Reading §
Chapter 9 §
- Employee empowerment
- What is empowerment?
- Empowerment is giving employees shared authority and responsibility to make decisions about their work with their managers.
- What kinds of information can companies provide to employees to help them share decision-making responsibility?
- One of the best ways to get employees to share decision-making responsibility is for executives to share information about company performance, particularly financial performance.
- How do employee stock ownership plans and stock options reward employees and encourage empowerment?
- Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) benefit employees by giving them ownership stakes in their companies.
- Employees are motivated to work harder and smarter because they share in their firm’s financial success.
- In an ESOP, the company holds shares for the benefit of employees. (When employees leave the company, they cash in their shares.) Stock options give employees a chance to own the shares themselves if they exercise, or use, their options by purchasing the shares.
- Teams in workplace
- What is a team?
- A team is a group of employees who share a common purpose, approach, and set of performance goals.
- What are the five types of teams, and how are they different?
- Work teams (permanent)
- Problem-solving teams (temporary).
- Self-managed teams (have the authority to change how they get their work done)
- Cross-functional teams (composed of people from different work functions)
- Virtual teams (composed of people from different locations who use technology to communicate and work together).
- Explain team level and team diversity.
- Team level represents the team’s average level or capability.
- Team diversity represents the team’s differences in ability, experience, personality, or any other factor.
- Explain how teams progress through the stages of team development.
- Forming
- Orientation period when team members get to know each other and learn what behaviours are acceptable to the group
- Team members begin with curiosity about what they are expected to do and whether they will fit in with the group.
- An effective team leader provides time for members to get to know each other.
- Storming
- Individual personalities come out, as members clarify their roles and expectations.
- Conflicts may arise, as people disagree about the team’s mission and compete for position and control of the group.
- Subgroups may form because of common interests or concerns.
- At this stage, the team leader must encourage everyone to participate. Members need to work through their uncertainties and conflicts.
- Norming
- Members resolve their differences, accept each other, and reach broad agreement about the roles of the team leader and other participants.
- This stage is usually brief.
- The team leader can use this stage to emphasize the team’s unity and the importance of its objectives
- Performing
- Members focus on solving problems and accomplishing tasks.
- They interact frequently and handle conflicts constructively.
- The team leader encourages all members to contribute. He or she should try to ensure everyone is involved
- Adjourning.
- The focus is on wrapping up and summarizing the team’s experiences and accomplishments.
- The team leader may recognize the team’s accomplishments with a celebration, perhaps handing out plaques or awards
- Team cohesiveness
-> team performance
- How does cohesiveness affect teams?
- Members of cohesive teams interact frequently, share common attitudes and goals, have high morale, and are likely to help each other. Cohesive teams also perform better.
- Explain how team norms positively and negatively affect teams?
- Norm are informal standards that identify key values and clarify team members’ expectations. Norms can be positive or negative. Positive norms contribute to constructive work and the accomplishment of team goals. Negative norms can, for example, contribute to reduced work effort, reduced quality, and poor job attendance.
- Team conflict management
- What is cognitive conflict, and how does it affect teams?
- In cognitive conflict, team members disagree because their different experiences and expertise lead them to different views of the problem and its solutions. People in a cognitive conflict have a willingness to examine, compare, and resolve their differences to produce the best possible solution.
- Explain affective conflict and its impact on teams?
- Affective conflict often results in hostility, anger, resentment, distrust, cynicism, and apathy. It can make people uncomfortable, cause them to withdraw, decrease their commitment to a team, lower the satisfaction of team members, and decrease team cohesiveness
- Effective communication
- What is the difference between communication in low-context and high-context cultures?
- Communication in low-context cultures tends to rely on written and verbal messages.
- By contrast, communication in high-context cultures depends not only on the message itself but also on the conditions that surround it, including non-verbal cues, past and present experiences, and personal relationships between the parties.
- In the context of the communication process, what is noise?
- Noise is any interference with the transmission of messages and feedback. Noise can result from physical factors such as poor reception of a cellphone or differences in people’s attitudes and perceptions.
- Forms of communication
- Define the four common listening behaviours.
- Cynical listening occurs when the receiver of a message feels that the sender is trying to gain some advantage from the communication.
- Offensive listening occurs when the receiver tries to catch the speaker in a mistake or contradiction.
- Polite listening occurs when the receiver is thinking about what he or she wants to say when the speaker finishes.
- Active listening requires involvement with the information and empathy with the speaker’s situation.
- What are the differences between formal and informal communication?
- Formal communication occurs within the formal chain of command defined by an organization.
- Informal communication occurs outside the organization’s hierarchy
- Managing public crisis
- What is external communication?
- External communication is an exchange of information using messages sent between an organization and its major audiences.
- What is the first thing a company should do when a public crisis occurs?
- The firm should respond quickly by preparing a written statement. This statement should include the time, place, description of the event, and the number and status of people involved
Chapter 10 §
- Strategic importance of production
- What is mass production?
- Mass production is a system for manufacturing products in large quantities by using effective combinations of mechanization, standardization, and employees with specialized skills.
- What is the difference between flexible production and customer-driven production?
- Flexible production generally involves using three resources: information technology to receive and share orders, programmable equipment to fill the orders, and skilled people to carry out tasks needed to complete an order.
- Customer-driven production assesses customer demands to make a connection between the products that are manufactured and the products people want to buy.
- Production processes
- What are the two main production systems?
- Analytic production system reduces a raw material to its component, or individual, parts to extract one or more marketable products.
