Texas Instruments effectively linked remedial action to a study of employee problems which analyzed factors that either dissatisfied or motivated employees. Dissatisfiers are made up of such matters as pay, supplemental benefits, company policy and administration, behavior of supervision, and other factors peripheral to the actual work. Motivators include achievement level, recognition, responsibility, growth, and other factors of self-actualization.
Effective interviews optimize communication with a time constraint. Methods for planning and preparation, building a rapport, developing information, and following up are important constructions. The most important issue is realizing how one's biases and attitudes affect the collected information. Preparation should reinforce the purpose of the interview and should include a time limit and outline. The best tone is one of friendliness. The interviewer should guide information to the most productive channels. Questions should be free of sarcasm or obscure humor and should be able to fit a pattern that sharpens the focus of the interview. How to avoid or deal with silences, listen well, analyze data, and conclude the meeting are important skills.
A positive performance appraisal program begins by establishing as its focal point the improvement of performance in the job now held. Management inaugurates such a program in five steps. First, supervisors and employees agree on the job description and responsibilities. Second, the employees establish performance targets for each of their responsibilities for the forthcoming period. Third, the employees meet with their supervisors to discuss target programs. Fourth, they jointly establish check points for the evaluation of progress along with ways of measuring it. Fifth, supervisors and subordinates meet at the end of the period to discuss results. Hitting the target is not the sole measure of success.
Beliefs in the value of praise as a motivational tool, a reward, and a way to establish good relationships are inaccurate. Although praise may be a useful technique to keep human relationships on an even keel, it is questionable that praise serves as a motivational tool. To develop qualities of initiative, creativity, judgment, and problem-solving ability, dependence on "internal motivation" is necessary. By being honest about both positive and negative feelings and being empathetic and nonevaluative, listeners help establish a free, accepting, yet close relationship that will encourage independent judgment, effective decisions, and creative actions.
The critical path method (CPM), one of a variety of quantitative tools for business decision-making, is a simple technique for analyzing, planning, and scheduling large complex projects and for completing them at minimum cost. Analysis by CPM may be applied to a host of projects that have three common characteristics essential for that analysis: the project consists of a well-defined collection of jobs; the jobs may be started or stopped independently of each other, within a given sequence; and the jobs must be performed in technological sequence. A step by step analysis demonstrates critical path scheduling and the process of constructing a graph.
The experiences of a number of companies demonstrate appropriate and inappropriate corporate strategies. Six criteria provide a basis for determining whether a strategy is right for a company. These are: internal consistency, consistency with the environment, appropriateness in the light of available resources, satisfactory degree of risk, appropriate time horizon, and workability.
Productive business managers are those who obtain optimum economic results from the prevailing resources. A series of primary steps, which have proven to be highly effective for managers in actual business situations, include: 1) analyzing the facts in terms of opportunities and costs of products, as well as the contributions of staff, and the "cost streams"; 2) allocating resources, according to projected results, by analyzing present and future resource allocations; and 3) prioritizing decisions with respect to area of greatest potential for opportunity and results.
Public expectations with regard to big-business enterprise are rising sharply, and business leaders must prepare themselves to meet this challenge. Big companies are no longer private affairs, but community assets, and are expected to promote the country's competitiveness in world markets and innovate policies in new areas such as semi-free markets. They must also develop a code of conduct that reflects the double role of executives as businessmen and professionals.
An analysis of the art and science of selling reveals the importance of certain personality traits, effective training, and close supervision. A good sales personality has good persuasion techniques, energy, self-confidence, desire for money, a habit of industry, and a state of mind which regards rejection as a challenge. Minimum effective training for creative sales work must cover: orientation; the product or service; procedures for booking orders, making necessary reports, etc.; time management; and sales techniques. An aggressive, imaginative, even ruthless, sales manager is necessary to provide the kind of strong and dynamic leadership found at the top of productive sales organizations.
Managers may most effectively approach the complex problems of individual differences by first assuming that the differences are neither good nor bad, and that no one right solution exists. Diagnostic questions the manager must ask concern: the nature of the difference; the underlying factors; and the stage to which the interpersonal difference has evolved. Available courses of action include: avoidance, repression, conflict, and problem solving. A systematic approach to the problem, which will result in a solution that will preserve corporate harmony and individual initiative, is the goal.
Discusses the reorganization of Texas Instruments Metals & Controls Division, the formulation of the profit plan, and the courses of action available to the manager in the face of his department's failure to meet forecasted sales and profits.
Serves as an introduction to funds flows and ratio analysis. Includes basic discussion of these tools as assists in the analyst's or manager's job. Supplementary material includes problem set and answers.