Exam 1: Managing in a Global World

Scenario A. Naturally Yours, Inc. is a new brand of organic clothing recently introduced throughout the world. The company is unique in that it has collaborated with its suppliers and largest potential customers to bring the clothing to market. The concept has been a huge success as the idea of sustainability is becoming more "main stream" especially in developed countries. The quick growth in sales has lead Naomi and Yolanda, the company founders, to look to your consulting company for help in assuring the future success of the company. -As the founders of the company, Naomi and Yolanda are best described as

Planning involves which of the following?

Organizing is assembling and coordinating the resources needed to achieve goals.

The four key elements that make the current business environment different from the past include globalization, technological change, the importance of knowledge and ideas and collaboration across organizational boundaries.

The fundamental success drivers for an organization are innovation, quality, speed, and product delivery time.

Total quality includes preventing defects before they occur.

Better serving the customer can start with involving the customer more in company decisions, especially when it comes to discovering more about customer attitudes.

_______________ is specifying the goals to be achieved and deciding in advance the appropriate actions needed to achieve those goals.

Today, customers value both the quality of physical goods and the quality of services.

_________ is the set of practices aimed at discovering and harnessing an organization's intellectual resources-fully utilizing the intellects of the organization's people.

The Quilt Shop, Inc. periodically reviews the goals of the company. During the process, the Quilt Shop managers analyze their current strategies as compared to their competitors, determine goals that they will pursue and decide upon specific actions for each area of the company to take in pursuit of these goals. With these actions the Quilt Shop managers are engaged in the management function of

Scenario B. Suppose you are interviewing the CEO of a large company. The CEO is telling you about his/her job as a manager and how he/she spends time. Using the descriptions below, which function of management is the CEO most likely describing in each of the examples? -"Recently, I spent a great deal of time looking at how to define jobs and group jobs together to most efficiently utilize the employees in those jobs. Other times, my focus is more towards financial resources."

The three levels of managers within large organizations are

Actively managing your relationship with your organization includes managerial actions such as

Top management at Sunset Studios, Inc. recognized a lack of employee enthusiasm about the new website. In fact there was a fair amount of infighting and blame around whom was responsible for the layout, given the entire firm considered itself to be tops in design and production. Sammy Sunset got the team together and engaged them in a lively discussion to determine how to change the website so that it reflected more of Sunset Studios' unique design ability. As the meeting wound down, each team member volunteered to take on a part of the project to fix the site. The ability to identify this problem and resolve it is an effective use of __________ skills.

In managing your career, it is important to know that now, more than ever individuals will be accountable for their actions and for results.

Which of a manager's roles involves speaking on behalf of the organization?

It can be said that technology both complicates things and creates new opportunities.

Scenario C. As a management researcher, you are studying management behaviors and the roles that managers play. Your field work takes you to Puffy Treats, a local cream puff bakery in your university's city, to "shadow" the manager for a day. At the end of the day, there are three events that really caught your attention. First, at an early meeting with the Puffy Treats employees, the manager notified the employees of a pending lay-off. This news was met with a great deal of anxiety on the part of the employees even though the manager was as kind as she could be when delivering the news. One employee reacted very angrily and became so disruptive that the manager had to call the local police to have her escorted out of the shop. Later in the day, the manager made a call to a supplier to find out if anything "new and interesting" was going on in the bakery industry. Finally, after work, the manager left to attend an employee's wedding. -When the manager deals with the angry employee, which of the managerial roles is the manager of Puffy Treats performing?

To become an effective manager you should choose one or two of the four management functions and become expert in only those. An outstanding manager only needs to be proficient in one or two of the functions as he or she can hire others to do the remaining functions.