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GLOSSARY Robbins, Stephen P.; DeCenzo, David A.; Wolter, Robert (2012-02-02). Supervision Today!

(7th Edition) Prentice Hall. Kindle Edition.

360-degree appraisal: Performance feedback provided by supervisors, employees, peers,

and possibly others.

A Accommodation: A method of maintaining harmonious relationships by placing others’

needs and concerns above one’s own. Active Listening: A technique that requires an individual to “get inside” a speaker’s mind to

understand the communication from the speaker’s point of view. Activities: The time or resources required to progress from one event to another. Adjective Rating Scale: A method of appraisal that uses a scale or continuum that best

describes the employee using factors such as quantity and quality of work, job knowledge, cooperation, loyalty, dependability, attendance, honesty, integrity, attitudes, and initiative.

Affirmative Action: An active effort to recruit, select, train, and promote members of protected groups.

Agency Shop: An agreement that requires nonunion employees to pay the union a sum of money equal to union fees and dues as a condition of continuing employment.

Appraisal Process: The elements of a performance appraisal as defined by the organization; may involve self-evaluation and peer evaluation in addition to a supervisor’s input.

Assertiveness Training: A technique designed to make people more open and self-expressive, saying what they mean without being rude or thoughtless.

Attitudes: Evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events. Authority: Rights inherent in a supervisory position to give orders and expect those orders

to be obeyed. Authorization Card: A card signed by prospective union members indicating that they are

interested in having a union election held at their work site. Autocratic Leader: A taskmaster who leaves no doubt as to who’s in charge, and who has

the authority and power in the group. Availability Heuristic: The tendency of people to base their judgments on information that

is readily available to them. Avoidance: Withdrawing from a conflict or ignoring it.

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B Baby Boomers: The largest group in the workforce; they are regarded as the career

climbers—at the right place at the right time. Mature workers view them as unrealistic in their views and workaholics.

Basic Corrective Action: Action that gets to the source of a deviation and seeks to adjust the differences permanently.

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS): A scale that helps a supervisor rate an employee based on items along a continuum; points are examples of actual behavior on a given job rather than general descriptions or traits.

Benchmarking: The search for the best practices among competitors or noncompetitors that lead to their superior performance.

Body Language: Gestures, facial configurations, and other movements of the body that communicate emotions or temperaments such as aggression, fear, shyness, arrogance, joy, and anger.

Boundaryless Organization: An organization that is not defined or limited by boundaries or categories imposed by traditional structures.

Brainstorming: A technique for overcoming pressures for conformity that retard the development of creative alternatives; an idea-generating process that specifically encourages alternatives while withholding criticism of those alternatives.

Budget: A numerical plan that expresses anticipated results in dollar terms for a specific time period; used as a planning guide as well as a control device.

Business Plan: A document that identifies the business founder’s vision and describes the strategy and operations of that business.

C Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A repetitive stress injury of the wrist. Cause-effect Diagram: A depiction of the causes of a problem that groups the causes

according to common categories such as machinery, methods, personnel, finances, or management.

Central Tendency Error: Appraisers’ tendency to avoid the “excellent” category as well as the “unacceptable”

Culture: A set of unwritten norms that members of the organization accept and understand, and that guide their actions.

Customer Departmentalization: Grouping activities around common customer categories.

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Cyberloafing: Lost productivity time as a result of an employee using the Internet at work for personal reasons.

D Decentralization: The pushing down of decision-making authority to those closest to the

problems. Decision Tree: A diagram that analyzes hiring, marketing, investment, equipment purchases,

pricing, and similar decisions that involve a progression of decisions. Decision trees assign probabilities to each possible outcome and calculate payoffs for each decision path.

Decision-making Process: A seven-step process that provides a rational and analytical way of looking at decisions. The steps include identification of the problem, collection of relevant information, development of alternatives, evaluation of alternatives, selection of the best alternative, implementation of the decision, and follow-up and evaluation.

