Business management
1. (20 points) Managers require a wide variety of skills. Not all types of skills, however, are equally important at all levels of management. For the following three types of skills, identify the level of management (top management, middle management, or front line management) for which the skill is most important and why you think it is most important for that level.
• Technical skills
Technical skills are most important in front line management. When I complete my BBA with an emphasis in management I don’t expect to go to work managing a chemistry lab at 3M. Although I may be an excellent manager, I would have no idea how to guide the chemists in their work. I could, however go to work as a construction site foreman for xxx, a national construction firm. I could use my knowledge about which construction materials are needed, how they are put together and my management skills to lead and develop the crew’s construction skills.
• Conceptual skills
Conceptual skills are important to top level management. If I were the CEO of xxx I would not want to worry about the day to day operations of each individual construction site. I would not need to know much about construction or even which end of a hammer to use. I would need to have extensive knowledge of how my organization’s parts fit together and what this makes it capable of. I would use this knowledge to develop a vision for where I would lead xxx and make it capable of expanding into these areas of the construction market.
• Communications skills
Communication skills are important in absolutely every level of management. Management is coordinating the activities of people to get work done that you cannot do your self. To do this you have to effectively communicate what you want done to the people doing it for you. This is true for front line management to communicate to labor what needs to be done for the day to get the next phase of construction done, middle management to communicate to the frontline managers to coordinate the construction of the entire building complete and for top management to communicate to the middle managers who are setting up operations on the east coast so that we can start bidding on projects in the growing construction market there. Each level must effectively communicate to and receive communication from the level below it to successfully direct it in the way you want it to go.
2. (20 points) For years, the tuna canning companies bought tuna from fishing boats that caught and killed dolphins (the mammal) as a “by-catch.” Some years back, this practice was brought to light by activists, which caused an uproar among the public. Threats of boycotts against the companies ensued and there was substantial negative publicity.