Class 2: Managerial Activities and Competencies

1. Class 2: Managerial Activities and Competencies Question “du jour”: What do managers do? Some key research on the job of managers: Manager’s job: folklore and facts (Mintzberg) Experience is still … (Lombardo & al) Skills of an effective administrator (Katz) Case: Stacey Tile Company.

2. Defining the Manager’s Job Descriptive « Managers do this, think, interact… spend their time…. » Normative « Good or effective managers do this and that. Managers should do this or that »

3. Research: What do Managers do? (Mintzberg, 1973) Demystifying what managers do. Observation of their daily activities vs. normative statements on what they should do.

4. Myth 1: Planning Folklore: Manager as a reflective, systematic planner Fact: Managers work at an unrelenting pace, with varied, brief, and discontinuous activities.

5. Myth 2: Activities Folklore: The manager has no regular duties to perform -- he focuses on planning and delegating Fact: managers perform varied duties, including ceremonials, negotiations, and processing of information.

6. Myth 3: Information Folklore: The senior manager needs aggregated and formal information; Fact: Managers favor verbal interactions - telephone and meetings.

7. Myth 4: Science of Management Folklore: Management is becoming a profession -- or a science Fact: Management is mainly a craft -- informal, acquired through “learning by doing”, and relies on intuition and judgment.

8. Describing Managerial roles and Functions Interpersonal roles: Figurehead; leader; liaison. Information roles: Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson. Decision-making roles: Entrepreneur, disturbance-handler, resource allocator, negotiator.

9. Katz: The Skills of an Effective Administrator How to define a manager? Traditional definitions emphasize: Traits and attitudes of the ideal executive: (intelligence, sense of cooperation). Manager’s knowledge. Katz’s definition: Skills-based: (technical, human and conceptual skills).

10. Katz: different skills for different roles Technical skills: Manage “things”: methods and technical skills; Human / interpersonal skills: Group work, build an atmosphere of cooperation inside one’s team, and communicate; Conceptual skills: Conceptualize the organization as a whole and make decisions based on this understanding.

11. Individual Skills and Management Levels

12. Apply these three Levels of Skills to your Own Experience What are the skills you mainly use in your current/last managerial position? What skills will you need most in 2/5 years from now? How can you/will you develop these skills? Take 10 minutes individually to think about this; Then we will take 30 minutes to discuss the issues as a class.

13. From our Previous Class Case prep: Stacey Tiles: How do you assess Gilbert’s management? Based on what? (Be ready to justify your position). From a Corporate/Business/Functional strategy level? How about his management style?

14. Stacey Tiles. Describe Gilbert’s business plan. Does it make sense? Are his assumptions and forecasts realistic? Describe Gilbert’s actions in the company. Do they make sense? Are they coherent with the business plan? Describe his leadership style from (1) his personality, (2) his schedule, (3) his relations with the factory staff and personnel.

15. Gilbert’s Intentions Hire competent workers and managers to improve quality Obtain an higher selling price by going directly to tile setters Adopt a 2% discount/15 days payment policy Purchase raw materials as cheaply as possible (same as competitors) Develop a strong management team

16. Stacey Tiles: Mission and Rationale STACEY TILE’S MISSION Concentrate production on high quality/colored wall tiles Concentrate sales efforts on tile setters. RATIONALE Take advantage of the housing construction increase impact on the sale of tiles – Summer 1987. Low entry barriers in the floor tiles segment vs the wall tiles segment (Use of more expensive equipment, better trained workforce and a more skillful management of resources) Contrary to wholesalers, tile setters do not seek quantity discounts and favor a low-pricing strategy

17. Next class: Mastering a New Identity Research: Hill : «Learning What it means to Be a Manager» and « Setting the Stage » Senge : « Mental Models » Knippen and Green : « Most Common Errors of New Managers » Case: Becoming a general manager (A) Would you accept to be one of Guylaine’s management team member? If Guylaine was with us today, what advice would you give her?