POM Unit 1&2
POM Unit 1&2
POM Unit 1&2
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I. INTRODUCTION
Concept, nature, process and significance of management; Managerial roles and Skills;
Development of management through; Classical and neo - classical systems; Contingency
approaches: - Robert Owen, Taylor Fayol and Elton Mayo
MANAGEMENT
DEFINITIONS OF MANAGEMENT
Management is an art of getting things done though people – Mary Parker Follet
To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to
Control – Henry Fayol
Management is the art of knowing exactly what you want your men to do and then
seeing that they do it in the best and the cheapest way. – F.W Taylor
Management is the creation and maintenance of an internal environment in an
enterprise where individuals working in groups can perform efficiently and effectively
towards the attainment of group goals, it is an art of getting the work done through
and with people in formally organized groups – Koontz and O Donnel
NATURE OF MANAGEMENT
1. It is a Universal Activity: Management is relevant in every sphere of activity. It is
relevant in army, government, private household work etc. the work can be done in a
more systematic manner with the application of the techniques of management. The
material and human resources can be effectively handled and the goal can be attained
with maximum efficiently.
2. It is goal oriented: Management focuses attention on the attainment of specific
objectives. For Ex. a business may aim for a particular level of sales. This can be
achieved by proper forecast of sales by planning production by fixing the targets.
3. It is an Intellectual activity: the practice of management requires application of mind
and intelligence. Every work needs to be properly planned and Execute work has to be
assigned to different Individuals and responsible have to be fixed on them. Ex. in a
manufacturing unit production finance and marketing are the important activities
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performed. It has to work in proper co-ordination with the other departments. Then only
objectives of the firm can be achieved.
4. It is a process: it is process consisting of various stages/ functions. Planning is the
starting point of management and control is its last stage.
5. Management is both art and science: the practice of science needs knowledge of theory
and formulae. But the practice of art requires skill management is social science. It
focuses attention on the behavior of individuals and groups. The theoretical knowledge
may not help always that time they require skill. Ex if the workers in a factory demand
more pay and threaten to go on strike if their demand is not considered. Here the skill of
the manager will help to avert the strike then it’s theoretical.
6. It is a social process: management deals with the behavior of individuals and groups. In
a work place individuals work as a team. The behavior of an individual is bound to be
different while he is part of a group Eg.: an individual worker may be forced to join a
strike program because of the union.
7. It is an on going activity: it is a continuous process planning, organizing etc have
unlimited use. Management will exist as long as there are human activities.
8. It is intangible: it is invisible cannot be seen. But it can be felt.
9. Management is a Profession: like medical, law and engineering, management has also
come to be recognized as a profession.
Importance of Management:
1. Achievement of Group Goals: Management enables an enterprise to achieve its desired
objectives through proper planning and control. It decides what should be done and how.
It lays down the long term and short term goals keeping in mind the resources of the
enterprise.
2. Optimum utilization of resources: Materials, machines and money are the physical
factors of production. The efficient use of these resources depends upon the efficiency
and motivation of workers. Management makes the workers efficient and motivate
through training, supervision and inspiring leadership. Managers guide and motivate
workers towards best performance
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3. Fulfillment of social obligations: Sound management monitors the environment of
business and makes necessary changes in business policies and practices. So as to keep
the customers and workers satisfied.
4. Stability of Management it ensures the survival of an organization in a fast changing
environment. It coordinates the activities of different departments in an organization and
monitors team spirit amongst the personnel.
5. Human development Management improves the personality and caliber of people to
raise their efficiency and productivity. A good manager serves as a friend and guide to his
subordinates. He provides vision and confidence.
6. Meets the challenge of change Managers maintain a dynamic equilibrium b/w and
enterprise and its development through innovation and creativity.
7. Integrate various interests: Each person has his own interests. These interests are
different in nature. Management takes steps to integrate various interests to achieve the
objectives of an organization
8. Coordination and team spirit: All the activities of business are grouped into department
wise; management coordinates the activities of different departments and establishes
team spirit to achieve the objectives.
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6. Coordinating: It is a type of support function. It involves accumulating the work to
achieve the task.
7. Budgeting: It means allocation of the resources. It involves financial planning for the
future activities.
8. Reporting: It is a statement showing the various activities to the top management. It
shows the status of the work done.
LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT
A) Top Level Management: the top level management derives its powers and authority
directly from the owners of the enterprise. They are Board of Directors, Chairman,
Managing Directors, COO, CEO etc.
Functions
1. They are setting out the fundamental objectives of the enterprises.
2. They frame major policies for the business.
3. They design the strategies for the attainment of organizational objectives.
4. They appoint key managerial personnel for the middle management.
5. Develop master plans in areas of finance, human resource, technology, marketing and
other functions of organization.
6. To represent the business outside, particularly in discussing business problems with the
Government trade association and so on.
B) Middle Level Management: they are departmental managers (Head of Department) like
Production managers, Marketing managers, Personnel managers, Finance manager,
Regional manager and other managers.
Functions:
1. They play the role of a linking pin between top level management and the lower level
management.
2. They explain the objectives, strategies, policies laid down by the top level management to
the low level management.
3. Communicates the problems, suggestions and view points of the lower management to
the top management.
4. They prepare the departmental plans.
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5. They submit reports on the performance at various departments to the top management.
6. They offer suggestions and recommendations to the top management for the betterment
of overall management of the enterprise.
C) Lower Level of Management: It is called as operating level management or supervisory
level. This is the level where actual operational work for the enterprise in the areas of
production, finance, marketing, personnel, etc is performed by workers. This level of
management consists of manger like supervisors, the foreman, the sales officers the
accountants the sectional officers.
Functions:
1. They do day to day operational planning in view of the instructions given by the middle
level management.
2. They provide necessary instructions to operators for the best performance of their
assigned jobs.
3. They supervise the work of operators to ensure that their performance is in accordance
with the standards laid down in plans.
4. They submit reports on the performance of operating staffs to the middle management.
5. They operate as a channel of communication between the middle management and the
operators.
6. The problems, suggestions and recommendations of operators are informed by them to
the middle management.
SKILLS OF MANAGEMENT
1. Technical Skills
2. Human Skills
3. Conceptual Skills
Technical Skills: Technical skill is an imperative skill for managers at the lower level of
management. These people who guide and supervise work of operators under their
subordination. E.g. Production manager must know the type of raw materials to be used, the
proportion the production process and the knowledge of handling the various m/c.
Human skills: The ability to tactfully deal with human beings and mould their behavior at
work in the desired manner to help attain the common objectives of the enterprises most
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effectively and efficiently. It requires an understanding of human behavior and it is necessary
for motivating people.
Conceptual Skills: It is concerned with concepts or ideas. Conceptual means ability to view
the enterprise as whole in totality. To analyze the implications of relevant external
environmental factors economic, social, political, technological etc. for the successful
functioning of the enterprise.
CHARACTERISTICS OF QUALITY MANAGERS
Manager is a person who has the ability or strength to coordinate, motivate and guide all
the personnel working under him so as to make sure they attain the organizational goal in the
most efficient manner possible.
Qualities of a Good manager
1. Good Education
2. Technical Knowledge
3. Personality
4. Communication skills
5. Honesty
6. Positive thinking
7. Control Management
8. Motivation
9. Guide
10. Leadership qualities
11. Coordinate
12. Decision making (planning, forecasting)
13. Innovative
14. Good analysis
15. Risk taking
MANAGEMENT VS ADMININSTRATION
Administration Management
1) All the policies are made by the 1) Management has a main function of
Administration. implementing the decisions made by the
Administration.
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2) They are the owners / proprietors of the 2) They are the managers of the company.
company.
3) Conceptual, human skills are necessary. 3) Technical and human skills are more
important here.
4) The main functions are planning and 4) The main functions are directing and
controlling. organizing.
5) Level of authority:
Administration mainly comprise of Top Management mainly carried on by Middle
level management. and lower level management.
6) Administration is thus more permanent 6) While management may change during
in nature. the course of running the organization.
7) Objective:
They are mainly interested in They actually work for remuneration, thus
Profitability they direct their efforts towards the
Sales volume attainment of goal.
8) They don’t take part in the day to day 8) Managers take part in the day to day
activity of the organization. activity.
9) Administration is the thinking process. 9) While the management are the doing
process.
ROLES OF A MANAGER
Mintzberg has identified ten roles of a manager which are grouped into three categories.
1. Interpersonal Roles
a) Figure head : Manager performs symbolic duties required by the status of his office,
making speeches, bestowing honors, welcoming official visitors; distributing gifts to retiring
employees are Examples of such ceremonial and social duties
b) Leader : The manager relationship with his own subordinates. The manager sets an
Example legitimizes the power of subordinates and brings their needs in accord with
those of his organization.
c) Liaison: It describes a manager’s relationship with the outsiders Eg. Government,
industry groups.
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2. Information Roles
a) Monitor: Seeks and collects information to obtain thorough understanding
of organization and environment Eg. Reading periodicals
b) Disseminator: Transmits information received from outsiders or insiders to
other organization members Eg. forwarding mail.
c) Spokes man: Transmits information to outsiders on organization plans,
Policies, actions Eg. board meetings , handling mail.
3. Decisional roles
a) Entrepreneur: an initiate change adapting to the environment and supervises
Design of organization. Improvement projects as opportunities arise.
Prepare strategies
B) Disturbance handler: Responsible for corrective action when organization
faces unexpected crisis.
c) Resources allocator: responsible for allocation of human monetary and materials
resources Eg. scheduling , requests.
D) Negotiator: Responsible for representing the organization in bargaining
and negotiations with others.
EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT
PRE SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT ERA:
1. Robert Owen (1771- 1858) he advocated that workers should be treated as human beings, he
has taken efforts to improve working conditions in the factory reduce working hours, increase
minimum wages, provide meals to employees, allocate education provision , housing and other
labor welfare facilities. His main contribution is that the effective and good personnel
management was essential part of manager’s job since it pays dividends to the employer.
2. Charles Babbage (1792-1872): he was a professor of math’s of Cambridge university from
1828to 1839. He has suggested aspects like division of labor, work measurement, profit sharing
and engineering to improve the efficiency of management.
He has invented mechanical calculators which were called as “differential machine”.
He has emphasized in improving efficiency through the application of math’s and science in the
operation of factories.
3. Charles Dupin (1784-1873) he has emphasized systematic education in management.
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He was French engineer and formally tried to structure the subject matter of management. These
early contributors focused attention on managerial problems.
They have not presented any unified theory of management.
Systematic and scientific study of management started after 1880. Due to the creation of joint
stock corporate organizational set up.
MANAGEMENT THEORIES
Classical Theories
Taylor’s Scientific Management theory
Fayol’s Administrative theory
Weber’s bureaucracy theory
Behavioural theories
Human Relations theory
Behavioural Science theory
Modern Management theories
Quantitative theory
Systems theory
Contingency theory
1. Technical Skills
Technical skills refer to the ability of a person to carry out a specific activity. In order to do so,
you need to have knowledge of methods, processes and procedures. Engineers, computer
specialists, accountants and employees in manufacturing departments all have the necessary
technical skills for their specialized fields. Technical skills are essential for first-level managers.
For example, employees at the operational level work with tools, and their supervisors must be
able to teach them how to perform the tasks assigned to them using these tools. First-level
managers spend much of their time in training subordinates and clarifying doubts in work-related
problems.
