Essentials of Management Course

Chapter 1

1) Name a great organization. How do you think management contributes to making it great?

From what I have read, one of the greatest organizations in modern times is Amazon. It would not be where it is today without employees that say they do meaningful work in a culture of respect, camaraderie and teamwork. They feel informed, empowered and appreciated.

Management contributes to making it great by providing vision, leadership, maintaining high ethical standards, and making prudent financial decisions. Good management contributes to the company's success by making decisions that are beneficial to the well being of the company, instead of beneficial to the manager's pocketbook at the expense of the company.

2) Name an ineffective organization. What can management do to improve it?

The idea of trying to characterize a whole organization as totally effective or ineffective is very difficult. In any complex organization there may be parts of the organization that function well and suggest effectiveness while other aspects of that same organization perform poorly. That being said, I believe the Internal Revenue Service could be considered an ineffective organization. They have multiple, conflicting goals. It is impossible to maximize achievement of all goals. They face multiple internal and external stakeholders or constituent groups that make competing or conflicting demands. It may be impossible to satisfy all groups of people who express interest in an organization.

The best action management can take to improve an ineffective organization is to “Begin with a plan”. Strategic plan…business plan…plan for the day. The surest path to being surprised about where they end up is not to have one. There are myriad of resources for strategic and business planning, and data consistently shows effective organizations plan and then execute to those plans, revising them as necessary, not on a mystical cycle, but continually on a...