Management of organization

Exercise 2. Ask questions to the given answers:

1) Question: ___________________________________________ ?

Answer: Two conceptual reasons for planning are limited resources and an uncertain environment.

2) Question: ___________________________________________ ?

Answer: Priorities affect resource allocation by assigning relative importance to objectives.

3) Question: ___________________________________________ ?

Answer: Good objectives help managers by serving as targets, act ing as measuring sticks, encouraging commitment, and strengthening motivation.

THE WRITING MODULE

III. Writing exercises:

Exercise 1. Complete the sentences with the suggested words:

assigning, executed, top, to, more.

Objective setting begins at the _____of the organization and filters down, thus forming a means-ends chain. Priorities affect resource allocation by ______relative importance _____ objectives. Plans are formu lated and ______as part of a ______encompassing planning/control cycle.

Exercise 2. Compose a story on one of the topics (up to 100 words):

“Management by objectives”

“Trends in corporate planning”

“Objectives and the planning process”

Lesson 4. THE READING MODULE

Read the text: Organizing

Organizing is an important managerial function that translates strategy into a systematic structure of authority relationships and task responsibilities. Contingency organization design has grown in popularity as environmental complexity has increased. Organization charts are helpful visual aids for organizers. Representing the organization’s structural skeleton, organization charts delineate vertical hierarchy and horizontal specialization.

The idea behind contingency design is to structure the organization to fit situational demands. Consequently, contingency advocates contend that there is no one best organizational setup for all situations. Diagnosing the degree of environmental uncertainty is an important first step in contingency design. Field studies have validated the assumption that organiza tion structure should vary according to the situation. Burns and Stalker discovered that mechanistic (rigid) organizations are effective when the environment is relatively stable and that organic (flexible) organizations are best when unstable conditions prevail. Lawrence and Lorsch found that differentiation (division of labor) and integration (cooperation among specialists) increased in successful organizations as environmental complexity increased.

There are four basic departmentalization formats, each with its own combination of advantages and disadvantages. Functional departmentalization is the most common approach. The others are product-service, geographic location, and customer departmentalization. In actual practice, these pure types of departmentalization usually are combined.

Design variables available to organizers are span of control (the number of people who report directly to a manager), decentralization, line and staff, and matrix. As organizers have come to realize that situational factors dictate how many people a manager can directly supervise, the notion of ideal span of control has become obsolete. Decentralization, the delegation of decision authority to lower-level managers, has been praised as being democratic and criticized for reducing top management’s control. Strategic business foster a high degree of decentralization. Line and staff organization helps balance specialization and unity of command. Functional authority serves to make staff organization more organic by giving staff specialists temporary and limited line authority. Matrix organizations are highly organic because they combine vertical and horizontal lines of authority to achieve coordinated control over complex projects.

Delegation of authority, although generally resisted for a variety of reasons, is crucial to decentralization. Effective delegation permit managers to tackle higher-priority duties while helping train and develop lower-level managers. Although delegation varies in degree, it never means abdicating primary responsibility.

I. Reading Exercises:

Exercise 1. Read and memorize using a dictionary:

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1) Why is organizing an important managerial function?

2) What is the idea behind contingency design?

3) What did Burns and Stalker discover?

4) What are design variables available to organizers?

Exercise 3. Match the left part with the right:

Exercise 4. Open brackets choosing the right words:

As organizers have come to (deny/realize) that situational factors dictate how many people a manager can directly supervise, the notion of ideal span of control has (become/combined) obsolete.

The speaking module

II. Speaking Exercises:

Exercise 1. Describe organization charts; contingency design, decentralization, matrix organization, line and staff organization using the suggested words as in example:

Exercise 2. Ask questions to the given answers:

1) Question:

Answer: There are four basic departmentalization formats, each with its own combination of advantages and disadvantages.

2) Question:

Answer: Strategic business foster a high degree of decentralization.

3) Question:

Answer: Diagnosing the degree of environmental uncertainty is an important first step in contingency design.

The writing module

III. Writing exercises:

Exercise 1. Complete the sentences with the suggested words: step, advocates, uncertainty,

fit, should

The idea behind contingency design is to structure the organization to _____ situational demands. Consequently, contingency ______ contend that there is no one best organizational setup for all situations. Diagnosing the degree of environmental ______ is an important first _____ in contingency design. Field studies have validated the assumption that organiza tion structure _______ vary according to the situation.

Exercise 2. Compose a story on one of the topics (up to 100 words):

“ Organizing is an important managerial function”

“Basic departmentalization formats”

“ Design variables available to organizers”

Lesson 5 The reading module

Read the text: Strategic management

Strategic management sets the stage for virtually all managerial activity. Managers at all levels need to think strategically and be familiar with the strategic management process for three reasons: farsightedness is encour aged, the rationale behind top-level decisions becomes more apparent, and strategy formulation and implementation are more decentralized today. Strategic management is defined as the ongoing process of ensuring a competitively superior fit between the organization and its ever-changing environment. Strategic management effectively merges strategic planning, implementation, and control.

Strategic thinking, the ability to look ahead and spot key organization/ environment interdependencies, is necessary for successful strategic man agreement and planning. Three tools that can help managers think strate gically are synergy (the 2 +2 =5 effect), product life cycles that trace the life of a product through its introduction, growth, maturity, and decline stages and Porter's three generic strategies. Porter's three strategies are overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.

