{"id":74,"date":"2020-11-02T13:35:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T18:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/fundamentalsbusiness\/chapter\/leadership\/"},"modified":"2024-12-07T00:13:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T05:13:04","slug":"leadership","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/fundamentalsbusiness\/chapter\/leadership\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 9 - The Role of Managers","rendered":"Chapter 9 – The Role of Managers"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objectives<\/h1>\r\n<\/header>\r\n
\r\n\r\nBy the end of the chapter, you should be able to:\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. identify the four interrelated functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling;<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. explain the process by which a company develops and implements a strategic plan;<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. explain how managers direct others and motivate them to achieve company goals;<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. describe the process by which a manager monitors operations and assesses performance;<\/li>\r\n \t
  5. explain what benchmarking is and its importance for managing organizations;<\/li>\r\n \t
  6. describe the skills needed to be a successful manager; and<\/li>\r\n \t
  7. explain [pb_glossary id=\"456\"]key terms[\/pb_glossary] in the chapter.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

    \"\"Show What You Know<\/h2>\r\n

    [h5p id=\"22\"]<\/p>\r\n\r\n

    <\/div>\r\n

    Noteworthy Management<\/h1>\r\n

    Consider this scenario: you\u2019re halfway through the semester and ready for midterms. You open your class notes and declare them \u201cpathetic\u201d. You regret scribbling everything so carelessly and skipping class so many times. That\u2019s when it hits you: what if there was a note-taking service on campus? When you were ready to study for a big test, you could buy complete and legible class notes. You\u2019ve heard that there are class-notes services at some larger schools, but there\u2019s no such thing on your campus. So you ask yourself, why don\u2019t I start a note-taking business? Your upcoming set of exams may not be salvageable, but after that, you\u2019d always have great notes. And in the process, you could learn how to manage a business (isn\u2019t that what majoring in business is all about?).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    You might begin by hiring a bunch of students to take class notes. Then the note takers will e-mail them to your assistant, who\u2019ll get them copied (on a special type of paper that can\u2019t be duplicated). The last step will be assembling packages of notes and, of course, selling them. You decide to name your company \u201cNotes-4-You.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    It sounds like a great idea, but you\u2019re troubled by one question: why does this business need you? Do the note takers need a boss? Couldn\u2019t they just sell the notes themselves? This process could work, but it would work better if there was someone to oversee the operations: a manager \u2014 to make sure that the operations involved in preparing and selling notes were performed in both an effective and an efficient manner. You\u2019d make the process effective<\/span>\u00a0by ensuring that the right things got done and that they all contributed to the success of the enterprise. You\u2019d make the process efficient<\/span>\u00a0by ensuring that activities were performed in the right way and used the fewest possible resources.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

    The Management Process<\/span><\/h1>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_70\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"749\"]\"Circular Chart 9.1 Circular management process: planning to organizing to leading to controlling[\/caption]\r\n

    The effective performance of your business will require solid management<\/span>: the process of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals. A plan<\/span>\u00a0enables you to take your business concept beyond the idea stage. It does not, however, get the work done. For that to happen, you have to organize<\/span>\u00a0things effectively. You\u2019ll have to put people and other resources in place to make things happen. And because your note-taking venture is supposed to be better off with you in charge, you need to be a leader<\/span>\u00a0who can motivate your people to do well. Finally, to know whether things are in fact going well, you\u2019ll have to control<\/span> your operations \u2014 that is, measure the results and compare them with the results that you laid out in your plan. The management process below summarizes the interrelationship between planning and the other functions that managers perform. This chapter will explore planning, leading, and controlling in some detail. Organizing is an especially complex topic, and deserves its own chapter.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

    Planning<\/span><\/h1>\r\n

    Without a plan, it\u2019s hard to succeed at anything. The reason is simple: if you don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going, you can\u2019t move forward. Successful managers decide where they want to be and then figure out how to get there; they set goals and determine the best way to achieve them. As a result of the planning process, everyone in the organization knows what should be done, who should do it, and how to do it.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

    Developing a Strategic Plan<\/span><\/h2>\r\n

    Coming up with an idea \u2014 say, starting a note-taking business \u2014 is a good start, but it\u2019s only a start. Planning for it is a step forward. Planning begins at the highest level and works its way down through the organization. Step one is usually called strategic planning<\/span>: the process of establishing an overall course of action. To begin this process, you should ask yourself a couple of very basic questions: Why, for example, does the organization exist? What value does it create? Sam Walton posed these questions in the process of founding Walmart: his new chain of stores would exist to offer customers the lowest prices with the best possible service.[footnote]Walmart. (2016). Our Story<\/em>. http:\/\/corporate.walmart.com\/our-story\/our-history[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\nThe purpose of strategic planning is to set the overall goals for the business and to develop a plan to achieve them. It involves stepping back from the day-to-day operations and asking where your business is headed and what are the priorities.\r\n

    Once you\u2019ve identified the purpose of your company, you\u2019re ready to take the remaining steps in the strategic-planning process:<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n