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MANAGING PROJECTS

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Projects represent nonroutine business activities that often have long-term strategic ramifications for a firm. In this chapter, we examined how projects differ from routine business activities and discussed the major phases of projects. We noted how environmental changes have resulted in increased attention being paid to projects and project management over the past decade. In the second half of the chapter, we introduced some basic tools that businesses can use when planning for and controlling projects. Both Gantt charts and network diagrams give managers a visual picture of how a project is going. Network diagrams have the added advantage of showing the precedence between activities, as well as the critical path(s). We wrapped up the chapter by showing how these concepts are embedded in inexpensive yet powerful software packages such as Microsoft Project. If you want to learn more about project management, we encourage you to take a look at the Web site for the Proj...
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Leadership Effectiveness: New Perspectives

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Transactional leadership calls for managers to influence followers primarily through contingent reward-based exchanges. They attempt to identify clear goals for followers, the specific paths for achieving the goals, and the rewards that will be forthcoming for achieving them. A follower’s performance is monitored and corrective actions are taken if there are deviations from the expected path. The emphasis is on exchanging units of work for units of rewards (salary, bonuses, size of office, etc.).
Leader–member exchange (LMX) suggests that leaders develop different relationships with each of their subordinates through a series of work-related exchanges. Over time, one group of subordinates is said to have a low-quality LMX with their leader and another group a high-quality LMX. The time dimension is said to be represented over three phases: stranger, acquaintance, and mature partnership. The latter phase develops for those who establish high-quality LMX. The degree of LMX quality may be assessed in terms of dimensions such as mutual affection, loyalty, contribution to work activities, and professional respect.
Authentic leadership involves influencing followers’ attitudes and behaviors through the core interrelated processes of stimulating follower identification, creating hope, reflecting trust, showing positive emotions, and raising optimism. Individuals who are authentic leaders know and understand themselves, know what they believe and value, and act on their values and beliefs through open and honest communications with subordinates and others. They are highly ethical.
Transformational leadership involves influencing followers through a complex and interrelated set of behaviors and abilities. Individuals who are transformational leaders anticipate the future, inspire relevant stakeholders (especially followers) to embrace a new vision or set of ideas, develop followers to be leaders or better leaders, and guide the organization or group into a community of challenged and rewarded learners. It extends and incorporates features of authentic leadership. The core interrelated components of transformational leadership that primarily relate to followers include showing individualized consideration, creating intellectual stimulation, providing inspirational motivation, and fostering idealized influence. Transformational leaders are both challenging and empathetic and they are people of integrity.
GLOBE examines the interrelationships between societal culture, organizational culture, and organizational leadership. We provided a snapshot of the concepts and findings with respect to the interrelationships between the nine cultural dimensions and six global leadership dimensions in GLOBE. It provides many insights on why and how individual leaders need to cope with and adjust to cross-cultural issues when leading organizations.

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OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES

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MANAGING QUALITY

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As an area of intense business interest, quality is here to stay. Operations and supply chain personnel in particular need to be familiar with the major quality topic areas, including the different philosophical perspectives on quality and the tools used to manage quality levels on a day-to-day basis. In this chapter, we gave you a solid introduction to quality topics, ranging from high-level discussions of quality issues to detailed descriptions of tools and techniques. We started by defining quality and describing a total cost of quality model. We then presented an overview of total quality management (TQM), as well as a section on statistical quality control (SQC). We ended the chapter with a discussion of how organizations manage quality across the supply chain and some of the issues they face. We encourage you not to let your quality education end here. The American Society for Quality ( www.asq.org ), the Juran Institute ( www.juran.com ), the W. Edwards Deming Institute ( www....
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INTRODUCTION to OPERATIONS and SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

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Operations and supply chains are pervasive in business. Every organization must provide a product or service that someone values. This is the primary responsibility of the operations function. Furthermore, most organizations do not function independently but find that their activities are linked with those of other organizations through supply chains. Careful management of operations and supply chains is, therefore, vital to the long-term health of nearly every organization. Because operations and supply chain activities cover everything from planning and control activities to sourcing and logistics, there are numerous career opportunities for students interested in the area. Trends in e-commerce and global competition, as well as the growing importance of maintaining good relationships with other supply chain partners, will only increase these opportunities. Fortunately, there are many professional organizations, including APICS, CSCMP, and ISM, that cater to the career development ...
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Internal Analysis: Resources, Capabilities, and Core Competencies

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BUSINESS PROCESS

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