Operations Management Quarter

Operations Management Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is the first of four lectures of Operations Quadrivium (hereinafter, the Quadrivium):

• The Quarter is designed to introduce its learners to enterprise discovery, or, in other words, to concepts related to obtaining data needed to administer the enterprise effort; and
• The Quadrivium examines concepts of administering various types of enterprises known as enterprise administration as a whole.

The Quadrivium is the first of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi, which is a course designed to introduce its learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Outline

The predecessor lecture is Process Engineering Quarter.

Concepts

1. Operations management. Practice and a set of concepts, based on that practice, that define culture of managing of operations.
   • Operations management. The transformation process that converts resources into finished goods and services.
   • Operations (or Ongoing operations). Repetitive enterprise efforts undertaken in order to create a specified deliverable or a batch of specified deliverables using already designed process.
   • Organizing. Management function that involves arranging and structuring work to accomplish the organizational goals.
   • Organizing. Determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made.
2. Management. Coordinating and overseeing the work activities of others so their activities are completed efficiently and effectively.
   • Symbolic view of management responsibility. The view that much of an organization's success or failure is due to external forces outside managers' control.
   • Omnipotent view of management responsibility. The view that managers are directly responsible for an organization's success or failure.
   • Socioeconomic view of management function. The view that management's social responsibility goes beyond making profits to include protecting and improving society's welfare.
   • Classical view of management function. The view that management's only social responsibility is to maximize profits.
3. Authority. The rights inherent in a managerial position to give orders and to expect the orders to be obeyed.
   • Authority. The rights inherent in a managerial position to tell people what to do and to expect them to do it.
   • Responsibility. The obligation of expectation to perform any assigned duties.
4. Enterprise result. Any enterprise output, outcome, benefit, and/or drawback that effects somebody or something or may be perceived as effecting somebody or something.
   • Enterprise output. Any permanent or temporary, tangible or intangible output that is directly created during an enterprise effort.
   • Enterprise outcome. All consequences of the change derived from using the enterprise outputs.
   • Enterprise benefit. The measurable improvement resulting from an enterprise administration that is perceived or may be perceived as an advantage by one or more stakeholders.
   • Enterprise drawback. The measurable improvement resulting from an enterprise administration that is perceived or may be perceived as an disadvantage by one or more stakeholders.
   • Business report.
5. Managerial role. A specific action or behavior expected of and exhibited by a manager.
   • Decisional role. A managerial role that revolves around making choices. Henry Mintzberg identified the following four interpersonal roles: negotiator, resource allocator, disturbance handler, and entrepreneur.
   • Informational role. A managerial role that involves collecting, receiving, and disseminating information. Henry Mintzberg identified the following three interpersonal roles: monitor, disseminator, and spokeperson.
   • Interpersonal role. A managerial role that involves people and other duties that are ceremonial and symbolic in nature. Henry Mintzberg identified the following three interpersonal roles: figurehead, leader, and liaison.
6. Universality of management. The reality that management is needed in all types and sizes of organizations, at all organizational levels, in all organizational areas, and in organizations no matter where located.
   • Conflict management. The use of resolution and stimulation techniques to achieve the desired level of conflict.
   • Diversity management. The process and programs by which managers make everyone more aware of and sensitive to the needs and differences of others.
7. Task. A single unit of work broken down from a user story. A task is usually completed by just one person.
   • Sprint task. A single small item of work that helps one particular story reach completion.
   • Task board. A physical or online visual representation of user stories broken down into tasks or work units. A physical task board can be as simple as a whiteboard with three columns labeled To Do, Doing, and Done; colored post-it notes or index cards representing tasks are placed in the column that reflects the task's current state. A task board can be expanded to hold more columns and can also include horizontal swim lanes.
   • Task list. A list of tasks needed to complete the set of stories committed to a sprint.
   • Task force (ad hoc committee). A temporary committee or team formed to tackle a specific short-term problem affecting several departments.
   • Task identity. The degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work.
   • Task identity. The degree to which a job requires completion of a whole and identifiable piece of work.
   • Task significance. The degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people.
   • Task significance. The degree to which a job has a substantial impact on the lives or work of other people.
   • Task structure. One of Fiedler's situational contingencies that describes the degree to which job assignments are formalized and structured.
   • Task structure. The degree to which job assignments are procedurized.
8. Traditional goal-setting. An approach to setting goals in which top managers set goals that then flow down through the organization and become subgoals for each organizational area.
   • Unity of command. The idea that a subordinate should have only one superior to whom he or she is directly responsible.
   • Unity of command. The management principle that each person should report to only one manager.
   • Span of control. The number of employees a manager can efficiently and effectively manage.
   • Span of control. The number of subordinates a manager can effectively and efficiently direct.
   • Span of control. The number of employees a manager is directly (or indirectly) responsible for.
9. Management approach.
   • Classical approach in management concepts. First studies of management, which emphasized nationality and making organizations and workers as efficient as possible.
   • Scientific management. An approach that involves using the scientific method to find the "one best way" for a job to be done.
   • General administrative theory. An approach to management that focuses on describing what managers do and what constitutes good management practice.
   • Contingency approach. A management approach that recognizes organizations as different, which means they face different situations (contingencies) and require different ways of managing.
     1. Contingency variable. A situational factor that moderates the relationship between two or more variables.
   • Management by objectives. A process of setting mutually agreed-upon goals and using those goals to evaluate employee performance.
   • Management by objectives. A program that encompasses specific goals, participatively set, for explicit time period, with feedback on goal progress.
   • Management by walking around. A term used to describe when a manager is out in the work area interacting directly with employees.
   • Evidence-based management. The basing of managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence.
   • Evidence-based management. The systematic use of the best available evidence to improve management practice.
   • Green management. Management in which managers consider the impact of their organization on the natural environment.

Roles

1. Manager. An individual who achieves goals through other people.
   • Manager. Someone who coordinates and oversees the work of other people so organizational goals can be accomplished.
   • Frontline manager (or first-line manager). A manager at the lowest levels of the organizational structure who manage the work of nonmanagerial employees.
   • Middle manager. A manager between the lowest and upper levels of the organizational structure who manage the work of frontline managers.

Methods

1. Disciplinary action. An action taken by a manager to enforce the organization's work standards and regulations.
   • Basic corrective action. Corrective action that looks at how and why performance deviated before correcting the source of deviation.
   • Immediate corrective action. Corrective action that corrects problems at once to get performance back on track.
   • Progressive disciplinary action. An approach to ensure that the minimum penalty appropriate to the offense is imposed.

Results

1. Operational plan. A plan that encompasses a particular operational area of the organization.

Practices

The successor lecture is Human Perceptions Quarter.