WGU - C483 Principles of Management
Conceptual and Decision Skills
Skills pertaining to the ability to identify and resolve problems for the benefit of the organization and
its members
Controlling
The management function of monitoring performance and making needed changes
Cost Competitiveness
Keeping costs low to achieve profits and be able to offer prices that are attractive to consumers
Emotional Intelligence
The skills of understanding yourself, managing yourself, and dealing effectively with others
Frontline Managers
Lower-level managers who supervise the operational activities of the organization
Innovation
The introduction of new goods and services
Interpersonal and Communication Skills
The ability to lead, motivate, and communicate effectively with others
Knowledge Management
Practices aimed at discovering and harnessing an organization's intellectual resources
Leading
The management function that involves the manager's efforts to stimulate high performance by
employees
Management
The process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals
Middle-Level Managers
Managers located in the middle layers of the organizational hierarchy, reporting to top-level
executives
Organizing
The management function of assembling and coordinating human, financial, physical, informational,
and other resources needed to achieve goals
Planning
The management function of systematically making decisions about the goals and activities that an
individual, a group, a work unit, or the overall organization will pursue
,Quality
The excellence of your product (goods or services)
Service
The speed and dependability with which an organization delivers what customers want
Speed
Fast and timely execution, response, and delivery of results
Sustainability
The effort to minimize the use of resources, especially those that are not polluting and nonrenewable.
Technical Skill
The ability to perform a specialized task involving a particular method or process
Top-Level Managers
Senior executives responsible for the overall management and effectiveness of the organization
Value
The monetary amount associated with how well a job, task, good, or service meets user's needs
Acquisition
One firm buying another
Barriers to Entry
Conditions that prevent new companies from entering an industry
Benchmarking
The process of comparing an organization's practices and technologies with those of other companies
Buffering
Creating supplies of excess resources in case of unpredictable needs
Competitive Environment
The immediate environment surrounding a firm; includes suppliers, customers, rivals, and the like
Competitive Intelligence
Information that helps managers determine how to compete better
Cooperative Strategies
Strategies used by two or more working organizations working together to manage the external
environment
,Defenders
Companies that stay within a stable product domain as a strategic maneuver
Demographics
Measures of various characteristics of the people who make up groups or other social units
Diversification
A firm's investment in a different product, business, or geographic area
Divestiture
A firm selling one or more businesses
Domain selection
Entering a new market or industry with an existing expertise
Empowerment
The process of sharing power with employees, thereby enhancing their confidence in their ability to
perform their jobs and their belief that they are influential contributors to the organization
Environmental Scanning
Searching for and sorting through information about the environment
Environmental Uncertainty
Lack of information needed to understand or predict the future
External Environment
All relevant forces outside a firm's boundaries, such as competitors, customers, the government, and
the economy
Final Consumer
Those who purchase products in their finished form
Flexible Processes
Methods for adapting the technical core to changes in the environment
Forecasting
Method for predicting how variables will change the future
Independent strategies
Strategies that an organization acting on its own uses to change some aspect of its current
environment
, Inputs
Goods and services organizations take in and use to create products or services
Intermediate consumer
A customer who purchases raw materials or wholesale products before selling them to final
customers
Macroenvironment
The general environment; includes governments, economic conditions, and other fundamental
factors that generally affect all organizations
Merger
One or more companies combining with another
Open Systems
Organizations that are affected by, and that affect, their environment
Organizational Climate
The patterns of attitudes and behavior that shape people's experience of an organization
Organization Culture
The set of important assumptions about the organization and its goals and practices that members of
the company share
Outputs
The products and services organizations create
Prospectors
Companies that continually change the boundaries for their task environments by seeking new
products and markets, diversifying and merging, or acquiring new enterprises
Smoothing
Leveling normal fluctuations at the boundaries of the environment
Strategic Maneuvering
An organization's conscious efforts to change the boundaries of its task environment
Supply Chain Management
The managing of the network of facilities and people that obtain materials from outside the
organization, transform them into products, and distribute them to customers
Switching Costs
Fixed costs buyers face when they change suppliers
