What is meant by the study of organizational theory, what are the classifications of organizational theory and their precepts and what can we learn from its history? Create a time line of Organizational Theories (schools) showing the precepts of each theory/school. Then in a summary paragraph compare the various theories on the time line identifying the trends of perspective that are illustrated by the time line. Businesses to continue to succeed must always maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The key to doing this has changed over the last century as is illustrated in our discussion in week one of the 21 st century business challenges. Using your time line explain how the change in obtaining a competitive edge is reflected in the change of organizational theory over the last century? The change of value regarding human resource to the organization coupled with technology is shifting the design of organizations towards “boundaryless” and flat organizational structures. Search the Internet and find an example of a boundaryless or flat organization explain how it is human resource centric. The 21 st century manager is a person who can implement the leader’s vision by creating processes, procedure, and short term goals that forward, the vision, purpose, culture, and structure set by the leader for the organization. The manager does this through the implementation of the four functions of a manager, planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The four pillars of management function. Select an organization that you work for, or have worked for, and identify the vision, mission, organizational structure (including the decision making flow) and the culture of the organization. Where possible use your course material to identify the structural (bureaucratic, flat, horizontal, democratic etc.) or cultural type (clan, collaborative, market, adhocracy etc.). Include in your discussion a definition of the word organization. Some organizational theorists suggest that the four pillars do not go far enough to explain how the manager should approach the new 21 st century business landscape and that a systems thinking approach is more comprehensive. Students should compare and contrast with respect to POLC. Compare and contrast the Fayol’s POLC functions of management with the systems thinking approach and determine which is more comprehensive and explain why. Be sure to explain each of the precepts and how they work. The manager creates a detailed action plan formulated from the long term goals, vision and mission, set by the leader. This plan is created through planning and strategizing. To understand the concept of vision and mission and its role in the process, you will get to do the leader’s job and formulate the vision and mission of an organization. By creating the vision and mission you should take away the idea of their import in crating your short term plans and goals. Create a vision and mission statement to.

1. What is meant by the study of organizational theory, what are
the classifications of organizational theory and their precepts
and what can we learn from its history?
Create a time line of Organizational Theories (schools) showing
the precepts of each theory/school. Then in a summary
paragraph compare the various theories on the time line
identifying the trends of perspective that are illustrated by the
time line.
Businesses to continue to succeed must always maintain a
competitive advantage in the marketplace. The key to doing this
has changed over the last century as is illustrated in our
discussion in week one of the 21
st
century business challenges. Using your time line explain how
the change in obtaining a competitive edge is reflected in the
change of organizational theory over the last century?
The change of value regarding human resource to the
organization coupled with technology is shifting the design of
organizations towards “boundaryless” and flat organizational
structures.
Search the Internet and find an example of a boundaryless or
flat organization explain how it is human resource centric.
The 21
st

2. century manager is a person who can implement the leader’s
vision by creating processes, procedure, and short term goals
that forward, the vision, purpose, culture, and structure set by
the leader for the organization. The manager does this through
the implementation of the four functions of a manager,
planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. The four pillars
of management function.
Select an organization that you work for, or have worked for,
and identify the vision, mission, organizational structure
(including the decision making flow) and the culture of the
organization. Where possible use your course material to
identify the structural (bureaucratic, flat, horizontal, democratic
etc.) or cultural type (clan, collaborative, market, adhocracy
etc.). Include in your discussion a definition of the word
organization.
Some organizational theorists suggest that the four pillars do
not go far enough to explain how the manager should approach
the new 21
st
century business landscape and that a systems thinking
approach is more comprehensive. Students should compare and
contrast with respect to POLC.
Compare and contrast the Fayol’s POLC functions of
management with the systems thinking approach and determine
which is more comprehensive and explain why. Be sure to
explain each of the precepts and how they work.
The manager creates a detailed action plan formulated from the
long term goals, vision and mission, set by the leader. This plan
is created through planning and strategizing. To understand the
concept of vision and mission and its role in the process, you
will get to do the leader’s job and formulate the vision and
mission of an organization. By creating the vision and mission

