2013管理学原理(双语)各章课后作业题答题要点

2013 “Fundamentals of Management”

Referential answers for assignments

Chapter1: Managers and Management

Q4 Is your course instructor a manager? Discuss in terms of both planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Also discuss using Mintzberg’s managerial roles approach.

Answer– A college instructor is both an individual contributor and a manager. Planning (defines class goals, establishes plans for achieving goals, and develops lesson plans), organizing(execution and class participation), leading(motivating students, direct the activities of others, select the most effective communication channel, resolve conflicts) , controlling(grading).

Mintzberg’s managerial role s: Interpersonal roles: the roles of leader and liaison. Informational roles: monitor and disseminator. Decisional roles: disturbance handler and resource allocator.

Q7 Why are managers important to organizations?

Answer– Managers are individuals in an organization who direct and oversee the activities of others. Managers perform managerial activities that ensure to achieve organizational goals effectively and efficiently. Providing details about management levels. (Please refer to page 5-6)

Q9 An article by Gary Hamel in the February 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review addresses how management must be reinvented to be more relevant to today’s world? Get a copy of that article. Choose one of the 25 grand challenges identified. Discuss what it is and what it means for the way that organizations are managed.

Answer– The 25 grand challenges include: ensure management serves a higher purpose, reduce fear and increase trust, reinvent the means of control, redefine the work of leadership, expand and exploit diversity, etc. Choose one of them and discuss.

Chapter3: Foundations of Decision Making

Q1 Why is decision making often described as the essence of a manager’s job?

Answer– Decision making is a process of responding to a problem by searching for and selecting a solution or course of action that will create value for organisational stakeholders. Everything that a manager does in term of planning, organizing, leading and controlling involves decision

making.

Managers in organizations also are called decision makers.

Q3 “Because managers have software tools to use, they should be able to make more rational decisions.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?

Answer– Disagree. Decision making is a complex process which needs information, skills, experiences and creativity. Software tools will allow managers easily gather information and analyze it, but it is doubtful software tools can make managers more rational, as software tools do not make decisions.

Rational decision making means making logical and consistent choices to maximize value. Rational decision making must satisfy several assumptions. However, the reality is full of uncertainty and risk. Managers’decision making still will not be perfectly rational by using software tools.

Q4Is there a difference between wrong decisions and bad decisions? Why do good managers sometimes make wrong decisions? Bad decisions? How might managers improve their decision making skills?

Answer– Wrong decisions can not help to achieve organizational goals, bad decisions do help to achieve goals but may not maximize value or solve problems in a large expense. In addition to uncertainty and risk, time pressure, incomplete information in today’s environment and limited capacity make managers often use intuition to make decisions, so good managers sometimes also make wrong or bad decisions.

Managers can improve decision making skills by focus on what is more important, logic and consistency, gathering relevant information, blending subjective and objective thinking with analysis and remaining flexible, etc.

Chapter4: Foundations of Planning

Q2 Describe in detail the six-step strategic management process. Answer–The six-step strategic management process involves: Identify the organization’s current mission, goals, and strategies; External analysis (identify opportunities and threats); Internal analysis (identify strengths and weaknesses); Formulate strategies, implement strategies and evaluate results. (Please refer to page 87-89 )

Q5 Under what circumstances do you believe MBO would be the most useful? Discuss.

Answer–MBO is a process of setting mutually agreed-upon goals and using those goals to evaluate employee performance. MBO makes objectives operational by cascading them down through the organization.