Decoding: A receiver’s translation of a sender’s message. Delegation: Allocation of duties, assignment of authority, assignment of responsibility, and

creation of accountability. Democratic-participative Leadership: A leadership behavior whereby the leader offers

followers a say in what is decided; decisions are made by the group. Departmentalization: Grouping departments based on work functions, product or service,

target customer or client, geographic territory, or the process used to turn inputs into outputs.

Devil’s Advocate: A person who purposely presents arguments that run counter to those proposed by the majority or against current practices.

Discipline: Actions taken by supervisors to enforce an organization’s standards and regulations.

Dismissal: Termination of employment. Distributive Bargaining: A negotiating process that operates under zero-sum conditions;

any gain made is at the expense of the other person, and vice versa. Divisional Structure: An organization made up of self-contained units. Downsizing: A reduction in workforce and reshaping of operations to create “lean and

mean” organizations. The goals of organizational downsizing are greater efficiency and reduced costs.

Dues Checkoff: A provision that often exists in union security arrangements whereby an employer withholds union dues from members’ paychecks.

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E e-business: A comprehensive term describing the way an organization does its work by using

electronic linkages with its key constituents to achieve its goals efficiently and effectively. e-commerce: The online buying and selling of products or services. Economic Strike: An impasse that results from labor and management’s inability to agree on

the wages, hours, and terms and conditions of a new contract. Effectiveness: Doing the right task; goal attainment. Efficiency: Doing a task right; also refers to the relationship between inputs and outputs. Electronic Meeting: A group decision-making technique in which participants are

positioned in front of computer terminals as issues are presented. Participants type responses onto computer screens as their anonymous comments, and aggregate votes are displayed on the projection screen in the room.

Emergent Leader: A leader who emerges within a workgroup without having formal authority in the organization.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP): A program designed to act as a first stop for individuals seeking help with the goal of getting productive employees back on the job as swiftly as possible.

Employee Benefits: Nonfinancial rewards designed to enrich employees’ lives. Employee Counseling: An emphasis on encouraging training and development efforts in a

situation in which an employee’s unwillingness or inability to perform his or her job satisfactorily is either voluntary or involuntary.

Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP): A compensation program that allows employees to become part owners of an organization by receiving stock as a performance incentive.

Employee Training Changing the skills, knowledge, attitudes, or behavior of employees. Determination of training needs is made by supervisors.

Employment Planning: Assessing current human resources and future human resource needs; developing a program to meet future human resource needs.

Employment-At-Will: A legal doctrine that defines an employer’s rights to discipline or discharge an employee.

Empowerment: An increase in the decision-making discretion of workers. Encoding: The conversion of a message into symbolic form. Entrepreneurship: The process of initiating a business venture, organizing the necessary

resources, and assuming the risks and rewards. Equity Theory: The concept that employees perceive what they can get from a job situation

(outcomes) in relation to what they put into it (inputs), and then compare their input–outcome ratio with the input–outcome ratio of others.

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Escalation of Commitment: An increased commitment to a previous decision despite negative information.

Ethics: Rules or principles that define right and wrong conduct. Events: Endpoints that represent completion of major activities. Expectancy Theory: A theory that individuals analyze effort–performance, performance–

rewards, and rewards–personal goals relationships, and their level of effort depends on the strengths of their expectations that these relationships can be achieved.

Expected Value Analysis: A procedure that permits decision makers to place a monetary value on various consequences likely to result from the selection of a particular course of action.

Extrinsic Feedback: Feedback provided to an employee by an outside source. See also performance feedback.

F Fact-finding A technique whereby a neutral third-party individual conducts a hearing to

gather evidence from both labor and management. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS): A government agency that

assists labor and management in settling their disputes. feedback loop Information received by the sender from a receiver regarding a message that was sent.

First-level Managers: Managers who represent the first level in the management hierarchy. See also supervisors.

Flowchart: Visual representation of the sequence of events for a particular process that clarifies how things are being done so that inefficiencies can be identified and the process can be improved.

