Chapter 5 Implementing and Controlling

Chapter 5: Implementing and Controlling Lesson 5.1: The Implementing Function The Challenge of Implementing The implementing function of management involves carrying out the organization’s plans - and helping employees to work effectively - The majority of managers spend a great deal of time on implementing and controlling activities - Implementing involves guiding employee work toward achieving the company’s goals - Challenge of implementation - changing conditions in a business create problems in the way work is accomplished Implementing Activities - Managers must complete a number of activities designed to channel employee efforts in the right direction to achieve goals - Effective communication - Managers must be able to communicate plans and directions, gather feedback from employees, and identify and resolve communication problems - Both personal and organizational communications are important - Motivating employees - Motivation - a set of factors that influence an individual’s actions toward accomplishing a goal - Managers can use rewards and punishments to encourage employees to motivate themselves toward pursuing company objectives - Internal Motivation - motivation from a person’s beliefs, feelings, and attitudes that influence their actions - - For many, this is the most influential motivation External Motivation - motivation coming from rewards and punishments supplied by other people - Work Teams - Work team - a group of individuals who cooperate to achieve a main goal - Effective work teams have members who: - Understand and support its purpose - Clearly understand the activities to be completed - Are committed to meeting the expectations of others in the group and helping the group succeed - Communicate well with each other and work to resolve problems within the group - To create an effective work team, managers need to help organize the team and develop needed team skills, create a work environment that supports teamwork, and help the group resolve problems when they occur - Operations management - Operations - the major ongoing activities of a business - Operations Management - effectively directing the major activities of a business to achieve its goals - - What must be available for employees to perform their work - Facilities - Equipment - Materials - Available supplies in good condition Process Improvement - The efforts to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of specific business operations - Due to increasing competition, companies must operate efficiently to keep costs low so that they can compete successfully Lesson 5.2 Motivation and Change Management Motivation Theories - Psychologists have developed theories about what factors motivate people to behave as they do - Managers can influence employees to behave in ways that help achieve company goals by understanding and applying theories of motivation - Motivation theories - Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - Describes motivation in terms of a hierarchy of needs - The first level is physiological followed by security, social, esteem, and self-actualization needs - Physiological needs - things required to sustain life (food, shelter) - Security needs - ensuring you and those you care for are safe and free from hard - Social needs - the need to belong, to interact with others, to have friends, and to love and be loved - Self-actualization - the need to grow emotionally and intellectually, to be creative, and to achieve your full potential - People seek to satisfy these needs (above) from lowest to highest - If a lower level is not satisfied, a person will have little motivation for higher levels - Mcclelland’s Achievement Motivation - Based on a set of needs common to all people - Believed that people are influenced most strongly by one of three specific needs: - - The need for achievement - The need for affiliation - The need for power Achievement Need - people who take personal responsibility for their own work, set personal goals, and want immediate feedback on their work - Affiliation Need - people concerned about their relationships with others and work to get along well and fit in with a group - Power Need - People who want to influence and control others and to be responsible for a group’s activities - This theory recognizes that various jobs provide greater or fewer opportunities for achievement, affiliation, or power - Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory - Identifies two distinct groups of factors related to motivation - Two groups : hygiene factors and motivators - Hygiene factors - job factors that dissatisfy when absent but do not contribute to satisfaction when they are present - - Can create dissatisfaction but cannot improve satisfaction Motivators - factors that increase job satisfaction - Managers should provide motivators such as opportunities for interesting work, greater individual control and responsibility, and recognition for good work Managing Change - - People resist change when: - Their jobs are threatened - They do not trust those responsible for planning change - They are uncertain about how change will affect them To implement change managers must work to reduce that resistance and to make change as comfortable as possible - Steps in Effective Change 1. Planning a. To ensure the change isn’t too rapid, managers should follow a careful procedure to gather info, identify and study alternatives, and determine the consequences of change 2. Communicating a. Damage will be prominent if employees are surprised by change or they believe they are misled b. Managers who have previously established open communications are in the best position to communicate with employees about changes 3. Involving a. People are more likely to support changes when they have been involved in planning b. Managers must realize that employees can be a good source of ideas for solutions and changes 4. Educating a. As plans for change develop, managers must determine who will be affected and what new knowledge and skills those employees will need b. Some companies try to help employees who are losing their jobs develop skills to help them get new jobs 5. Supporting a. Some changes have negative effects on employees that cannot be avoided b. Employees may have to deal with major job changes such as i. Reduction in pay ii. Different working conditions iii. Additional training iv. Move to another location c. Companies may provide full/partial salary for people looking for new jobs d. Many companies now provide personal and career counseling, help with job-seeking skills, and pay for employment services for terminated employees Lesson 5.3: The Controlling Function Understanding Controlling - With the proper information, managers can tell how well activities are being performed - Reviewing performance is one part of controlling - Managers must be able to determine if performance meets expectations - If not all of the four management functions are performed by managers, the remaining functions will suffer The Steps in Controlling - Controlling is the final function that is needed to improve the management process and business environment - Controlling involves three basic steps - 1. Establishing standards each of the company’s goals - 2.. Measuring and comparing performance against the established standards to see if performance met the goals - 3. Taking corrective action when performance falls short of the standards. Controlling activities should be completed before the problem is too big or too expensive to correct Setting Standards - Standards become the means for judging success and for applying controls. - The standard used to control business operations depend on the type of business, its size, and the activities being controlled. - The major types of standards are quantity, quality, time, and costs standards - Quality standards - the expected amount of work to be completed. Quantity standards take different forms depending on the tasks - Quality standards - expected consistency in production or performance - Time standards - The established amount of time needed to complete an activity. The amount of time it takes to complete an activity has an effect on costs, the quantity of work completed and often on the quality of the work. - Cost standard - The predetermined cost of performing an operation or producing a good or service, are an effective way of helping businesses maintain profitability - - Profit equals income minus costs Variance - the difference between current performance and the standard - A variance can be positive (performance exceeds the standard) or negative (performance falls short of standard). Whenever a variance exists, managers must identify the reasons or the difference. Lesson 5.4 Gathering and Using Performance Information - When managers discover that performance is not meeting standards, they can take three possible actions: - - Take steps to improve performance - Change policies and procedures - Revise the standard Most often, managers need to improve performance when standards are not being met - This usually means making sure that the work is well organized, that supplies and materials are available when needed, that equipment is in good working order, and that employees are well trained and motivated - Occasionally, standards are not met because activities cannot be accomplished as planned, or policies and procedures are not appropriate - Finally, when the managers have explored all possibilities to improve performance and it still does not meet the standards, they need to evaluate the standards themselves. - Managers cannot expect that all standards will be appropriate Controlling Costs - All managers need to watch constantly to reduce costs - There are several areas where managers can anticipate costs problems - Inventory - All materials and products a business has on hand for use in production and available for sale - Wholesalers and retailers must maintain inventories to meet their customers’ needs - Just-in-time (JIT) inventory control - a method of inventory control used by many companies maintains very small inventories and obtains materials just in time for use - To set this up, managers carefully study production time, sales activity , and purchasing requirements to determine the lowest possible inventory levels - Credit - The provision of goods and services to a customer with an agreement for future payment - Must develop credit policies to reduce the amount of losses from credit sales - - Must check each customer’s credit history before offering credit Theft - Businesses can lose a great deal of money if products are stolen - Can occur in many parts of a business by employees, customers, and others - Employee health and safety - When an employee is absent, coworkers must be available to fill in or the work will go undone - A share of employee health insurance costs and other benefits are often paid by the company as well - Companies provide safety training for all employees *Chapter 6 is not associated with the curriculum