• Home
• Module overview
• 1. The challenge of management
  • Introduction
  • 1.1 Defining management
    • 1.1.1 The art of getting things done through people
    • 1.1.2 Defining management by its functions
    • 1.1.3 Is management a profession?
  • 1.2 Management knowledge , skills and performance
    • 1.2.1 Types of managers
    • 1.2.2 Effectiveness and efficiency
    • 1.2.3 Managing the customer within
  • 1.3 The evolution of management thought
  • Conclusion

• 2. Understanding external environments

  • Introduction
  • 2.1 Putting the e xternal environment into focus
    • 2.1.1 Classifying external elements
    • 2.1.2 The changing environment
    • 2.1.3 The international dimension
  • 2.2 Relating the o rganisation to its environment
    • 2.2.1 So many issues: Which should you focus on?
    • 2.2.2 How do you acquire the relevant information?
    • 2.2.3 Clarifying the relationship between the internal and external environments
  • Conclusion

• 3. Social responsibility and ethics in management

  • Introduction
  • 3.1 Business is not value neutral: Social responsibility, obligation and responsiveness
  • 3.2 Focussing on ethics
    • 3.2.1 Why business ethics now?
    • 3.2.2 Ethical quandaries
    • 3.2.3 Approaches to ethical dilemmas
    • 3.2.4 Defining your ethics
  • Conclusion

• 4. Managerial decision making

  • Introduction
  • 4.1 Decision making and problem solving
  • 4.2 The nature of decision making as part of management
    • 4.2.1 Programmed and non-programmed decisions
    • 4.2.2 Certainty, risk and uncertainty
    • 4.2.3 Urgent vs important decisions
  • 4.3 Problem solving: making the most of opportunities
    • 4.3.1 Looking further at problem solving
    • 4.3.2 The effective decision making process
    • 4.3.3 Improving managerial problem solving: overcoming barriers
    • 4.3.4 Thinking 'outside the box' and creativity
  • 4.4 Interrelated problems
  • Conclusion

• 5. Managing strategically

  • Introduction
  • 5.1 Planning ahead
  • 5.2 Strategic management
    • 5.2.1 Some definitions
    • 5.2.2 The process of strategic management
  • Conclusion

• 6. Organisational design and structure

  • Introduction
  • 6.1 The terminology of organisational design
  • 6.2 Strategic organisational design and structure
    • 6.2.1 Types of organisational structure
    • 6.2.2 Strategic organisational design
  • 6.3 Teamwork
    • 6.3.1 The success of teamwork
  • Conclusion

• 7. Organisational culture and workforce diversity

  • Introduction
  • 7.1 Defining organisational or corporate culture
    • 7.1.1 Culture defined through its response to change
    • 7.1.2 Culture defined through the influence of the external environment
  • 7.2 Strong and weak cultures
  • 7.3 The functions of culture
  • 7.4 Creating and sustaining culture
  • 7.5 Types of culture
    • 7.5.1 Dominant culture
    • 7.5.2 Subculture
    • 7.5.3 Core values
  • 7.6 Changing culture
  • 7.7 Cultural diversity in the maritime industry
  • Conclusion

• 8. Change management

  • Introduction
  • 8.1 Dealing with change and the changing nature of change
    • 8.1.1 In what areas of the organisation can managers expect change?
    • 8.1.2 Reacting to change
  • 8.2 Key issues accelerating change
    • 8.2.1 External forces
    • 8.2.2 Internal forces
  • 8.3 Managing change
    • 8.3.1 Reactions to change
    • 8.3.2 Why employees resist change
    • 8.3.3 Emotions accompanying change
    • 8.3.4 Overcoming resistance
    • 8.3.5 Leadership and successful change
  • Conclusion

• 9. Motivating for performance

  • Introduction
  • 9.1 The nature of motivation
  • 9.2 Theories of motivation
    • 9.2.1 Do rewards really work? needs theories
    • 9.2.2 Are substantive rewards the only motivator? process theories
    • 9.2.3 Learning behaviour reinforcement theory
    • 9.2.4 Social learning theory
    • 9.2.5 Putting it all together systems theory
  • 9.3 The power of positive thinking
  • 9.4 Motivation: The implications for managers
  • Conclusion

