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Management (activebook), 7/e
Stephen P. Robbins Mary Coulter
Chapter 1: Introduction to Management and Organizations
Chapter 2: Management Yesterday and Today
Chapter 3: Organizational Culture and Environment: The Constraints
Chapter 4: Managing in a Global Environment
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Chapter 5: Social Responsibility and Managerial Ethics
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Chapter 6: Decision-Making: The Essence of the Manager's Job
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System Req's Chapter 7: Foundations of Planning
Chapter 8: Strategic Management
Chapter 9: Planning Tools and Techniques
Chapter 10: Organizational Structure and Design
Chapter 11: Managerial Communication and Information Technology
Chapter 12: Human Resource Management
Chapter 13: Managing Change and Innovation
Chapter 14: Foundations of Behavior
Chapter 15: Understanding Groups and Teams
Chapter 16: Motivating Employees
Chapter 17: Leadership
Chapter 18: Foundations of Control
Chapter 19: Operations and Value Supply Management
Chapter 20: Controlling for Organizational Performance
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Management (activebook), 7/e
Stephen P. Robbins Mary Coulter
Chapter 1: Introduction to Management and
Organizations
What's Ahead
Who Are Managers?
What Is Management?
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What Do Managers Do?
Table of Contents
Chapter Contents Management Functions and Process
Search Management Roles
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Management Skills
In the News
Managing Systems
Internet Exercises
Managing in Different and Changing Situations
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Learning System Summary of Multiple Perspectives on the Manager's Job
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What Is an Organization?
Faculty Resources
Why Study Management?
Misc. Resources
The Universality of Management
The Reality of Work
Rewards and Challenges of Being a Manager
Chapter Wrap-Up
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Surprise!! Surprise!!! The Internet is Not Always Efficient
(05/18/01)
Management Lessons from the Dot.com Frenzy
(11/03/00)
Moving beyond E-Commerce to E-Business
(04/05/00)
The Best Corporate Reputations in America
(12/02/99)
100 Best Companies to Work for in America
(01/12/99)
By the Way - Your Staff Hates You
(01/05/99)
Virtual Teams: Technology and the Workplace of the Future
(12/10/98)
Will A Fight With Pilots Throw U.S. Airways Into Reverse?
(06/05/97)
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Management and the Web
(11/08/00)
Total Quality Management
(09/22/99)
Streamlining the Internet for Executive Work
(08/03/99)
Exploring Organization Design
(12/18/98)
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Link to the R.O.L.L.S. Website with Self Assessment
Library 2.0
Faculty Resources
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Instructors Manual - chap01.doc
Lecture Presentation - chap01.ppt
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Modules - modules.doc
Preface - preface.doc
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Table of contents - toc.doc
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Chapter Outlines - chapoutlines.doc
© 2002 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.A Pearson Education Company, Upper Saddle
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Management (activebook), 7/e
Stephen P. Robbins Mary Coulter
What's Ahead
A Manager's Dilemma
Chapter 1
go to page: You might be surprised to find the passionate emphasis placed on people management at a CPA
firm.1 Yet, at Lipschultz, Levin & Gray, self-described "head bean counter," Steven P. Siegel,
recognizes that his people make the organization. He describes his primary responsibility as
assuring that LLG's clients have the best professionals working for them. And the best way to do
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this, Siegel feels, is by developing the creativity, talent, and diversity of its staff so that new
Table of Contents knowledge can be acquired and shared without getting hung up on formal organizational
Chapter Contents relationships or having employees shut away in corner offices.
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Siegel has implemented several significant changes at LLG. Because he's convinced that people
Add Annotation do their best intellectual work in nontraditional settings, every telltale sign of what most people
View Annotations consider boring, dull CPA work has been eliminated. None of the firm's employees or partners
has an office or desk to call his or her own. Instead, everyone is part of a nomadic group that
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wheels stuff (files, phones, laptops) to a new spot every day. Everywhere you look in the
company's office, you see versatility, comfort, and eccentricity. For instance, a miniature golf
course is located in the middle of everything. The motivation behind this open office design is to
create opportunities for professionals to gather—on purpose or by accident—without walls,
cubicles, or offices to get in the way.
Visitors to LLG realize that the firm is different as soon as they walk in the door. A giant wall-
mounted abacus (remember the image of bean counters) decorates the interior. And visitors are
greeted by a "Welcome Wall" with a big-screen television that flashes a continuous slide show of
one-liners about business, life, and innovation.
Keeping professionals excited about work that can be routine and standardized is a major
challenge for Siegel. Now put yourself in Siegel's shoes. What managerial skills would you use
to maintain an environment that encourages innovation and professionalism in his CPA firm?
What would you do?
Before you begin reading this chapter, try a short warm-up activity.
Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the key objectives of this chapter.
