MBA Management Models

Sue Harding

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351218924
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

If you're a student on an MBA or management course, you'll be expected to demonstrate a knowledge of a range of models. This textbook collects together the 45 models most likely to be required, summarized in a standard format. Each entry contains a diagram of the model; the principles on which it's based; underlying assumptions; guidance on application, and relevant issues; related models; and sources of further reference. Models are organized by subject area: accounting; business strategy; human resources; organizational strategy; and strategic marketing. An alphabetical matrix index means you can find the right model quickly. MBA Management Models will be invaluable to students working on written assignments, projects, case studies or dissertations, and to practising managers too.

Organizational strategy

29 Company position/industry attractiveness screen

Source: Making strategy work, R.G. Hamermesh, 1986. Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Principle

Portfolio planning can have a significant influence on strategy formulation.

Assumption

Because resources are limited their allocation should be based on a combination of industry attractiveness and the relative strengths of different business units in a diversified organization.

Elements

Industry attractiveness

This includes market growth, size, profitability and price policies.

Business unit strengths

This includes size, market share and technological standing.

Build

Growth through investment is a central objective.

Hold

Investment is maintained and assessed continuously.

Harvest

Remove cash from the business unit and invest elsewhere.

Issues

Business unit definition

Business units should be defined very carefully because definitions shape market perceptions, are influenced by administration and resource considerations and must be responsive to changes in markets, competition and technology.

Negotiations between managers

Portfolio planning tends to centralize the strategic process. If the devolution of strategy setting is an objective, corporate and unit managements must be permitted to negotiate about cash flow and strategic objectives.

Other techniques

Portfolio planning should not be equated with overall strategy; other techniques should also be used.

Applications

Strategy formulation

The model can help in the formulation of organizational and business unit strategy, understanding of markets and the firm's position within them.

Project funding

Portfolio planning is a first step in determining whether a business unit which is proposing a project is worthy of funding at all.

Restructuring

The model may be used to assess an organization's strategic position after a cash crisis in order to effectively divest cash-hungry businesses and promote divestitures and corporate restructuring.

Market planning

Portfolio planning helps in deciding which market to compete in and which resources to use.

Related models

• Ansoff's Box (see pp. 197-9)
• Barriers and profitability (see pp. 47-50)
• Company position/industry attractiveness screen (see pp. 137-40)
• Contrasting characteristics of upstream and downstream companies (see pp. 55-8)
• Five forces (see pp. 59-63)
• Five Ps for strategy (see 65-8)
• Nine specimen standardized strategies (see pp. 201-5)
• PESTLIED (see pp. 83-6)
• PIMS competitive strategy paradigm (see pp. 207-10)
• Porter's Diamond (see pp. 87-90)
• Related diversification grid (see pp. 91-3)
• Resource allocation at corporate level (see pp. 177-80)
• Value chain (see pp. 191—4)

Main reference

R.G. Hamermesh (1986), Making Strategy Work - How Senior Managers Produce Results, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.

30 Cultural web

Source: Exploring Corporate Strategy, G. Johnson and K. Scholes, Prentice Hall, London, 1993.

Principle

The interaction of key factors influences the way an organization operates (culture).

Assumption

The paradigm, which develops from the key factors, is central to the ongoing success of the organization.

Elements

Paradigm/recipe

The paradigm comprises the combined key beliefs and assumptions and is influenced by the following factors:

• stories: stories of past achievements, procedural activities
• symbols: indications of status - for example titles, office size, job perks
• rituals and routines: any well established formal or informal procedures
• power structures: traditional power base, promotion rights and expectations
• control systems: formal regulation within all functional areas
• organizational structures: the formal relationship between the different elements of an organization - for example, functional/centralized/hierarchical.

Issues

Paradigm changes

Lasting strategic change comes about through changes in the paradigm.

Integration

Art organization's culture is strongest when all factors are integrated and contribute positively to the paradigm, often giving stability and confidence to the organization and its people.

Weakness

If one of the key factors is very weak - for example, there is a lack of internal audit controls - the effect on the organization can be catastrophic.

Ease of change

Some factors - for example, symbols and routines - may be more easily changed than others. Some organizations restructure regularly but at great expense and incurring significant disruption in human terms.

Applications

Analysis

• of a whole organization, a business unit or team
• of an industry - for example banking
• of the interaction between factors - for example, how formal controls may be compromised by power structures.

Cultural change

One or more of the factors, or even the paradigm itself, may be changed - for example with the arrival of a new chief executive.

Related models

• Action-centred leadership (see pp. 101-3)
• Belbin's team roles (see pp. 105-8)
• Dynamics of paradigm change (see pp. 145-8)
• Four organizational cultures (see pp. 149-53)
• Group development (see pp. 109-12)
• Herzberg's Motivator-Hygiene Theory (see pp. 113-15)
• Managerial grid (see pp. 121-4)
• Organic versus mechanistic management styles (see pp. 169-72)
• Related diversification grid (see pp. 91-3)
• The seven 'S's framework (see pp. 181-5)
• Situational leadership (see pp. 131-4)

Main reference

G. John...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Matrix index
• Accounting/economics
• Business strategy
• Human resources
• Organizational strategy
• Strategic marketing
• Appendix
• Subject index