• 10. Leadership

  • Introduction
  • 10.1 The nature of leadership
    • 10.1.1 Thinking about 'leaders' and 'leadership'
    • 10.1.2 Theories of leadership
    • 10.1.3 Refining our definition of leadership
  • 10.2 Perspectives on leadership
    • 10.2.1 Manager, leader, or both?
  • Conclusion

• 11. Teamwork

  • Introduction
  • 11.1 Work groups and group dynamics
    • 11.1.1 Work groups, work teams, taskforces, self-managing teams and team building
    • 11.1.2 High-performance teams
  • 11.2 Managing meetings and committees
  • 11.3 Group decision making
    • 11.3.1 Some advantages and disadvantages
    • 11.3.2 So, do groups make better decisions than individuals?
  • Conclusion

• 12. Managerial evaluation and control

  • Introduction
  • 12.1 Evaluation and control as a management process
    • 12.1.1 Why evaluate and control performance?
    • 12.1.2 Getting and using necessary information
  • 12.2 Levels of control
  • 12.3 Steps in the control process
  • 12.4 Assessing control systems
  • 12.5 Back to ethics
  • 12.6 Quality control systems
  • Conclusion

2.2.2 How do you acquire the relevant information?

How do you acquire the information? One way is by simply listening and observing what is going on around you. Among the noise and clatter of today's organisations there are many notes of change.

As a manager, you should attempt to establish a network of informal, interpersonal sources of information. Establish networks with people from outside the organisation, such as colleagues in a similar field and previous employees.

Networking. Often managers are members of professional organisations (for example The Australian Institute of Management ) and become involved in professional activities such as functions with guest speakers and film nights. These are opportunities to network and are ideal sources of informal information to add to formal sources. These organisations have newsletters and magazines that keep you up-to-date with what is happening in your industry. The Management articles included in your Readings package are an example of one such publication from the Australian Institute of Management .

Gatekeepers. There is also information available from within your organisation; for example, in other departments and sections. There is a general acceptance of the importance of what have been termed gatekeepers. These are people with a variety of interpersonal and organisational contacts through whom information passes. Many gatekeepers are in the middle and lower levels of the organisation; for example, clerks, secretaries, salespersons, first-line supervisors and production line employees. Gatekeepers can be very useful, alerting managers to potential problems before they become serious.

Trend watching. Be a trend watcher. Look for trends when you are talking to people. Look for patterns in the changes you see. Take a proactive approach to responding to external influences rather than being reactive. Newspapers and other media are also a source of what is happening around you. The World Wide Web opens up so much information. You can access many online publications. Some publications are automatically sent to you on a regular basis. The following example from Fairplay is one example. Note the number of sites identified.

Reading 2.4

Fairplay Daily News Service (2001, 15 March). news@fairplay.co.uk . 'Fairplay Daily Shipping News'. Personal email (accessed 2001, 8 April). [11 pages]

An increasing number of managers are seeing the value of information in competitive intelligence, research and development and other activities concerned with ensuring that their organisation is sufficiently aware of the environment in which they are operating.

There are many tools and techniques for acquiring and dealing with information from the external environment. You may have heard of the SWOT analysis ( S trengths, W eaknesses, O pportunities and T hreats ), otherwise humorously known as WOTS up analysis . In Chapter 4 we will cover SWOT analysis as this is a popular tool that is readily adaptable to any industry and situation.

Example: Looking for the right information

You want to compare the shipping industry's direct contribution to the balance of payments for all major nations in the Pacific Rim . To do this you need to collect data on freight earnings for national (resident) operators.

Obvious places:

Check the national account of each country in question. You find that each country has some department that produces this information. For example, in Australia you would get this from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Looking good so far!! However...

You trip over a snag...

You find that each country differs in its method of collecting or categorising data and its timing of the data collection process (or as I found once - the ABS changed its method of categorising data).

So what do you do?????

In this case a more accurate way is to use the balance of payments statistics reports produced by the International Monetary Fund where every effort has been made to provide comparable data.

Key management concept

Managers can use environmental scanning to spot budding trends and clues of change that could develop into new driving forces.

The following covers the differing views on the relationship between organisations and their environment and managing environmental elements.

In your text

Bartol, K M; Martin, D C; Tein, M H and Matthews, G W (2001), pages 73-81.

Consider this

How well is your organisation or your department equipped for scanning the environment? What can be done to improve the situation? What opportunities are there to pass on your intelligence gleaned from outside the organisation?

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