Management

1) Do you believe that most organizations focus on creating customer value? Explain.

Customer value is defined as "the perceived benefit of a product, used by customers to determine whether or not to buy the product" (Lussier, 2006). I do believe that most customer's focus on creating customer value. It is an aspect needed in order to sell anything. A customer would not buy something if she or he did not see the benefit in buying it, therefore, organizations strive to create customer value because they need the customer to see a benefit and to buy the product.

2) Do you think that all organizations should use TQM? Explain your answer.

TQM, or total quality management, is defined as "the process that involves everyone in an organization focusing on the customer to continually improve value". I do believe that all organizations should use TQM. It results in better quality products that result in better value, and these are the two aspects, in which customers look at in order to know if they want to buy the product. As long as organizations use TQM, they will always have products that customers are willing to buy.

3) What is the relationship between management and mission, resources, the system process, and structure? Which of these internal factors are ends, and which are means?

The relationship between management, mission, resources, the system process and structure is that they all make up the Internal Environment of an organization and they "affect its [the organizations] performance from within its boundaries". They are all internal factors because they are all things that the organization can control, opposed to external factors, such as economic conditions and population. The factors which are ends are mission, management, and structure, where as the means are system's process and resources.

4) What major technology change has had the greatest impact on the quality of your life?

The major technology change that has had the greatest impact on the quality of my life is the spread of uses for the Internet. The wide range of uses for the internet has extremely benefited my life. I use the Internet to keep in touch with my family from College and with my brother who is in the Air Force in Georgia. I also use the Internet to talk to my long-distance boyfriend so my phone bill doesn't get too large. I also use the Internet in a highly educational way. Not only can I take my college courses online (which is much better for me because I teach myself much better than a professor or teacher can teach me), but it can teach me about anything else I would like to know. I used to have to go to a library and hope that they have a book or resource that I could use in order to learn about something. With the Internet, I can download the resource or book, plus there are millions of other great resources in which I can find so much information on one subject.

5) Which of the five artifacts, or important ways that employees learn about organizational cultures, is the most important?

The five artifacts are: 1) heroes, 2) stories, 3) slogans, 4) symbols, and 5) ceremonies. The most important artifact is stories, in my opinion. I believe this because any organization can have symbols, slogans but that doesn't necessarily that the organization may go by these. Ceremonies, such as award dinners, do help employees learn a little about the organizational cultures. However, stories are always true, and stories always leave the biggest impact. They are often told and you can learn a lot about something from a story. This is the reason that most of historical information is from passed down stories.

6) What is the difference between a strong and a weak organizational culture, and which is preferable?

A strong culture is one in which the employees "who subconsciously know the shared assumptions, consciously know the values and beliefs; agree with the shared assumptions, values and beliefs; and behave as expected". A weak culture is one in which the employees do not behave as expected. The organizations culture which is preferable is a strong one. This way, employees follow all beliefs, values and assumptions, whereas In a weak one, those who do not follow the beliefs, values and assumptions become rebels and fight the culture.

7) What is symbolic leadership? Is it important?

Symbolic leadership is articulating a vision for an organization and reinforcing the culture through slogans, symbols and ceremonies. It is very important because symbolic leadership manages changes and merges cultures, which is a very important thing to do for an organization in a cultural world.

8) What is a learning organization? Should a manager create one?

A learning organization has "a culture that values sharing knowledge so as to adapt to the changing environment and continuously improve". A manager should create one because an organization is always looking to improve; no one organization is perfect. Also, the environment is always changing, and an organization that adapts to these changes are more likely to benefit most.

9) Do you have your own guide to ethical behavior you follow now? Will you use one of the guides from the text? If yes, which one and why?

I do have my own guides when it comes to ethics. I was brought