EBUS1624/EFBM2625

General Management
Study pack

Week 2: (2 August – 6 August)

Chapter 1
Introduction to Management

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Dear Student,

Last week we started with our EBUS1624/EFBM2625 online journey. By now, you
should have read through the module guide, navigated around the Blackboard page
and know what is expected of you.

This is your first study pack for this module. We hope you feel empowered and inspired
to tackle this study pack. We prepared it especially for you!

Here is what you should be focusing on in this study pack:

 First, familiarise yourself with everything in this study pack.

What you will find in this study pack:

 Section A: Slides in PDF format

 Section B: Activities to help you summarise the theory
 Section C: Practice questions and answers
 Section D: Questions to discuss with your academic partner
 Section E: Videos to heighten your understanding of the concepts

Regards
Lecturers

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 SECTION A
PDF slides

These slides are a summary of the chapter. It

is highly recommended to read through the
chapter in the textbook.

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Chapter 1:
Introduction to management
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 Learning outcomes

• Understand what an organisation is.

• Understand the definition and explanation of general
management.
• Differentiate between basic and additional management tasks.
• Explain the process of management.
• Differentiate between the levels and kinds of managers.
• Identify and understand the different roles of a manager.
• Evaluate the different skills that a manager must have to manage
effectively.
• Explain the different challenges that managers experience in the
organisational environment.
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 Introduction

• When one thinks about a manager, different things and images

come to mind.
• The question can be asked: Why does management matter?
• Well-managed organisations are more competitive – see also
Management in Action 1.1. (on next slide)
• Being a manager presents many challenges.
• In this chapter you will get to learn about:
- what management is;
- why it is important;
- what management tasks and skills are required by managers;
and
- some general perspectives on management.
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 Management in Action 1.1

What is the importance of management in the modern business world? Sound

management helps to maximise output while minimising costs. It also maintains
a dynamic balance between an organisation and its ever-changing environment.
Good management is responsible for the creation, survival and growth of an
organisation and its significance in the modern business world has increased
tremendously owing to the following:

•Businesses are more complex and are growing in size. • Work demands that
specialisation is becoming increasingly important. • There is tough competition
in the marketplace. • Labour is organising itself into unions. • Technology is
becoming more sophisticated and capital-intensive. • Organisational decisions
are becoming more complex. • Organisational regulation by government is
increasing. • The organisational environment is turbulent and ever changing. •
Stakeholder interests must be integrated. • Scarce resources must be utilised
optimally.

Source: Adapted from http://www.preservearticles.com/201106168019/what-is-the-importance-of-management-in-the-

modern-business-world.html (accessed on 11 July 2014)

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 What is an organisation?

• An organisation is defined as an arrangement of people in a

specific structure to accomplish some specific purpose.

• There are three common characteristics:

– Firstly, each organisation has a distinct purpose.
– Secondly, each organisation is composed of people.
– Thirdly, all organisations develop some deliberate
structure so that the members can do their work.

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 What is management?

• Management refers to getting things done through people.

• Management can be described as a process of coordinating work

activities through the functions of planning, organising,
activating (leading), and control so that these activities are
completed efficiently and effectively, and in line with the
organisational goals.

• The phrase “coordinating work activities” distinguishes a

managerial position from a non-managerial one.

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 What is management? (cont.)

• The concepts of efficiency and effectiveness are very important

in management.
• What is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?
Effective = Necessary activities
need to be done to achieve
organizational goals

Efficient = Using the minimum

inputs to produce maximum
output
Table 1.1: Management functions

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 What is management? (cont.)

• Planning involves the process of defining goals, and

establishing strategies and plans for achieving those goals.

• Organising involves the process of determining what tasks are

to be done, how the tasks must be done, who must do them,
how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and
where decisions are to be made.

• Activating (leading) deals with the way to get employees

active to do their work. It involves leadership and how to
influence employees to be as productive as possible.

• Control involves monitoring the actual performance,

comparing the actual performance to what was planned, and
taking corrective action if necessary.
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 What is management? (cont.)

• The process of management = The idea that

management consists of a set of ongoing decisions and
actions.
• Management can also be seen as a process where the
basic management tasks/functions (P,O,A/L,C) must be
used to transform inputs (resources) to outputs
(products + services) as efficiently and effectively as
possible.

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 What is management? (cont.)

The management process is illustrated in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1: The management process

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 Who is a manager?

