Samenvatting - Introduction to Management and Strategy (D0R78A)
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Course
Introduction to Management and Strategy (D0R78A)
Institution
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)
This is a summary of the slides of the class 'Introduction to Management and Strategy'. It is possible that not everything is included, but the concepts explained are very extensively explained.
Summary Introduction to M&S
Chapter 1: Managers and you in the
workplace
Manager = someone who coordinates and oversees the work of other people so that organisational
goals can be accomplished
Levels of management:
• Nonmanagerial employees
• First-line managers: manage the work of non-managerial employees
• Middle managers: manage the work of first-line managers
• Top managers: responsible for making organization-wide decisions and establishing plans and goals
that affect the entire organization
Organization = a deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish some specific purpose. Common
characteristics are distinct purpose, deliberate structure and people.
Why managers?
They are important because: organizations need their managerial skills and abilities now more than
ever, managers are critical to getting things done, managers do matter to organizations. Needed in all
organizational areas, all sizes of organizations, all types of organizations and all organization levels
Management = coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so that their activities are
completed efficiently and effectively.
=> Efficiency = doing things right, getting the most output from the least amount of input
-> resource usage
Effectiveness = doing the right things, attaining organizational goals
-> goal attainment
Management functions:
• Planning: defining goals, establishing strategies to achieve goals, and developing plans to integrate
and coordinate activities
• Organizing: arranging and structuring work to accomplish organizational goals
• Leading: working with and through people to accomplish goals
• Controlling: monitoring, comparing, and correcting work
Roles = specific actions or behaviours expected of and exhibited by a manager -> Mintzberg identified
10 roles grouped around interpersonal relationships, the transfer of information, and decision making
Types of roles (Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles):
• Interpersonal: figurehead, leader, liaison
• Informational: monitor, disseminator, spokesperson
• Decisional: entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator
Management skills (Katz):
• Technical skills: knowledge and proficiency in a specific field
• Human skills: the ability to work well with other people
• Conceptual skills: the ability to think and conceptualize about abstract and complex situations
concerning the organization
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,=> Top managers: 50% conceptual, 30% human and 20% technical // Middle: 33.3% conceptual,
33.3% human and 33.3% technical // lower-level: 20% conceptual, 30% human and 50% technical
Challenges facing managers today and into the future:
• Focus on technology: managers must get employees on board with new technology, managers must
oversee the social interactions and challenges involved using collaborative technologies
• Focus on disruptive innovation: one of the most critical, it involves new products, processes, or
services that radically change the rules of the game. Bv: how the automobile destroyed the
horsedrawn buggy industry
• Focus on social media: social media = forms of electronic communication through which users
create online communities to share ideas, information, personal messages, and other content.
• Focus on ethics: commonly see unethical business practices in the news, bv: pharmaceutical firms
raising drug prices by 500% or someone turning in fake receipts for expenses => organizational
survival depends on building trust with customers, clients, suppliers, employees, and other
stakeholders
• Focus on political uncertainty: shift from relatively stable to greater political uncertainty in the last
10 years due to bv Brexit and USMCA => some states (bv California) have placed additional
regulations on businesses
• Focus on the customer: without customers, most organizations would cease to exist. Managing
customer relationships is the responsibility of all managers and employees. Consistent, high-quality
customer service is essential
Rewards of being a manager:
• Responsible for creating a productive work environment
• Recognition and status in your organisation and in the community
• Attractive compensation in the form of salaries, bonuses and stock options
Employability Skills Matrix (ESM): Critical thinking, communication, collaboration, knowledge
application and analysis, social responsibility skills
Chapter 2: Management History Module
Division of labor (job specialization): the breakdown of jobs into narrow and repetitive tasks (The
Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, 1776)
Industrial revolution: machine power was substitutes for human power, making it more economical
to manufacture goods in factories than at home
Approaches to management:
• Classical Approaches: first studies of management, which emphasized rationality and making
organizations and workers as efficient as possible
○ Scientific management: approach that involves using the scientific method to find the “one best
way” for a job to be done. Principles: develop a science for each element of an individual’s work
replace the old rule-of-thumb. Scientifically select and then train, teach, and develop the worker.
Heartily cooperate with the workers to ensure that all work is done in accordance with the
principles of the science that has been developed. Divide work and responsibility almost equally
between management and workers. Management does all work for which it is better suited than
the workers (Taylor). VS Therbligs: classification scheme for labelling basic hand motions (Frank
and Lillian Gilbreth)
○ General administrative theory: approach to management that focuses on describing what
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, managers do and what constitutes good management practice.
Henry Fayol’s Principles of management (= fundamental rules of management that could be
applied in all organisational situations and taught in schools):
1. Division of work: specialization increases output by making employees more efficient
2. Authority: managers must be able to give orders, authority gives them this right
3. Discipline: employees must obey and respect the rules that govern the organisation
4. Unity of command: every employee should receive orders from only one superior
5. Unity of direction: the organisation should have a single plan of action to guide managers
and workers
6. Subordination of individual interests to the general interest: interests of any one employee
or group of employees should not take precedence over interest of organisation as a whole
7. Remuneration: workers must be paid a fair wage for their services
8. Centralization: degree to which subordinates are involved in decision making
9. Scalar chain: line of authority from top management to lowest ranks
10. Order: people and materials should be in the right place at the right time
11. Equity: managers should be kind and fair to their subordinates
12. Stability of tenure of personnel: management should provide orderly personnel planning
and ensure that replacements are available to fill vacancies
13. Initiative: employees allowed to originate and carry out plans will exert high levels of effort
14. Esprit de corps: promoting team spirit will build harmony and unity within the organisation
Max Weber: bureaucracy = form of organisation characterized by division of labour, a clearly
defined hierarchy, detailed rules and regulations, and impersonal relationships
• Behavioural Approach: organisational behaviour (OB) = the study of actions of people at work.
Hawthorne studies: series of studies during 1920s and 1930s that provided new insight into individual
and group behaviour
• Quantitative Approach: the use of quantitative techniques to improve decision making -> Total
quality management (TQM) = philosophy of management that is driven by continuous improvement
and responsiveness to customer needs and expectations, characteristics:
1. Intense focus on the customer: customer is outsiders who buy the products or services and
internal customers who interact with and serve others in the organisation
2. Concern for continual improvement: commitment to never being satisfied, “very good” is not
good enough, quality can always be improved
3. Process focused
4. Improvement in the quality of everything the organisation does (final product, how deliveries are
handled, how rapidly it responds to complaints…)
5. Accurate measurement: statistical techniques used, compared against standards
6. Empowerment of employees: teams widely used
• Contemporary Approach:
○ System = set of interrelated and interdependent parts arranged in a manner that produces a
unified whole. Closed systems: not influenced by and do not interact with their environment VS
open systems: interact with their environment (inputs and outputs)
○ Contingency (situational) approach: recognizes organisations as different, which means they face
different situations (contingencies) and require different ways of managing. Popular variables:
organisation size (increases, problems of coordination increase), routineness of task technology,
environmental uncertainty, individual differences
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