Contemporary Management Q&A Chapter 1

1. Who is a manager?
A manager is someone who coordinates and oversees the work of other people so that organizational goals can
be accomplished. A manager's job is not about personal achievement— it's about helping others do their work.
2. Is there a way to classify managers in organizations?
Classification Definition Examples
Top Who are responsible for making organization-wide executive vice president, president,
decisions and establishing the plans and goals that managing director, chief operating
affect the entire organization. officer, or chief executive officer
Middle Manage the “First line” Managers. regional manager, project leader,
Managers store manager, or division manager.
First Line manage the work of nonmanagerial employees supervisors or shift managers, district
who typically are involved with producing the managers, department managers, or
organization's products and services. supervisors office managers
or shift managers, district managers, department
managers, or office managers
3. What is an “Organization”?
It's a deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish some specific purpose
4. What are the Characteristics of an Organization?
a. Have a distinct purpose (Goals through vision and mission)
b. Composed of people, who achieve that purpose
c. Deliberate structure to organize people
i. Open & flexible (Google): Tasks, teams, workdays & open communication systems.
ii. Traditional (P&G or GM): Rules, regulations, Job descriptions & structured communication
systems.
5. What do managers do?
Management involves ensuring that work activities are completed
efficiently and effectively.
• Efficiency refers to getting the most output from the least
amounts of inputs "doing things right"
• Effectiveness is often described as "doing the right things"
6. Management (functions, roles & skills)

Functions Roles Skills

1. Plan (plans, goals, strategies)
2. Organize (what tasks, by who)
3. Lead (motivate, resolve
conflicts)
4. Control (monitor, compare &
correct)
(Mintzberg's Managerial Roles)
• Interpersonal (People in/out the
org.) {figurehead, leader & liaison}
• Informational roles
(Monitor, disseminator, & spokesperson)
• Decisional roles
(Entrepreneur, disturbance handler,
resource allocator, and negotiator)
• Technical skills (first line
managers)
• Human skills (all levels of
management; communicate,
motivate, lead)
• Conceptual skills (top
management)

7. Changes that affect Managers Job?

a. Changing Technology (Digitization)
b. Changing Security threats
c. Increased emphasis on organizational and managerial ethics
d. Increased Competitiveness
8. Customers are Very Important, should create customer-responsive organization.
9. Innovation is Very important; nothing is riskier than not innovating.

Prepared by: Muhammed Afify