2. Human Skills
Human skills or interpersonal skills refer to the ability of a person to work well with other people
in a group. It is the ability to lead, motivate, and communicate with people to accomplish certain
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objectives; Human skills are of paramount importance in the creation of an environment, in which
people feel comfortable and are free to voice their opinions. These skills aid employees during
interaction with their supervisors, peers and people outside the work unit such as suppliers,
customers and the general public. These skills are important for all levels in the organization.
3. Conceptual Skills
Conceptual skills refer to the ability of a person to think and conceptualize abstract situations. It is
the ability where you understand and coordinate the full range of corporate objectives and
activities. These skills are most important at the top management level, as top-level managers
have the greatest need to see the “big picture,” to understand how the various parts of the
organization relate to one another and associate the organization with the external environment.
4. Design Skills
Design skills refer to the ability of a person to find solutions to problems in ways that would
benefit the organization. As a top manager, you should not only recognize a problem but also
suggest ways to overcome them. If you only see the problem, you would become mere “problem
watcher,” and would prove ineffective. Managers at upper organizational levels should be able to
design a rational and feasible solution to the problem by considering the various internal and
external factors.
The relative significance of these skills varies at different levels in the organizational hierarchy as
shown in the below figure. We can briefly summarize them as follows:
As a first-level manager, you require more technical skills in order to supervise operational
employees. You need to have good human skills as you need to interact with your subordinates on
a regular basis. However, conceptual skills are usually not very essential for the managers at the
supervisory level.
The need for technical skills is lesser at the middle-management level. Here, human skills and
conceptual skills are more significant.
At the top-management level, conceptual, design and interpersonal skills are of greatest
importance; there is little need for technical skills.
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Summary:
1. Technical Skills: refers to the ability of a person to carry out a specific activity.
2. Human Skills: refers to the ability of a person to work well with other people in a group.
3. Conceptual Skills: refer to the ability of a person to think and conceptualize abstract
situations.
4. Design Skills: refers to the ability of a person to find solutions to the problems in ways
beneficial to the organization.
Organizational hierarchy
Organizational hierarchy is the order of members in an organization based on their
authority. It's a way to structure an organization using different levels of authority and a chain
of command.
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What is organization hierarchy?
Organization hierarchy is the order of members based on authority. It refers to the ranks from
entry-level employees to senior managers or executives. Organization hierarchies typically
consist of multiple levels, and members with more authority occupy higher positions.
Organizational hierarchy is the order of members in a company based on authority. It typically
has multiple levels, with members with more authority occupying higher positions.
A hierarchical structure is the chain of command within a company that starts with senior
management and executives and extends to general employees. It ensures management levels
understand their relationships with each other and helps companies make efficient decisions.
Here are some other types of organizational structures:
Divisional structure
Organizations are broken down into divisions that each have their own leadership, departments,
and resources. Each division essentially operates like its own company within the larger
organization.
Functional structure
The organization is divided into groups by roles, responsibilities, or specialties. For example, an
organization may have marketing, finance, and sales departments that are each overseen by a
manager.
Functional/Role-Based Structure
This structure has centralized leadership and the vertical, hierarchical structure has clearly defined
roles, job functions, chains of command, and decision-making authority.
Examples of organizational hierarchies members
Aside from employees, here are other important members of organizational hierarchies:
Chief executive officer (CEO): is the top executive in an organization who guides and directs
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with the maintenance manager, who is one step above your hierarchy level, and maintenance
technicians, who are a step below.
This hierarchy can help you understand your purpose within an organization and contribute to its
success. It also makes visualizing potential career paths easier.
2. Functional hierarchy
A functional hierarchy focuses on work roles within an organization grouped by employee
functions. For example, a business may have employees working in the sales department as
others handle the organization's human resources needs. Each department has its directors and
managers who report to the same executives. For example, a company's sales manager and human
resources manager may report to the vice president.
3. Divisional hierarchy
A divisional hierarchy is a structure that involves grouping an organization based on geographic
location, products, or target markets. For example, a company may have a division for products
tailored to children and one for teenagers. With this hierarchy, each division has a reporting
structure and unique departments and resources. For example, the division for children's
products may have its IT, marketing, and sales departments separate from the same departments
of the division for teenage products.
Large companies typically adopt division hierarchies to ensure the development of promising
divisions.
4. Horizontal hierarchy
A horizontal hierarchy, or a flat hierarchy, has few middle management levels between
employees and executives. It is the system executives typically use to start an organization. With
this hierarchy, managers and supervisors have more responsibilities as more employees report
to them. For example, suppose a startup has a CEO, commercial manager, director of research,
and two associates in the commercial and research departments. Because of its size, the CEO may
hold regular meetings with the associates and monitor their progress.
5. Team-based hierarchy
A team-based hierarchy is common in organizations that group employees with varying
specialties and backgrounds. Instead of having sections, such as marketing, sales, or human
resources departments, the organization operates in teams. For example, a team may consist of
two sales representatives, a marketer, and two human resources representatives. The
organization's leaders also determine the authority of team members.
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A team-based hierarchy can improve communication between employees, which would otherwise
occur across departments. It can also be useful for thinking creatively about new ideas or handling
specialized projects. For example, a company can use a team-based hierarchy when merging with
another company or working on an urgent company project.
6. Matrix hierarchy
A matrix hierarchy is common in organizations where employees from departments work on a
project. With matrix hierarchies, you may report to more than one supervisor or leader. For
example, a company's maintenance manager may report to the directors of operations and
engineering. Matrix hierarchies enable departments to communicate easily on projects. As
employees answer to multiple managers, issues also tend to be resolved more quickly. Leaders
typically need to define authority levels clearly to ensure matrix hierarchies of work roles lead to
improved productivity.
7. Network hierarchy
A network hierarchy is a structure where an organization has internal and external employees.
An external employee works for an organization but isn't formally on its payroll, unlike an
internal employee. Company employees may work in different locations, and leaders may
outsource roles to external employees, such as freelancers and consultants. For example, a
company may outsource its IT roles while handling marketing, finance, and sales activities
internally. Organization leaders typically develop reporting systems for network hierarchies.
For example, suppose an organization outsources some marketing roles to a freelancer. The
freelancers may report to internal employees who make up the remaining part of the marketing
department. Network hierarchies also encourage employees to express their ideas to leaders and
increase productivity, as more employees are available to complete projects.
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What Is a Stakeholder?
A stakeholder is a party that has an interest in a company and can either affect or be
affected by the business. The primary stakeholders in a typical corporation are its investors,
employees, customers, and suppliers.
However, with the increasing attention on corporate social responsibility, the concept has been
extended to include communities, governments, and trade associations.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
A stakeholder has a vested interest in a company and can either affect or be affected by a business'
operations and performance.
Typical stakeholders are investors, employees, customers, suppliers, communities, governments,
or trade associations.
An entity's stakeholders can be both internal or external to the organization.
Shareholders are only one type of stakeholder that firms need to be cognizant of.
The public may also be construed as a stakeholder in some cases.
SOCIAL STAKEHOLDERS:
Social stakeholders are external groups and organizations that can affect or be affected by a
company's strategy and performance. They can be primary or secondary stakeholders:
Primary stakeholders
These stakeholders are the backbone of an organization and include employees, managers,
investors, customers, suppliers, business partners, and local communities.
Primary stakeholders are those individuals, groups or entities that are involved with the
monetary transactions of an organization. This means that they have a financial investment
in an organization's operations. Primary stakeholders may include any of the following:
Employees
Customers
Suppliers
Investors
Beneficiaries
Lenders
Partners
Banks
Whether they're an individual who earns a paycheck through working for your organization or
they're a high-level investment entity, primary stakeholders depend on an organization for
income and future security. Therefore, primary stakeholders' investments are financially urgent,
and their actions can tangibly impact how efficiently an organization operates on a daily basis.
Secondary stakeholders:
These stakeholders are invested in the social transactions of an organization, but are not
directly involved with its financial actions. Secondary stakeholders include the government
and civil society, social and third-world pressure groups and unions, media and
commentators, trade bodies, and competitors.
Stakeholders can be internal or external to an organization. For example, shareholders are
stakeholders who are financially invested in an organization.
Secondary stakeholders may include any of the following:
Local communities
Activist groups
Competitors
Trade unions
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Media groups
State or local government organizations
Workforce commissions
General public
There are a broad number of secondary stakeholders within any given organization, and they can
be challenging to identify unless they actively vocalize concerns. While secondary stakeholders
don't have immediate interests in an organization's continued operations, they can still
possess a fair amount of influence over an organization's actions. Secondary stakeholders'
level of power relates to their social investment in an organization. They can directly
influence an organization's reputation and may even become primary stakeholders.
Social responsibility is an organization's legal and voluntary duty to consider the social and
environmental impact of its decisions and activities.
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and key performance indicators (KPIs). The KPIs an organization sets should be considered
CSR metrics and stepping stones that will eventually lead to achieving the overall desired
goal. Each organization is different and each desired outcome will be different, so
measurement will be unique to each situation. However, keep in mind that understanding the
indicators or variables for measuring corporate social responsibility is vital no matter the
organization or goal, as measuring progress towards desired outcomes will sustain the
company’s entire CSR campaign.
There are a few performance variables and indicators that could be included in your CSR
performance reporting:
Employee Perspectives
Health and Security
Diversity Supportive Ratio
Respect Ratio
Satisfaction Ratio
GreenHouse Gas Emissions
Quantity of Waste
Efficiency in Energy Use
Social Policies Followed
Social Contribution
Strategic Partners
Responsibility Percentage
Time Spent in Volunteering
Management Perspective
Management Initiatives
Recognition Initiatives
Recognition Achieved
Effectiveness in Communication
Number of Social Activities
Number of Community Members Reached
Total Impact
3. Employ Recognized Industry-Standard Measurements
There’s no unified standard on how to measure CSR performance, but there are industry-
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standard tools that can be used as a guide to help organizations with developing and
measuring CSR strategy (opens in new tab) and initiatives.
A few of those tools include:
Community Mark(opens in new tab): The UK’s only national standard that publicly
recognizes excellence in community investment
GRI (opens in new tab): The first global standards for sustainability reporting
SASB(opens in new tab): Measures the financial impact of sustainability
B Corp Certification(opens in new tab): The only certification that measures a company’s
entire social and environmental performance
International Labor Organization Supplier Frameworks(opens in new tab): A global tool
for supporting rights at work
Individuals are expected to be sensitive to moral issues and account for business-related
issues.
Consider ethical corporate culture
Research shows that an ethical corporate culture can reduce business misconduct and risk
profiles.
Consider social responsibility
A responsible organization considers the impact of its decisions and activities on society
and the environment.
Ethical standards can establish trust between business partners and
customers. Organizations can earn this trust by demonstrating a pattern of ethical
behavior over time.
How to Measure [below are some of the available methods for assessing the
constructs listed above]
1) Direct measurement techniques (assume honesty of respondents)
Survey questionnaires (with rating scales)
Free-response questions
Structured Interviews
Behavioral games
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SYMBOLIC & OMNIPOTENT VIEW OF MANAGEMENT:
The omnipotent and symbolic views of managerial ethics are contrasting perspectives that
explain the extent of control and influence that managers have over the ethical climate within
an organization. While these views represent two ends of a spectrum, the reality often lies
somewhere in between. Managers do have significant influence over organizational ethics,
but they are also constrained by various internal and external factors beyond their control.
