Operations Management Quarter

Operations Management Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is the first of four lectures of Operations Quadrivium (hereinafter, the Quadrivium):

• The Quarter is designed to introduce its learners to enterprise discovery, or, in other words, to concepts related to obtaining data needed to administer the enterprise effort; and
• The Quadrivium examines concepts of administering various types of enterprises known as enterprise administration as a whole.

The Quadrivium is the first of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi, which is a course designed to introduce its learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Outline

The predecessor lecture is Quality Assurance Quarter.

Concepts

1. Management. Coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so their activities are completed efficiently and effectively.
   • Symbolic view of management responsibility. The view that much of an organization's success or failure is due to external forces outside managers' control.
   • Omnipotent view of management responsibility. The view that managers are directly responsible for an organization's success or failure.
2. Manager. An individual who achieves goals through other people.
   • Manager. Someone who coordinates and oversees the work of other people so organizational goals can be accomplished.
   • Frontline manager (or first-line manager). A manager at the lowest levels of the organizational structure who manage the work of nonmanagerial employees.
   • Middle manager. A manager between the lowest and upper levels of the organizational structure who manage the work of frontline managers.
3. Managerial role. A specific action or behavior expected of and exhibited by a manager.
   • Decisional role. A managerial role that revolves around making choices. Henry Mintzberg identified the following four interpersonal roles: negotiator, resource allocator, disturbance handler, and entrepreneur.
   • Informational role. A managerial role that involves collecting, receiving, and disseminating information. Henry Mintzberg identified the following three interpersonal roles: monitor, disseminator, and spokeperson.
   • Interpersonal role. A managerial role that involves people and other duties that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature. Henry Mintzberg identified the following three interpersonal roles: figurehead, leader, and liaison.

• Unity of command. The idea that a subordinate should have only one superior to whom he or she is directly responsible.
• Unity of command. The management principle that each person should report to only one manager.
• Traditional goal-setting. An approach to setting goals in which top managers set goals that then flow down through the organization and become subgoals for each organizational area.
• Linear programming. A mathematical technique that solves resource allocation problems.
• Universality of management. The reality that management is needed in all types and sizes of organizations, at all organizational levels, in all organizational areas, and in organizations no matter where located.
• Socioeconomic view of management function. The view that management's social responsibility goes beyond making profits to include protecting and improving society's welfare.
• Span of control. The number of employees a manager can efficiently and effectively manage.
• Span of control. The number of subordinates a manager can effectively and efficiently direct.
• Basic corrective action. Corrective action that looks at how and why performance deviated before correcting the source of deviation.
• Classical approach in management concepts. First studies of management, which emphasized nationality and making organizations and workers as efficient as possible.
• Classical view of management function. The view that management's only social responsibility is to maximize profits.
• Conflict management. The use of resolution and stimulation techniques to achieve the desired level of conflict.
• Contingency approach. A management approach that recognizes organizations as different, which means they face different situations (contingencies) and require different ways of managing.
• Contingency variable. A situational factor that moderates the relationship between two or more variables.
• Disciplinary action. An action taken by a manager to enforce the organization's work standards and regulations.
• Diversity management. The process and programs by which managers make everyone more aware of and sensitive to the needs and differences of others.
• Employees productivity. A performance measure of both efficiency and effectiveness.
• Expert power. Influence based on special skills or knowledge.
• Expert power. Power that's based on expertise, special skills, or knowledge.
• Evidence-based management. The basing of managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence.
• Evidence-based management. The systematic use of the best available evidence to improve management practice.
• Feedback. The degree to which carrying out the work activities required by a job results in the individual obtaining direct and clear information about the effectiveness of his or her performance.
• Feedback. The degree to which carrying out work activities required by a job results in the individual's obtaining direct and clear information about her or his performance effectiveness.
• General administrative theory. An approach to management that focuses on describing what managers do and what constitutes good management practice.
• Green management. Management in which managers consider the impact of their organization on the natural environment.
• Authority. The rights inherent in a managerial position to give orders and to expect the orders to be obeyed.
• Authority. The rights inherent in a managerial position to tell people what to do and to expect them to do it.
• Group order ranking. An evaluation method that places employees into a particular classification, such as quartiles.
• Immediate corrective action. Corrective action that corrects problems at once to get performance back on track.
• Individual ranking. An evaluation method that rank-orders employees from best to worst.
• Least preferred coworker questionnaire. An instrument that purports to measure whether a person is task or relationship oriented.
• Legitimate power. The power a leader has as a result of her or his position in the organization.
• Legitimate power. The power a person receives as a result of his or her position in the formal hierarchy of an organization.
• Management by objectives. A process of setting mutually agreed-upon goals and using those goals to evaluate employee performance.
• Management by objectives. A program that encompasses specific goals, participatively set, for explicit time period, with feedback on goal progress.
• Management by walking around. A term used to describe when a manager is out in the work area interacting directly with employees.
• Paradox theory. The theory that the key paradox in management is that there is no final status for an organization.
• Operations management. The transformation process that converts resources into finished goods and services.
• Organizing. Management function that involves arranging and structuring work to accomplish the organizational goals.
• Organizing. Determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made.
• Progressive disciplinary action. An approach to ensure that the minimum penalty appropriate to the offense is imposed.
• Principles of management. Fundamental rules of management that could be applied in all organizational situations and taught in schools.

1. • Operations management. Practice and a set of concepts, based on that practice, that define culture of managing of operations.

• Scientific management. An approach that involves using the scientific method to find the "one best way" for a job to be done.

Practices

The successor lecture is Human Perceptions Quarter.