- Synthetic production system combines two or more raw materials or parts, or transforms raw materials, to produce finished products.
- What are the two time-related production processes?
- Continuous production process creates finished products over a long period of time.
- Intermittent production process creates products in short production runs.
- Technology in production process
- List some of the reasons businesses invest in robots. (light-out)
- Businesses use robots to free workers from boring, repetitive, and sometimes dangerous jobs
- To operate 24/7
- To improve quality; to increase productivity; to reduce labour costs; and to move heavy items from one place to another in a factory.
- What is a flexible manufacturing system (FMS)?
- An FMS is a production facility that workers can quickly change to manufacture different products.
- What are the major benefits of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)?
- The main benefits are increased productivity, decreased design costs, increased equipment utilization, and improved quality.
- Plant location decision
- How does an environmental impact study affect the location decision?
- An environmental impact study analyzes how a proposed plant will affect the quality of life in the surrounding area.
- The study reports on how transportation, energy use, water and sewer treatment needs, and other factors will affect plants, wildlife, water, air, and other features of the natural environment.
- What human factors contribute to the location decision?
- Human factors in the location decision include an area’s labour supply, labour costs, local regulations, taxes, and living conditions.
- Production managers
- List the four major tasks of production and operations managers.
- Planning overall production
- Selecting a layout for the firm’s facilities
- Carrying out the production plan
- Controlling manufacturing to achieve high quality.
- What is the difference between a traditional manufacturing structure and a team-based structure?
- In the traditional structure, each manager is responsible for a specific area.
- In a team-based structure, all workers are responsible for their output.
- What factors affect the make, buy, or lease decision?
- Several factors affect this decision, including the need for confidentiality, whether outside suppliers can meet a firm’s standards, and the costs of leasing or purchasing parts from outside suppliers compared with the costs of producing them in-house.
- Production control process
- What five steps are involved in controlling the production process?
- Planning
- Routing
- Scheduling
- Dispatching
- Follow-up.
- What is the difference between a PERT chart and a Gantt chart?
- PERT charts try to reduce the number of delays by coordinating all parts of the production process. PERT charts are used for more complex projects.
- Gantt charts track projected and actual work progress over time. Gantt charts are used for scheduling simple projects
- Quality control
- What are some ways that a company can track the quality of its output?
- Benchmarking
- The process of looking at how well other companies perform business functions or tasks and using their performance as a standard for measuring another company’s performance.
- Quality control
- Measuring output against quality standards
- Six Sigma
- The goal of Six Sigma programs is for companies to eliminate nearly all defects in output, processes, and transaction
- It tries to make error-free products 99.9997 percent of the time. That means it is allowed to make only 3.4 errors for every 1 million opportunities
- ISO standards.
- International Organization for Standardization (ISO) an international organization whose mission is to develop and promote international standards for business, government, and society. The aim is to improve and encourage global trade and cooperation.
- List some of the benefits of ISO 9000 certification.
- These standards show how a company can ensure that its products meet customers’ requirements. Studies show that business partners, customers, suppliers, and shareholders prefer to deal with companies that are ISO 9000 certified.
Lecture §
PDF:- Coca-Cola
- Background
- One of the first company to globalize (executives around the world)
- Dividend-providing stock (stable)
- Sustainability (water, packing)
- Franchise model
- “Parent” (The Coca-Cola)
- “Child” (Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited)
- Owned partnership with 2 families
- Reason
- Generate revenue with few asset
- Generating revenue by marketing brand
- Workplace
- Challenges
- Global and local consumer behaviors have dramatically changed
- Our local and global infrastructure cannot meet customers’ demand
- Our customers and consumers are asking for product which we cannot deliver
- Story
- Sales Strategy and Customer Management - [Tim McNerney]
- Discussion about how we manage customers & How the challenge above impacted customers
- Goal
- Help customers to put together a strategy to address the challenges they are facing and to be able to generate profit.
- Build relationship with customer, figure out in the ways to sell to the product
- Own the customer relationship for the long run: Partnership; alignment and commitment
- Goal (the first brand to think about when there is an opportunity)
- Secret ingredient: empathy (being the preferred and trusted beverages partner in all Canadian channels, creating continuously solutions and value for customers)
- Try to solve the customer’s problems
- Sobeys
Sobeys (premium) --> IGA (Qubec, franchise) --> Fresh Co (discount)- What are the priority for that brand (objectives)
- Get suppliers’ blue print: help them to address their objectives by providing them with their solutions
- Negotiate with our retail customers: Price, Display, Promotion, Space
- The Bullwhip effect
- Forecasting and supply
- Calculate financial performance (do the company have enough money to afford the liabilities to the customers?)
- Small change in shopping pattern will manifest in a large effect in suppliers
Customers -> Retailers -> Manufactures -> Suppliers
- Collaborate with cross functional departments
- Field sales 现场销售（确保超市给了⾜够的摆放空间，新产品上市，快过期的产品 摆放在前面为了尽快售出等等）, supply chain, marketing
- Their project require customer insights 需要合作的零售客户提供⼀线的消费者信息
- Commercial Strategy and Execution - [Tara Scott]
- Discussion on the role this team plays to service the market & How Commercial analyzed and addressed the challenge Sales presented regarding supply
- Customer Management - [Martin Eichier]
- Discussion on the Account management role
- How the strategies proposed by the Commercial Team were executed with the Customers
- Customer
- Production
- Operations Management
Active Studying §
Summarize today’s lecture §
- [::Most important/focused topic]
- [::Most difficult part, why, how to resolve]
What part I didn’t understand, next step actions? §