3. you should take away the idea of their import in crating your
short term plans and goals.
Create a vision and mission statement to fit this company.
Annie Oakley owns a specialty rifle manufacturing company,
ANNIE”S BABIES. She designs rifles to fit the specific
requirements of the individual. Her rifles range in price from
$2500 to her most expensive one to date at $25,000. She wishes
to become the Lamborghini of the rifle world. Currently she has
a small but growing clientele and receives her orders by word of
mouth. Anxious to get her plant more active Annie seeks to gain
customers by being known for her attention to detail, personal
designs, and quick turnaround. Her employees are expected to
produce the rifles with these ideas in mind and never to give in
to the temptation to lower the quality of the rifle.
In the planning phase, managers create a detailed action plan
aimed at the organizational goals. Strategic management, or
what you will learn as strategizing, is what an organization will
do or not do to achieve the goals and objectives that lead to
meeting the stated mission and vision.
Annie wishes to develop the business to incorporate a new style
of rifle which is computer generated, plastic, and collapsible. It
also takes plastic bullets. This process must cost less than 1
million dollars and take less than 2 months to produce. She has
one large client who will pay 3 times her investment and is
anxious to accept the project. However, it will be a one of a
kind project and Annie is not sure others will have a use for the
gun in the future. It will make a reputation for her in the gun
community. Identify the principles of strategizing and then
apply the principles to develop a project action plan for the
company. Be sure to include the facts from the first LA to help.
Use your vision and mission statement as well. If you think you
need to make up facts to complete the assignment feel free.

4. Organization is the phase in which the manager allocates
resources both human and capital within the organizational
structure to best forward the vision and purpose of the
organization.
Annie is considering amending her current organizational
structure. Using your reading try to advise her on what structure
might work well to help solve her project problem.
Annie currently has four leadership team members that each
head up one division: rifle design, rifle manufacture, rifle
customer service, and sales. They each have final decision
making authority within their departments. Annie says that she
is thinking of creating an additional link in the decision train
for the new project with one department head that like the
others reports to the leadership team. Alternatively, should she
feel the need to disband the project after the client sale is
complete Annie would like to know what would happen if the
fifth link were self-contained. Explain how you would allocate
the resources of the company to make the new link in the train
work on a daily basis? Be creative and practical think of the
types of people you would need to accomplish the goal, money,
resources of the business etc. Be sure to consider the various
other departments and how they would interface with the project
team. Alternatively, how would the link work if it were self-
contained?
How has technology changed the way in which the manager
defines how tasks are performed and completed within the
organizational structure? What happens to structure when the
walls are missing? How do the tasks get complete and by
whom?

5. Choose one of the two questions below and answer it through
your readings and at least two additional sources from the
Internet.
21) How has technology changed the way in which the
manager defines how tasks are performed and completed within
the organizational structure?
22) The manager’s job is to keep stability within an
organization. What happens to structure when the walls are
missing? How do the tasks get complete and by whom?
23. What is the manager’s perspective of leadership? How does
it differ from the leader’s perspective? Managers focus on
process, procedure, and implementation of the organization’s
purpose. Their perspective is on getting the job done and
keeping stability. The leader is about change and moving the
people toward the vision. The area of overlap comes in terms of
the need to use “soft or people skills” to get their job done yet
even there a difference in perspective is seen. The manager
motivates while the leader empowers.
LA1
“
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right
things.
”
Peter Drucker
“
Leadership is working with goals and vision; management is
working with objectives.
”

6. Rusell Honore
“
When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a
business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the
reputation of the business that remains intact.
”
Warren Buffett
“
Good management is the art of making problems so interesting
and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to
work and deal with them.
”
Paul Hawken
“
Management is nothing more than motivating other people.
”
Lee Iacocca
24.
In the five quotes above each leader is commenting on the
perspective of a manager in the organization as opposed to a
leader. Keep these quotes in your mind when reading this
week’s material and formulate your management perspective.
How should a manager approach his or her job? What ideas
should be their watch words? Think of things like setting goals,
making decisions, motivating employees and allocating
resources. What mindset should a good manager have to
approach these tasks?

