GSBA 543 MID-TERM EXAM REVIEW LIST
1.Why are organizations considered open systems?
(open systems: systems influenced by external pressures and inputs, making them more complex and difficult to control than closed systems).
Organizations are subjected to outside forces by competitors, customers, suppliers, and regulators, thus are open systems.
Emphasizes the dynamic nature of organizations; they exist in a constant state of flux; open systems approach emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between an organization and its external environment. An
organization simply cannot survive without the support and resources available from outside the organization.
What are some principles of open system theory?
Receive “inputs” from the external environment and also return “outputs” to the environment. “Symbiotic”
type of relationship exists between organization and environment.
2.What are the 3 basic roles of managers discussed in Chapter 1?
Managerial roles are those distinct patterns of behavior that managers engage in while working at different tasks. As events/needs shift throughout the working day, roles keep changing.
Basic 3 roles:
1.Interpersonal: Include key functions of figurehead, leader, and liaison.
2.Informational: include key functions of monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson.
3.Decisional: include key functions of entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.
(Roles are taken from Mintzberg’s 10 specific managerial roles classified into 3 primary dimensions(roles).
3. What are the key organizational elements that must be considered when analyzing an organization, or when trying to change it?
The key resource variables or capabilities that managers seek to influence and transform include:
tasks: work people do
technology: knowledge, equipment, etc. for accomplishing tasks
organization: structural network and the processes that define and link key subsystems
people: energize and give life to systems; make fundamental decisions that influence system outputs.
Organizational culture: beliefs, values, and assumptions people have abut their organizationand the
expected behavior within it.
4.What are the key outcome measures of organizations?
1.Productivity: ratio of outputs of acceptable quality to inputs consumed. Is a measure of how well an organization attained its goals. Depends on both efficiency and effectiveness.
2.Satisfaction: overall positive feelings people have about an organization, whether as an employee, customer, or regulator.
3.Revitalization: Capacity of an organization to develop and renew itself. Refers to the ability to take care of tomorrow’s problems as well as today’s by renewing the strategies, resources, technology, and skills required for future success. Must periodically reinvest, renew, and reinvent.
How do we evaluate the results of organized effort?
Efficiency: doing something right or getting the most output for the least input. Typical measures would be sales per employee, inventory turns per year, student-faculty ratios, and number of acceptable units produced per person per hour or per shift.
Effectiveness: Producing the right outputs; those that are sufficiently valued by stakeholders to sustain the organization.
Ideal is to achieve a balance of efficiency and effectiveness, although effectiveness is usually more critical.
5. Describe what is meant by “organizational culture”
organizational culture: fundamental assumptions about an organization’s values, beliefs, norms, symbols,
language, rituals, and myths that give meaning to organizational membership and are collectively accepted by a group as guides to expected behaviors.
Why is culture difficult to change?
Culture is difficult to change due to the many criteria to accomplish the process and the many variables within each criterion. Some of the criteria are role model; motivate change in attitude; good communication; enrolling others in your vision; assessment of willingness/ability tochange; and evaluation of external forces. Variables of response to any of these actions can be great and lead to another set of problem solving.
Change in culture means asking one to change a set of values/belief systems that guide them in their behavior. Even with all of the above criteria being met, people will resist the instability of change, and resist changes that force them to abandon established and approved ways of doing things.
6. What functions does organizational culture serve for its members and for the organization itself?
a.helps establish competitive advantages in niche markets
b.helps guide consistent behavior by reinforcing capabilities and strengthening sources of competitive advantage.
c.serves as a “rudder” to keep firms’ strategy on course,(“while corporate strategy can control a firm’s success or failure, corporate culture can make or break that strategy.”)
d.culture is the expressive backup that influences how well the strategy is implemented.
e.culture focuses strategy. Serves as a “lens” through which members view and evaluate the appropriateness of goals, strategies, and directions.
f.helps socialize new members.(changing attitudes and beliefs to achieve an internalized commitment to the organization).
g.promotes expected behaviors.
7. What does “bureaucracy mean as an ideal organizational form? (appendixa)
Developed by German sociologist Max Weber as a way of achieving efficiency:
*A hierarchy of command based on a rational-legal authority structure established by a person’s rank in the hierarchy.
*Specialization and division of labor by organizational function, such as engineering, production, and sales.
