BUSI 7280
Managing in a
Global Context
Yoona Choi, PhD
Topic Learning Outcomes
• Describe the nature of managerial work
• Identify the ways in which the process of managing might adapt to new ways of
working
• Differentiate management skills needed today from those of the past
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Topic Two: Foundations of Management
The Nature of Managerial Work
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What is management?
• Getting work done with minimum effort,
expense, or waste
Effectiveness
Efficiency
Getting work
done through
others • Accomplishing tasks that help fulfill
organizational objectives
Key factors to an organization’s success
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Functions
Henri Fayol
Traditionally, it has been suggested that managers undertake four primary tasks,
planning, leading, controlling and organizing.
 Planning - determining organisational goals and a means for achieving them.
 Organising - deciding how decisions will be made, who will do what jobs and
tasks, and who will work for whom in the company.
 Leading - inspiring and motivating workers to work hard to achieve
organisational goals.
 Controlling - monitoring progress toward goal achievement and taking
corrective action when progress isn’t being made.
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Management Functions
Determining organisational
goals and a means for
achieving them.
Where will decisions be
made?
Who will do what jobs and
tasks?
Who will work for whom?
Inspiring and motivating
employees to work hard to
achieve organisational
goals.
Monitoring progress toward
goal achievement and
taking corrective action
when needed.
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Fayol’sAssumptions
Fayol’s understanding of managerial work
Fayol’s framework rests very heavily on the assumption that it is the manager’s role to:
• Set goals and determine the best way to achieve them;
• Determine how resources should be allocated;
• Motivate employees to align themselves with organisational objectives;
• Monitor and correct tasks to ensure they meet organisational goals.
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Planning
Organizing
Leading
Controlling
Why do we need
managers?
• Shift to large, formal
organizations meant
managers needed to
Organize large groups
Work with employees
Make good decisions
• Changes with
industrialization and mass
production required
 Coordination of the
different parts of the
production system for
optimization of
overall system
performance
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Modern views of Management Roles
• Mintzberg suggests that managing is about people (relationships), information
(intel) and action (judgment) and is essentially about facilitating action based on
thoughtful judgment (2009).
• Henry Mintzberg says “management is neither a science nor a profession, it is a
practice and the practice fundamentally doesn’t change, what changes is the
content of what you are dealing with”.
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Interpersonal
• Figurehead
• Leader
• Liaison
Mintzberg’s managerial roles
Informational
• Monitor
• Disseminator
• Spokesperson
Decisional
• Entrepreneur
• Disturbance handler
• Resource allocator
• Negotiator
Source: Adapted from H. Mintzberg, ‘The Manager’s Job: Folklore and Fact’, Harvard Business Review, July–August 1975 Interpersonal roles 11
Interpersonal
• Figurehead
• Leader
• Liaison
Mintzberg’s managerial roles
Source: Adapted from H. Mintzberg, ‘The Manager’s Job: Folklore and Fact’, Harvard Business Review, July–August 1975 Interpersonal roles
• Guides and motivates
others to achieve
organizational roles.
Interpersonal
role
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Mintzberg’s managerial roles
Informational
• Monitor
• Disseminator
• Spokesperson
Source: Adapted from H. Mintzberg, ‘The Manager’s Job: Folklore and Fact’, Harvard Business Review, July–August 1975 Interpersonal roles
• Obtain, check, and
disseminate
information to improve
work processes and
outcomes.
Informational
role
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Mintzberg’s managerial roles
Decisional
• Entrepreneur
• Disturbance handler
• Resource allocator
• Negotiator
Source: Adapted from H. Mintzberg, ‘The Manager’s Job: Folklore and Fact’, Harvard Business Review, July–August 1975 Interpersonal roles
• Take corrective action
when company faces
unexpected changes
• Allocates resources to
different departments.
Decisional
role
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Mintzberg’s Management Roles
• Interpersonal roles concern how you
interact with others.
• Informational roles involve collecting
and transmitting information.
