The Sociocultural Environment

A nation’s  culture  encompasses the shared knowledge,  beliefs, and values, as well as the common modes of behavior and ways of thinking, among members of a society.  Cultural factors  can be more perplexing than political and economic factors. When working or living in a foreign  country,  cultural  clashes can emerge in some unusual ways.

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International Trade Alliances

One of the most visible changes in the international business environment in recent years has been the development of regional trading alliances and international  trade agreements. These developments are significantly  shaping global trade. 1. GATT  AND THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),  signed by 23 nations in 1947,

Managing in a Global Environment

Managers working in foreign countries often face tremendous personal difficulties. In addi- tion, they must be sensitive to cultural subtleties and understand that the ways to provide proper leadership, decision making, motivation,  and control vary in different cultures. A clue to the complexity of working internationally  comes from a study  of the factors that

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What Is Managerial Ethics?

Ethics is difficult to define in a precise way. In a gen- eral sense, ethics is the code of moral principles and values that governs the behaviors  of a person or group with respect to what is right or wrong. Ethics sets standards  as to what is good or bad in conduct and decision

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Criteria for Ethical Decision Making

Most ethical dilemmas  involve a conflict between the needs of the part and of the whole—the individual versus the organization or the organization versus society  as a whole.  For example, should  a company implement mandatory alcohol and drug testing for employees, which might benefit the organization as a whole but reduce the individual freedom

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Factors Affecting Ethical Choices

When managers are accused of lying, cheating, or stealing, the blame is usually is placed on the individual or on the company situation. Most people believe that individuals  make eth- ical choices because of individual integrity, which is true, but it is not the whole story. Ethi- cal or unethical  business practices usually reflect

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What Is Social Responsibility?

Now let’s turn to the issue of social responsibility. In one sense, the concept of social re- sponsibility, like ethics, is easy to understand: It means distinguishing  right from wrong and doing right. It means being a good corporate citizen. The formal definition of corpo- rate social responsibility is management’s obligation  to make choices

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Organizational Stakeholders

One reason for the difficulty in understanding corporate social responsibility is that man- agers must confront  the question, “Responsibility to whom?” Recall from Chapter 3 that the organization’s environment  consists of several sectors in both the task and general environment. From a social responsibility  perspective, enlightened  organizations view the internal and external environment as

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The Ethic of Sustainability and the Natural Environment

When the first Earth Day celebration was held in 1970, most managers con- sidered environmentalists  to be  an ex- tremist fringe group and felt little need to respond to environmental concerns.39 Today environmental   issues have be- come a hot topic  among business leaders, and managers  and organizations  in all industries  are jumping on the

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Evaluating Corporate Social Responsibility

A model for evaluating corporate social performance is presented in Exhibit 4.7. The model indicates that total corporate social responsibility  can be subdivided into four primary crite- ria: economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary responsibilities.50   These four criteria fit to- gether to form the whole of a company’s social responsiveness. Managers and organizations typically are

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Managing Company Ethics and Social Responsibility

Many managers are concerned with improving the ethical climate and social responsive- ness of their companies. As one expert on the topic of ethics said, “Management is respon- sible for creating and sustaining conditions in which people are likely to behave themselves.”60 Managers can take active steps to ensure that the company stays on

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Ethical Challenges in Turbulent Times

The problem of lax ethical standards in business is nothing new, but in recent years it seems to have escalated. In addition, public reaction has been swift and unforgiving. Any ethical misstep can cost a company   its reputation and hurt its profitability and performance. Within months after Martha Stewart  was charged with insider trading,

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Goals and Plans of the firm

1. Overview  of  Goals  and  Plans Goals and plans have become general concepts in our society. A goal is a desired  future state that the organization attempts to realize.2  Goals are important because organizations exist for a purpose and goals define and state that purpose. A plan is a blueprint  for goal achievement and

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Strategic planning

1. Planning  Types Managers use strategic, tactical, and operational  goals to direct employees and resources toward achieving specific outcomes that enable the organization  to perform efficiently and effectively. They take a number of planning  approaches, among the most popular of which are management by objectives, single-use plans, standing plans, and contingency plans. 1.1. MANAGEMENT 

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Strategic formulation

1. Thinking Strategically Strategic management is considered a specific type of planning. Strategic planning in for-profit business organizations  typically pertains to competitive actions in the market- place. In nonprofit  organizations such as the Red Cross and the Salvation  Army, strategic planning pertains to events in the external environment. The final responsibility for strategy rests

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Strategic Implementation and Control

1. Strategy  Implementation  and  Control The final step in the strategic management  process is implementation—how strategy is put into action. Some people argue that strategy implementation is the most difficult and im- portant part of strategic management.91  No matter how brilliant the formulated strategy, the organization will not benefit if it is not implemented

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Types of Decisions and Problems

A decision is a choice made from available alternatives. For example, an accounting man- ager’s selection among Colin, Tasha, and Carlos for the position of junior auditor is a decision. Many people assume that making  a choice is the major part of decision making, but it is only a part. Decision making is the

Decision-Making Models

The approach  managers use to make decisions usually falls into one of three types—the classical model,  the administrative model, or the political model. The choice of model depends on the manager’s personal preference, whether  the decision is programmed or nonprogrammed, and the extent to which the decision is characterized by risk, uncertainty, or ambiguity.

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Decision-Making Steps

Whether a decision is programmed  or nonprogrammed and regardless of managers’ choice of the classical, administrative, or political model of decision making,  six steps typically  are associated with effective  decision  processes. These steps are summarized in Exhibit 6.3. 1. RECOGNITION OF DECISION REQUIREMENT Managers confront  a decision requirement in the form of either a

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Personal Decision Framework

Imagine  you were a manager at Tom’s of Maine, Boeing Commercial  Airplanes, a local movie theater, or the public library. How would you go about making important deci- sions that might shape the future of your department or company? So far, we have discussed a number  of factors that affect how managers make decisions.

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