Conceptual and Decision Skills
Skills pertaining to the ability to identify and resolve problems for the benefit of the organization and
its members
Controlling
The management function of monitoring performance and making needed changes
Cost Competitiveness
Keeping costs low to achieve profits and be able to offer prices that are attractive to consumers
Emotional Intelligence
The skills of understanding yourself, managing yourself, and dealing effectively with others
Frontline Managers
Lower-level managers who supervise the operational activities of the organization
Innovation
The introduction of new goods and services
Interpersonal and Communication Skills
The ability to lead, motivate, and communicate effectively with others
Knowledge Management
Practices aimed at discovering and harnessing an organization's intellectual resources
Leading
The management function that involves the manager's efforts to stimulate high performance by
employees
Management
The process of working with people and resources to accomplish organizational goals
Middle-Level Managers
Managers located in the middle layers of the organizational hierarchy, reporting to top-level
executives
Organizing
The management function of assembling and coordinating human, financial, physical, informational,
and other resources needed to achieve goals
Planning
The management function of systematically making decisions about the goals and activities that an
individual, a group, a work unit, or the overall organization will pursue
,Quality
The excellence of your product (goods or services)
Service
The speed and dependability with which an organization delivers what customers want
Speed
Fast and timely execution, response, and delivery of results
Sustainability
The effort to minimize the use of resources, especially those that are not polluting and nonrenewable.
Technical Skill
The ability to perform a specialized task involving a particular method or process
Top-Level Managers
Senior executives responsible for the overall management and effectiveness of the organization
Value
The monetary amount associated with how well a job, task, good, or service meets user's needs
Acquisition
One firm buying another
Barriers to Entry
Conditions that prevent new companies from entering an industry
Benchmarking
The process of comparing an organization's practices and technologies with those of other companies
Buffering
Creating supplies of excess resources in case of unpredictable needs
Competitive Environment
The immediate environment surrounding a firm; includes suppliers, customers, rivals, and the like
Competitive Intelligence
Information that helps managers determine how to compete better
Cooperative Strategies
Strategies used by two or more working organizations working together to manage the external
environment
,Defenders
Companies that stay within a stable product domain as a strategic maneuver
Demographics
Measures of various characteristics of the people who make up groups or other social units
Diversification
A firm's investment in a different product, business, or geographic area
Divestiture
A firm selling one or more businesses
Domain selection
Entering a new market or industry with an existing expertise
Empowerment
The process of sharing power with employees, thereby enhancing their confidence in their ability to
perform their jobs and their belief that they are influential contributors to the organization
Environmental Scanning
Searching for and sorting through information about the environment
Environmental Uncertainty
Lack of information needed to understand or predict the future
External Environment
All relevant forces outside a firm's boundaries, such as competitors, customers, the government, and
the economy
Final Consumer
Those who purchase products in their finished form
Flexible Processes
Methods for adapting the technical core to changes in the environment
Forecasting
Method for predicting how variables will change the future
Independent strategies
Strategies that an organization acting on its own uses to change some aspect of its current
environment
, Inputs
Goods and services organizations take in and use to create products or services
Intermediate consumer
A customer who purchases raw materials or wholesale products before selling them to final
customers
Macroenvironment
The general environment; includes governments, economic conditions, and other fundamental
factors that generally affect all organizations
Merger
One or more companies combining with another
Open Systems
Organizations that are affected by, and that affect, their environment
Organizational Climate
The patterns of attitudes and behavior that shape people's experience of an organization
Organization Culture
The set of important assumptions about the organization and its goals and practices that members of
the company share
Outputs
The products and services organizations create
Prospectors
Companies that continually change the boundaries for their task environments by seeking new
products and markets, diversifying and merging, or acquiring new enterprises
Smoothing
Leveling normal fluctuations at the boundaries of the environment
Strategic Maneuvering
An organization's conscious efforts to change the boundaries of its task environment
Supply Chain Management
The managing of the network of facilities and people that obtain materials from outside the
organization, transform them into products, and distribute them to customers
Switching Costs
Fixed costs buyers face when they change suppliers
