個案總覽

In this two-part case series, Jackie Woods and her family are planning a trip to Europe when she is appointed to a key task force at Ameritech. Her colleagues are canceling their vacations to participate in the task force, but Jackie's family has been looking forward to this time together. At the same time, she and her husband have been wondering what future they have at Ameritech. See also the B case (UVA-BP-0331). A teaching note is available for registered faculty, along with video supplements to enhance student learning.

This note describes ways in which managers can learn to empower their employees through the way they communicate with them. The note is intended as a thought piece before doing skill-development exercises on the various approaches outlined in the note, including listening, clarity, invitations, and descriptions. Language is our primary means of communication. It constrains our thinking, reflects our basic values, and is the most common medium for the exchange of our thoughts and beliefs. The language we speak allows us to convey certain thoughts and causes us to be confused about how to convey other thoughts. Indeed, language can prohibit us from grasping and understanding certain concepts and can make other concepts available to us. With its power as the central vehicle for communicating goals, thoughts, plans, instructions, requests, and so on, in business settings, language is perhaps the most important management tool we have.

This technical note contains a scale measuring Type-A behavior patterns (Bortner, 1969), describes its impact on individuals and organizations, contains two short cases describing Type-A and Type-B individuals, and presents recommendations for modifying Type-A behavior patterns.

This self-assessment instrument helps students assess their current level of development and then examine their allocation of time to see whether the daily and weekly structure of time allocation is consistent with their personal definition of success. It can be used alone or with such cases as "The Life and Career of a Senior Executive Officer" (UVA-PACS-0023).

This note summarizes several major theories of leadership. It is intended to provide a quick overview of the major concepts and points rather than an in-depth understanding of the theories. It includes the Great Man theory, charismatic leadership, and the approaches of McClelland, Winter, Bennis, Burns, Fiedler, Hersey and Blanchard, Path-Goal, Mintzberg, Kotter, Maccoby, and Schein.

Describes the history and management of a startup plant that manufactures guided missile canisters for the U.S. Navy. The plant is rare in that management is minimized; most of the work is done by self-directed work teams. The decision maker is the Green River, Wyoming, FMC plant manager, who is trying to assess whether the unusual management approach at Aberdeen would suit his facility, which is larger, older, in a different industry, and unionized. Includes data on the Aberdeen plant's history, philosophy, recruiting methods, evaluation procedure, reward mechanism, career development, and information systems.

This note describes reflective, or active, listening. A list of types of responses, from directive to nondirective, is given in an appendix. The note itself summarizes major principles of reflective listening and how they can be applied. It may be used as a summary of, or introduction to, the topic.

This note introduces basic principles of organizational design and the advantages of several common organizational structures. The principles of design are fit, differentiation, integration, technology, size, span of control, staffing, unity of command, and line versus staff. The structures diagrammed and described are functional, product, customer, geographic, divisional or M-form, matrix, amorphous, and hybrids. The note also discusses the new emerging Information Age organizational forms, which the authors call "infocracies."

This note introduces and describes scenario-building, the strategic-thinking approach developed by Pierre Wack and associates at Royal/Dutch Shell in the 1970s and helped catapult the company from seventh to second in its industry. The note defines the concept, outlines who should use it and how it links to strategic planning, and illustrates it with models and verbal examples. The note is appropriate for use in courses on business economics, strategic thinking, business policy, and leadership.

This note outlines a simple but powerful model, in managerial language, for understanding why people behave the way they do. The model builds a set of relationships among perceptions, beliefs, conclusions, defense mechanisms, and behavior. The note provides a framework that has been useful in a variety of settings for practicing managers.

The first case in a four-part case series which outlines the events leading up to a performance appraisal interview. Describes the background of the company.

Describes the attitudes, feelings, and perceptions of the manager who will conduct the performance appraisal interview.

Outlines events leading up to a meeting of a six-person task force which has been assigned to reduce overhead costs at a major manufacturing company. History of the company, and backgrounds of all the task force members are presented. Raises the following questions and issues for students to deal with: 1) What strategy should the task force leader take to organize the task force and accomplish its goals within the two week period? 2) What division of the labor, if any, is appropriate? 3) What should his purpose and agenda be for the first meeting? 4) Given the information in the case, what problems should be anticipated in terms of interdepartmental conflict and members' hidden agendas? 5) What should he do to deal with these problems?

Supplements the (A) case.

Describes the events leading up to an actual performance appraisal interview--the views, opinions, and attitudes of the subordinates who are to be interviewed.