Forcing: Attempting to satisfy one’s own needs at the expense of the other party. Formal Communication: Communication that addresses task-related issues and tends to

follow the organization’s authority chain. Formal Group: A workgroup established by the organization and given designated work

assignments and established tasks. Free-rein Leader: An individual who gives employees total autonomy to make decisions

that will affect them. Functional Authority: Control over individuals outside one’s own direct areas of

responsibility. Functional Departmentalization: Grouping activities into independent units based on

functions performed. Functional Structure: An organization in which similar and related occupational specialties

are grouped together.

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G Gantt Chart: A bar chart with time on the horizontal axis and activities to be scheduled on

the vertical axis; shows when tasks are supposed to be done and compares actual progress on each task.

Geographic Departmentalization: Grouping activities into independent units based on geography or territory.

Goal Setting: A system by which employees jointly determine specific performance goals with their supervisors. Progress toward goals is periodically reviewed, and rewards are allocated on the basis of this progress.

Grapevine: The means of communication by which most operative employees first hear about important changes introduced by organizational leaders; the rumor mill.

Grievance (rights) arbitration: The final step used to settle a labor and management dispute.

Grievance Procedures: Procedures designed to resolve disputes as quickly as possible and at the lowest level possible in the organization.

Group: Two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who come together to achieve particular objectives.

Group-order Ranking: Placing employees into classifications, such as “top one-fifth” or “second one-fifth.” This method prevents a supervisor from inflating or equalizing employee evaluations.

Groupthink: Withholding of differing views by group members to appear to be in agreement.

H Halo Error: A tendency to rate an individual high or low on all factors as a result of the

impression of a high or low rating on some specific factor. Hierarchy-of-needs Theory: A theory of Abraham Maslow that states that a satisfied

need no longer creates tension and therefore doesn’t motivate. Maslow believed that the key to motivation is to determine where an individual is along the needs hierarchy and to focus motivation efforts at the point where needs become essentially unfulfilled.

“Hot stove” Rule: A set of principles for effectively disciplining an employee that demonstrates the analogy between touching a hot stove and receiving discipline.

Human Resource Inventory: A database listing name, education, training, prior employer, languages spoken, and other information for each employee in the organization.

Human Resource Management: The process of finding, hiring, training, and keeping employees in the organization.

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Hygiene Factors: Herzberg’s term for factors, such as working conditions and salary, that, when adequate, may eliminate job dissatisfaction but do not necessarily increase job satisfaction.

I Ill-structured Problems: New problems about which information is ambiguous or

incomplete. Immediate Corrective Action: Action that adjusts something right now and gets things

back on track. Imminent Danger: A condition under which an accident is about to occur. Incidence Rate: A measure of the number of injuries, illnesses, or lost workdays as it relates

to a common base rate of 100 full-time employees. Individual Ranking: A method that requires supervisors to list all employees in order from

the highest to lowest performer. Individualism: A view holding the individual above the group with the expectation that

individuals will stand up for themselves and choose their own affiliations rather than blindly obeying external forces of politics, society, and economic issues. This view stresses independence over interdependence.

Informal Communication: Communication that moves in any direction, skips authority levels, and is as likely to satisfy social needs as, it is to facilitate task accomplishments.

Informal Group: A social group that forms naturally in the work environment in response to the need for social contact.

Innovation: The process of turning a creative idea into a useful product, service, or method of operation.

Integrative Bargaining: A negotiating process that operates under the assumption that there is at least one settlement that can create a win–win solution.

Interest Arbitration: Arbitration in which a panel of three individuals hears testimony from both sides and renders a decision on how to settle a contract negotiation dispute.

Intermediate-term Plan: A plan that covers a period of one to five years. Interpersonal Competence: The ability to work with, understand, communicate with,

and motivate other people, both individually and in groups. Intrinsic Feedback: Self-generated feedback. See also performance feedback. ISO 9000 series: Standards designed by the International Organization for Standardization

that reflect a process whereby independent auditors attest that a company’s factory, laboratory, or office has met quality management standards.

J

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Job Description: A written statement of job duties, working conditions, and operating responsibilities.