• Decisional roles involve how you
make decisions.
When developing Mintzberg’s Managerial
Roles, Henry Mintzberg looked at what
managers actually spend their day doing
rather than thinking about the role of a
manager in a theoretical way.
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Testing Mintzberg’s framework : Shapira and
Dunbar’s study
• Zur Shapira and Roger Dunbar in the late 1970’s used an ‘in-basket’ (an in-tray/in-
box) simulation exercise to ‘test’ Mintzberg’s framework.
the ‘in-basket’ study
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• The findings of this study suggested just two categories:
• Collecting and generating information (figurehead, liaison, disseminator, spokesperson).
• Sharing information and using it to make decisions (entrepreneur, resource allocator,
disturbance handler, negotiator, leader, monitor).
Is there a ‘New Managerial Work’?
A Comparison with Henry Mintzberg’s Classic Study 30 Years Later
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There were a number of notable differences with
Tengblad’s study however;
 the country and related cultural differences
between the US and Sweden;
 Tengblad observed 8 CEOs in total, 4 were
observed for a full working week (5 days)
compared to Mintzberg who only observed
each CEO for 1 full day.
 Tengblad’s observations were undertaken in
the early 2000s whereas Mintzberg’s original
observations were collected in the early
1970s.
The main differences were:
 a much larger workload
 greater contact with employees in group-settings
 a greater emphasis on sharing and providing
information
 less preoccupation with administrative work
 less fragmentation of time (less disruptions and having
to attend to small administrative tasks).
Testing Mintzberg’s framework: Tengblad’s study
Managing exceptionally: Henry Mintzberg
• However, these two managers working in exceptional and risky
environments required the more ‘conventional’ lead and control form
of managing.
Tanzania Red-Cross refugee camps
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• Two managers managing in exceptional circumstances; they were
each managing one of two Red Cross refugee camps in Tanzania.
• Mintzberg states that over the years of observing managers leading
and controlling have decreased and networking (and distributed
leadership) and persuasion or guidance (supportive of subordinate
autonomy rather than being overly controlling) have increased.
1. Data collection activity
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2. Data analysis
3. Summarise and present
Class activity
What is the goal of class activity?
1. Data collection activity
• People with managerial experience willing to be informants?
• Students need to elicit information from the informant
regarding the nature of their work.
• Decide on a way to record the information so that you can use it
to develop a framework for understanding the nature of
managerial work
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2. Data analysis
• Organise your data in a meaningful way, for
example:
• Sort & Categorise (e.g. Mintzberg)
• Develop a process model
• Draw a framework showing connections and
relationships
• Share your thoughts
• Link： https://anu.padlet.org/u4248682_1/w2-
data-analysis-9rka69ca4y5shj8i
3. Summarise
and present
• Tell us about the model/framework/understanding
that was developed
• Compare with Mintzberg’s model
• Draw some conclusions about the nature of
managerial work
• Share your thoughts
• Link：https://anu.padlet.org/u4248682_1/w2-
summarise-and-present-ogzjqoagcxhq9dhc
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Current challenges in
the workplace
Challenges for government
Making and implementing laws
Interpreting and implementing policies
Challenges for business
Transitioning to 'working from home’
Sustainable development
Buying and selling raw materials and products and services
Establishing operations outside Australia
Generating enough revenue to pay costs
Producing a profit
Complying with relevant laws
Challenges for the individual employee
Getting and keeping a job:
 Individual competitiveness
 Adding value to the organisations that employ them
 Planning for the next job
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Management competencies for today’s world
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Management competencies for today’s world (cont.)
• Today’s best managers are ‘future facing’.
• They design the organisation and culture to anticipate threats
and opportunities from the environment, challenge the status
quo, and promote creativity, learning, adaptation and
innovation.
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Being a Manager Today (2021)
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Key Trends:
• Normalisation of remote work
• Acceleration in the use of technology to manage employees.
• Employees’ changing expectations.
