65 Posts found for Source: TheWorkingManager.com

If you don’t tell consumers how to choose, they are either not going to choose, or they are going to choose based on the one thing they do understand: price. Of course, if price is the predominant element in the choices that your customers make, your profitability and the health of your business will go into the tank pretty quickly. So you need … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subject: Marketing / Sales

All successful pricing efforts share two qualities: The policy complements the company’s overall marketing strategy, and the process is coordinated and holistic … Proper pricing requires input from a number of people, but if there is no mechanism in place for creating a unified whole from all the process, the overall pricing performance is likely to be dismal.

Content: Quotation | Sources: Harvard Business Review, TheWorkingManager.com | Subject: Marketing / Sales

A great deal of literature on the subject of pricing is littered with arcane terminology and convoluted tools of analysis, to the extent that it is not very helpful for managers who have to make pricing decisions day to day. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of the factors a manager should consider when setting prices, and some common sense guidelines … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Alan Yu | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Management, Pricing

The question of democracy is often discussed on the assumption that we are obliged to choose between the rule of the modern beneficent despot, the expert, and a muddled, befogged ‘people’. If the question were as simple as that, most of our troubles would be over; we should only have to get enough Intelligence Bureaus in Washington, enough scientific management into our factories, enough specialists … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Expertise, Miscellaneous

The problem with most people is that they do not know what they want, but they do know what it is that they don’t want and they keep asking not to get it – and are constantly frustrated because that is exactly what they get.

If you want to change something in your life, it is important that you use a “moving towards” strategy and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Personal Development, Personality / Behavior

A look at the matrix structure covering the following topics:
– What is a matrix organisation?
– How does a matrix make life easier?
– How does it make life more difficult?
– What does it mean for the manager?
– Some of the pitfalls
– How to know whether the matrix is right for you

Content: Article | Author: Alan Yu | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subject: Organizational Behavior

This is the first part of a 3-part analysis of staff attrition (turnover) and absenteeism, their costs, causes and management. Besides being a good general look at the concepts, the article cites various interesting and relevant cost studies. Some summary findings:

– The cost of staff turnover is best calculated as 80% of the annual salary for the job in question. This means that … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: The Dean | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Human Resources, Management

“In groups, leadership is believed to fulfil two primary goals:
– to complete group tasks
– to fulfil group members’ needs

However, a third function of leadership is to promote group integrity – maintaining the group as a viable system. Such integrity is largely the result of successful task completion and group member satisfaction – the two primary goals above – but it can … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Mark Van Vugt | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Leadership, Organizational Behavior

This article classifies customers into three categories: The Lordly Ones, The Logical Ones, and The Friendly Ones. If you can read what sort of customer you are faced with, you may be able to respond to them in an appropriate way – which will make them happier and come back to buy more.

Content: Article | Author: David West | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

This exercise presents you with 15 situations that you might well experience (depending upon the nature and level of your job) in everyday working life. Management students of Professor Burke Pease at California State University, Monterey Bay have kindly helped with the 15 situations and alternative answers. All created on the basis of real life.

The objective of the exercise is to enable you to think … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Author: Burke Pease | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subject: Ethics

Processes don’t do work, people do. Look closely at the inner workings of any company and you’ll discover gaps between official work processes — the “ideal” flows of tasks and procedures – and the real-world practices behind how things actually get done. These gaps are not problems that need fixing; they’re opportunities that deserve leveraging…We’re not arguing against business processes per se. The challenge is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Process

…if you pit a good performer against a bad system, the system will win almost every time.

Content: Quotation | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Performance is dependent on ability, but the reverse does not hold true. Because an individual or group has the ability to do something does not necessarily mean they will do it. When competencies focus on abilities, values, or beliefs, they begin to stray from what is observable, understandable and measurable. And the link to performance becomes highly tenuous.

Content: Quotation | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Management, Measurement

In the pressure to produce more with less, every manager explores a variety of fixes. Among the first of these is that often-used, complex, and heart-wrenching solution – the structural reorganization. Because aspects of the business are not right – profit is off, customer complaints are increasing, performance is below standard, employee morale is low, or simply that “something” is wrong – managers decide … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Danny G. Langdon, Kathleen Whiteside | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

“Very little of the current debate about business ethics has to do with serious ethical problems. Most so-called ethical failures in business are either the result of illegal activities or of breaches of civil contracts – often in situations where there is an imbalance of information or power and one of the parties has taken advantage of its position.

I suggest that the real problems, in … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Robert Cochrane | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subject: Ethics

The search for the “ideal” method of management has been documented for over a century. It continues unabated in many organisations in spite of definitive research showing it to be a fruitless quest. Fortunately a decade or so ago a clear breakthrough occurred in management thinking. This was the concept of management competencies.

Content: Article | Author: Robin Stuart-Kotze | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

An extended answer to the question, “What is the contribution that HR can make to a business?”

Editor’s Note: this article is an example of ‘The Dean’ of TheWorkingManager.com answering members’ questions…you may wish to ask him one or two yourself.

Content: Article | Author: The Dean | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subject: Human Resources

Many organizations have recently initiated competency programs. However, it is important to be current on what works and what doesn’t in the definition and use of competencies.

Content: Article | Authors: Danny G. Langdon, Kathleen Whiteside | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

The most established way to handle a price objection is to ask a question. It goes like this:
“If we were the same price as the competitor would you prefer our proposal?”
What is the client to say? If they say “Well, no actually,” seemingly the worst outcome, at least you can now ask, “Why?” and deal with the other objections real or imagined. Suppose they say, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subject: Marketing / Sales

While the notion that people learn differently is hardly new, it has been David A. Kolb, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the Weatherhead School of Management, who has encapsulated the idea in recent years. Initially on his own and then working with Roger Fry, Kolb put forward a cycle of learning. This article, which serves as an introduction to theworkingmanager.com website offers a nice overview … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: The Dean | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Education, Organizational Behavior | Industry: Education / Training