Assignment for chapter 3

Dear Students , No class for this Friday. Read the slides for chapter 3 and watch the video from earlier posts on  the external environment and corporate culture in this blog site. Submit the assignment for chapter 3 until Saturday, 18 Aug., 2:00 pm.
Your Instructor

Welcome to the summer 2012 MBA 611 course participants

 Dear Students ,

A very warm welcome to all of you who have registered for the MANAGEMENT THEORY AND PRACTICE ( MBA 611) course which is offered during the 2012 summer.

Student resources materials I prepared will reach you all today. You go through them before we meet on Friday August 10,2012 at 9:00 am in Room 2 Building No. 613.

Best wishes,

Ayele Abebe (PhD)

The course Instructor

Successful entrepreneurs are NOT necessarily innovative:

Here is a news on my presentation at the annual conference of Associations of Ethiopians Educated in Germany ( AEEG) . The theme of my presentation was that successful entrpreneurs are NOT  necessarliy those with innovative ideas.  Click this link for details http://www.daad-ethiopia.org/en/19943/index.html

Discussion Question 14. Organizational Control

Which of the three types of organizational control (i.e. feed forward control, Concurrent control, and Feedback control) are often adopted as a main focus (or dominantly) in your organizations? What are the implications of this type of control to your organization's culture, structure, system, and its interaction with its task environment? 

Discussion Question 13 Substituting or Neutralizing Leadership

 Provide examples from your management practice where situational variables (like organizational, task, and group variables) can be so powerful that they actually substitute for or neutralize the need for leadership.

Discussion Question 12 Understanding Leadership

 Discuss the different approaches to understand the essence of leadership. What are the implications of these approaches to your understanding of leadership?

Discussion Question 11 Approaches to Organizational Structure

 Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the  functional, divisional, matrix, team, and network based organizational structures. In practice, what factors affect the decision on the choice of an organizational structure?

Here is an important document regarding the advantages and disadvantages of various types of organizational structures by Tessema Teshome. Click   here

Group Assignment Documents

Here are the assignments and group presentations that are completed so far. In order to capitalize on your cross-learning , take time to go through these documents....

Group A

chap 1
chap 4a
chap 4b
chap 4c
chap 4d
chap 6a
chap 6b
chap 6c
chap 6d
Quotations

Group B

Chap 1
Chap 5
chap 7

Group C

 chap 3
 chap 6
chap 7

Group D

  chap 2
 Chap 3

Group E

 chap 4
Chap 3
chap 6

Discussion Question 10. Strategy and Structure

Does “strategy follows structure" or is it “the structure that follows the strategy” in organizations? Why?

Discussion Question 9. Revising Strategic Plans

How often do you think organizations need to revise their plans? what do you think about the probable changes that may result from such a review?

Discussion Question 8. Possibility of decision failure

Every decision situation could be mapped on a scale of possibility of decision failure that has four positions: certainty, risk, uncertainty, and Ambiguity. Discuss each of these four decision situations by providing practical examples.

Discussion Question 7. Contingency plan

What are the uncontrollable factors that managers need to identify to develop their contingency plans? What mechanisms could managers need to use to minimize the impact of such uncontrollable factors?

Discussion Question 6. Effective Goal Setting

Discuss the characteristics of effective goals and goal-setting by providing practical examples.

Biniyam on Effectiveness is better than Efficiency

Biniyam Negash  argues with examples that effectiveness is better than efficiency , in case both can not be achieved simultaneously. Click here to read his document for details.

Discussion Question 5 : Organizational Culture

Compare and contrast the cultures of two organizations you have worked for or known them well.

Discussion Question 4: Inter-organizational Partnerships

Why are  inter-organizational partnerships becoming so important in today’s turbulent business environment?

Discussion Question 3 : Task Environment

Consider two organizations you know well: one governmental organization and another private limited or  share company. Discuss elements of the task environment for each of them.

The Environment and Corporate culture : Video

Here is a video on the issues of organization's environment and culture.

Efficiency - Effectiveness Matrix

I recently read from http://www.success-matrix.com/ and found interesting arguments about the discussion  question related to effectiveness and efficiency. I hope you will find it interesting too.  Please follow these links for effectiveness  http://www.success-matrix.com/effectiveness/

and for efficiency http://www.success-matrix.com/be-efficient/

Discussion Question 2 : Efficiency and Effectiveness

Which is more important for an organization performance: efficiency or effectiveness? Can an organization succeed in both simultaneously?

Discussion Question 1: Management Functions

What similarities do you see among the four management functions? Do you think these functions are related?

Systems Thinking

According to Peter Senge, five disciplines are considered as central to Learning Organizations. These are Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Building Shard Vision, Team building , and Systems Thinking.    Why do you think  systems thinking is often referred as the  corner stone to Learning Organizations?  The following article provides an insight into the issue. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/senge.htm

 

 

History of Management Theories

This link may provide you with additional insights into the history of management theories . Follow this link and explore further ...

http://managementhelp.org/management/theories.htm

Welcome to Management Theory and Practice (MBA 611) course

 

Group Presentations
Hallo ! I found your group presentations so far  quiet encouraging. Members of the groups have tried to apply the theoretical concepts discussed in chapter 1,2 and 3 to the case studies , the ethical dilemmas , and the discussion questions.

I would like to encourage you all to participate in this forum by way of posting
-  some questions for discussion
- your  answers or  feedback on the issues raised in this forum
-  your reflections on the issues discussed in the course

I hope you enjoy  your MBA611 course.