• A manager’s job is to make sure that the organisation achieves

its goals.

• A manager can be defined as a person who coordinates and

integrates all work activities of employees in an organisation
with the purpose of achieving the vision and goals of the
organisation.

• A good manager is also someone who surrounds him- or

herself with competent people in order to achieve these goals.

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 Who is a manager? (cont.)

• First-line managers are managers at the lowest level of the

organisation – responsible for the daily supervision of non-
managerial employees who are involved with the production or
creation of the organisation’s products and services.

• Middle managers are the managers between the first-line level

and the top level of the organisation – they manage the work of
first-line managers.

• Top managers are the managers at the top level of the

organisation – responsible for making organisation-wide
decisions and establishing the goals and plans that affect the
entire organisation.

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 Who is a manager? (cont.)

Figure 1.2: Kinds and levels of management

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 Management roles

• Henry Mintzberg identified that managers perform ten different

roles or behaviours that he classified into three sets – see table
1.2.

• The interpersonal roles involve people and other duties that are
ceremonial and symbolic in nature. It includes being a figurehead,
leader, and liaison.

• The informational roles are related to the collecting and transfer

of information. The three informational roles include being a
monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson.

• The decisional roles deal with decision-making and choices and

include being an entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource
allocator, and negotiator.
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Role Description
Interpersonal
Figurehead The manager is the symbolic head and performs routine duties of a legal
or social nature, such as signing legal documents and cutting the ribbon
when opening a new building.
Leader Motivates and leads subordinates to become active.
Liaison Maintains good relationships with all internal and external stakeholders
by building good social and work relationships.
Informal
Monitor Collects a wide variety of internal and external information to develop a
thorough understanding of the organisation and its environment.
Disseminator Transmits all relevant information (both formal and informal) received
from different stakeholders (external and internal) to all members of the
organisation.
Spokesperson Conveys information to outsiders about the organisation’s plans, policies,
actions, and results.
Decisional
Entrepreneur Constantly searches the organisation and its environment for
opportunities to develop the organisational strategy and identify new
programmes.
Disturbance handler Takes corrective action when the organisation faces unexpected
disruptions and crises.
Resource allocator Makes or approves all significant organisational decisions and
allocates organisational resources of all types.
Negotiator Represents the organisation
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at major negotiations such as
negotiations with labour unions.
 Management skills
• Managers need some basic skills.

• Every manager, regardless of his or her level, should have the

following general skills or abilities and they are indispensable
for sound and effective management.
See Figure 1.3 Note how the amount of each skill needed differs per level.
A CEO needs to use more conceptual skills in his work than a first-line
manager.

Figure 1.3: Managerial skills at different management levels

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 Management skills (cont.)

• Technical skills are the knowledge of and proficiency in a

specific field – and the ability to apply specialised knowledge
and competency in a specific area.

• Human or interpersonal skills refer to the ability to work well

with other people, individually and in a group – good people
skills enable a manager to get the best out of their workers –
they know how to motivate, communicate, and delegate.

• Conceptual skills refer to the ability to think, conceptualise and

analyse abstract and complex situations – most important at
the top-management levels, because they must be able to
understand how things in the whole organisation fit together.
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 Management skills (cont.)

• A number of management abilities can be added and

grouped under these basic skills.

• Some management abilities that will help managers to cope

with their work:
– Communication skills: relates to interpersonal skills.
– Ability to work in a team: relates to interpersonal skills.
– Good time management: conceptual and technical skills.
– Problem-solving abilities: understand the bigger picture –
relates to conceptual skills and can also be linked to
technical skills if the problem requires technical
knowledge.
– Conflict solving abilities: relates to interpersonal skills.
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 Challenges for managers

• In a dynamic environment, managers are confronted with the

following challenges:
– Building the organisation to experience a competitive
advantage.
– Maintaining ethical and social responsibility.
– Managing a diverse workforce.
– Managing in a global environment.

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 Challenges for managers (cont.)

• Build the organisation to experience a competitive advantage

by applying the following components:
– Cost savings
• Cost savings are directly linked to efficiency.
• Customers value, lower-priced products and services (as a
result of cost savings), which mean improved customer
satisfaction.
– Differentiating quality
• An organisation has to offer customers something
different.
– Innovation and responsiveness
• Organisations that are successful in responding to the
needs of their customers will experience competitive
advantage. 23
 Challenges for managers (cont.)