Understanding these perspectives can help managers navigate ethical dilemmas effectively
and cultivate a positive ethical climate within their organizations.
1. Omnipotent View:
The omnipotent view suggests that managers are all-powerful and have significant
control over the organization, including its ethical standards and practices.
According to this view, managers have the authority to shape the organizational culture,
within their organizations. They are seen as the primary architects of organizational
culture, including its ethical standards.
2. Symbolic View:
In contrast, the symbolic view proposes that managers have limited influence over the
organization's ethical climate and that external factors play a more significant role.
This perspective suggests that managers are figureheads who symbolize the organization's
values and ethics but do not have absolute control over them.
External factors such as societal norms, industry standards, legal regulations, and
organizational culture can shape ethical behavior more than managerial actions.
Managers' actions may be more symbolic gestures rather than determinants of actual
ethical conduct within the organization.
The symbolic view posits that while managers may hold formal authority, their influence over
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Nature & Importance of Organization Culture:
Meaning: ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
“Atkinson defines organisational culture as the collection of traditions, values,
policies and attitudes that constitutes a pervasive context for everything we do and
think in an organisation”. Organisational culture is the way work is been performed
whether it is acceptable or not acceptable and the behaviour or actions are
encouraged or discouraged. The culture of organisation is linked to the personality of
an individual.
2. Role culture: Role culture rest on the strength of strong organisation pillar. These are
the specialist of the company. Such as Finance, Production, Administration, Marketing,
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Purchasing etc. Their roles or job description are more important than any individual in the
organisation and their position is the main source of power.
3. Task culture: Task culture bring right resources and people into the organisation.
4. Person culture: Person culture exists when the employee think they are more
superior or important than the organisation.
CORPORATE CULTURE
Organisations have set of values and goals that help them to achieve their aims and
objectives. Corporate culture is described as collection of values, systems, beliefs, and
processes that give the company its own special attitude. Every organisation has a
corporate culture and standard that oversees the operation of the company. These standards
can be in form of rules, procedures and policies that will determine the standard the
organisation will operate.
Avon is the company for women, is a leading global beauty company, which generate
more than $10 billion income annually. Avon is the first in the world’s that has largest
direct selling. Avon markets to women in more than 100 countries through approximately
6.5 million active independent Avon Sales Representatives. Avon’s product line includes
beauty products, as well as fashion and home products, and features such well-recognized
brand names as Avon Colour, Anew, Skin-So-Soft, Advance Techniques, Avon Naturals,
and mark. Learn more about Avon and its products.
Presently in the UK, Avon now reaches one in three women, with six million women
seeing an Avon brochure every three weeks through Avon sales representatives.
As the company for women, Avon is committed to supporting the causes that matter most
to women – breast cancer and domestic violence. Globally, Avon has raised over $800
million to date as the world’s largest supporter of women’s causes.
The mission of Avon is to be the company that best understands and satisfies the
product, service and self-fulfilment needs of woman globally. The core five values of
Avon are Trust, Respect, Belief, Humility and Integrity.
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The Importance of a Thriving Organisational Culture:
4. Direction
When your people are aware of the company goals and vision they will have a clearer sense of
what is expected of them and why. This provides everyone with direction, which will keep your
people on-task.
5. Unity
Strong organisational cultures create a sense of community and cohesion. This will help to unite
all your people. This will promote better communication, thus improving collaborative projects
and reducing conflicts.
Few tips that we feel are important for any thriving work culture:
1. Listen
It is vital to listen to your employees and create a dialogue with them. By creating an
environment where your people feel comfortable enough to reach out – you will promote
honesty and transparency. This will help you to learn how everyone is feeling, so you can
remedy concerns and build on successes. Consider an always-on listening tool such as our
Employee Voice for open, honest feedback whenever your people need to communicate.
2. Empathise
Empathy is a vital skill for any leader that wants to understand, motivate and recognise the
achievement and effort of their people. Our global study of workplace happiness placed
‘feeling recognised/valued’ in the top spot, which demonstrates how important it is for the
modern employee to feel valued and understood.
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3. Communicate
This comes hand-in-hand with listening. Clear communication means sharing your
thoughts, plans and targets whilst accepting open feedback. Talking to your people
regularly will ensure your people feel motivated, valued and engaged. Putting systems in
place where your people know how and where to contact you will help you accurately
gauge how they are feeling, whilst creating two-way conversations. This will highlight
what needs to stop, start, change and continue to improve culture and ultimately profits.
We’ve addressed this important need in our platform via our ‘closing the feedback loop’
tool, which allows completely anonymous conversations and feedback to concerns through
the platform.
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UNIT – II – Planning & Organizing
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II. PLANNING
Planning - Nature - Importance - Forms - Types - Steps in Planning - Objectives - Policies -
Procedures and Methods - Nature and Types of Policies - Decision Making - Process of
Decision making - Types of Decisions - Problems involved in Decision - making.
PLANNING
Planning is deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do and who is to do. it
bridges the gap from where we are to where we want to go – Knootz O Donnel
Planning is deciding the best alternative among others to perform different managerial
operations in order to achieve the predetermined goal--- Henry Fayol
Planning is the process of thinking through and making explicit the strategy, actions, and
relationship necessary to accomplish an overall objective or purpose. --- Cleland and King
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department of a business cannot be achieved in a week. It should be divided into monthly,
quarterly and half weekly targets etc.
It helps to avoid no work or work pressure situations – planning helps to distribute work
evenly throughout the year.
It helps to avoid wastage of resources: by planning employees and executives know
beforehand what they have to do.
It ensures efficiency as well as effectiveness doing right things.
It reduces risk and uncertainty – planning is for future and future is uncertain . But in
planning the future uncertainties are anticipated and adequate provisions are made to
overcome.
It provides for co-ordination
It facilitates control planning without control is useless and control without planning is
meaningless
Planning provides scope for decentralization
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environment of business. The external environment is like demand, buyer behavior,
competitors action, government regulations, suppliers actions
4. Identifying the alternative course of action: there are always alternative ways of
carrying out any task just as here are different routes to reach a destination point. To
attain the objective of a business different course of action may be available.
Eg. To maximize profits any of the following method used.
1. large scale production
2. curtailing the cost of production and distribution
3. maximizing sales
4. Increasing the market share and so on.
5. Evaluating alternative courses of action: once the alternative courses of action are
identified, the next step is to evaluate the same. Evaluating means studying the merits and
demerits of each alternative should be examined carefully to decide on its suitability.
6. Selecting the best course of action: once the alternative course of action has been
evaluated the next step is to select the best. The one finally selected should help the
organization in making an optimum use of the available resources and help to attain the
objective.
7. Formulation of derivative plans: after the basic plan of the organization has been
determined the next step is to prepare the subsidiary plans to support the basic plan.
8. Periodic evaluation and review: once the implementation of the plan starts it becomes
necessary to evaluate performance of periodic intervals to ensure that the activities of the
originations precede in the right direction and as laid down in the plan.
TYPES OF PLANS
CLASSIFICATION OF PLANS ACCORDING TO TIME
I) long term planning: this plan is usually 5 to 15 years. It is also called as strategic planning. It
prepares the business to face the effects of long term changes.
a) Introduction of a new product
b) entering a new market
c) changing the technique of production
d) increasing the scale of production
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II). Medium term planning: it is known as tactical planning, the period covered by the medium
term plan is usually 1 – 5 years.
The plan is needed for
1. Making additions to an Existing plant.
2. Expanding the factory
3. appointment if additional staff to cope with the volume of work
III). Short term planning: it is known as operational planning
the period covered is less than one year.
- purchase of raw materials
- Arranging for employee training etc.
LIMITATIONS OF PLANNING
1. Uncertain Nature: future happenings cannot be accurately foreseen. Eg. natural
calamities, floods earthquake etc.
2. Expensive: preparation and implementation of plan is expensive.
3. Rigidity: strictness and lack of flexibility leads to monotony.
4. loss of initiative :
5. Ignorance of subordinates interests
STEPS TO MAKE PLANNING EFFECTIVE
1. The success of planning depends upon the effectiveness of the forecast. If the forecast is
accurate the plan will be success.
2. Flexibility must be introduced in the plan whenever necessary so that the employees will
work with interest.
3. All the members’ ideas and views taken into consideration for making the plans then the
employees will be interested.
4. The plan should not be prepared to focus on the financial goal alone. There should be for
development of employees.
5. The plan must be realistic. It should take into account the capabilities of employees.
6. The plan must be communicated to subordinates.
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METHODS OF PLANNING
Repeated use plans Single use plans
a) Objectives a) Programmes
b) Policies b) Budgets
c) Procedures
d) Rules
e) Strategies
1. OBJECTIVES: aims, goals, targets, missions, etc. objective is the destination point. The
important are,
profit maximization
a higher market share
customer satisfaction
Product diversification
Advantages of Objectives
Objectives give focus to the activities of the organization.
Planning depends on the objectives of an organization
Integration of the activities of an organization is based on objectives
Objectives provide the necessary yardstick for measurement of performance.
Disadvantages of objectives:
Certain objectives cannot be measured quantitatively Eg. employee attitude
In the name of objective there may be a tendering to exploit its workers this results
frustration among the workers.
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objectives set by the supervisors are provisional, based on an interpretation and evaluation of
what the company can and should achieve within a specified time.
Disadvantages of MBO
The superior and subordinates have to meet several times to set the objectives.
Periodical review of the performance consumes more time and paper work.
MBO has not much to do with the lower levels of management.
*POLICIES
A policy serves as a valuable guide to the managers when they take certain important decisions,
policies provide ready answers to question pertaining to certain issues. They prescribe the limits
within which the decisions have to be made.
Eg: employee promotion whether seniority or merit or both.
Essentials if a good policy
It should be clear and definite; it should not give scope for misinterpretation.
The policy should be logical.
The policy based on ethical and moral values.
Should be fair to all the employees.
policy should be revised periodically
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Government regulations, Availability of funds
Technology to adopted, Market trends
Reactions of trade unions, General business environment
Merits of policies
Policy guide managers to take bold decisions
They save time by providing a ready solution to certain problems
They ensure consistency in decision making
Policies prevent the managers from misusing their authority
Limitations of policies
Policies cannot provide solutions to all organizational problems
Policies provide guidelines not solutions.
It is necessary to review the policy periodically otherwise it becomes outdated.
We cannot blindly apply the policies.
Policies do not allow the managers to think originally
TYPES OF POLICIES
1. Formulated Policy: A formulated policy is one which is specified by the organization for
providing guidelines to its members. Every organization formulates various policies on
different aspects. This policy flows from higher level to lower levels in an origination.
2. Implied Policy: sometimes policies may not be clearly stated and the actions of managers
particularly at the higher levels provide guidelines for actions at lower levels. These actions
might constitute the policy. Sometimes the organization has clearly expressed policies for its
image, but it is not able to enforce these. In such a case the action of a decision maker
depends on his own guidelines and prejudices.
3. Imposed Policy: This arises from the influence of some outsider agencies. Such agencies
may be government which provides policies for all public sector organizations. These
agencies may either provide complete guidelines on a subject matter or provide a broad
framework for devising specific policies. For Eg. in public sector commercial banks
recruitment and selection is done by banking service commission and individual banks do
not have and control.