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Management (activebook), 7/e
Stephen P. Robbins Mary Coulter
Steven Siegel is an excellent example of what today's successful managers are like and the skills
they must have in dealing with the problems and challenges of managing in the twenty-first century.
These managers may not be what you might expect! They can be found from under age 18 to over
80. They run large corporations as well as entrepreneurial start-ups. They're found in government
Chapter 1
departments, hospitals, small businesses, not-for-profit agencies, museums, schools, and even such
go to page: nontraditional organizations as political campaigns and consumer cooperatives. Managers can also
be found doing managerial work in every country on the globe. In addition, some managers are at
the top level of their organizations whereas others are near the bottom, and today they are just as
likely to be women as they are men. However, although women are well represented in the lower
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and middle levels of management, the number in top executive positions remains low. Data
Table of Contents
collected by Catalyst, a nonprofit research group, found that only 11.9 percent of corporate officers
Chapter Contents at the 500 largest U.S. companies are women. That figure drops to 5.1 percent if you look at only
the elite top-level managerial jobs of chairman, president, chief executive officer, chief operating
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officer, and executive vice president. A number of organizations including Southwest Airlines,
Add Annotation Avon, Hewlett-Packard, Kraft Foods, Xerox, and Golden West Financial have taken significant
View Annotations steps to attract and promote women executives.2 But no matter where managers are found or what
gender they are, the fact is that managers have exciting jobs!
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This book is about the fun, exciting, and challenging work that Steven Siegel and millions of other
managers like him do. It recognizes the reality facing today's managers—that management is
changing. In workplaces of all types—factories, offices, restaurants, retail stores, and the like—new
technologies and new ways of organizing work are radically altering old approaches. This new
world has changed how work is done and the relationship between workers and managers. In this
chapter, we introduce you to managers and management by looking at who managers are, what
management is, what managers do, and what an organization is. Finally, we'll wrap up the chapter
by discussing why it's important to study management.
Who Are Managers?
It used to be fairly simple to define who managers were: They were the organizational members
who told others what to do and how to do it. It was easy to differentiate managers from
nonmanagerial employees; the latter term described those organizational members who worked
directly on a job or task and had no one reporting to them. But it isn't quite that simple anymore!
The changing nature of organizations and work has, in many organizations, blurred the clear lines
of distinction between managers and nonmanagerial employees. Many traditional jobs now include
managerial activities, especially on teams. For instance, team members often develop plans, make
decisions, and monitor their own performance. And as these nonmanagerial employees assume
responsibilities that traditionally were part of management, definitions we've used in the past no
longer describe every type of managerial situation.
How do we define who managers are? A manager is someone who works with and through other
people by coordinating their work activities in order to accomplish organizational goals. That may
mean coordinating the work of a departmental group, or it might mean supervising a single person.
It could involve coordinating the work activities of a team composed of people from several
different departments or even people outside the organization such as temporary employees or
employees who work for the organization's suppliers. Keep in mind, also, that managers may have
other work duties not related to coordinating and integrating the work of others. For example, an
insurance claims supervisor may also process claims in addition to coordinating the work activities
of other claims clerks.
Is there some way to classify managers in organizations? There is, particularly for traditionally
structured organizations—that is, those organizations in which the number of employees is greater
at the bottom than at the top. (These types of organizations are often pictured as being shaped like a
pyramid.) As shown in Exhibit 1.1, we typically describe managers as first-line, middle, or top in
this type of organization. Identifying exactly who the managers are in these organizations isn't
difficult, although you should be aware that managers may have a variety of titles. First-line
managers are the lowest level of management and manage the work of non-managerial individuals
who are involved with the production or creation of the organization's products. They're often called
supervisors but may also be called line managers, office managers, or even foremen. Middle
managers include all levels of management between the first-line level and the top level of the
organization. These managers manage the work of first-line managers and may have titles such as
department head, project leader, plant manager, or division manager. At or near the top of the
organization are the top managers, who are responsible for making organization-wide decisions and
establishing the plans and goals that affect the entire organization. These individuals typically have
titles such as executive vice president, president, managing director, chief operating officer, chief
executive officer, or chairman of the board. In the chapter-opening case, Steven Siegel is a top-level
manager. He holds the title of managing member and is involved in creating and implementing
broad and comprehensive changes that affect the entire organization.
Exhibit 1.1 Organizational Levels
Why are organizations visualized as pyramids? Does this pyramidal shape reflect the
new realities of what organizations are like?
Throughout this book, we'll be discussing organizations and managers from this more traditional
pyramidal perspective, although not all organizations may reflect this arrangement. But even
organizations that are more flexibly and loosely configured need individuals to fulfill the role of
manager—that is, someone who works with and through other people by coordinating their work to
accomplish organizational goals.
Testing…Testing…1, 2, 3
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