• Maintaining ethical and socially responsible behaviour

– Pressure to perform can be healthy for an organisation.
– It can become negative if it gets overwhelming and if goals
must be achieved “at all costs” – for example, decreasing the
quality of products and services to save costs, while
maintaining high prices, is unethical.
– Challenge to managers globally is to maintain proper
standards in doing the right thing every time.

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 Challenges for managers (cont.)

• Managing a diverse workforce:

– An organisation’s workforce is not homogenous.
– An advantage of a diverse workforce is that different ideas,
skills, preferences, and experiences can increase creativity.
– Managers must be sensitive to, and value diversity.
– Challenges of managing a diverse workforce:
• building an organisational culture that supports diversity;
• putting the necessary structures, policies and systems in
place that support diversity;
• complying with the law regarding equity and BEEE (black
economic empowerment equity); and
• providing training for and retaining diverse employees.
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 Challenges for managers (cont.)

• Managing in a global environment

– Managing in the global environment not only means keeping
up with innovation, but also dealing with change.
– Information technology and the internet are changing the
business environment so quickly that managers should realise
that they must focus on speed.
– The challenge for managers is to learn new things daily to
keep up with the changing environment.
– Management must guide and instill an organisational culture
of learning.

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 Summary

• Overview of management.

• A definition of management, the levels, skills, and roles of

managers have been explained.

• A summary of the different management functions.

• The challenges of building an organisation to experience a

competitive advantage, how to maintain ethical and social
responsibility, the challenge of managing a diverse workforce,
and the challenge to manage in a global environment have been
discussed.

• Some of these issues will be discussed in more detail in later

chapters.
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 SECTION B
Work activities

These activities will assist you when you work

through the chapter and to make your own
summary of the content

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Chapter Synopsis and Activities

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT

This unit serves as an introduction to the second semester module. It is important that you have a thorough
knowledge of this chapter, since the rest of the semester will build on the information of this chapter.

OUTCOMES
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

✓ Understand what an organisation is

✓ Understand the definition and explanation of general management
✓ Differentiate between the basic and additional management tasks
✓ Explain the process of management
✓ Differentiate between the different levels and kinds of managers
✓ Identify and understand the different roles of a manager
✓ Evaluate the different skills that a manager must have to manage effectively
✓ Explain the different challenges that managers experience in the organisational environment.

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1.1 Thinking back…
Step 1: Individually, take 2 minutes to reflect on last semester’s Business Functions module. If you are only joining
us now, write down what you currently think about the topic (Introduction to Management). Now write down a
short summary of what you learnt/remember/think in the block below. You may draw pictures or use any
combination of words to make your summary.

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1.2 What is an organisation? 3 common characteristics…

1.3 What is Management? Definition + Explanation of Management

Use the graphics below to construct the definition of Management:

Process of...

Through which functions?

Why (so that...)?

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1.4 Who is a Manager? Basic + additional management tasks

Basic Additional
•How many are there? •How many are there?
•What are they? •What are they?

The management process

The process of management refers to the idea that management consists of a set of ongoing

+ .

Explain to your facilitator your understanding of the management process (input, etc.)

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1.5 Management roles. What does this remind you of?

Mintzberg’s managerial roles

Your facilitator has lost lecture notes in a gust of wind while walking to the class venue.

Exercise: Help your facilitator to organise the information below by matching the letters to the
appropriate numbers in the grid. You only have 1 minute to help the facilitator before the lecture
starts….tic-toc!!

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 3

4
6
1
Leader

5
7
2

Leader

E
Brings about change and
improved performance

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1.6 Management Skills. Tasks, roles and skills
Use the space below to make your own summary of the tasks, roles and skills managers need and use daily.
Note that you have to spend more time on the summary of skills in this section.

Tasks
•
•
•

Roles
•
•
• Skills

Would you be able to…?

o Explain the difference between the managerial skills to your friend?
o Do you know which skills are used more often in certain management levels?

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1.7 Managerial challenges within the organisational environment

Can you guess which managerial challenge is portrayed in each of the following?
Hint: These might not be in the same order as in the text book.

-The end-

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 SECTION C

Practice questions and answers

These questions and answers were taken

from previous tests and exams. Sometimes
special exercise questions are also included
to help you reflect and master the content.

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Here are some practise questions that you can try to do after you have completed
studying the chapter.