*An explicit system of rules and policies that standardizes how things are to be done to ensure equitable treatment of everyone.
*Promotion and tenure based on competence, developed through training and experience, and measured by objective standards.
*Impersonal treatment of people through consistent application fo rules and decisions to prevent favoritism.
Weber assumed work was not meant to be pleasant, but rather efficient, with minimum conflicts of interest. Managers were expected to be unemotional, and treat people as being interchangeable.
8.In general, what is the meaning of “contingency theories”
Theories that identify the circumstances in which a particular practice is more likely to obtain desired results.
9. What is the relationship between “theory” and “implementation”
Theory is thought; implementation is action. Theory is a formulation of underlying princples of certain observed phenomena which has been verified to some degree; the principles of an art or science, rather than its practice.
Implementation means to fill; to fulfill; to accomplish; something used in a given activity.
What is relationship between “skills” and “knowledge”
skill: great ability or proficiency; expertness
knowledge: range of information or understanding; learning; body of facts acquired; to have securely in the memory.
(I could’nt find the answers to this question in book just used dictionary)
10.When are formal groups the same as informal groups?
Formal groups are established by management and charged to perform specific tasks and accomplish organizational objectives.
Informal groups emerge through the efforts of individuals trying to satisfy personal needs for support, friendship, growth and recreation.
One of the more interesting aspects of group processes in organizations is the interaction between informal and formal groups. Both groups establish norms and roles, goals, and objectives, and both demand loyalty from their members. Studies in social psychology have clearly documented the important role of informal groups in facilitating performance and organizational effectiveness.
Formal groups and informal groups interact when one forms within another, with organizational objectives
as the goal and support/friendship/growth/recreation as an added benefit. Enlightened managers pay special attention to different types of informal groups (interest/friendship/reference) due to their tremendous influence with their members that managers prefer directed toward organizational goals.
11. How do reference groups affect our thinking and behavior?
Reference group: a group with which an individual identifies to form opinions and make decisions regardless of whether he or she is an actual member.
Reference groups provide values for individuals on which to base personal decisions and norms that justify
social behavior, both of which may or may not be congruent with organizational preferences.
Examples: gays that have formed reference groups to enhance their feelings of acceptance regardless of other’s reactions.
Groups within the school setting that take on a certain style of dress and behavior, regardless of negative feedback received from peers.
12. What are the five stages of group development discussed in Chapter 10?
Forming: newly formed group; interested in exploring friendships and task potentials; try to determine how to satisfy needs for acceptance and personal goal satisfaction. Completed when members accept themselves as a group and commit to group goals.
Storming: intragroup conflict about clarification of roles and behavioral expectations. One objective is to resolve conflicts about power and task structure. Another is towork through the accompanying hostility
and replace it with a sense of acceptance and belonging that is necessary to progress to the next stage.
Norming: Cooperation is the theme; involves objectives of promoting open communication and increasing cohesion as members establish a common set of behavioral expectations. Desired outcome for this stage is increased member involvement and mutual support as group harmony emerges. Concern is that if groups become too contented, they can get stalled, because they do not want to create disharmony.
Performing: No longer conflicted about acceptance; work interdependently to solve problems and are committed to the groups mission; productivity at its peak; outcomes are achievement and pride and major concerns include preventing loss of enthusiasm and sustaining momentum. This is hopefully the final and ongoing stage of development(permanent work groups).
Adjourning: Separation phase for temporary groups; Leader can facilitate positive closure at this stage
by recognizing and rewarding group performance. Ceremonial events bring closure to the desired emotional outcome of a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
13. What are the functional group roles and why are they important to talk groups?
It is important for 2 types of functional group roles to emerge for a group to continue to exist and accomplish its objectives in a satisfactory manner.
Task roles: directly help accomplish group goals.
Maintenance roles: help establish and maintain good relationships among group members.
Examples of task roles: initiating; giving information; seeking information; summarizing; elaborating;
consensus testing.
Esamples of maintenance roles: encouraging; harmonizing; setting group standards; gatekeeping compromising; providing feedback.
Important to talk groups because if roles are not firmly established, personal roles (e.g. behaviors that meet
individual needs and are usually detrimental to the groups interaction such as blocking/recognition seeking/
domination/avoiding/seeking help) will take over and prevent the group from becoming an effective team.
(I just took a shot at this one re:talk groups; could’nt find it in the book)