7. The manager must be able to solve problems, communicate, and
lead teams toward the completion of a task.
25. You are the manager of the northern branch of the Laurel
City bowling alleys. The owner, Jill Espy, has 4 other bowling
alleys around town. The average employee assigned to the
concession stand of all the Laurel City bowling alleys lasts 3
years. However, in your branch the average employee lasts only
8 months. Jill is concerned about this huge discrepancy and
wants to know your explanation for the difference and what you
can do to correct the problem. Training new employees is costly
to the company and this high turnover is costing her money that
could be better spent elsewhere.
You have tried talking with your current concession staff and
have learned that pay and scheduling may have some effect on
the turnover rate. However, one person indicated that many of
them do not know how to handle difficult customers. It made
them not want to come to work.
From your reading this week on a manager’s need to lead their
people how would you solve this problem? Consider motivation
techniques, mentoring or other ideas from you reading to
effectuate a positive change. Think outside the box. Be sure to
look at all your resources including those within the
organization and those without.
THEME ONE: Known as the critical thinking phase of the
management functions the “Control” function is designed to
evaluate the goals to see what and who works and doesn’t and
why? In the traditional definition controlling involves ensuring
that performance does not deviate from standards. Controlling
consists of three steps, which include (1) establishing

8. performance standards, (2) comparing actual performance
against standards, and (3) taking corrective action when
necessary. Performance standards are often stated in monetary
terms such as revenue, costs, or profits but may also be stated in
other terms, such as units produced, number of defective
products, or levels of quality or customer service.
The measurement of performance can be done in several ways,
depending on the performance standards, including financial
statements, sales reports, production results, customer
satisfaction, and formal performance appraisals. Managers at all
levels engage in the managerial function of controlling to some
degree.
Effective controlling requires the existence of plans, since
planning provides the necessary performance standards or
objectives. Controlling also requires a clear understanding of
where responsibility for deviations from standards lies. Two
traditional control techniques are budget and performance
audits. An audit involves an examination and verification of
records and supporting documents. A budget audit provides
information about where the organization is with respect to
what was planned or budgeted for, whereas a performance audit
might try to determine whether the figures reported are a
reflection of actual performance. Although controlling is often
thought of in terms of financial criteria, managers must also
control production and operations processes, procedures for
delivery of services, compliance with company policies, and
many other activities within the organization.
The Organizational Control Process
The control process involves carefully collecting information
about a system, process, person, or group of people in order to

9. make necessary decisions about each. Managers set up control
systems that consist of four key steps:
1.
Establish standards to measure performance. Within an
organization's overall strategic plan, managers define goals for
organizational departments in specific, operational terms that
include standards of performance to compare with
organizational activities.
2.
Measure actual performance. Most organizations prepare formal
reports of performance measurements that managers review
regularly. These measurements should be related to the
standards set in the first step of the control process. For
example, if sales growth is a target, the organization should
have a means of gathering and reporting sales data.
3.
Compare performance with the standards. This step compares
actual activities to performance standards. When managers read
computer reports or walk through their plants, they identify
whether actual performance meets, exceeds, or falls short of
standards. Typically, performance reports simplify such
comparison by placing the performance standards for the
reporting period alongside the actual performance for the same
period and by computing the variance—that is, the difference
between each actual amount and the associated standard.
4.