Job Design: Combining tasks to form complete jobs. Job Enrichment: The degree to which a worker controls the planning, execution, and

evaluation of his or her work. Justice View of Ethics: A view that requires individuals to impose and enforce rules fairly

and impartially so that there is an equitable distribution of benefits and costs. Just-in-time (JIT) Inventory Systems: A system in which inventory items arrive when

they are needed in the production process instead of being stored in stock. See also kanban.

K Kaizen: Japanese term for an organization committed to continuous improvement. Kanban: In Japanese, a “card” or “sign.” Shipped in a container, a kanban is returned to the

supplier when the container is opened, initiating the shipment of a second container that arrives just as the first container is emptied.

Karoshi: A Japanese term for sudden death caused by overwork.

L Labor Relations: All activities within a company that involve dealing with a union and its

members. Landrum-Griffin Act: Also known as the Labor and Management Reporting and Disclosure

Act, this legislation protects union members from possible wrongdoing on the part of their unions. Its thrust is to require all unions to disclose their financial statements.

Layoff-survivor Sickness: A set of attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors of employees who survive involuntary staff reductions.

Leadership: The ability an individual demonstrates to influence others to act in a particular way through direction, encouragement, sensitivity, consideration, and support.

Leadership Traits: Qualities such as intelligence, charm, decisiveness, enthusiasm, strength, bravery, integrity, and self-confidence.

Leading: Motivating employees, directing activities of others, selecting the most effective communication channel, and resolving conflicts among members.

Learning organization: An organization that has developed the capacity to adapt and change continuously.

Leniency Error: Positive or negative leniency that overstates or understates performance, giving an individual a higher or lower appraisal than deserved.

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Line Authority: The authority that entitles a supervisor to direct the work of his or her employees and to make certain decisions without consulting others.

Lockout: A company action equivalent to a strike; when management denies unionized employees access to their jobs.

Locus of Control: The source of control over an individual’s behavior. Long-term Plan: A plan that covers a period in excess of five years.

M Machiavellianism: Manipulative behavior based on the belief that the ends can justify the

means. Maintenance of Membership: An agreement that should employees join the union, they

are compelled to remain in the union for the duration of the existing contract. Such an agreement often provides an escape clause when the contract expires in which employees may choose to withdraw their membership from the union without penalty.

Management: The process of getting things done, effectively and efficiently, through and with other people.

Management Functions: Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Marginal Analysis: A method that helps decision makers optimize returns or minimize

costs by dealing with the additional cost in a particular decision, rather than the average cost.

Matrix: A structure that weaves together elements of functional and product departmentalization, creating a dual chain of command. message Information that is sent.

Middle Managers: All employees below the top management level who manage other managers; responsible for establishing and meeting specific departmental or unit goals set by top management.

Motivation: The willingness to do something conditioned upon the action’s ability to satisfy some need for the individual.

Motivation-hygiene Theory: A theory of Frederick Herzberg that the opposite of satisfaction is not “dissatisfaction” but “no satisfaction” and the opposite of dissatisfaction is not “satisfaction” but “no dissatisfaction.”musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) Continuous-motion disorders caused by repetitive stress injuries.

N National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH): The

government agency that researches and sets OSHA standards.

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National Labor Relations Board (NLRB): A group that has primary responsibility for conducting elections to determine union representation and to interpret and apply the law against unfair labor practices.

Need: A physiological or psychological deficiency that makes certain outcomes seem attractive.

Need for Achievement: A compelling drive to succeed; an intrinsic motivation to do something better or more efficiently than it has been done before.

Negotiation: A process in which two or more parties who have different preferences and priorities must make a joint decision and come to an agreement.

Nominal Group Technique: A technique that restricts discussion during the decision-making process.

Nonprogrammed Decision: A decision that must be custom-made to solve a unique and nonrecurring problem.

Nonverbal Communication: Communication that is not spoken, written, or transmitted on a computer.

