Mgt420 GCU Freeman Brown Private School Consulting Team Case Study Paper

Freeman-Brown Private School Case Study

The board of directors at Freeman-Brown Private School (FBPS) has hired you as part of a consulting team to review the situation and present your findings and recommendations. Write a paper (1,250-1,500 words) that discusses the case. Complete this assignment from the perspective of the hired consultants. Respond to the following questions:

• Review how organizations interact with their external environment (as open systems and complex adaptive systems). How effective was Freeman-Brown as an open system at the time of the closure? How effective was Freeman-Brown as a complex adaptive system at the time of the closure?
• Review your reading this week on the internal environment of organizations. What is your evaluation of the organizational culture andorganizational climate at the time the decision to close two campuses was made?
• What is your evaluation of the decision made by Dr. Murphy and Caudill? What is your evaluation of the process of going about the closure?
• Was FBPS demonstrating social responsibility? Discuss the closure impact on three specific stakeholders.
• Provide an explanation, using appropriate management theories, for how the administration could have handled the closure effectively with stakeholders? Include one theory from each of the following: the classical approach, the human relations approach, and the modern management approach.
• You have been asked to suggest two goals: one long-term and one short-term goal for the future direction of FBPS. Justify your decision.
• Present a concluding statement that integrates the 4 functions of management as a means to revamp management at FBPS and meets the recommended goals.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

MGT 420

Ms. McDonald

Week 1

September 1, 2016

Class Notes

Effective managers meet both performance and satisfaction goals

Consistently and successfully helps others achieve high performance and satisfaction in

their work

Managers plan, organize, lead, and control

o Panning is the process of setting performance objectives and determining what

actions should be taken to achieve them

Managers have interpersonal, informational, and decisional roles

Managers pursue agenda settings, networking, and create social capital

Managers need technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills

Managers need to have high emotional intelligence

o Self-awareness

o Self-regulation

o Motivation

o Empathy

o Social skills

Managers must have these specific 6 skills:

o Teamwork

o Self-management

o Leadership

o Critical thinking/problem solving

o Professionalism

o Communication

Ethics in business:

It’s important to be ethical in management and have integrity

Affects diversity

Intellectual capital = competency x commitment

In order to increase intellectual capital, you need knowledgeable workers, a free agent economy,

and self-management

Group Project: Challenges for Managers

Jasmin, Michael, Brandon, and Lucas

Challenge: Globalization

Globalization is super important in business, but with many barriers.

MGT 420

Ms. McDonald

Week 2

September 8, 2016

Class Notes

FOUR FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT: Planning, commanding, leading, and organizing

Three approaches to management: classical, behavioral, and modern

Classical: scientific, administrative, and bureaucratic principles

Scientific management:

– Command and control; assembly line

– Efficient and strict

– Introduced by Taylor

Bureaucratic organizations:

– Introduced by Weber

– Focused on definitions of authority, responsibility, and process

– Intended to address the inefficiencies of organizations at the time

– Not as flexible as other types of organizations

o Clear division of labor

o Clear hierarchy of authority

o Formal and strict rules, procedures, and impersonality

– Bureaucracy can work in tandem with another type of management, but purely

bureaucratic organizations are too strict and inefficient

Administrative principles:

– Introduced by Fayol

– Empirically based; analyzed who the successful managers were

– Five rules of management:

o Foresight

o Organization

o Command

o Coordination

o Control

– Scaler chain principle

o Clear and unbroken line of communication

– Unity of command principle

Only receive orders from one boss

Behavioral management:

Community Management:

– Introduced by Follett

– Focuses on people working in groups and communities

– Wanted managers and employees to work together in harmony

– Employees have a voice

– Like Chipotle

The Hawthorne Studies:

– Led by Mayo (Harvard)

– Studied how economic incentives and physical environment affected productivity

– When managers are giving special attention to employees and actively managing and

working with them, productivity went up

– Hawthorne Effect – people who are singled out for special attention perform as

expected or better than expected

– Addresses human needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

– When one need is satisfied we move onto the next need

– Physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualization

– Progression principle

– Deficit principle

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

– Introduced by McGregor

– Expected to react by manager expectations

– Theory X: employees dislike work, lack ambition, resist change, and act irresponsibly

o Command and control

– Theory Y: employees are willing to work, capable of self-control, responsible and

creative

o Behavioral participative style

Personality and Organization

– Introduced by Argyris

People want to be treated as adults

-Will perform better with less supervision and less restrictions

-Counter to Scientific and Administrative theories

Modern Management:

Quantitative Analysis:

-Scientific approach to managerial decision making where raw data is processed and

manipulated resulting in meaningful information

-Applies mathematical techniques to solve management problems such as:

oForecasting sales or expenses

oEstablishing optimal levels of inventory

oReducing labor costs without sacrificing customer service

-Analytics is the systematic use and analysis of data to solve problems and make

informed decisions

-Management science and operations research applies mathematical techniques to sole

management problems

-Operations management is the study of how organizations produce goods and

services

Open Systems:

-The environment supplies, the organization creates, the environment consumes

-All of it runs on customer feedback

Contingency thinking:

-The best way to manage depends on the circumstances

-Treat everyone the same but different

Continuous Improvement:

-Introduced by Deming

-Taught quality control techniques to Japanese industries in the 1950s

-Tally defects à Analyze and trace them to the source à make corrections à Keep a

record of what happens

-Total quality management: organization-wide commitment to quality products or

services

People want to be treated as adults

– Will perform better with less supervision and less restrictions

– Counter to Scientific and Administrative theories

Modern Management:

Quantitative Analysis:

– Scientific approach to managerial decision making where raw data is processed and

manipulated resulting in meaningful information

– Applies mathematical techniques to solve management problems such as:

o Forecasting sales or expenses

o Establishing optimal levels of inventory

o Reducing labor costs without sacrificing customer service

– Analytics is the systematic use and analysis of data to solve problems and make

informed decisions

– Management science and operations research applies mathematical techniques to sole

management problems

– Operations management is the study of how organizations produce goods and

services

Open Systems:

– The environment supplies, the organization creates, the environment consumes

– All of it runs on customer feedback

Contingency thinking:

– The best way to manage depends on the circumstances

– Treat everyone the same but different

Continuous Improvement:

– Introduced by Deming

– Taught quality control techniques to Japanese industries in the 1950s

– Tally defects à Analyze and trace them to the source à make corrections à Keep a

record of what happens

– Total quality management: organization-wide commitment to quality products or

services

Evidence based management:

– High performance organizations

o High performance operations

o High quality work life

– Evidence based management builds off of what has worked well in the past and says

we should keep continuing to do what work

Evidence based management:

-High performance organizations

oHigh performance operations

oHigh quality work life

-Evidence based management builds off of what has worked well in the past and says

we should keep continuing to do what work