Chapter 1: Why is shared information so important in a learning organization in comparison to an efficient performance organization? Discuss how an organization’s approach to sharing information may be related to other elements of organization design such as: structure, tasks, strategy, and culture.
Chapter 1: What are some differences that one might anticipate among the expectations of stakeholder for a nonprofit organization versus a for-profit business? Do you believe nonprofit managers have to pay more attention to stakeholders than business managers?
Chapter 2: How might a company’s goals for employee development be related to its goals for innovation and change? How might a company’s goals for employee development be related to its goals for productivity? Explain the ways that these types of goals may conflict in an organization?
Chapter 2: Suppose you have been asked to evaluate the effectiveness of the police department in a medium-sized community. Where would you begin? How would you proceed? What effectiveness approach would you prefer?
Chapter 3: What types of organizational activities do you believe are most likely to be outsourced? What types are least likely?
How can/should a biblical worldview be applied?
Chapter 7: Mass customization of products has become a common approach in manufacturing organizations. Explain the ways in which mass customization can be applied to service firms as well.
Chapter 7: A top executive claimed that superior management is a craft technology because the work contains intangibles (such as handling personnel, interpreting the environment, and coping with unusual situations that have to be learned through experience). If this is true, is it appropriate to teach management in a business school? Does teaching management from a textbook assume that the manager’s job is analyzable and, therefore, that formal training rather than experience is most important?
Chapter 8: Do you believe that technology will eventually enable high-level managers to do their job with little face-to-face communication?
Chapter 9: Look through several recent issues of a business magazine (Fortune, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, etc.) and find examples of 2 companies that are using approaches to busting bureaucracy. Explain the techniques that these companies are applying.
Chapter 9: Do you believe that a no growth philosophy of management should be taught in business schools?
How can/should a biblical worldview be applied?
