1 Describe what management is, why management is important, what managers do, and how managers utilize organizational resources efficiently and effectively to achieve organizational goals.

1. What is Management?
   Management is the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of resources to achieve organizational goals both effectively and efficiently.
   1. Achieving high performance
      1. Organizational performance is the measure of how efficiently and how effectively the resources of the organization are being used to both satisfy customers and to achieve organizational goals.
      2. Efficiency is the measure of how well resources are being used to achieve a goal.
      3. Effectiveness is the measure of the appropriateness of the goals and the degree to which they are being achieved.
   2. Why study management?
      1. Because managers decide how to use valuable resources, the impact the well-being of society as a whole.
      2. The study of management helps you to deal with your boss and fellow co-workers.

2 Distinguish among planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (the four principal managerial functions), and explain how managers' ability to handle each one can affect organizational performance.

2. Managerial Functions
   1. Planning – identifying and selecting goals and plans of action.
   2. Organizing – defining the working relationships that allow workers to achieve organizational goals.
   3. Leading -- includes energizing workers so that they understand the part they play in the achievement of the organization's goals.
   4. Controlling – evaluating how well the organization is achieving its goals and taking action to improve performance.

3 Differentiate among three levels of management, and understand the the responsibilities of managers at different levels in the organizational hierarchy.

3. Types of Managers
   1. Levels of management
      1. First-line managers – supervisors responsible for directing nonmanagerial workers
      2. Middle managers – supervise the first-line managers
      3. Top managers – responsible for the performance of all of the departments
   2. Areas of managers – managers belong to specific departments (e.g. marketing, human resources, etc.)
   3. Recent changes in managerial hierarchies
      1. Restructuring – downsizing the number of jobs in an organization
      2. Outsourcing – contracting with another company (frequently one that is outside of the U.S.) to perform activities at lower cost
      3. 3. Empowerment and self-managed teams – empowerment refers to giving workers expanded responsibilities for making decisions, while self-managed teams are responsible for supervising their own work activities.

4 Identify the roles managers perform, the skills they need to execute those roles effectively, and the way new information technology is affecting these roles and skills.

4. IT and Managerial Roles and Skills
   A role is a set of tasks a manager is expected to perform in the position of manager.
   1. Managerial roles identified by Mintzberg
      1. Decisional roles – used to plan organizational strategy and to use resources
         1. Entrepreneur – developing innovative goods and services
         2. Disturbance handler – taking quick action to solve unexpected problems
         3. Resource allocator – applying resources to departments
         4. Negotiator – working with other groups to achieve agreement
      2. Interpersonal roles – providing direction and supervision to workers
         1. Figurehead – setting future organizational goals
         2. Leader – providing a good examples for workers
         3. Liaison – coordinating work across different departments
      3. Informational roles – obtaining and sending information
         1. Monitor – evaluating the performance of managers in different departments
         2. Disseminator – informing workers about both internal and external changes that affect their work.
         3. Spokesperson – representing the organization to external groups
   2. Being a manager – often means reacting to "gut instincts"
   3. Managerial skills
      1. Conceptual skills – analyzing and diagnosing a situation in terms of a cause-effect relationship
      2. Human skills – the ability to understand and lead others
      3. Technical skills – job-specific knowledge and techniques needed by the role (e.g. accounting, engineering, production, etc.)

5 Discuss the principal challenges managers face in today's increasingly competitive global environment.

5. Challenges for Management in a Global Environment
   Competition to succeed in business has increased dramatically in the past twenty years.
   1. Building competitive advantage – the ability of an organization to outperform other organizations because of its efficiency and effectiveness in operations
      1. Increasing efficiency – reducing the resources needed to produce goods or services
      2. Increasing quality – improving the quality of goods or services
      3. Increasing speed, flexibility, and innovation – bring products to market faster, changing the way in which activities are performed to improve performance, and creating new goods and services that customers want.
      4. Increasing responsiveness to customers – training workers to be more responsive to the needs of customers
   2. Maintaining ethical and socially responsible standards – too much pressure on managers to perform can create situations in which they act unethically or in socially irresponsible ways
   3. Managing a diverse workforce – all workers need to be treated in a fair and equitable way so that the organization does not discriminate against any workers