INTRODUCTİON TO BUSİNESS - Deneme Sınavı - 8

Economies of scale is the cost advantage that arises with increased output of a product.16 Therefore an entrepreneur to be involved in such a project has to reach millions of production capacity per year to compete with the international automobile firms and has to find ways to market the new national car brand globally. This project requires huge investments and involves several risks for potential entrepreneurs. The case stated above is a typical example defining an important aspect of international competition. It is not possible to think about independent competition of firms in the global context. Firms have to find partners, collaborate, and cooperate with each other to compete with big players, which have dominated international markets. So, international competition refers to a complex network of multiple types of relations and interactions.

Economies of scale is the cost advantage that arises with increased output of a product.16 Therefore an entrepreneur to be involved in such a project has to reach millions of production capacity per year to compete with the international automobile firms and has to find ways to market the new national car brand globally. This project requires huge investments and involves several risks for potential entrepreneurs. The case stated above is a typical example defining an important aspect of international competition. It is not possible to think about independent competition of firms in the global context. Firms have to find partners, collaborate, and cooperate with each other to compete with big players, which have dominated international markets. So, international competition refers to a complex network of multiple types of relations and interactions.

When a government believes that free trade is not in the best interests of its national security, domestic industries, workforce, or consumers, it can intervene in a number of ways. Some of these methods are collectively known as protectionism because they seek to protect a specific industry or groups of workers. Taxes, surcharges, or duties arranged against imported goods are known as tariffs. Switzerland is the world's most competitive country according to the exchange rates.

Organizational effectiveness is the degree to the achievement of organizational goals based on the statements and expectations. Organizational efficiency on the other hand is about the amount of overall resources used for the achievement of an organizational goal.

Management is a process through which required resources are utilized by a sequence of functions starting with planning, followed by organizing, leading, and controlling for attaining organizational goals.

Middle managers are department heads, branch, or plant managers. Middle level management is responsible for overseeing the contribution to the organizational goals and strategies developed by the top management. Middle managers encourage and support their teams for establishing division plans and attain organizational performance at the highest level in compliance with the division or department goals as well as the organization’s ulitimate goals.

Conceptual skills are related to seeing the organization as a whole to reach, coordinate, and integrate resources to attain established goals throughout the organization. These goal-oriented skills are especially critical for monitoring as well as analyzing the organizational environment and developing aligned strategies which directly impact the activities of various divisions or functions of an organization.

Human skills (soft skills) must be most mastered by middle level managers. The basic function of middle management is leading their departments’ activities and inspiring employees with high performance for contributing to the ultimate organizational goals. Middle managers also play a critical role as a bridge between top management and first-line management for transferring messages, expectations, or directives from top to bottom and vice versa.

Decisional roles are related to the decision making behaviors of management teams. Decision making is the fundamental function of managers at any level. We can argue that decisional roles and the relevant responsibilites are the most critical compared to other group of roles that managers have to fulfill.

Beside similarities between the management and leadership roles, there are also distinguishing characteristics. One of them is that management authority is based on legal authority; leadership power comes from followers.

The contingency approach emphasizes that leadership style and best managerial approach change according to environmental factors. Different contingency theories examine the match between the leadership approach and the environmental composition. Each of the theories attempts to answer “if-then” contingencies.

The Managerial Grid composes five managerial or leadership styles through the combination of these two dimensions: Impoverished management –low in both dimensions; Country Club management – high in concern for people and low in concern for production; Team management – high in both concerns; Authority compliance – high in concern for production and low in concern for people; and Middle
of the Road management – intermediate in both dimensions.

Flow of communication between positions and tasks at the same hierarchical level is referred to as horizontal communication. Managers and non-managerial employees at all levels are in need to contact each other for organizational and personal achievement.

Management can be defined as a process: the attainment of goals by others through planning, organizing, leading, and controlling activities.

Management process consists of planning, controlling, organizing, leading.

Managerial planning is the guide function for the management process. It provides managers the answers to: What? When? Where? and How? Planning
is identifying goals and deciding which tasks that will be performed and the resources that will be utilized for reaching these goals.

Leading is about guiding the organization and/or the group towards the goals.

Leadership is the ability to influence people for attainment of the organizational goals.

Middle management:

Division head, Plant manager, Dean

Top management teams are responsible for the entire organization and ensures the coordination of overall activities towards the achievement of ultimate goals.

Middle level management is responsible for overseeing the contribution to the goals and strategies developed by the top management.

First line management team is primarily responsible for implementing the production operations in departments or any type of horizontal unit which they achieve by non-managerial employees.

Conceptual skills are related to seeing the organization as a whole to reach, coordinate, and integrate resources to attain established goals throughout the organization.

Human skills also referred to as soft skills, are related to establishing constructive relationships with other members of a group.

Technical skills involve job-specific knowledge, experience, and ability for performing the tasks at a proficient level.