MGM102H5 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Decision-Making, Avail, Planned Obsolescence
MGM102 Notes
CH. 1
What is a case?
• Case: written description of a situation actually faced by a manager
Involves decision to be made, problem to be solve, or an issue to be settled
Real situations and real people
Objective is to confront individual to make a decision
Steps:
Determine existing problems and opportunities,
Analyze situation
Evaluate alt. course of action
Recommend and implement plan of action
Problems:
Shortage of good info
Shortage of time
Uncertainty of plans
Lack of opps to reduce uncertainty
Cases simplify tasks; data is already collected, sorted and presented neatly
The case study method
• Ways to use cases
Indv prep for class discussion
Small group discussion to prep for class discussion
Class discussion
Written report/in-class presentation of case
Written examination of ability to handle case
Indv prep for class
• Regard each case as challenge to ability to
◦ Define a problem
◦ Sort relevant/irrelevant info
◦ Separate fact from opinion
◦ Interpret and analyze info
◦ Come to a reasoned decision and course of action
◦ Communicate thoughts clearly and persuasively to other during class discussions
• Steps
◦ Read case once quickly for overview
◦ Skim exhibits to see type of info avail
◦ Find out decision maker, immediate concern, problem, or issue, why concern has
risen, and when decision must be made
◦ Read case again carefully
◦ Answer some relevant questions
Small group prep for class
• Guidelines to increase effectiveness
◦ Everyone comes to meeting with knowledge to assigned readings
◦ Each group member each member must participate
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◦ Leader not necessary
◦ Consensus usually not necessary
◦ Discuss disagreements
◦ Set time limit for discussion
Class discussion
• Compare and assess what happened in class discussion
Evaluating performance
• Performance assessment:
◦ Identify, prioritize, and deal with issues and problems
◦ Judge the quality and relevance of information
◦ Make and assess necessary assumptions
◦ Relate the info to the issues, problems, and decisions in the case
◦ Resolve conflicting info
◦ Analyze by asking and answering right questions and tools
◦ Rank decision making criteria
◦ Generate and evaluate alternatives
◦ Make decision and defend it
◦ Make plan of what might happen
◦ Build on other's arguments
◦ Generalize
• General outline
◦ Executive summary
◦ Statement of problem, opps, and objectives
◦ Analysis of the situation
◦ Identification and evaluation of alts
◦ Decision, course of action, and implementation
CH. 2
Fundamental change
• Super-trends that shape future of business
Marketplace is becoming more segmented
Competitors offering specialized solutions require we get our products to market faster
Some companies are unable to survive disruptive innovation
Disruptive innovation: process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple
applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market eventually
displacing competitors
Offshore suppliers are changing the way we work
Knowledge not info becoming new comp adv.
Two types of change
• Reactive change: responding to unanticipated problems and opps
• Proactive change: managing anticipated problems and opportunities
Forces for change: outside and inside org
• Outside:
◦ Demographic characteristics
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find more resources at oneclass.com
◦ Tech advancements
◦ Shareholder, customer, and market changes
◦ Social and political pressures
• Inside:
◦ HR concerns
◦ Manager's behaviour
Three kinds of change (least threatening to most)
• Adaptive change: reintroduction of a familiar practice; implementation of a kind of
change that has already been experienced within the same org
• Innovative change: introduction of a practice that is new to the organization
• Radically innovative change: introducing a practice that is new to the industry
Lewin's change model: unfreezing, changing, and refreezing
• Unfreezing (creating motivation to change): managers try to instill in employees the
motivation to change, encouraging them to let go of attitudes and behaviours that are
resistant to innovation
• Changing (learning new ways of doing things): employees need to be given the tools for
change
• Refreezing (making the new ways normal): employees need to be helped to integrate
the changed attitudes and behaviour into their normal ways of doing things
Kotter's 8 steps for leading org change
• Establish a sense of urgency
• Create the guiding coalition
• Develop a vision and strategy
• Communicate the change vision
• Empower broad-based action
• Generate short-term wins
• Consolidate gains and produce more change
• Anchor new approaches in the culture
Organizational Development
• Organizational development: set of techniques for implementing planned change to
make people and orgs more effective
• Change agent: puts OD in place; often a consultant with background in behavioural
sciences who can be a catalyst in helping orgs deal with old problems in new ways
What can OD be used for?
• Managing conflict
• Revitalizing organizations
• Adapting to mergers
How OD works
• Diagnosis: what is the problem
• Intervention: what shall we do about it
◦ Intervention: attempt to correct the diagnosed problems
• Evaluation: How well has the intervention worked
The effectiveness of OD
• Multiple interventions
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
What is a case: case: written description of a situation actually faced by a manager. Involves decision to be made, problem to be solve, or an issue to be settled. Objective is to confront individual to make a decision. Cases simplify tasks; data is already collected, sorted and presented neatly. The case study method: ways to use cases. Small group discussion to prep for class discussion. Indv prep for class: regard each case as challenge to ability to, define a problem, sort relevant/irrelevant info, separate fact from opinion. Small group prep for class: guidelines to increase effectiveness, everyone comes to meeting with knowledge to assigned readings, each group member each member must participate. Leader not necessary: consensus usually not necessary, discuss disagreements, set time limit for discussion. Class discussion: compare and assess what happened in class discussion. Identify, prioritize, and deal with issues and problems. Fundamental change: super-trends that shape future of business.