Multiple choice questions:

Question 1

1.1 Kabelo and James both drive sports cars. Kabelo’s Porsche 911 can accelerate and
reach 100km/hour within 2.7 seconds and uses 0.2litres of petrol to achieve that.
James’ Nissan GTR can also accelerate and reach 100km/hour within 2.7 seconds, but
uses 0.3litres of petrol to achieve it. It can be said that:
(1)

A. Kabelo’s car is more effective than James’

B. James’ car is less efficient than Kabelo’s car
C. James’ car is less effective than Kabelo’s car
D. All of the above
E. None of the above

1.2 Managers have certain challenges that face them in a dynamic business environment.
They are:
(1)
A. Building a competitive advantage and managing a diverse workforce.
B. Maintaining ethical and social responsibility
C. Managing in a global environment
D. A+B
E. A+B+C

1.3 Dave is a general manager at Bright Optometry Group. The decisional role he took
up when an entire branch of Bright Optometry Group was flooded by a tidal wave in
Umhlanga and staff had to be transferred to different branches while the building was
fixed, can best be labelled as…
(1)

A. Figurehead
B. Disseminator
C. Liaison
D. Negotiator
E. Disturbance handler

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Theory questions:

Question 1

Managers on all levels should have good people skills if they are to have good relationships
with their subordinates and enable them to assist in achieving organisational goals.

Name and explain the other two (2) management skills you have learnt about this semester.
Be sure to also include a suitable example of each skill.
[½+ ½ + 1) x 2 = 4]
[Name + explanation + example]

Answers:

Multiple choice answers:

Question 1

1.1 B √
1.2 E √
1.3 E √

Theory answers:

Question 1

Technical ½ - specialised knowledge and proficiency in a specific field. ½ Any example that
suitably describes the concept. For example: The manager of a repair garage should have car
mechanics skills like bleeding brakes, installing a car battery, etc. √

Conceptual ½ - to think, conceptualise and analyse abstract and complex situations OR to

understand how things fit together inside an organisation. ½ Any example that suitably describes
the concept. For example: An international online sales manager should have knowledge regarding
imports and exports and know how those affect buying, selling and distribution of products to
various markets locally and internationally. √

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 SECTION D
Questions to ask your academic
partner*

These questions will either be discussed in

the collaboration session or were included to
stretch your mind. Feel free to ask your
academic partner if you have trouble
answering them.

* “Academic partner” could be anyone who is part of the teaching team.

This includes lecturers, facilitators, tutors, etc.

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1. Tutorial discussion questions
These videos were uploaded as part of the study pack for this chapter on Blackboard.

Video 1: Efficiency, Effectiveness and Management Levels?

This video provides an explanation and examples of the concepts of efficiency and
effectiveness. Thereafter, the different management levels are explained.

Question 1
After watching the video, write down the following:
a) A short explanation of the difference between “effective” and “efficient”.
b) Think of your own example that would help you to explain the difference
between these concepts to someone else.

Question 2
Draw a diagram that you would be able to use to explain to a fellow classmate what
the different management levels are and how they differ.

Video 2: Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles

This video explains Henry Mintzberg’s theory on managerial roles.

Question 1
Are you able to answer following?
a) Did you notice the “surprise” at the end of the video? Now use the grocery
manager example explained in the video and add the relevant information
and examples that were not included in the video.
b) Can you name and explain all 10 roles and indicate under which set they belong?
c) Provide your own real-life examples of each role. Mention as many as you
can from what you have seen, experienced or think of yourself.

*We will discuss these answers in your online tutorial discussion session.

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 SECTION E
Videos

Videos are uploaded separately on

Blackboard. Have a look at these videos to
enrich your understanding of the work.

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Three videos are available on Blackboard for chapter 1.

Look at the name of the videos. Can you link the correct video with the correct theoretical
section of this chapter?

Video 1: Efficiency & Effectiveness, 3 Levels of Managers

Video 2: Henry Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles

We hope you enjoy watching the videos!

Reference list:

Video 1: Efficiency & Effectiveness, 3 Levels of Managers

Senavi TV (2015). Efficiency & Effectiveness, 3 Levels of Managers. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maTQCD3p78Y (Accessed: 2 August 2020)

Video 2: Henry Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles

Study.com (2014). Henry Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFShUgphzHU (Accessed 4 August 2020)

End of the study pack ☺

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