• Radical flexibility requires empathetic managers
In a 2021 Gartner survey of 4,787 global employees assessing the evolving role of management,
only 47% of managers are prepared for this future role.
At the extreme, by 2024, new technologies have the potential to replace as much as 69% of the
tasks historically done by managers, such as assigning work and nudging productivity.
Source: https://hbr.org/2021/04/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-manager-today
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Let’s Redefine the Role of Manager
Recall your work experience and/or your
theoretical knowledge.
What does the ideal manager look like?
• Identify key traits.
• Compare them with Mintzberg’s role of managers.
• Share your reflection with the class by drawing insights on
the ideal manager.
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https://anu.padlet.org/u4248682_1/w2-let-sredefine-the-role-of-manager-lpb9xltnnhk7ljgu
What does it take to be a manager?
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Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-on-books/author-talks-what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-good-middle-manager
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Context
Understanding the nature of managerial work
In considering and determining the function that managers need to serve in an organization, we
must also consider the context in which they operate and the objectives of the organisation.
With the ever-changing landscape of global economic systems, is Mintzberg concept of
managerial work is still relevant?
New management approaches, fit for organisations in the 21st century are based on people, purpose, trust,
transparency, collaboration, giving back to the society, having funworking.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/01/29/how-is-the-nature-of-management-changing/?sh=1a1c32645932 32
• The global market is hyper-competitive;
• Organisations must be living, changing organisms that continue to evolve and adapt; and
• Organisations evolve in different ways, not just as different versions of themselves but in the
legacy they pass on to others and the impact they have on society.
Skills & Competencies
What does it take to be a manager?
Don’t forget:
• Good management is difficult.
• Skills considered necessary depend on:
• how you make sense of the job/role/function
• the industry context the organizational culture and goals
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What does it take to be a manager?
‘Great leaders tap into the needs and fears we all
share. Great managers, by contrast, perform their
magic by discovering, developing, and celebrating
what’s different about each person who works for
them.’
Source: https://hbr.org/2005/03/what-great-managers-do
Areas of Competencies (Daft & Marcic, 2014):
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Relationships
• Managing your Team
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Areas of competency
• Managing yourself - including self-awareness, reflective thinking, time
and stress management and the perception and sensemaking skills we have
discussed already;
Daft & Marcic, 2014
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• Managing relationships - including mentoring and coaching, inspiring and
empowering, resolving conflicts and establishing positive culture and
general communication skills; and
• Managing your team - including the ability to plan and share vision, set
goals and allocate resources accordingly, manage performance, network,
build relationships and initiate change.
Management Potential
(Spreitzer et al., 1997)
Developed a reliable measurement tool for rating the
potential of aspiring international executives
Interviewed 46 experienced executive level
managers to develop items
Tested with 1100 managers with 21 different
countries
Resulting scale has 11 competency clusters
measured by 48 items
Now called the Prospector and delivered as a 360-
degree assessment
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Management Potential
(Spreitzer et al., 1997)
• Seek opportunities to learn
• Seeks and uses feedback
• Learns from mistakes
• Open to criticism
• Committed to making a difference
• Insightful: see things from new angles
• Has the courage to take risks
• Brings out the best in people
• Acts with integrity
• Seeks broad business knowledge
• Adapts to cultural differences
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• What would you do if you were Keith’s boss?
• What management topics do you think would apply in this scenario?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayu-yLaEG7Q
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https://anu.padlet.org/u4248682_1/keith-s-boss-
8ke5z6dnp73fdhvf
Management
skills
Skills are more or less
important at different
levels of management
39•MGMT5 by Chuck Williams, Alan McWilliams, Rob Lawrence, Wahed Waheduzzaman
Management practices at companies on
Fortune’s
list of ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’
value their
workforces. Their employees are
consistently more
satisfied with their jobs and managers.
Good people management contributes to
increased stock performance.
Competitive advantage through people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60dheI4ARg
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What did we learn?