4. Appealed Policy: An appealed policy arises from the appeal made by a subordinate a
manger to his superior for deciding an important case. The need for such an appeal may arise
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because the particular case has not been covered by any policy. The appeal is then taken
upward and the decision is made on the case sets precedent which becomes policy providing
guidelines for deciding similar cased in future.
PROCEDURES
A procedure will lay down the manner in which certain work has to be performed. It prescribes
sequence of operations to be carried out to completer a given task.
Advantages
1. It prescribes the sequence of operations to be performed.
2. They facilitate systematic performance of the work.
3. They ensure that the work proceeds in the right direction.
4. Procedures ensure consistency and uniformity of action
5. It secures proper coordination.
Disadvantages
1. The procedural formalities make delay in the performance of the work.
2. A few procedures result in confusion.
RULES
Rules are the do`s and don’ts. They are always rigidly enforced. There is always a fine or penalty
for the violation of rules. Eg. no smoking in the workplace, Wear uniform while in the factory.
* PLANNING PREMISES?
A planning premise is a set of assumptions that are derived from forecasting the future. It is
a logical and systematic estimate of the future factors that can affect planning. Planning
premises provide a background against which the estimated events take place. These are the
events that affect planning. Establishing planning premises is a critical element in the planning
phase, which ensures that all managers in the organisation are in sync with each other. To
explain planning premises, let us consider a few examples from business and government
planning:
In the budget, there is an announcement of even changes in the tax laws. These are known
conditions on which planning is based.
A competitor might enter the same market as yours with the same kind of product. This is an
anticipated event; the possibility of that happening is not particular.
External premises are derived from the environment that surrounds the business. They
are centred around the market like money market, product market, government policies,
growth in population, etc.
On the other hand, intangible premises cannot be quantified. Some of the intangible
premises are public relations, business reputation, the morale of employees, etc.
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The business can partially control some premises or assumptions about the future.
These fall under semi-controllable premises. Few examples of such planning premises
are trade union relations, product demand, etc.
Based on the course of action taken, some premises change which is termed as
Variable premises. These premises cannot be controlled or predicted, for example, the
sales volume of a firm, union and management relations, etc.
Developing Alternative Premises - Since it is not possible to predict all the factors that can
affect organisational planning, managers must develop a set of alternative premises. These
premises are established based on separate assumptions of future events. The alternative plans
are developed since premises keep changing, some change slowly and some fast.
Communicating Premises - The premises developed through this process are then supported
by budget and various programs. Then the premises are communicated to all those who are part
of the planning process at different levels of business. Documents like ETOP (environmental
threat and opportunity profile) contain planning premises.
*STRATEGIES
Strategies means plan of action to counter the opponents attack. It is a tactics adopted to
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countercompetitor’s actions. Organization adopts strategy when they are in crisis.
1. Fall in sales.
2. Competitive pressures
3. Trade union demands etc.
A strategy is a plan or set of plans intended to achieve something, especially over a long period. It can be a
blueprint of decisions in an organization that shows its objectives and goals.
Strategists often refer to three levels of strategy:
Corporate level strategy
A business strategy that focuses on the action plans by a particular functional area in
order to achieve the set business objectives
Other types of strategies include:
Operational level strategy: A fundamental level that is key for successful strategy
execution
Management strategies: Techniques used in business control and direction to
achieve the set goals
Leadership strategies: Examples include strategies for leadership, goal-setting,
operational activities and business administration
Management strategies are techniques used in business control and direction to achieve the
set goals. Examples include strategies for leadership, goal-setting, operational activities and
business administration. These strategies make it possible for organisations to achieve top
performance. An excellent management strategy paves the way for success by:
Putting in place the timeline for achieving both the long- and short-term goals
Providing the company and those in its employment with a clear sense of direction
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What Is Competitive Intelligence?
Competitive intelligence, sometimes referred to as corporate intelligence, refers to the ability
to gather, analyze, and use information collected on competitors, customers, and other
market factors that contribute to a business's competitive advantage. Competitive intelligence
is important because it helps businesses understand their competitive environment and the
opportunities and challenges it presents. Businesses analyze the information to create effective
and efficient business practices.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Competitor Intelligence is focused on understanding the movements and decisions of
competitors in your industry.
It is meant to track how your competitors are developing products, selling services,
marketing, winning sales deals, and the overall competitiveness of other businesses
within your industry or landscape. It also gives you a comparison of your products
and services vs. competitors.
It is critical for every team to understand and track what the competition is doing
with their coinciding department and how it is impacting their business, the market,
consumers, etc.
Competitor Intelligence can be especially useful for marketing and sales teams to
understand how competitors are marketing their own products and services and
winning deals with prospects that you might have been targeting.
The need for Competitor Intelligence arises as competition is increasingly getting
more difficult. Understanding your competitors’ overall strategy for winning deals
in your landscape can help your sales, marketing, product, and other departments
combat the strategies of your competitors and ultimately bring in more revenue for the
business.
Challenges such as understanding where you place in the market, how you can win
new customers, and how you can keep loyal customers can all lead your business to
gather competitor intelligence.
Competitor Intelligence is important to the success of your business so you can
remain competitive in your industry and potentially stay ahead of the curve.
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Elements of Competitive Intelligence:
4. Sales Intelligence: Sales intelligence is the use of data and software to help salespeople
focus their effort on buying ready accounts, generate leads, create customer profiles, better
manage their data, and more. Businesses change daily and sales need tools that constantly
monitor them.
*DECISION MAKING
DEFINITION OF DECISION-MAKING
A decision may be defined as "a course of action which is consciously chosen from among a set
of alternatives to achieve a desired result." It represents a well-balanced judgment and a
commitment to action.
According to Trewatha & Newport, "Decision-making involves the selection of a course of
action from among two or more possible alternatives in order to arrive at a solution for a given
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problem".
CHARACTERISTICS OF DECISION MAKING
Decision making implies choice: Decision making is choosing from among two or
more alternative courses of action. Thus, it is the process of selection of one solution
out of many available. For any business problem, alternative solutions are available.
Managers have to consider these alternatives and select the best one for actual
execution. Continuous activity/process:Decision-making is a continuous and dynamic
process. It pervades all organizational activity. Managers have to take decisions on
various policy and administrative matters. It is a never ending activity in business
management.
Mental/intellectual activity: Decision-making is a mental as well as intellectual
activity/process and requires knowledge, skills, experience and maturity on the part
of decision- maker. It is essentially a human activity.
Based on reliable information/feedback: Good decisions are always based on
reliable information. The quality of decision-making at all levels of the Organisation
can be improved with the support of an effective and efficient management
information system (MIS).
Goal oriented process: Decision-making aims at providing a solution to a given
problem/ difficulty before a business enterprise. It is a goal-oriented process and
provides solutions to problems faced by a business unit.
Means and not the end: Decision-making is a means for solving a problem or for
achieving a target/objective and not the end in itself.
Time-consuming activity: Decision-making is a time-consuming activity as
various aspects need careful consideration before taking final decision. For
decision makers, various steps are required to be completed. This makes decision-
making a time consuming activity.
Pervasive process: Decision-making process is all pervasive. This means
managers working at all levels have to take decisions on matters within their
jurisdiction.
ADVANTAGES OF DECISION MAKING
Decision making is the primary function of management: The functions of
management starts only when the top-level management takes strategic decisions.
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Without decisions, actions will not be possible and the resources will not be put to use.
Thus decision-makingis the primary function of management.
Decision-making facilitates the entire management process: Decision-making
creates properbackground for the first management activity called planning. Planning
gives concrete shapeto broad decisions about business objectives taken by the top-level
management. In addition, decision-making is necessary while conducting other
management functions such as organizing,staffing, coordinating and communicating.
Decision-making is a continuous managerial function: Managers working at all levels will
have to take decisions as regards the functions assigned to them. Continuous decision making is a
must in the case of all managers/executives. Follow-up actions are not possible unless
Decisions are taken.
Decision-making is essential to face new problems and challenges: Decisions
are required to be taken regularly as new problems, difficulties and challenges develop
before abusiness enterprise. This may be due to changes in the external environment.
New products may come in the market, new competitors may enter the market and
government policies may change. All this leads to change in the environment around the
business unit. Such change leads to new problems and new decisions are needed.
Decision-making is a delicate and responsible job: Managers have to take quick
and correct decisions while discharging their duties. In fact, they are paid for their skill,
maturity and capacity of decision-making. Management activities are possible only when
suitable decisions are taken. Correct decisions provide opportunities of growth while
wrong decisions lead to loss and instability to a business unit.
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The figure given below suggests the steps in the decision-making process:-
Selecting the Best Solution: After preparing alternative solutions, the next step
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in the decision-making process is to select an alternative that seems to be most rational for
solving the problem. The alternative thus selected must be communicated to those who are
likely to be affected by it. Acceptance of the decision by group members is always desirable
and useful for its effective implementation.
Converting Decision into Action: After the selection of the best decision, the next
step is to convert the selected decision into an effective action. Without such action,
the decision will remain merely a declaration of good intentions. Here, the manager
has to convert 'his decision into 'their decision' through his leadership.
Ensuring Feedback: Feedback is the last step in the decision-making process. Here,
the manager has to make built-in arrangements to ensure feedback for continuously
testing actual developments against the expectations. It is like checking the
effectiveness of follow-up measures. Feedback is possible in the form of organized
information, reports and personal observations. Feedback is necessary to decide
whether the decision already takenshould be continued or be modified in the light of
changed conditions.
TYPES OF DECISIONS
Programmed and Non-programmed Decisions
Programmed or structured are those decisions, which are well defined and some
specified procedure or some decision rule might be applied to reach a decision. Such
decisions are routine and repetitive and require little time for developing alternatives in
the design phase. Programmed or structured decisions have traditionally been made
through habit, by operating procedures or with other accepted tools. Whereas, Non-
programmed Decisions, which are not well defined and have not pre-specified
procedures decision rule are known as unstructured or non-programmed decisions.
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high expertise and strategic knowledge. Since their impact is organization-wide they are
taken athigher level of management.
Organizational and Personal Decisions
Organizational decisions are made to further the interests of the organization. Such
decisions are made by managers in their official capacity. These decisions are based
on rationality, judgment and experience whereas Personal Decisions while making
personal decisions, personal interests are kept in mind. Such decisions are made by
managers on their own behalf. There is no scope for delegation of such decisions
in management.
Individual or Group Decisions
Individual Decision Making: without a group's input or a decision made regardless of the
group's opinion is, naturally, an individual decision. This is the more traditional decision making
approach and can work effectively for a manager when the group's input is not required or in
certain cases, desired.
Group Decision Making: There are several models of group decision making that you can put
to use. Two examples are consensus and consultation. Consensus decision making involves
posing several options to the group and using the most popular option to make a decision.
Consultation takes the opinions of the group into consideration when making a decision. Both
methods require the group's participation and call for a manager who respects the opinions and
input of the group in the decision making process.
*BENCHMARKING:
What is benchmarking?
Benchmarking in business means measuring your company’s quality, performance and
growth by analyzing the processes and procedures of others.
Benchmarking is the process of comparing your business’s performance to that of others in
your industry. This can help you identify areas where you shine and need improvement.
Benchmarking has many benefits, including improving productivity, increasing efficiency,
and gaining a competitive edge. Read on to learn more about benchmarking and how it can
benefit your business.
The ultimate goal of benchmarking is continuous improvement, something all businesses
should aim for. Comparing your business to others can help you generate ideas that you
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can adopt to get ahead.
