Managerial Functions and Activities

1-Formulating objectives and strategy

2-Planning and organizing the work

3-Handling disturbances

4-Directing subordinates

5-Motivating commitment

6-Facilitating cooperation and teamwork

7-Disseminating information

8-Monitoring operations and the environment

9-Recruiting and maintaining networks

10-Building and maintaining networks

11-Representing the organization to outsiders

Communication Process in Organization

Downward communication- flowing from top management down

Upward communication- flowing from lower level positions up to top management

Lateral communication- flow of information between people of the same amount of power in the organization

Informal communication- “Watercooler talk”

Influences on Communication

· Task interdependence

· Physical facilities

· Interaction of the individuals (parties, lunches, etc.)\

· Status of the individual- higher level individuals tend to dominate conversation

· Cultural norms- specific to cultures: ex-Japanese vs American culture

Requirements for Communication

· Attention

· Comprehension

· Acceptance

· Feedback

Barriers to Understanding

· The use of SRC- self-reference criterion, seeing things only from your perspective

· Over interpretation- inferring the meaning from an incomplete message

· Projection- trying to make others feel the way we do about something

· Stereotypes- having preconceived notions about others

· Arrogance- believing that your views are superior

· Evaluative responses- judging a message as either right or wrong

Steps to Improving Communication

· Determine the objectives and analyze the situation

· Clarify relevance and purpose

· Use simple language

· Avoid redundancy (stating the same thing over and over again)

· Ensure appropriate feedback

The 4 Main Types of Corporate Culture

1) Power Cultures

In these cultures self-reliant and highly competitive self-development provides the basis of relations. A manager’s success is related to their charisma, ambition, and influence, rather than their knowledge and experience. The style of the chief executive (CEO) is the model for other mangers. In organizations of this type mangers need to be tough-minded and aggressive.

Highlights: Charisma, ambition, influence, self-reliance are all important. This type of organizations has a highly competitive environment where aggression is rewarded.

2) Role Cultures

In these cultures a manger’s role is completely related to their place within a centralized system. Their success depends on how well they adhere to rules, procedures, and precedents. Individualism and aggression are NOT valued in these cultures. Employees in these organizations should NOT exceed the limits of their roles. Empowerment is not a management theory that is put into practice in this type of corporate culture.

Highlights: Organizational structure, rules, regulations, and job titles are all very important. Individualism, aggression and assuming responsibility for job functions outside of your job are NOT highly valued.

3) Task Cultures

In organizations of this type, they value everything that makes it possible to get the work done and get company goals accomplished. The main concern in these types of organizations is to be successful with the completion of projects. A manager’s success is related to their knowledge and experienced required to achieve tasks, rather than to meet the requirements of their role. If something does not help the company to meet its goals, it is not considered to be of any value.

Highlights: Things and people in the organization only have value if they add to the ability to get the job done. The “bottom line” is highly valued.

4) Individual Cultures

In organizations of this type freedom of expression is valued the MOST. Effectiveness of any activity in these organizations is rated by how much the activity satisfies the staff rather than by how well it conforms to the company’s business plans. Independence, creativity, and innovation are highly valued in these types of organizations.

Highlights: Freedom of expression and individualism are highly valued. People in the organizations are valued more highly than the “bottom line”. Independence, creativity, and innovation are all highly valued as well.

Lesson 10: English Grammar Exercise

Common Root Words

The following is a chart of common root words in the English language. By learning the meanings of root words you will be able to understand a greater variety of words just by knowing the root of a word. Even if you don’t know what a word really means, you will be able to guess at its meaning and figure out its what is being said based upon the root word and sentence context.

Exercise A: Define the underlined words based upon sentence context and the chart above.

Lesson 11

The Basics of Organizational Design

Lesson Introduction

Organizational Design

The organizational design of a company is extremely important in business communications because it changes the environment and the manner in which things are communicated. If a person outside of a company is able to discern the organizational design of the company they are trying to communicate with then they are more capable of making informed decisions on the best way to approach the company they are wanting to initiate communications with. It is important to remember that every company has its own “corporate culture” and the culture within a company can have a huge impact upon business communications within the company as well as outside of the company. Knowing the structure and organization of a company not only helps others to understand how the company works but also how the company communicates. Being aware of how a company communicates will help to ensure that business communications are successful.

1) “Functional Organization”

-Reduces duplication of activities
-Encourages technical expertise
-Creates narrow perspectives
-Difficult to coordinate

2) “Divisional Organization”

-Improves decision making
-Fixes accountability for performance
-Increases coordination of functions
-Hard to allocate corporate staff support
-Loses some economies of scale
-Fosters rivalry among divisions

3) “Matrix Structures”

-Reinforces & broadens technical excellence
-Facilitates efficient use of resources
-Balances conflicting objectives of the organization
-Increases power conflicts
-Increases confusion & stress for 2-boss employees
-Impedes decision making

4) “Lateral Relations”

-Dotted-line supervision
-Liaison roles
-Temporary task forces
-Permanent teams
-Integrating managers

Organizational Designs

Functional- organizational units are created on the basis of specialty functions (production finance, marketing, etc). Strengths: specialization and all the strengths tied to specialization. Weaknesses: slow response to change because of coordination and decision making problems, difficulty with the wide-system view.

Divisional- evolve over time from a functional organization, are general decentralized organizations, a good example is the Chevrolet division of General Motors (GM). Is used in large organizations to provide better response to environmental change than the large whole could. Weaknesses: can lose well-focused technical specialization and in-depth technical development. May lose economies of scale from larger functional organization. Focus may be on the goals of the division rather than on the goals of the entire company.

Hybrid- a combination of a functional and divisional organization with the hope of gaining advantages of each and getting rid of the weaknesses of each type of organization when it stands by itself. Strengths: can be very adaptable to differences in products, customers, and changes in environment. Can provide efficient use of expensive shared resources and work well with economies of scale. Weaknesses: difficult to get uniform application of organizational policies with decentralized and duplicated functions. Integration is difficult. Potential for high administrative costs and communication and managerial difficulties.

Matrix- an organic design alternative that includes both vertical and horizontal lines of authority. It will use functional and divisional chains of command simultaneously in the same parts of the organization. It has dual lines of authority. The functional hierarchy runs vertical. The divisional hierarchy runs laterally. Is used when there is environmental pressure for both functional and departmentalization and divisional departmentalization. Strengths: more efficient use of resources than a single hierarchy, adaptable to a changing environment, allows development of both specific and general skills, expertise available to all divisions. Weaknesses: dual chain of command can be confusing, high conflict between the two sides of the matrix, many meetings are necessary to coordinate activities, need for human relations training, power domination by one side of the matrix may occur.

Business Jargon