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, Global vs South African management and organizational
behaviour practices
Global trends SA trends
US management literature and research Large proportion of SA’s economically
dominated the OB discipline active population has low literacy and
internationally considered economically illiterate.
High levels of skills shortages
This trend is supported by the SA workforce highly unionized and
idealisation of US lifestyle by US strongly regulated by labour legislation
television and film industry
Trend is further reinforced by global Unique demands imposed on local
operations of US companies dominating business leadership to compete
world trade internationally
Therefore, most countries including SA No unique SA management philosophy,
are influenced by US / Western accepted by all cultures, has emerged
management philosophies yet
US has well developed and researched SA management approaches mainly
knowledge base on management and based on US/ Western literature
leadership
The importance of interpersonal skills (NB)
• Understanding human behaviour plays a role in determining manager’s
effectiveness
• Developing managers’ interpersonal skills helps organisations attract and
keep high performing employees
o Regardless of labour market conditions, outstanding employees are
always in short supply
o Companies known as good places to work (Unilever, Old Mutual,
Microsoft, Nestle) have a big advantage
o Culture of the best companies includes:
▪ Commitment to quality of work
▪ Trust between managers and employees
▪ Teamwork
▪ Positive relationships
▪ Job satisfactions
▪ Willingness to go the extra mile
• Social relationships among co-workers and supervisors strongly related to
overall job satisfaction
o Also associated with lower stress and lower intentions to quit
• Having managers with good interpersonal skills makes workplace more
pleasant
o Which makes it easier to hire and keep qualified people
o Also makes economic sense = companies with reputations as good
places to work generate superior financial performance
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, • In today’s competitive and demanding workplace, managers cannot succeed
on technical skills alone, they also need good people skills
What managers do
• Managers get things done through other people
o They make decisions, allocate resources, and direct activities of others
to attain goals
• Organisation is a consciously coordinated social unit, composed of 2 or more
people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common
goal
• Manufacturing & service firms, schools, hospitals, churches, military units,
retail stores, government departments are all organisations
Management functions
Four management functions:
1. Planning
• Defining an organisation’s goals,
establishing an overall strategy for achieving these goals,
developing a comprehensive set of plans to integrate and coordinate activities
• This function increases the most as managers move from lower- to mid-level
management
(define goals and means for achieving them)
2. Organising
• Determining what tasks are to be done,
who is to do them,
how the tasks are to be grouped,
who reports to whom,
and where decisions are to be made
(design organisations structure)
3. Leading
• When managers motivate employees,
direct their activities,
select the most effective communication channels,
resolve conflicts among members
(direct and coordinate people)
4. Controlling
• Monitor organisations performance and compare it with previously set goals,
if there are significant deviations, management must get the organisation back
on track
(monitoring, comparing, potential correcting)
Management roles
In the late 60s, Henry Mintzberg concluded that managers perform 10 different,
interrelated roles, or sets of behaviours.
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