Features of benchmarking
1. Good impact on customer’s needs: By using various benchmarking methods, an
organization can gain valuable customer feedback. This is because it helps them customize their
products or services to meet expectations better and speed up delivery timeframes to maintain
high levels of quality throughout all aspects involved with providing these goods/services.
2. Helps in raising company standards: Benchmarking allows companies to see where they
stand against their competition and determine if there are any areas for improvement. For
example, comparing an organization’s output quality with that of other similar businesses in
different industries or regions can help them identify what equipment would better suit
production needs depending on where you’re located geographically speaking.
4. Get inspiration from the pioneers: Benchmarking provides a platform for employees to
learn from industry leaders and take inspiration from their success. For example, benchmarking
shows the different stories of successful companies and encourages the employees to do more
extensive innovations.
6. Enhances the learning experience: Benchmarking is a way to motivate your employees and
ensure they stay on top of their game. Benching new techniques and gathering information about
educational standards in other organizations all these things help keep people sharper.
7. Keeps in pace with new technology: Benchmarking is for organizations to stay ahead of the
curve and adopt new technologies that are trendy in this day and age. It also helps them see
which ones their competitors have already started using so they can get an idea of how successful
those programs were overall.
8. Strives for the organization’s force on success: By benchmarking, an organization can see
how they stack up against its competitors and what other companies in similar industries are
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doing. This helps them stay focused on their overall well-being and externally by displaying
market demands for products or services alongside customer expectations. This will make it
easier to know where improvements need making so that these issues won’t arise again down
future lines.
9. Works for employees’ career growth: When organizations benchmark their employees, it
helps them to thrive. Employees are encouraged and supported for career growth by encouraging
better outputs from previous products and helping mistakes committed during the development
of past projects.
1. Internal benchmarking
Internal benchmarking is all about improving your business by comparing it to historical
data. Whether you’re comparing organizational departments or different branch locations,
you can use internal benchmarking to uncover the best, most efficient practices and share
them across the company. According to Boydas, internal benchmarking can help eliminate
waste of both time and money in a business.
3. Performance Benchmarking
Performance Benchmarking involves collecting and comparing quantitative data (i e.,
measures or key indicators) that help identify where an organization stands in comparison
with other firms on similar levels of success, growth potentials, etc.
What you need: Standard measures and KPIs and a means of extracting, collecting, and
analyzing that data.
What you get: Data informs decision-making. This form of benchmarking is usually the first step
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organizations take to identify performance gaps.
7. Product benchmarking: Product benchmarking is an integral part of any company that wants
to stay ahead in their industry and know what others are doing well or not concerning
performance ability, features, etc.
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Benefits of benchmarking in business
Businesses that make benchmarking a regular practice can accomplish the following:
Keep improving internal operations. Benchmarking your processes and procedures,
especially against internal standards, can help your team become more efficient and
productive year over year.
Understand what’s working and what isn’t. A deep, thorough analysis of your business’s
past performance will allow you to identify trends and patterns that you may not have noticed
as they were happening. Looking at this data will give you a clear picture of what behaviors
and practices improve overall business results and which ones don’t.
Adopt or improve upon competitors’ practices. When you study your competition, you
begin to understand what they’re doing that makes them successful, as well as areas where
they falter. If you adapt competitors’ best practices to your organization’s needs and deviate
from the things customers or clients don’t like, you can optimize your position in the market
and better appeal to your target audience.
Reduce costs by increasing efficiency. Benchmarking is most often used to improve
performance through efficiency. Cutting out waste in your processes, be it monetary costs or
time and effort spent, will help you streamline your operations and ultimately help you retain
more of your revenue.
Focus on practices and offerings that promote customer satisfaction and
loyalty. Gathering feedback and data from customers (either your own or your competitors)
will give you greater insight into what they like and don’t like, and what you can do to keep
earning their business in the future.
PROCESS OF BENCHMARKING:
1. Plan out what you want to benchmark.
Benchmarking begins with identifying what you want to measure. Whether that’s salary,
sales, team development or another area of growth, you should define the activities you’re
benchmarking and the key metrics you’ll use to track progress.
2. Conduct research to collect relevant data.
Once you know what you want to measure, begin speaking with employees, competitors,
customers and other business stakeholders who may be involved or impacted. Initiate one-on-one
or group conversations or collect survey responses from these parties to gain valuable feedback
that will inform your benchmarking process.
3. Analyze the data to assess where you are and where you want to be.
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Use your research and gathered data to figure out where your current performance sits compared
to other companies or departments and determine an appropriate and realistic goal for
improvement. Lay out your data in an easy-to-digest format (e.g. graphs or charts) to give
yourself a holistic picture of any gaps in your performance and how far you’ll need to go to meet
your desired benchmark.
4. Develop an action plan.
This is the phase of the benchmarking process in which you’ll develop actionable steps you and
your stakeholders can take to reach your goals. Defining success and an action plan upfront gives
you a clear path to hitting your benchmarks. A good place to begin is to leverage common goal-
setting approaches like SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound) and
HEART (habit-forming, emotional, actionable, realistic and time-bound).
*FORECASTING:
What Is Forecasting? Forecasting is a technique that uses historical data as inputs to make
informed estimates that are predictive in determining the direction of future trends. Businesses
utilize forecasting to determine how to allocate their budgets or plan for anticipated expenses for
an upcoming period of time.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Forecasting involves making predictions about the future.
In finance, forecasting is used by companies to estimate earnings or other data for subsequent
periods.
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Traders and analysts use forecasts in valuation models, to time trades, and to identify trends.
Forecasts are often predicated on historical data.
Because the future is uncertain, forecasts must often be revised, and actual results can vary
greatly
3.The Box-Jenkins Model is a technique designed to forecast data ranges based on inputs
from a specified time series. It forecasts data using three principles: autoregression,
differencing, and moving averages. Another method, known as rescaled range analysis, can be
used to detect and evaluate the amount of persistence, randomness, or mean reversion in time
series data. The rescaled range can be used to extrapolate a future value or average for the data to
see if a trend is stable or likely to reverse.
4.Econometric Inference
Another quantitative approach is to look at cross-sectional data to identify links among
variables—although identifying causation is tricky and can often be spurious. This is
known as econometric analysis, which often employs regression models. Techniques such as
the use of instrumental variables, if available, can help one make stronger causal claims.
For instance, an analyst might look at revenue and compare it to economic indicators such
as inflation and unemployment. Changes to financial or statistical data are observed to
determine the relationship between multiple variables. A sales forecast may thus be based on
several inputs such as aggregate demand, interest rates, market share, and advertising budget
(among others).
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What are the forecasting techniques?
There are several forecasting methods that can be broadly segmented as either qualitative or
quantitative. Within each category, there are several techniques at one’s disposal.
Under qualitative methods, techniques may involve interviews, on-site visits, the Delphi
method of pooling experts’ opinions, focus groups, and text analysis of financial documents,
news items, and so forth.
Under quantitative methods, techniques generally employ statistical models that look at
time series or cross-sectional data, such as econometric regression analysis or causal
inference (when available).
*DIRECTING:
Meaning:
Directing refers to a process or technique of instructing, guiding, inspiring, counselling, overseeing
and leading people towards the accomplishment of organizational goals. It is a continuous managerial
processthat goes on throughout the life of the organization.
Directing concerns the total manner in which a manager influences the actions
of subordinates. It is the final action of a manager in getting others to act
after all preparations have been completed. It consist of the following elements:
1. Issuing orders and instructions
2. Continuing guidance and supervision of subordinates
3. Motivating subordinates to work hard for meeting the expectation of management.
4. Maintaining discipline and rewarding those who perform well
5. Providing leadership to subordinates
CHARACTERISTICS OF DIRECTING
• Continuing Function
• Pervasive Function
• Creative Function
• Linking function
• Management of Human Factor
SCOPE OF DIRECTING
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• Initiates action
• Ensures coordination
• Improves efficiency
• Facilitates change
• Assists stability and growth
Scope of Directing
Directing informs the human beings in the organization what he should do, how he
should do, and when he should do. The scope of the directing in the organization is
summarized as follows are asked how the ideas could be combined or improved
The scope or importance of the directing in the organization lies in the fact that every action
is initiated through direction.
PRINCIPLES OF DIRECTING
o Harmony of objectives:
Individual join the organisation to satisfy the psychological and physiological needs. They are expected to
work for the achievement of the organisation objectives and they will perform their task better if they feel
that if it will satisfy their personal goals
o Maximum individual contribution:
Organisational objectives are achieved at the optimum level when every individual in the organisation
makes maximum contribution towards them
o Unity of command
Furniture get Orders and instructions from one superior only if he is made accountable to bosses
simultaneously there will be confusion conflict disorder and indiscipline of the organisation
o Appropriate techniques
The manager should use correct direction techniques to ensure efficiency of direction the techniques used
should be suitable to the superior the subordinate and the situation
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o Direct supervision:
More effective when there is an direct personal contact between a superior and his subordinates. Such
direct contact improve the moral of commitment of employees
o Strategic use of informal organisation:
Management should try to understand and make use of informal groups to strengthen formal and
official relationships this will improve the effectiveness of direction
o Managerial communication:
A good system of communication between the superior and a subordinate help to improve mutual
understanding
o Comprehension:
Communication of Orders and instruction is not sufficient managers should ensure that the coordinates
correctly understand what they are to do and how when they are to do.
SIGNIFICANCE OF DIRECTING
1. It Initiates Actions - Directions is the function which is the starting point of the work
performance of subordinates. It is from this function the action takes place, subordinates
understand their jobs and do according to the instructions laid. Whatever are plans laid, can be
implemented only once the actual work starts. It is there that direction becomes beneficial.
2. It Integrates Efforts - Through direction, the superiors are able to guide, inspire and instruct
the subordinates to work. For this, efforts of every individual towards accomplishment of goals
are required. It is through direction the efforts of every department can be related and integrated
with others. This can be done through persuasive leadership and effective communication.
Integration of efforts bring effectiveness and stability in a concern.
3. Means of Motivation - Direction function helps in achievement of goals. A manager makes
use of the element of motivation here to improve the performances of subordinates. This can be
done by providing incentives or compensation, whether monetary or non - monetary, which
serves as a “Morale booster” to the subordinates Motivation is also helpful for the subordinates to
give the best of their abilities which ultimately helps in growth.
4. It Provides Stability - Stability and balance in concern becomes very important for long term
sun survival in the market. This can be brought upon by the managers with the help of four tools
or elements of direction function - judicious blend of persuasive leadership, effective
communication, strict supervision and efficient motivation. Stability is very important since that
is an index of growth of an enterprise. Therefore a manager can use of all the four traits in him so
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that performance standards can be maintained.
5. Coping up with the changes - It is a human behaviour that human beings show resistance to
change. Adaptability with changing environment helps in sustaining planned growth and
becoming a market leader. It is directing function which is of use to meet with changes in
environment, both internal as external. Effective communication helps in coping up with the
changes. It is the role of manager here to communicate the nature and contents of changes very
clearly to the subordinates. This helps in clarifications, easy adaptions and smooth running of an
enterprise. For example, if a concern shifts from handlooms to powerlooms, an important
change in technique of production takes place. The resulting factors are less of manpower and
more of machinery. This can be resisted by the subordinates. The manager here can explain that
the change was in the benefit of the subordinates. Through more mechanization, production
increases and thereby the profits. Indirectly, the subordinates are benefited out of that in form of
higher remuneration.