O Occupational Safety and Health Act: A law that enforces, through standards and

regulations, healthful working conditions and preservation of human resources. Open Shop: An arrangement in which joining a union is totally voluntary. Operative Employees: Employees who physically produce an organization’s goods and

services by working on specific tasks. Organization: A systematic grouping of people brought together to accomplish some

specific purpose. Organization Development (OD): The process of making systematic change in an

organization. Organizing: Arranging and grouping jobs, allocating resources, and assigning work so that

activities can be accomplished as planned; determining which tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom, and when decisions are to be made.

Orientation: An expansion on information a new employee obtained during the recruitment and selection stages; an attempt to familiarize new employees with the job, the work unit, and the organization as a whole.

P Parochialism: Seeing things solely through one’s own eyes and from one’s own perspective;

believing that one’s own way is the best.

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Participative Leadership: The leadership style of an individual who actively seeks input from followers for many of the activities in the organization.

Pay-for-performance Programs: Compensation plans that pay employees on the basis of some performance measure.

People-centered Leader: An individual who emphasizes interpersonal relations with those he or she leads.

Performance Appraisal: A review of past performance that emphasizes positive accomplishments as well as deficiencies; a means for helping employees improve future performance.

Performance Feedback: Information that lets an employee know how well he or she is performing a job; may be intrinsic (provided by the work itself) or extrinsic (provided by a supervisor or some other source).

Performance-simulation Tests Selection devices based on actual job behaviors, work sampling, and assessment centers.

PERT chart: A diagram that depicts the sequence of activities needed to complete a project and the time or costs associated with each activity.

Planning: Defining an organization’s goals, establishing an overall strategy for achieving these goals, and developing a comprehensive hierarchy of plans to integrate and coordinate activities.

Policies: Broad guidelines for supervisory action. Political Competence: A supervisor’s ability to enhance his or her power, build a power

base, and establish the “right” connections in the organization. Politicking: The actions one can take to influence, or attempt to influence, the distribution of

advantages and disadvantages within an organization. Power Distance: Extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and

organizations expect and accept the idea that power is distributed unequally. Belief in small power distance results in expectance of power relations that are more consultative or democratic, with people relating to one another more as equal regardless of terminal positions. Belief in large power distance results in the less powerful accepting power relations that are more autocratic and paternalistic, wherein subordinates acknowledge the power of others based simply on their position in certain formal hierarchical positions.

Preventive Control: A type of control that anticipates and prevents undesirable outcomes. Problem: A discrepancy between an existing and a desired state of affairs. Procedure: A standardized way of responding to repetitive problems; a definition of the

limits within which supervisors must stay as decisions are made. Process: The primary activities supervisors perform. Process Departmentalization: Grouping activities around a process; this method

provides a basis for the homogeneous categorizing of activities.

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Product Departmentalization: Grouping activities into independent units based on problems or issues relating to a product.

Productivity Output per labor hour, best expressed by the formula Productivity = Output/(Labor Capital Materials). Productivity measures can be applied to the individual, the group, and the total organization.

Program: A single-use set of plans for a specific major undertaking within an organization’s overall goals. Programs may be designed and overseen by top management or supervisors.

Programmed Decision: A repetitive decision that can be handled by a routine approach. Progressive Discipline: Action that begins with a verbal warning, and then proceeds

through written reprimands, suspension, and finally, in the most serious cases, dismissal.

Q Quality Control: Identification of mistakes that may have occurred; monitoring quality to

ensure that (it) meets some preestablished standard. Quality of Life: Belief that places more value on relationships and overall worth of one’s life

in society. Quantity of Life: Belief that values competitiveness, assertiveness, ambition, and the

accumulation of wealth and material possessions.

R Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO): Legislation

whose primary emphasis with respect to labor unions is to eliminate any influence exerted on unions by members of organized crime.

Range of Variation: Variation in performance that can be expected in all activities. Readiness: The ability and willingness of an employee to complete a task. Realistic Job Preview: A job interview that provides both positive and negative

information about the job and the company. Recency Error: An error that occurs when appraisers recall and give greater importance to

employee job behaviors that have occurred near the end of the performance-measuring period.

