Week 1

Introduction to
organisations and management

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e © 2006 Pearson Education Australia

LEARNING OUTLINE

● Who are managers?

• Explain how manager differ from non-managerial
employees.
• Discuss how to classify managers in organisations.

● What is management?
• Define management.
• Contrast efficiency and effectiveness.
• Explain why efficiency and effectiveness are important to
management.

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L E A R N I N G O U T L I N E (cont’d)

● What do managers do?

• Describe the four functions of management.
• Explain Mintzberg’s managerial roles.
• Describe Katz’s three essential managerial skills and how
the importance of these skills changes depending on
managerial level.
• How the manager’s job changing

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Learning Outline (cont’d)

● The environment
• Describe the four components of an organisation’s specific
environment.
• Describe the six factors in an organisation’s general
environment.
• Discuss the two dimensions of environmental uncertainty.
• Identify the most common organisational stakeholders.
• Explain the four steps of managing external stakeholder
relationships.

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An organisation...

Has a Distinct Purpose

●

● Is Composed of People

● Has a Deliberate Structure

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Who are managers?

● People who work with and through other

people by coordinating and integrating their
work activities in order to accomplish
organisational goals

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Classifying managers
● First-line Managers:
Are at the lowest level of management and manage the
work of non-managerial employees.

● Middle Managers:
Manage the work of first-line managers.

● Top Managers:
Are responsible for making organisation-wide decisions
and establishing plans and goals that affect the entire
organisation.

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Organisational levels

Figure 1.2 8
What is management?

The process of coordinating work activities so that

they are completed efficiently with and through
other people

● Efficiency
“Doing things right”
Getting the most output for the least inputs

● Effectiveness
“Doing the right things”
Attaining organisational goals

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Efficiency and effectiveness in
management

Figure 1.3 10
What do managers do?

Functional Approach

● Planning
Defining goals, establishing strategies to achieve
goals, developing plans to integrate and coordinate
activities.
● Organising
Arranging work to accomplish organisational goals.
● Leading
Working with and through people to accomplish
goals.
● Controlling
Monitoring, comparing, and correcting the work.

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Management functions

Figure 1.4 12
 Mintzberg’s management roles
Interpersonal
Interpersonal roles
roles

Figurehead
Figurehead Leader
Leader Liaison
Liaison

Informational
Informational roles
roles

Monitor
Monitor Disseminator
Disseminator Spokesperson
Spokesperson

Decisional
Decisional roles
roles

Entrepreneur Handler
Handler Allocator
Allocator Negotiator
Negotiator
Table 1.2 13
Skills needed at different
management levels

© Copyright 2003 Pearson Education Australia Figure 1.5 14

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 Conceptual skills

● Using information to solve business problems

● Identifying of opportunities for innovation
● Recognising problem areas and implementing
solutions
● Selecting critical information from masses of data
● Understanding of business uses of technology
● Understanding of organisation’s business model

Source: Based on American Management Association Survey of Managerial Skills and

Competencies, March/April 2000, found on AMA Web site (www.ama.org), October 30, 2002.

Table 1.3 15
 Communication skills
● Ability to transform ideas into words and actions
● Credibility among colleagues, peers, and
subordinates
● Listening and asking questions
● Presentation skills; spoken format
● Presentation skills; written and/or graphic formats

Source: Based on American Management Association Survey of Managerial Skills and

Competencies, March/April 2000, found on AMA Web site (www.ama.org), October 30, 2002.

Table 1.3 16
 Effectiveness skills
● Contributing to corporate mission/departmental
objectives
● Customer focus
● Multitasking: working at multiple tasks in parallel
● Negotiating skills
● Project management
● Reviewing operations and implementing
improvements
● Setting and maintaining performance standards
internally and externally
● Setting priorities for attention and activity
● Time management
Source: Based on American Management Association Survey of Managerial Skills and
Competencies, March/April 2000, found on AMA Web site (www.ama.org), October 30, 2002.

Table 1.3 17
 Interpersonal skills
● Coaching and mentoring skills
● Diversity skills: working with diverse people and
cultures
● Networking within the organisation
● Networking outside the organisation
● Working in teams; cooperation and commitment

Source: Based on American Management Association Survey of Managerial Skills and

Competencies, March/April 2000, found on AMA Web site (www.ama.org), October 30, 2002.