6. Efficient Utilization of Resources - Direction finance helps in clarifying the role of every
subordinate towards his work. The resources can be utilized properly only when less of wastages,
duplication of efforts, overlapping of performances, etc., doesn’t take place.
7. Ensures coordination
8. Improves efficiency
TECHNIQUES OF DIRECTING
1. Delegation
2. Supervision
3. Orders and instructions
4. Motivation
5. Leadership
*Human Factors:
Human factors is the study of how people use technology and interact with systems and
work environments. It also involves the study of human abilities, limitations, and
expectations.
Human factors can also be referred to as human factors psychology and human factors
engineering. The term "human factors engineering" (HFE) refers to the application of
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human factors principles to the design of devices and systems.
Some examples of human factors include:
Fatigue
Breakdown of machines
Lack of professional knowledge
Negligence of potential risks
This definition includes three interrelated aspects that must be considered: the job, the
individual and the organisation:
The job/ the Work: including areas such as the nature of the task, workload, the working
environment, the design of displays and controls, and the role of procedures. Tasks
should be designed in accordance with ergonomic principles to take account of both
human limitations and strengths. This includes matching the job to the physical and the
mental strengths and limitations of people. Mental aspects would include perceptual,
attentional and decision making requirements.
Work factors
illogical design of equipment and instruments
high workload
The individual: including his/her competence, skills, personality, attitude, and risk
perception. Individual characteristics influence behaviour in complex ways. Some
characteristics such as personality are fixed; others such as skills and attitudes may be changed
or enhanced.
People factors
tired staff
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individual medical problems
The organisation: including work patterns, the culture of the workplace, resources,
communications, leadership and so on. Such factors are often overlooked during the design
of jobs but have a significant influence on individual and group behaviour.
Organisation factors
poor work planning, leading to high work pressure
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events, or can we identify factors that make them more likely? The prevention measures
will depend on the exact type of human error.
Why do people break the rules? Did the person break the rule intentionally, or is it
because they didn’t know about the rule? Perhaps the rule was unworkable in practice, or a
person had competing demands on their time.
Why do people take risks? People tolerate different levels of risk and sometimes people
change their behaviours in order to increase, or reduce, the perceived risk. Behavioural
safety approaches aim to influence risk taking behaviours.
Why do accidents happen? Accidents are usually the result of a combination of
contributory factors. Human factors approaches can help to better understand accidents that
have occurred, and also help to prevent future events. In other words, human factors can
help to identify what went wrong, and predict what could go wrong.
time
Architectural Innovation: Applying existing technology or expertise to a new market.
existing industries.
Radical Innovation: The rarest of all innovation types, entirely new technologies or
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What is Creativity?
Artists, philosophers, educators, and psychologists have long tried to write a simple
definition of creativity. Its very nature is elusive, which makes describing it a challenge. We
know it’s the process through which something new is formed, and typically, most
definitions assume value is included with the new creation.
We agree that there are four different types of Creativity, each a different blend of
specific attributes and approaches.
Types of Creativity
Deliberate and Cognitive: The Creativity of planning and expertise. Creativity with a
purpose.
Deliberate And Emotional: Where logic meets emotion. The Creativity of both an open
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Relationship between Creativity & Innovation:
Creativity is an individual ability that can lead to an idea or
invention. Innovation is the process of converting that idea or invention into a
marketable product or service.
Creativity is centered around original thought and knowledge, and is an
integral part of idea generation. Innovation is used to turn the creative idea
into a viable solution.
Innovation leverages both imagination and creativity to improve what exists
today and create a better future.
Understanding the distinction between creativity and innovation is essential for
organizations and individuals looking to remain competitive in their respective
fields
EXAMPLE:
Apple Inc’s famous boss Steve Jobs recently uncovered yet another series of i — devices
namely i-Pad. I-Pad is a kind of a electronic note pad that seeks to revolutionizes how media
content is browsed. The world has been waiting for a technology product that can be used as a
mobile phone as well as a computer. Finally Apple came up with the i-pad and surprised many
in the world with the launch of a tablet computer-the i-Pad that represents a new style of media
use in the present age. The i-pad is a breakthrough and shall form a new definition for digital
devices. It shall start a new category of digital products. It has given the customers more than
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what they had expected and beyond their imagination.
Innovation can be achieved strategically through a process of creativity. THERE ARE 4
STEPS THAT HELP GENERATE IDEAS AND CONCEPTS. THIS INCLUDES:
1. getting the info
2. thinking about it
3. realization, eureka factor
4. evaluation/ implementation (link to innovation
2. INVENTION
Invention is creativity brought to a higher level. For example, Mark Zuckerberg’s creative idea
led to Facebook. But this is often something that would’ve still happened. If Zuckerberg didn’t
create Facebook, someone else would have created something similar. If you don’t fill in this
market gap, someone else eventually will.
3. CREATION
Now, this is the highest form of creativity. Mozart created music no one else would’ve
created. When you relate creation to business, it’s something that only your organization is
capable of. Even if the company does not reach this point, it may still be successful.
Innovation, however, is necessary for a business to thrive.
*Harmonization of Objectives:
Meaning of Harmonization: Harmonization means working on those areas which are
complementary in order to have the plans working together for the achievement of an
overall strategic objective. Harmonization helps different departments in local
authorities share the same vision, work together and optimize the use of resources.
Harmonization is a process of change that continuously searches for mutual recognition. It
means working on those areas which are complementary in order to have the plans working
together for the achievement of an overall strategic objective.
Harmonization of Objectives:
Meaning: Harmonizing objectives is a process that involves synchronizing various elements
within an organization. This includes its goals, strategies, processes, and resources. The
goal is to create a cohesive and integrated approach towards achieving desired outcomes.
The principle of Harmony of Objectives states that management should harmonize the
individuals' objectives with organizational objectives. This connection is built on the idea of
unity, which is when the individual's purpose is connected to the organization's.
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Here are some objectives of harmonization:
To move accounting and reporting away from total diversity by finding shared solutions
To help different departments in local authorities share the same vision, work together, and
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Element of Harmoning Objectives:
1. Nurturing Fluidity:
Purpose fluidity explains how individuals and organizations exchange meaningful
representations of purpose at work, enhancing the sense of purpose when flowing
dynamically between personal and organizational purposes.
In other words, fluidity is not just using one representation of purpose (personal or
organizational), but combining both at the same time, flowing from the personal to
the organizational and vice versa, as is shown in Fig. 2.1.
Fluidity then is based on what an organization’s purpose means to the individual as
well as what the individual’s purpose means to the organization
Keeping the dynamic fluidity “alive” is about what some have called “making every-
day-work meaningful.”16 And since fluidity goes in two directions, it is much like
friendship or trust.
We can trust someone, but if we do not feel that person’s corresponding trust in us,
our own trust will be short lived. The same happens with purpose fluidity. If
individuals do not see that the organization values their personal purpose in life,
sooner than later they will become distant to their organization’s purpose and
purpose fluidity will be lost.
Eg: This is case, of Novo Nordisk, a company that makes medicines for diabetics, and
requires that all new employees spend a day with a diabetes patient. It is also the case
for ISS Facility Services, where top managers spend a day in a year performing
frontline positions, like cleaning or maintenance, in the premises of their clients. These
practices are source of what some call “a beneficiary contact,” helping individuals to
experience and gain greater consciousness of their organization’s purpose
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2. Facilitating Synergy:
Purpose synergy is found at the junction of company purpose and personal purpose.
Purpose synergy is the place of overlap between the company and the individual, where
the interests of the company and its individual employees combine to reach its most
perfect form.
Purpose synergy reveals what the person best bringsto the company and vice
versa. Thus, synergy occurs in part of the companypurpose as well as the
individual’s life purpose.
Eg: Consider, for example, the case of Alpha Omega, a high-tech medical device
company in Israel devoted to the purpose of improving peoples’ lives. Its
founders, Imad and Reem Younis, have been committed, from a very young age,
to the purpose of developing work environments where Jews and Arabs can work
together in harmony. And in leading their company, they incorporate this personal
purpose into the corporate purpose. They hire Jews and Arabs alike, employees
who not only excelled at their work, but also share in a dream of creating
inclusive work environments
The Joint Effect of Fluidity and Synergy
Fluidity and synergy have common drivers, but are different from each
other. Fluidity allows the connecting of personal and organizational purposes
with-out necessarily identifying solely with one or the other. With synergy, how-
ever, both personal and organizational purposes partly or fully identify with one
another, meaning that the organization incorporates the purpose of the individuals
and vice versa. We could say that fluidity helps organizational and personal
purposes get closer, while synergy integrates them. Fluidity helps to create unity,
synergy is the result of the unity itself
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their experience and abilities, their team members' needs, and the organization's goals.
Some examples of leadership skills include:
Being flexible
Building trust
Empathizing
Communicating
Actively listening
Being patient
Solving problems
Delegating
Maintaining consistency
Adapting
Stronger decision-making
Developing others
Leading change
Managing a team
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Types of Leadership:
1. Democratic Leadership
A democratic leader makes decisions based on their team’s opinion and feedback.
In simpler words, they get everyone involved in the decision-making process.
However, this type of leadership cannot be used in the long run because of drawbacks
like losing the leader’s authority, debates, and miscommunication between team
members. Here are some scenarios in which you can adopt a democratic
leadership style:
New project that requires constant brainstorming
Encourages discussions
2. Autocratic Leadership
This is precisely the opposite of democratic leadership. The opinions of team
members are not considered while making any business decision. Instead, leaders
expect others to adhere to their decisions, which is not sustainable in the long run.
3. Laissez-faire Leadership
Laissez-faire means “let them do”. This leadership style is the least intrusive and
ensures that the decision-making authority lies with the team members.
This leadership style empowers team members and holds them accountable for their
work. This motivates many team members to put their best foot forward, improving
the organisation’s efficiency and productivity.
4. Strategic Leadership
Strategic leadership is when leaders use their skills and capabilities to help team
members and organisation achieve their long-term goals. Strategic leaders strive to
get the best out of people or situations.
Here are some unique traits of strategic leaders
• They are interested in the well-being of others
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•They are open-minded
• They are self-aware
• They are good at interpersonal communication
5. Transformational Leadership
Transformational leaders inspire others to achieve the unexpected. They aim to
transform and improve team members’ and organisations’ functions and
capabilities by motivating and encouraging them.
6. Transactional Leadership
This type of leadership is task-oriented, which means team members who meet the
leader’s expectations will be rewarded, and others will be punished. It is a prevalent
leadership style based on the action-and-reward concept.
7. Coach-Style Leadership
This leadership style focuses on identifying and nurturing a team member’s
strengths and weaknesses. A coaching leader develops strategies that emphasise
team members’ success. Though this is similar to strategic and democratic leadership
styles, the focus here is more on the individual.
8. Bureaucratic Leadership
This kind of leadership style sticks to the rules of an organization. For example, they
might listen to their team members’ opinions while deciding.