The strategic management process consists of four major steps: (1) formulation of grand strategy, (2) formulation of strategic plans, (3) implementation of strategic plans, and (4) strategic control. Ongoing evaluation after each of these steps and corrective action based on feedback help keep the strategic management process on track. Strategists formulate the organization’s grand strategy by conducting a situational analysis and identifying the driving forces. Results-oriented strategic plans that specify what, when, and how are then formulated and translated downward into more specific and shorter-term intermediate and operational plans. Problems encountered along the way should be detected by the strategic control or by ongoing evaluation and subjected to corrective action.

Event outcome, event timing, and time series forecasts help strategic planners anticipate and prepare for future environmental circumstances. Event outcome forecasts are used when strategists want to predict the outcome of a highly probable future event. Event timing forecasts predict when, if ever, a given event will occur. Time series forecasts seek to determine future values in a sequence of values recorded at fixed intervals. Popular forecasting techniques among today’s managers are informed judgment, surveys, and trend analysis.

I. Reading Exercises:

Exercise 1. Read and memorize using a dictionary:

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1)                Why should managers at all levels need to think strategically and be familiar with the strategic management process?

2) What is strategic thinking?

3) What tools can help managers?

4)                What is ongoing evaluation based on?

Exercise 3. Match the left part with the right:

Exercise 4. Open brackets choosing the right words:

Problems (predicted/encountered) along the way should be detected by the strategic control or by ongoing evaluation and (subjected/implemented) to corrective action.

The speaking module

II. Speaking Exercises:

Exercise 1. Describe strategic management, strategic thinking, result-oriented strategic plans, time series forecasts, event timing forecasts

using the suggested words and expressions as in example:

Exercise 2. Ask questions to the given answers:

1) Question:

Answer: Strategic management effectively merges strategic planning, implementation, and control.

2) Question:

Answer: Popular forecasting techniques among today’s managers are informed judgment, surveys, and trend analysis.

3) Question:

Answer: Event outcome, event timing, and time series forecasts help strategic planners anticipate and prepare for future environmental circumstances.

The writig module

III. Writing exercises:

Exercise 1. Complete the sentence with the suggested words:

trace, that, through, decline, strate gically

Three tools ____ can help managers think ______ are synergy, product life cycles that _____ the life of a product _____ its introduction, growth, maturity, and ______ stages and Porter's three generic strategies.

Exercise 2. Compose a story on one of the topics (up to 100 words):

“ Strategic thinking”

“Major steps of strategic management”

“Forecasts in management”

Lesson 6 The reading module

Read the text: Organizations

Organizations need to be understood and intelligently managed because they are an ever-present feature of modern life. When people gather together and formally agree to combine their efforts for a common purpose, an organization is the result. All organizations, whatever their purpose, have four characteristics: (1) coordination of effort, (2) common goal or purpose, (3) division of labor, and (4) hierarchy of authority. If one of these characteristics is absent, an organization does not exist. Coordination of efforts multiplies individual contributions. A common goal or purpose gives organization members a rallying point. By systematically dividing complex tasks into specialized jobs, an organization can efficiently use its human resources. Division of labor permits organization member to become more proficient by repeatedly doing the same specialized task. Organization theorists have defined authority as the right to direct the action of others. Without a recognized hierarchy of authority, coordination of effort is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

Organizational classifications aid systematic analysis and study of organizations. There is no universally accepted classification scheme among organization theorists. Two useful ways of classifying organizations are by purpose and technology. In regard to purpose, organizations can be classified as business, not-for-profit service, mutual benefit, or common weal. In regard to technology, there are long-linked, mediating, and inten sive technologies. Each of these technologies has characteristic strengths and weaknesses.

Modern organization theorists tend to prefer open-system thinking because it realistically incorporates organizations' environmental dependency. Early manage ment writers proposed tightly controlled authoritarian organizations. Max Weber, a German sociologist, applied the label bureaucracy to his formula for the most rationally efficient type of organization. Bureaucracies are characterized by their division of labor, hierarchy of authority, framework of rules, and impersonality. Unfortunately, in actual practice, bureaucracy has become a synonym for a red tape and inefficiency. The answer to this bureaucratic paradox is to understand that bureaucracy is a matter of degree. When bureaucratic characteristics, which are present in all organizations, are carried to an extreme, efficiency gives way to inefficiency.

Barnard’s acceptance theory of authority and growing environmental complexity and uncertainty questioned traditional organization theory. Open-system thinking became a promising alternative because it was useful in explaining the necessity of creating flexible and adaptable rather than rigid organizations.

I. Reading Exercises:

Exercise 1. Read and memorize using a dictionary:

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1)                Why do organizations need to be understood and intelligently managed?

2)                What systems do modern organization theorists tend to prefer?

3)                What are bureaucracies characterized by?

4)                When does efficiency give way to inefficiency?

Exercise 3. Match the left part with the right:

Exercise 4. Open brackets choosing the right words:

When bureaucratic characteristics, which are present in all organizations, are (carried/divided) to an extreme, efficiency (grows/gives) way to inefficiency.

The speaking module

II. Speaking Exercises

Exercise 1. Describe : organizations, division of labor, authority, organization by purpose, organization by technology

using the suggested words and expressions as in example:

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