Table 1.3 18
Organisational type

Profit or non-profit, all have:

● political considerations
● business constraints
● motivational issues

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 Importance of managerial roles

Small firms Large

Hig firms
h
Spokesperson Resource
allocator

Entrepreneur Liaison
Moderat Monitor
Figurehead e
Leader Disturbance handler
Negotiator

Lo Entrepreneu
Disseminator
w r
Figure 1.8 20
How The Manager’s Job Is Changing
Importance of Customers
● Customers: the reason that organisations exist
● Managing customer relationships is the responsibility of
all managers and employees.
● Consistent high quality customer service is essential for
survival.

Innovation
● Doing things differently, exploring new territory, and
taking risks
● Managers should encourage employees to be aware of
and act on opportunities for innovation.

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Section 2
Organisations and
Management Environment

Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, Coulter: Management 4e © 2006 Pearson Education Australia

 0

The environment
● External environment:
❍ Outside institutions or forces that potentially
affect an organisation’s performance

● The external environment is made up of 2 elements:

 Specific environment
 General environment

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The specific environment of the

business organisation

Suppliers
The
Specific Customers

Environment Competitors
of the
Pressure Groups
Business
organisation

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The general environment of the
business organisation

Economic

The Political/Legal
General
Environment Sociocultural

of the Global
Business
Organisation Demographic

Technological
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 0
The external environment

General
Environment

Suppliers Customers

The
organisation

Pressure Competitors
Groups

Specific
Environment
Figure 3.2 26
© Copyright 2003 Pearson Education Australia 26
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Defining the external environment

● External environment
❍ The forces and institutions outside the organisation that
potentially can affect the organisation’s performance.
● Components of the external environment
❍ Specific environment: external forces that have a direct
and immediate impact on the organisation.
❍ General environment: broad economic, socio-cultural,
political/legal, demographic, technological, and global
conditions that may affect the organisation.

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How the environment affects
managers
● Environmental uncertainty
❍ The extent to which managers have knowledge of and
are able to predict change their organisation’s external
environment is affected by:
■ Complexity of the environment: the number of
components in an organisation’s external
environment.
■ Degree of change in environmental components:
how dynamic or stable the external environment is.

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The environment

Environmental uncertainty is the

degree of change and complexity
in an organisation's environment

Two dimensions:
1. Change - dynamic vs. stable environments
 Refers to the degree of change that is unpredictable

2. Complexity - simple vs. complex

 Refers to the number of components in an organisation’s
environment and knowledge about these components

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Environmental uncertainty matrix

Degree of change

Stable Dynamic
Degree of complexity

Stable and predictable Dynamic and unpredictable

Complex Simple

environment with few environment with few

components and minimal components and minimal
need for knowledge need for knowledge

Stable and predictable Dynamic and unpredictable

environment with many environment with many
components and high components and high need
need for knowledge for knowledge

Figure 3.3 30
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The environment, stakeholders

● Who are stakeholders?
❍ Any constituencies in the organisation’s external
environment that are affected by the organisation’s
decisions, actions and policies
● include internal and external groups
● can influence the organisation

● Why is stakeholder relationship management

important?
● it can affect organisational outcomes, such as
improved predictability of changes, more successful
innovations, greater trust and flexibility, organisational
performance
● It’s the ‘right’ thing to do

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© Copyright 2003 Pearson Education Australia 31
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Stakeholder relationships
● Stakeholders
❍ Any constituencies in the organisation’s external
environment that are affected by the organisation’s
decisions and actions
● Why manage stakeholder relationships?
❍ It can lead to improved organisational performance.
❍ It’s the “right” thing to do given the interdependence
of the organisation and its external stakeholders.

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Managing stakeholder
relationships
● Identify the organisation’s external stakeholders.
● Determine the particular interests and concerns of
the external stakeholders.
● Decide how critical each external stakeholder is to
the organisation.
● Determine how to manage each individual external
stakeholder relationship.

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Organisational stakeholders

Figure 3.4 34