Here are some of the benefits of this type of leadership
• Lowers the risk of favouritism among team members
• Increases creativity for some employees
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**DIRECTING
Directing refers to a process or technique of instructing, guiding, inspiring, counselling, overseeing and
leading people towards the accomplishment of organizational goals. It is a continuous managerial process
that goes on throughout the life of the organization.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DIRECTING
• Continuing Function
• Pervasive Function
• Creative Function
• Linking function
• Management of Human Factor
SCOPE OF DIRECTING
• Initiates action
• Ensures coordination
• Improves efficiency
• Facilitates change
• Assists stability and growth
ELEMENTS OF DIRECTING
The three elements of directing are
1. Motivation
o Motivation is derived from the word motive, or a need that requires satisfaction.
o Motivation Theories
▪ Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory
▪ Theory X and Theory Y
▪ Herzberg’s theory
2.Leadership
:Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common
goal. In a business setting, this can mean directing workers and colleagues with a strategy to
meet the company's needs.
::Leadership styles
▪ Autocratic Style
▪ Democratic Style
▪ Laissez-Faire Style
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o Leadership theories
▪ Trait Theory
▪ Contingency theory
▪ Situational theory
▪ Behavioural Theory
3. Communication
▪ The word ‘communication’ is derived from Latin word ‘communis’, which
means common. It is a process of exchange of facts, ideas, opinions and a means that
individuals or organizations share the meaning and understanding with one another.
PRINCIPLES OF DIRECTING
o Harmony of objectives:
Individual join the organisation to satisfy the psychological and physiological needs. They are expected to
work for the achievement of the organisation objectives and they will perform their task better if they feel
that if it will satisfy their personal goals
o Maximum individual contribution:
Organisational objectives are achieved at the optimum level when every individual in the organisation
makes maximum contribution towards them
o Unity of command
Furniture get Orders and instructions from one superior only if he is made accountable to bosses
simultaneously there will be confusion conflict disorder and indiscipline of the organisation
o Appropriate techniques
The manager should use correct direction techniques to ensure efficiency of direction the techniques used
should be suitable to the superior the subordinate and the situation
o Direct supervision:
More effective when there is an direct personal contact between a superior and his subordinates. Such
direct contact improve the moral of commitment of employees
o Strategic use of informal organisation:
Management should try to understand and make use of informal groups to strengthen formal and
official relationships this will improve the effectiveness of direction
o Managerial communication:
A good system of communication between the superior and a subordinate help to improve mutual
understanding
o Comprehension:
Communication of Orders and instruction is not sufficient managers should ensure that the coordinates
correctly understand what they are to do and how when they are to do.
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**MANAGERS AS LEADERS:
Concept: A manager can be a leader if they motivate and inspire their team to
achieve goals, provide guidance, and create a welcoming environment. Some say
that the most important role of a manager as a leader is to motivate their team.
Some other skills that can help managers become leaders include: Problem-solving, Resilience,
Trustworthiness, Empowerment of others, and Authenticity.
Higher pay
Being understaffed
Lack of communication
Poor teamwork
Pressure to perform
Absence of structure
Inadequate support
Work ethic
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Reliable
Motivational
Develops staff
Managers oversee workers to make sure they’re staying on task, following company rules and
guidelines, and generally adhering to what they’re supposed to be doing. Leaders, on the other hand,
have people who look to them for guidance or generally look up to them, although, like managers, they
also may have people who report to them.
1. Stop micromanaging.
Managing people is good, but micromanaging people is bad. Managers should provide more autonomy to
employees. They should trust their team members and leave room for creative thinking and active
participation in the organization. This autonomy gives employees the freedom to think freely and bring
better ideas to the table.
2. Communicate well.
Leaders are excellent communicators. They ensure that the right message reaches the right person in the
right way. When The Harris Poll conducted the 2023 State of Business Communication survey on behalf
of Grammarly, they found that leaders reported these top three benefits of effective communication:
increased productivity (72 percent), customer satisfaction (63 percent) and employee confidence (60
percent). To become good leaders, managers need to develop the art of communication.
3. Provide timely feedback: Managers should take the time to provide frequent formal and informal
feedback so employees are not surprised when their performance is reviewed at the end of the year.
4. Celebrate diversity: Diversity allows you to pool various resources and skills to achieve
organizational goals. A manager should celebrate diversity to become a good leader.
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5. Make self-reflection a routine.
Managers should take the time to reflect on their own actions and decisions. A leader is always conscious
of their actions and has clarity of thought. Instead of dwelling on the past, they look ahead and think
positively. Managers should be aware of the mistakes they’ve committed so they don’t repeat those
errors.
Adaptable
The most common trait of a good leader is adaptability. Leaders are resilient in difficult situations and see
their teams through these challenges. If a curveball is thrown at them, the leader knows how to adjust to
the situation.
Confident
Confidence is another strong quality of a leader. Pretending to be confident won’t make a leader
effective, however; you must have the capacity to make definitive decisions and remain assertive in tough
situations. The decisions you make as a leader won’t always be well received if they affect employees,
but employees will still have a level of respect for decisions made and delivered with confidence. It
creates a trickle-down effect: Workers will take on challenges and accept changes more confidently if
their leader is confident in their ability to do so.
Inspirational
An inspiring personality is another trait of an effective leader. If you’re not inspiring anyone, who exactly
are you leading? Leaders offer an encouraging word when someone needs it and provide constructive
feedback.
Even-tempered
The ability to handle your emotions well is another characteristic of a good leader. Leaders are not known
for their quick tempers. Instead, they’re valued for remaining calm and composed in high-pressure
situations, retaining the capacity to communicate proactively with others.
**LEADERSHIP THEORIES:
The trait theory of leadership is tied to the "great man" theory of leadership first proposed
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by Thomas Carlyle in the mid-1800s.1 According to Carlyle, history is shaped by extraordinary
leaders. This ability to lead is something that people are simply born with, Carlyle believed,
and not something that could be developed. Carlyle's ideas inspired early research on
leadership, which almost entirely focused on inheritable traits.
Even today, books, and articles tout the various characteristics necessary to become a great
leader, suggesting that leadership is somehow predestined in some (or is at least more likely)
while unlikely, if not impossible, in others.
Leadership researchers White and Hodgson suggest that truly effective leadership is not just
about the qualities of the leader, it is about striking the right balance between behaviors,
needs, and context.
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The contingency theory of leadership supposes that a leader’s effectiveness is
contingent on whether or not their leadership style suits a particular situation.
To maximize your likelihood of being a productive leader, this theory posits that you
should be able to examine each situation and decide if your leadership style is going
to be effective or not. In most cases, this requires you to be self-aware, objective and
adaptable.
Work pace
Management style
Company policies
Employees’ morale
1. Fiedler model: This includes analysing situational favourableness (on the basis of leader
member relations, tasks structure, and leader position power), leadership styles (in
accordance to team members), and applying the model.
2. Situational leadership model: Contrary to the Fiedler model, the situational leadership
model suggests that the best option for leaders is to adapt their leadership styles to fit their
team members and their individual abilities. This model believes that leaders should first
consider the variables that affect their workplace and then decide the best tactic for how to
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proceed.
3. Path-Goal model: The Path-Goal model is primarily concerned with identifying processes
(paths) that will allow each team member to meet their individual objectives (goals).
Leaders who implement this model adjust their behaviors and expectations to positively affect
their team’s productivity.
4. Decision-Making model: Also called “the Vroom-Yetton contingency model," this particular
theory believes decision making is a crucial element of leadership and determines the
relationship between the leader and their team members. Building and maintaining this
relationship directly affects the leader’s success.
While contingency leadership models diverge on some points, they all share a common thread.
The overlying viewpoint of the contingency theory of leadership is that effective leadership is
contingent on the situation, task and people involved.
Different leaders, each with their own leadership style, will respond differently to a myriad of
factors in the workplace. Among the factors that can affect a leader’s effectiveness are things
like project scope, the size of their team, resources and deadlines. According to contingency
theory, leaders will always find particular situations that challenge them and must be willing
to acknowledge that their success partially depends on their circumstances.
3. BEHAVIORAL THEORIES
Behavioral theories of leadership are based upon the belief that great leaders are made, not
born. Consider it the flip-side of the Great Man theories. Rooted in behaviorism, this leadership
theory focuses on the actions of leaders, not on mental qualities or internal states. According
to this theory, people can learn to become leaders through teaching and observation.
The behavioral theory of leadership is a management theory that focuses on how leaders behave
and how their actions and practices impact others. It suggests that leaders can learn and adopt
behaviors that influence people's actions and performance
3. Participative leaders: Participative leaders ensure the active participation of all their
team members in the decision-making processes. These leaders focus on functional
communication, collaboration and feedback to enhance the workflow and productivity of their
projects. They identify the strengths and weaknesses of every team member and assign them
tasks accordingly to maximise team efficiency.
4. Indifferent leaders: Indifferent leaders monitor their team's overall performance from a
distance and may not actively contribute to the organisation's workflow. These leaders usually
prioritise personal success and advancement over team interaction or communication. A lack of
cooperation between the leader and team members typically characterises this leadership style.
5. Dictatorial leaders: Dictatorial leaders usually emphasise achieving results than the well-
being of their team members. These leaders may also exert pressure on employees to perform
well, even during challenging or demanding situations. While dictatorial leaders can often ensure
high-quality results for a company, their discouraging behaviour may cause high turnover rates
due to lower employee satisfaction.
6. Sound leaders: Sound leaders follow a sound leadership style, which is the most effective
type of behavioural leadership for success in workplaces. These leaders give equal priority to
boosting company productivity and employee morale, even though it could be challenging to
balance the two. These professionals value their team members while setting achievable goals
and delivering high-quality results
7. Paternalistic leaders: This leadership style reflects the relationship between a parent and
child. Paternalistic leaders focus on acquiring results as they are goal-oriented but flexible
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regarding achieving these goals. These leaders frequently set ambitious goals and reward
employees who achieve these goals. Paternalistic leaders value their team members' strengths
and capabilities and may provide them with opportunities to prosper and excel professionally.
emphasises concern for team members and people of an organisation while promoting
collaboration
supports the alignment of individual and group objectives to achieve company goals
helps managers understand the impact of their behaviour on the leadership style and
The managerial Grid Model of Leadership indicates five basic leadership styles of
practicing managers representing various combinations.
Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton developed the Managerial Grid Model Developed in
the 1960s and it has evolved in the following decades
Managers help to analyze their leadership styles through a technique known as grid
training.
Managers identify how for their concerned about production and people.
The model ignores the importance of internal and external limits, matter, and scenarios.
The managerial Grid Model is based on two behavioral dimensions; concern for people
and concern for production.
Concern For People: This is the degree to which a leader considers the needs of team
members, their interests, and areas of personal development when deciding how best to
accomplish a task.
Concern For Production: This is the degree to which a leader emphasizes concrete
objectives, organizational efficiency, and high productivity when deciding how best to
accomplish a task.
(1,9) Country Club Style Leadership High People and Low Production
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(5,5) Middle-Of-The-Road Leadership-Medium Production and Medium People
(1,9) Country Club Style Leadership High People and Low Production
(1,9) Country Club Style Leadership style leader is most concerned about the needs and
feelings of his or her team members.
The path goal theory of leadership states that a leader’s behavior directly impacts the
satisfaction, motivation, and productivity of subordinates.
According to the research, a leader’s attitude, behavior, and leadership style alongside
environmental factors influence the productivity and satisfaction of a team. They concluded
that leaders need to adjust dynamically depending on the needs of the team. They even
created criteria for what leadership style is most effective for different situations
Key takeaways:
Path-goal theory is the belief that managers can affect their team's performance by
adapting their leadership style to fit the specific needs of their teams.
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TYPES:
This can give employees a higher level of certainty regarding procedures, policies and rules.
