Employer Branding Microsoft

Microsoft doesn’t respect tradition – it only respects innovation.

Microsoft’s continuing appeal to people who want to shape the future stems from our ability to combine
the buzz of a start-up with opportunities to bring ideas and innovations onto the global stage.

Before customers would buy an application or piece of software, and then the engagement fell off. But
cloud systems create ongoing engagement, marked by the continual need for feedback, update and
renewal.

Microsoft welcomes the start-up.

The advantage of start-up with the Microsoft is that, they can launch the innovations globally.

Mr Edward. He believes that the real key is culture. Encourage people to talk about what could go
wrong.

Chapter # 5 Personality and Values

“The dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his
unique adjustments to his environment.” 1 For our purposes, you should think of personality as the sum
total of ways in which an individual reacts to and interacts with others.

Chapter 8: Managerial Decision Making

First, we examine decision characteristics. Then we look at decision making models and the steps
executives should take when making important decisions. The chapter also explores some biases that
can cause managers to make bad decisions. Finally, we examine some techniques for innovative group
decision making.

TYPES OF DECISIONS AND PROBLEMS

Decision
A choice made from available alternatives.

Decision making
The process of identifying problems and opportunities and then resolving them.

Programmed decision A decision made in response to a situation that has occurred often enough to
enable decision rules to be developed and applied in the future.
Nonprogrammed decision A decision made in response to a situation that is unique, is poorly defined
and largely unstructured, and has important consequences for the organization.
Facing Certainty and Uncertainty
Certainty The situation in which all the information the decision maker needs is fully available.
Rrisk A situation in which a decision has clear-cut goals and good information is available, but the
future outcomes associated with each alternative are subject to chance.
Uncertainty The situation that occurs when managers know which goals they wish to achieve, but
information about alternatives and future events is incomplete.
Ambiguity A condition in which the goals to be achieved or the problem to be solved is unclear,
alternatives are difficult to define, and information about outcomes is unavailable.

DECISION-MAKING MODELS
The Ideal, Rational Model
A decision making model based on the assumption that managers should make logical decisions that will
be in the organization’s best economic interests
normative An approach that defines how a decision maker should make decisions and provides
guidelines for reaching an ideal outcome for the organization.
The four assumptions underlying this model are as follows:
1. The decision maker operates to accomplish goals that are known and agreed on. Problems are
precisely formulated and defi ned.
2. The decision maker strives for conditions of certainty, gathering complete information. All alternatives
and the potential results of each are calculated.
3. Criteria for evaluating alternatives are known. The decision maker selects the alternative that will
maximize the economic return to the organization.
4. The decision maker is rational and uses logic to assign values, order preferences, evaluate
alternatives, and make the decision that will maximize the attainment of organizational goals.

How Managers Actually Make Decisions

Administrative model A decision-making model that describes how managers actually make decisions
in situations characterized by non-programmed decisions, uncertainty, and ambiguity.
Descriptive An approach that describes how managers actually make decisions rather than how they
should make decisions according to a theoretical ideal.

bounded rationality The concept that people have the time and cognitive ability to process only a
limited amount of information on which to base decisions.
satisficing To choose the first solution alternative that satisfies minimal decision criteria, regardless of
whether better solutions are presumed to exist.

intuition The
immediate comprehension of a decision situation based on past experience but without
conscious thought.

According to the administrative model:

1. Decision goals often are vague, confl icting, and lack consensus among managers. Managers often are unaware of
problems or opportunities that exist in the organization.
2. Rational procedures are not always used, and, when they are, they are confined to a simplistic view of the
problem that does not capture the complexity of real organizational events.
3. Managers’ searches for alternatives are limited because of human, information, and resource constraints.
4. Most managers settle for a satisfi cing rather than a maximizing solution, partly because they have limited
information and partly because they have only vague criteria for what constitutes a maximizing solution.

However, intuitive decisions don’t always work out, and managers should take care to apply intuition
under the right circumstances and in the right way rather than considering it a magical way to make
important decisions. Managers may walk a fi ne line between two extremes: on the one hand, making
arbitrary decisions without careful study; and on the other, relying obsessively on rational analysis.
One is not better than the other, and managers need to take a balanced approach by considering both
rationality and intuition as important components of effective decision making.

Political Model
The third model of decision making is useful for making nonprogrammed decisions when conditions are uncertain,
information is limited, and there are manager confl icts about what goals to pursue or what course of action to take.

Coalition An informal alliance among managers who support a specific goal.

The political model begins with four basic assumptions:

1. Organizations are made up of groups with diverse interests, goals, and values. Managers disagree about problem
priorities and may not understand or share the goals and interests of other managers.
2. Information is ambiguous and incomplete. The attempt to be rational is limited by the complexity of many
problems as well as personal and organizational constraints.
3. Managers do not have the time, resources, or mental capacity to identify all dimensions of the problem and
process all relevant information. Managers talk to each other and exchange viewpoints to gather information and
reduce ambiguity.
4. Managers engage in the push and pull of debate to decide goals and discuss alternatives. Decisions are the result
of bargaining and discussion among coalition members.

DECISION-MAKING STEPS
Whether a decision is programmed or nonprogrammed and regardless of managers’ choice of the classical,
administrative, or political model of decision making, six steps typically are associated with effective decision
processes.

Recognition of Decision Requirement

Chapter 10: Organizational Change

ambidextrous approach Incorporating structures and processes that are appropriate for both the creative impulse and for the systematic
implementation of innovations.
product change A change in the organization’s product or service outputs.
technology change A change that pertains to the organization’s production process.
creativity The generation of novel ideas that might meet perceived needs or offer opportunities for the organization.

Three critical innovation strategies for changing products and technologies are illustrated in Exhibit 10.1The first
strategy, exploration, involves designing the organization to encourage creativity and the initiation of new ideas.
The strategy of cooperation refers to creating conditions and systems to facilitate internal and external coordination
and knowledge sharing. Finally, entrepreneurship means that managers put in place processes and structures to
ensure that new ideas are carried forward for acceptance and implementation.

Robbins Chapter 13 Power and politics

Probably the most important aspect of power is that it is a function of dependence . The greater B ’s
dependence on A, the greater A ’s power in the relationship.
Coercive Power The coercive power base depends on fear of the negative results from failing to comply.
Coercive power can also come from withholding key information. People in an organization who have data or
knowledge others need can make those others dependent on them.

Personal Power
What they have is personal power, which comes from an individual’s unique characteristics.