Recruitment: The process of locating, identifying, and attracting capable applicants. Reliability: An indication of whether a test or device measures the same thing consistently. Repetitive Stress Injuries: Injuries sustained by continuous and repetitive movements of

a body part. Representation Certification (RC) Election: The election process whereby union

members vote in a union as their representative.

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Representation Decertification (RD) Election: The election process whereby union members vote out their union as their representative.

Representative Heuristic: The tendency of people to match the likelihood of an occurrence with something they are familiar with.

Responsibility: Supervisory obligations such as achieving a unit’s goals, keeping costs within budget, following organizational policies, and motivating employees.

Richness of Information: A measure of the amount of information that is transmitted based on multiple information cues (words, posture, facial expressions, gestures, intonations), immediate feedback, and the personal touch.

Rights View of Ethics: A view that calls on individuals to make decisions consistent with fundamental liberties and privileges as set forth in documents such as the Bill of Rights.

Ringisei: In Japanese organizations, consensus-forming decision-making groups. Risk propensity: A willingness to take chances, characterized by rapid decision making with

the use of less information. Roles: Behavior patterns that correspond to the positions individuals occupy in an

organization. Rule: An explicit statement that tells employees what they ought or ought not to do.

S Scatter Diagram: An illustration of the relationship between two variables that shows

correlations and possible cause and effect. Scheduling: Detailed planning of activities to be done, the order in which they are to be

done, who is to do each activity, and when the activities are to be completed. Secondary Boycott: A union strikes against Employer A (a primary and legal strike), and

then strikes and pickets against Employer B (an employer against which the union has no complaint) because of a relationship that exists between Employers A and B, such as Employer B handling goods made by Employer A.

Selection Process: The hiring process, designed to expand the organization’s knowledge about an applicant’s background, abilities, and motivation.

Self-esteem: The degree to which an individual likes or dislikes himself or herself. Self-monitoring: The ability to adjust behavior to external situational factors. High self-

monitors adapt easily and are capable of presenting striking contradictions between public personas and private selves; low self-monitors tend to display their true feelings and beliefs in almost every situation.

Sexual Harassment: Anything of a sexual nature that is required for getting a job, has an employment consequence, or creates an offensive or hostile environment, including sexually suggestive remarks, unwanted touching, sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal and physical conduct of a sexual nature.

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Short-term Plan: A plan that covers a period of less than one year. Sick Building: An unhealthy work environment. Similarity Error: Rating others in a way that gives special consideration to qualities that

appraisers perceive in themselves. Simple Structure: A nonelaborate structure, low in complexity, with little formalization,

and with authority centralized in a single person; a “flat” organization with only two or three levels.

Single-use Plan: A detailed course of action used once or only occasionally to deal with a problem that doesn’t occur repeatedly.

Situational Leadership: Adjustment of a leadership style to specific situations to reflect employee needs.

Six Sigma: A philosophy and measurement process that attempts to “design in” quality as a product is being made.

Skill: The ability to demonstrate a system and sequence of behavior that is functionally related to attaining a performance goal.

Social Loafing: Becoming a free-rider in a group because individual contributions to the group effort cannot be identified. As a result, the overall team’s performance suffers.

Social obligation: The foundation of a business’s social involvement. An organization’s social obligation is fulfilled when it meets its economic and legal responsibilities.

Social Responsibility: An obligation that organizations have to pursue long-term goals that are good for society.

Social Responsiveness: A process guided by social norms that requires businesses to determine what is right or wrong and thus seek fundamental truths; an attempt to do those things that make society better and not to do those things that could make it worse.

Span of Control: The number of employees a supervisor can efficiently and effectively direct.

Staff Authority: A limited authority that supports line authority by advising, servicing, and assisting.

Standing Plan: A plan that can be used over and over again by managers faced with recurring situations.

Status: A social rank or the importance one has in a group. Strategic Planning: Organizational planning that includes the establishment of overall goals

and positioning an organization’s products or services against the competition. Stress: Something an individual feels when faced with opportunities, constraints, or demands

perceived to be both uncertain and important. Stress can show itself in both positive and negative ways.