Leaders define the relationship between performance goals and rewards, including pay
increases and promotions, explicitly to promote clarity and transparency. With this style of
leadership, leaders supervise employees closely, which makes it most appropriate for
inexperienced employees who need guidance and to be checked on regularly.
Keep lines of communication open, especially with team members who require help with new
tasks
Send regular shoutouts and words of encouragement to keep team members motivated
3. Supportive: With supportive leadership, the leader pays attention to the needs and well-
being of employees and makes work pleasant for them by being friendly and empathetic.
Leaders who operate under this style treat employees with respect and offer support when
needed. This management style is useful when employees have personal problems or need a
boost in motivation or confidence
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How to apply this path-goal leadership style at work:
Create workflow systems that work for every team member (e.g. invest in workflow
management software)
Keep all work documents and processes accessible to team members so they can give input and
Hold alignment meetings where you can brainstorm and build better policies for efficient
workflows
Here are some strategies you can use the different path-goal leadership styles to inform your own
leadership strategies:
1. Achievement strategies
For this approach to be successful, leaders must display complete confidence in their team's
ability to overcome obstacles. Set high expectations for employee goals. Create a list of
objectives that you want your team members to complete and a time frame in which they're
required to have them completed.
2. Directive strategies
Because this style of leadership is task-oriented, where the leader provides strict guidelines,
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goals and performance standards, the best way to apply this style is through extensive training or
one-on-one coaching.
3. Supportive strategies
With this leadership style, leaders show genuine concern about the needs of their employees and
want to do all they can to help the employees reach their goals. It is most effective in situations
where relationships and tasks are physically or psychologically challenging.
4. Participative strategies
Using this theory, employees can take part in goal setting. Meet regularly with employees to
discuss goals and come up with a strategy together for how you plan to achieve those goals.
Encourage employees to provide feedback regarding progress. This can help you work together
to reach objectives, improve processes and elevate business strategies.
1. Builds agile leaders and teams: Having different leadership styles in your tool belt will
guarantee that your teams will thrive even in difficult times. A study on the effectiveness of path
goal theory leadership for schools in the COVID-19 pandemic concluded that even in a global
crisis, having an agile and responsive leader is key to survival.
2. Boosts productivity, motivation, and confidence: All of the leadership styles of path goal theory
account for the motivation of employees. The theory itself was based on the expectancy theory
of motivation or the belief that individuals are inspired to work harder when their efforts are
recognized and rewarded.
3. Helps you create a clear leadership game plan: Even when things turn south, you’ll
have a game plan to rely on with path goal theory. Not every style is suited for every situation
but having a solid management theory to back up your team strategies ensures you won’t be
wasting your time brainstorming. This will save time, resources, and costs in the long run.
4. Encourages a support network: Because path goal theory is focused on the employee-
manager relationship, this encourages a supportive network of collaborators. Employee
satisfaction and motivation are highly considered when building leaders which makes everyone
so much more productive.
5. Builds a positive work environment and culture: The path goal theory as a whole focuses
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on building a positive work culture because team members’ needs are put first. Path goal theory
applied means that communication is always open, collaboration is encouraged, and smooth
workflows are prioritized.
Contemporary leadership theory is the leadership approach for the 21st century. There are
many theories of leadership. Some promote traditional leadership theory approaches, while
others promote contemporary leadership theory approaches, and the numerous concepts
on leadership styles have been subjects of both study and debate for years. Every leader will
approach challenges differently, their personality traits and life experiences greatly
influence his or her leadership style and the organizations they lead. Furthermore, “leadership is
a notion resulting from the interaction between a leader and followers, and not a position or
title within the organization”.
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1. Transformational Leadership: A transformational leader inspires their employees to
prioritize the goals of the company instead of their personal goals. Such leaders achieve this
through qualities such as charisma which transforms them into icons that inspire confidence
2. Authentic Leadership: The authentic leadership approach embraces this value: its key advice
is "be yourself." Instead of trying to fit into societal expectations about what a leader
should be like, act like, or look like, authentic leaders derive their strength from their own
past experiences. Thus, one key characteristic of authentic leaders is that they are self-aware.
They are introspective, understand where they come from, and have a thorough
understanding of their own values and priorities. Second, they are not afraid to act the way
they are.
3. Servant Leadership: According to this theory, leaders' performance and behavior are
based on the expectation they have concerning the attainment of the goals and the
satisfaction of subordinates. According to this theory, leaders are motivated to work and are
satisfied when their subordinates are satisfied and when they can give paths leading to the
attainment of goals
4. Charismatic Leadership: According to this theory, the main work of a leader is to ensure
the needs of the group are met. Charismatic leadership is an approach to leadership that utilizes
the personal appeal of the leader to inspire followers. EG: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the
founder of Turkish Republic and its first president, is known as a charismatic leader. He is
widely admired and respected in Turkey and around the world. His picture appears in all schools,
state buildings, denominations of Turkish lira, and in many people's homes in Turkey."
Charismatic individuals have a "magnetic" personality that is appealing to followers.
When framing requests or addressing others, instead of emphasizing short-term goals,
stress the importance of the long-term vision.
5. Leader-member exchange (LMX): The LMX theory comes from the idea that there's a
relationship between the leader and each member of the team. It suggests that the quality of the
leader-member relationship is a key determinant of a team's success. This relationship depends
on the leader's ability to provide support, resources and opportunities to their team members. In
return, team members are more likely to be loyal and committed to the leader and their vision
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6. Power-and-Influence
As the name suggests, this theory has two key components, including power and influence.
Power is the ability to use authority to get other people to do what you want. Influence is the
ability to persuade and convince others to follow your lead. This theory suggests that leaders
have different types of power and influence that they can use to motivate and inspire their teams
Improving decision-making
Communication barriers
Decision-making differences
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Theories on Cross-Cultural Leadership:
This theory asserts that people’s underlying assumptions, stereotypes, beliefs, and schemas
influence the extent to which they view someone as a good leader. Since people across
cultures tend to hold different implicit beliefs, schemas and stereotypes, it would seem only
natural that their underlying beliefs in what makes a good leader differ across cultures.
This is one of the most prominent and influential studies to date regarding leadership in a
globalized world. The study reveals similarities as well as differences across cultures and
emphasizes the need to be open-minded to understand the differences in other cultures. As
per this theory, there are five dimensions of culture to compare cultures, to help leaders with an
understanding of how to adjust their leadership styles accordingly; Individualism/Collectivism,
Feminine/Masculine, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long Term/ Short Term
orientation.
Communicating clearly
Language Skills
Cultural Awareness
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Cross-cultural Schema
Cognitive Complexity
Following steps can help other organizations tackle the important but difficult task of
integrating different cultures:
Identify two cultures that need to collaborate In many industries the world is the market,
but it is not flat in the cultural sense and potential gaps between the “home” and “target”
cultures should be identified.
Identify leaders and leadership talent from each culture Make a thorough judgment
which leaders are sufficiently culturally intelligent to develop for cross-cultural integration
and collaboration.
Identify appropriate pairs of co-leaders Look for a past track record in multicultural
environments, a willingness to become team-players, high growth potential and an open-
minded, empathetic nature.
Identify real projects Use real business projects which enhance the learning experience
during an intercultural program.
Identify a realistic time frame A minimum of three to six months is a reasonable time-
frame for start-up activities, content delivery and evaluation. Often more time is needed.
Share practices We recommend sharing both “good” and “bad” practices, working
closely together and adopting an enquiring rather than judgmental mindset.
Adapt for the next cross-cultural challenge Cultural programs should not be replicated
in their entirety because markets and cultures differ.
**LEADERSHIP TRAINING:
Leadership training and development helps identify high-potential individuals that are
likely to become leaders and extends the capabilities and knowledge of individuals who
already perform leadership roles.
Leaders may need training in both soft and hard skills, depending on your organization’s current
challenges. For example, new and coming leaders may need to develop skills such as listening,
conflict resolution and time management, so that they can step in their role.
Why Invest in Leadership Development and Training?
Three powerful forces are redefining the nature of work and create a need for
leadership training:
Rapid globalization: By 2025, the majority of the Forbes Global 2000 public companies will
be headquartered in emerging markets. This will require leaders to develop new skills to
overcome physical and cultural boundaries and lead teams across borders.
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Rise of remote workers: Within a decade, half of the US workforce will comprise of
contractors and freelancers. Leaders will need to learn not just how to manage dispersed teams,
but also how to engage and unite them.
Generation gaps: Gen Y (Millennials) and Gen Z are rising to leadership positions and
bringing in new ideas related to work and learning. This puts pressure on traditional leadership
approaches and requires training to overcome differences.
What Leadership Skills Should Your Organization Develop?
Whether an office manager or a senior executive, great leaders need a foundation of soft skills to
help them positively influence the behavior of co-workers and team members. Below are the
essential leadership skills.
Listening: This is the ability to redirect your focus from yourself to others and actively work to
understand their needs. Leaders have to be great listeners because this helps them build trust with
their team.
Loyalty: Good leaders put the success of their team first. As Arnold H Glasow said, “A good
leader takes little more than his share of the blame and little less than his share of the credit.”
Respect: An essential trait of effective leadership is communicating and acting with respect
and integrity. This helps establish a leadership style based on working together instead of giving
orders.
Reliability: If team members perceive their manager as a reliable partner who is always on
meeting the company’s goals, to anticipate problems and suggest alternative solutions.
Passion: A great leader is dedicated to the success of the team, understands what motivates
attitude. This helps get buy in for their ideas and motivate workers to come up with creative
solutions when working through a difficult problem.
Accomplishment: Being a great leader means being an example to the team, always coming up
with new solutions and testing every possible option before saying that something can’t be
achieved.
Strategic thinking: Leaders should be able to step back from the daily grind, connect current
tasks with long-term goals and focus on the results, not the process.
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Support: A great leader should be readily available to answer any questions and resolve any
taken on a new role can be very effective, especially if your goal is knowledge transfer or
succession.
Group learning. This approach can come in various flavors, involving both internal and
o enable leadership team development—those already in management can form a peer group to
help each other develop new skills, improve interpersonal communication and break functional
silos
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Self-directed learning. It’s true that leaders can’t grow in isolation but self-directed learning
has its place in your training. This form of corporate learning and development can, for
example, be used to teach soft skills such as communication techniques and strategic thinking.
4. Include experiential training: Enabling leaders-in-training to practice what they have learned
creates those “a-ha” moments when they understand how specific skills or knowledge can be used
in a real-world situation.
5. Define success
As with any other type of corporate learning and development, your training needs a definition of
“success”. So, before launching your program, determine how you will measure its impact.
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behaviors like under certain circumstances, situational factors may substitute for leadership. These
substitutes are of two types - substitutes and neutralizers. The theory was developed by Steven
Kerr and John M. Jermier and published in 1978.
The theory suggests that subordinate, task, and organizational characteristics affect the
relationship between leader behavior and subordinate outcomes.
Substitutes take away from the leader's power and help group members increase their performance.
Neutralizers only remove influence from the leader.
In the leader substitutes model, substitutes are characteristics that take away from a leader's
power. This can lead to increased performance of subordinates.
For example, a team that works well together can be a substitute for leadership. Another way to
reduce the need for leadership is to create self-managed work teams. These teams do not have any
official leader or supervisor.
However, studies indicate that substitutes and neutralizers will not completely replace leaders in
these roles.
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