lateral classification of managerial positions are subdivided into two subcategories known as functional and general managers. At vertical classification there are three main hierarchical levels of management: top management, middle  management, and first-line management. The answer is C.

Although these three types of managers are categorized under the vertical classification of managers, it is important to mention a change that has been observed in the last three decades. In recent years, the fourth type of manager has emerged in the vertical classification of managers. This fourth type of managers is generally titled as team leaders. The main reason behind the emergence of team leaders is that organizations are now working more with autonomous and self-managing teams in which no formal managers are needed. Team leaders are mainly responsible for coordinating the work of a small group of people while acting as a catalyst or facilitator. Project managers, program managers, process managers, and task force leaders are among the titles used for team leader positions. The answer is A.

Human skills refer to a manager’s ability to communicate with other people, develop healthy relationships, support employee development, manage conflicts, and enhance motivation. Human skills are crucial skills for all managers since they achieve organizational goals through joint efforts of the people. A manager who lacks human skills will most likely to fail in getting people to work together for meeting the organizational goals. The answer is D.