Management and Psychology
Describe our school in
a) Political Lens
The school has three main leaders who all have different responsibilities, but are all part of the main
part of running the school. The three sometimes have different priorities, and so they are always
engaging each other in negotiation to promote their own priority.
b) Strategic Design Lens
Since the purpose of the school is to have Chinese and western education systems both there, there is a
Chinese department, and there is also a BC program.
Why is knowing about personality types important for managers?
If managers know each of their workers’ personality types, they will better be able to communicate with
them. They will also be able to customize the jobs for each of their workers, to give them the best
chance of enjoying their job and being successful. For example, a Thinking person might not be
comfortable where they have to constantly talk to people about their feelings.
What are three problems that we often experience when making decisions.
The best is if we make decisions based on our thinking and experience. But often other things get in the
way. For example, we use assumptions a lot in our decision making. The assumptions may be wrong. Or
the mental accounting. To our mind, losing something is more painful than not gaining something. But in
reality the result is the same! Another problem that we have is that we are over-confident often. We
always think we are right, even when we are not! This causes us to make bad decisions sometimes.
What is better, integrative negotiating or distributive negotiating? Why?
Different situations call for different types of negotiation. But general, integrative negotiating is better
because we share the same goals, and we can work together. Our negotiation process is more friendly
and open. The result is also better because we each get more than we would have originally. In contrast,
the distributive negotiating is often adversarial in nature. And inside of both sides gaining, in distributive
negotiating, one side usually loses and the other side wins.
What are some problems with working in a team?
In a team, we waste a lot of time in meetings. Sometimes coordination takes a lot of effort, or doesn’t
work. You can’t always rely on your team members because of social loafing. Because they know it is
hard to measure each member’s contribution, they just do little or nothing. Sometimes there is also a
struggle over who will be the leader.
What is the difference between organizing people by function and by product?
Organizing them by function means to arrange them into teams by what job they do. For example, all of
the HR people are on one team, all the accounting people are on one team, all the customer service
people are on one team. All of them will serve all customers and all products.
Organizing by product means that for each product or type of product we have a different team. For
example, for drinks we have one team and for food we have another team. In the drinks team there will
have HR people and accounting people and customer service people.
In Herzberg’s factors of job satisfaction, what is the difference between hygiene and motivational
factors?
Hygiene factors need to achieve a minimum level and above that, it doesn’t matter how good they are,
they will not increase job satisfaction. Some examples are supervision, environment, and salary.
Motivational factors will increase job satisfaction the more they increase. Some examples are
achievement, recognition, growth.
Explain the roles of the manager?
The first role is interpersonal. They have to communicate with their workers, and their boss, and their
peers. The second role is informational. They have to get information, use it, and share it with others.
The third role is decision. They have to use information to make decisions. The main decisions are about
how to allocate resources and negotiations.
What is the difference between personal sources of power and structural sources of power?
Personal sources of power come from the character of the person who is the manager. Some examples
are reputation, skills, who you know. Structural sources of power come from the position that you are in.
Some examples are control over resources, control over punishment and control over rewards. If a
different person becomes manager the structural sources of power will be the same, but the personal
sources of power will change.
Choose three influence tactics and explain how each of them works
Reason is about getting people to think through things logically so they reach the conclusion you want
them to reach. Organizational rewards and punishments are about the things you can get depending on
what you do. For example, one way to influence someone to work is to give them a salary. Assertive
pressure is forcing someone to do something physically, or through your will. For example, you shout at
them until they work harder.
What is similarity and proximity?
These are two ways that we form networks and connections. Proximity is how close you are to them
physically, your distance. Similarity is how alike you are in personality or interests.