Stressors: Conditions that cause stress in an individual.

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Supervisors: Part of an organization’s management team, supervisors oversee the work of operative employees and are the only managers who don’t manage other managers. See also first-level managers.

Supervisory Competencies: Conceptual, interpersonal, technical, and political competencies.

Supply Chain Management: An internally oriented process that focuses on the efficient flow of incoming materials to the organization.

Suspension: Time off without pay; this step is usually taken only if neither verbal nor written warnings have achieved desired results.

T Tactical Planning Organizational planning that provides specific details on how overall goals

are to be achieved. Taft-Hartley Act (Labor–Management Relations Act): A law passed in 1947 that

specified unfair union labor practices and declared the closed shop to be illegal. Task-centered Leader: An individual with a strong tendency to emphasize the technical or

task aspects of a job. Team A workgroup whose members are committed to a common purpose, have a set of

specific performance goals, and hold themselves mutually accountable for the team’s results.

Team-based Structure: An organization that consists entirely of workgroups, or teams. Technical Competence: The ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. Technology: Any equipment, tool, or operating method designed to make work more

efficient. Telecommuting: Linking a worker’s remote computer and modem with those of coworkers

and management at an office. Theory X–Theory Y: A theory of Douglas McGregor that a supervisor’s view of human

nature is based on a certain grouping of assumptions and that he or she tends to mold behavior toward subordinates according to those assumptions.

Top Management: A group of people responsible for establishing an organization’s overall objectives and developing the policies to achieve those objectives.

Transactional Leader: A leader who guides or motivates employees in the direction of established goals by clarifying role and task requirements.

Transformational Leader: A leader who inspires followers to transcend self-interests for the good of the organization and who is capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on followers.

Trust: The belief in the integrity, character, and ability of a leader.

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U Uncertainty Avoidance: The extent to which members of a society attempt to cope with

anxiety by minimizing ambiguity. Cultures with high uncertainty avoidance prefer rules and structured circumstances, whereas low uncertainty avoidance cultures operate effectively in the absence of clear-cut rules, policies, and procedures.

Union: An organization that represents workers and seeks to protect their interests through collective bargaining.

Union Shop: An arrangement that stipulates that employers, although free to hire whomever they choose, may retain only union members.

Unity of Command: A principle that states that an employee should have one and only one supervisor to whom he or she is directly responsible.

Utilitarian View of Ethics: A view in which decisions are made solely on the basis of their outcomes or consequences.

V Validity: A proven relationship between a selection device and some relevant criterion. Value Chain Management: The process of managing the entire sequence of integrated

activities and information about product flows from start to finish—when the product is in the hands of the ultimate user.

Verbal Intonation: The emphasis an individual gives to words or phrases through speech. Verbal Warning: A reprimand, a temporary record of which is kept by the supervisor. Visionary Leadership: The ability to create and articulate a realistic, credible, attractive

vision of the future that grows out of, and improves upon, the present.

W Wagner Act Also known as the National Labor Relations Act, this act gave

employees the legitimate right to form and join unions and to engage in collective bargaining.

Websumé: A web page used as a résumé. Wellness Program: Any type of program that is designed to keep employees healthy,

focusing on such things as smoking cessation, weight control, stress management, physical fitness, nutrition education, blood pressure control, and so on.

Well-structured Problems: Straightforward, familiar, easily defined problems. Wildcat Strike: An illegal strike in which employees refuse to work during the term of a

binding contract, often as a result of ambiguities in the current contract.

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Work Process Engineering: Radical or quantum change in an organization. Work Specialization: The process of breaking down a job into a number of steps, with

each step being completed by a different individual. Workforce Diversity: The composition of the workforce to include men, women, whites,

blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, people with disabilities, people with diverse sexual preferences, the elderly, and so on.

Written Essay: A written narrative describing an employee’s strengths, weaknesses, past performance, potential, and suggestions for improvement.

Written Warning: The first formal stage of the disciplinary procedure; the warning becomes part of an employee’s official personnel file.

Wrongful Discharge: Improper or unjust termination of an employee.