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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.

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

Supplements the (A) case.

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?

Describes a number of simple techniques for planning and conducting management meetings.

An "in-basket" decision-making exercise in case form, to be used with Nuclear Tube Assembly Room (A) (Condensed). The purpose is to pose students with several related problems which require immediate analysis arriving at some decisions and planning how to implement those decisions. Includes two exhibits: 1) a process engineering proposal recommending several changes to an assembly operation; and 2) a personal note describing a conflict which has erupted between the general foreman and a process engineer regarding the proposal. Students are expected to appraise the likely consequences of the proposed changes on the department's social system, productivity, and satisfaction; and determine which of the changes are essential, which will have negative effects, and how to implement those changes which are desirable. The student is also posed with the problem of diagnosing and successfully intervening in the conflict between the two key actors. Material is relevant to the topics of group behavior, interdepartmental conflict, interpersonal conflict, and action planning and implementation.

Describes several principles for improving the effectiveness of internal task forces. Suggests a number of guidelines for starting up a task force, conducting the first meeting, managing the group's activities, and completing the project.

In today's large and complex organizations, the effective performance of most managerial jobs requires one to be skilled at the acquisition and use of power. It is primarily because of the dependence on others inherent in managerial jobs that the dynamics of power necessarily form an important part of a manager's processes. To help cope with dependency relationships, effective managers create, increase, or maintain different types of power over others.

Similarities exist between the management of a film project and the management of other temporary work systems, such as technical or scientific projects, consulting teams, task forces, and other short-term task groups. Most temporary projects go through an analogous series of phases, including planning and recruiting, implementing and leading, and follow up and clean up. By examining one film director's successful approach to managing creativity, insights applicable to the business world are gained regarding the stimulation of creativity, working relationships, and leadership styles.

Briefly describes in management terms the three social motives: Need for achievement; need for power; need for affiliation. Also briefly reviews the implications of the work of David McClelland, David Winters, and others for motivation within organizational settings. The power motive is described in terms of both "personalized power" and "socialized power."

Supervisory practices and social structure in an electronics company assembly room. To be used with the (B) case. Based on American Radiatronics Corp. (A) by M.J. Steckler and P.R. Lawrence.

Explains some of the dynamics of what actually happens in an effective or ineffective group. Also mentioned are a number of interventions which can be taken on by any group member to help change an ineffective group to one which operates more effectively.

Family businesses frequently face an agonizing experience when the entrepreneur watches while others take over the business. While bitter power struggles peak, the fortunes of the company may slide downhill. To avoid problems a critical network of family managers, employees, relatives, and outsiders must focus upon facilitating family and business transitions through mediation, dialogue, and future role building. The healthiest transitions involve those old-versus-young struggles in which both the family managers and the business change partners.

The left hemisphere of the brain controls logical thinking processes and the right hemisphere controls simultaneous processing. Human tasks often activate one side of the brain while leaving the other largely at rest. There may be a fundamental difference between formal planning and informal managing corresponding to differences in these two hemispheres of the brain. Educators will have to revise their notions regarding management education in order to bring about a balance between developing analytic and intuitive thought.

Successful meetings begin by identifying their objectives as information-digestive, constructive-originative, or legislative. A chairperson should draw up agenda items in advance. The purpose and definition of the items should be clear, and placed in order of urgency or in suitable association with other items. The greatest single barrier to successful meetings is the chairperson's self-indulgence. A chairperson is most effective when committed only to the goals of the group, and acting as a servant rather than master of the group. The best meetings are those that have two leaders, one a social leader, the other a project or task leader.

Introduces the concepts of assumptions, perceptions and feelings, and applies these concepts to the problem of understanding the behavior that takes place between people in relationships. The note discusses a particular interaction that takes place between two men in a work setting in terms of how each person's point of view influences his behavior. Also discusses the topic of facilitating understanding and several assumptions that impede communications.

Describes the formation, selection, and experience of a task force with multidepartmental membership. The problems faced by the task force leader at the end of the case raise issues of who does the selection; the establishment of group norms, values, and goals; the leadership of a task force; confidentiality and responsibility; individual rivalry; and intergroup conflict and politics. Based on Belmont-White Co. and Vandercook Chain Stores, Inc. by E.P. Learned.

Raises the following issues: understanding another person from his/her point of view, understanding how two people can view the same situation differently, and understanding how an individual's behavior can have secondary consequences of which he/she may not be aware.

Supplements the (A) case. Designed as an in-class handout.