10. Take corrective actions. When performance deviates from
standards, managers must determine what changes, if any, are
necessary and how to apply them. In the productivity and
quality
‐
centered environment, workers and managers are often
empowered to evaluate their own work. After the evaluator
determines the cause or causes of deviation, he or she can take
the fourth step—corrective action. The most effective course
may be prescribed by policies or may be best left up to
employees' judgment and initiative.
These steps must be repeated periodically until the
organizational goal is achieved!
Below are five questions that are set to challenge your
understanding of the control process management function. If
your last name begins with
A-M
answer the questions AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU CHOSE
THAT ANSWER. Be sure to reference the class material to
prove your selection is correct. If you last name begins with N-
Z Grade at least one main post (if you notice over the week that
some answers haven’t been graded be sure to grade them so that
everyone has peer feedback) and explain how you arrived at
your answers. Be sure to reference the class material to prove
your selection is correct. Answer each question and explain how
you arrived at your answer.
1) Taking corrective action is required when the process is:
A. Unpredictable and risky.
B. a new leadership team is required.
C. measured and the results don't meet company standards.

11. D. in its early stag
2) In measuring ____________, it is useful to evaluate internal
operations and core processes against benchmarks such as past
performance, industry standards, and legal expectations.
A cost effectiveness
B control processes
C best practices
D organizational impact
3) ________ define how a business should act, while
________ underline what actions should be taken operationally.
A Strategy; goals
B Standards; objectives
C Controls; management
D Objectives; standards
4) Utilizing specific performance metrics, such as ________,
organizations can control processes through measuring the
relative effectiveness of internal processes.
A strategy
B earnings

12. C processes
D employees
5) Coca-Cola is thinking about entering a new industry,
creating their own branch of convenience stores. As a
result, they should conduct:
A internal research of operational efficiency.
B financial objectives research for their R&D department.
C industry process standards research.
D competitor research in soft drinks.
In this article as well as your reading this week the balanced
score card is explained:
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/the_balan
ced_scorecard.htm
.
One of the best tools a manager has is a balanced score card.
Remember our bowling alley manager from week 5? Explain
how the use of a balance score card could help him to measure
and possibly improve his problem. How does the score card
approach fit in to the control function of management? Be
specific and attempt to think through the manager’s problem
using the scorecard. How can it potentially fix the turn over
problem he has in the branch?
(Just so you don’t have to keep going back to week five)

13. You are the manager of the northern branch of the Laurel City
bowling alleys. The owner, Jill Espy, has 4 other bowling alleys
around town. The average employee assigned to the concession
stand of all the Laurel City bowling alleys lasts 3 years.
However, in your branch the average employee lasts only 8
months. Jill is concerned about this huge discrepancy and wants
to know your explanation for the difference and what you can
do to correct the problem. Training new employees is costly to
the company and this high turnover is costing her money that
could be better spent elsewhere.
Traditionally theorist suggest that the managerial function of
controlling should not be confused with control in the
behavioral or manipulative sense. This function does not imply
that managers should attempt to control or to manipulate the
personalities, values, attitudes, or emotions of their employees.
Instead, this function of management concerns the manager’s
role in taking necessary actions to ensure that the work-related
activities of employees are consistent with and contributing
toward the accomplishment of organizational and departmental
objectives.
Research the idea of controlling from afar in the virtual
organization on the Internet and answer the following question:
How can a manager be assured or measure work that is
performed when the employee may be 5,000 miles away?
Revisit the 21
st
century manager as an individual. Who is s/he? What does s/he
do? How does s/he accomplish their job within the
organization? What challenges are unique to the manager in
contemporary business?

14. Go back through the class and select 5 of the most important
themes and explain why you feel they best illustrate what you
will take away from this class.
What is the 21
st
century organization? What challenges does the manager face
with this new organization?
Take the attached personality test
http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegT
est=3873
Take the linked management style quiz
http://www.quotev.com/quiz/481888/What-Is-Your-
Management-Style/
Share with the class your results and explain to the class how
you think your personality is reflected in your management
style. Also discuss if you think that your personality and your
management style will allow you to be a good modern day
manager? Be sure to reference the material in your discussion.