Reader 1 - Chapter 1

Thinking about managing

Activities
Prepared by:
Dr. Rima Rouhana

For the Arab Open University

2021 - 2022
 Activity 1:
What is and isn’t managing?
 Make a brief list of things that you have done so far today
or did yesterday, including both work and non-work
activity. You should include all aspects of your day in this
list, such as events where you were a customer, an
employee, a parent, a person on public transport, or even
if you were just being ‘you’ at home.

 Now cross off all those items that you think relate to
management, a product of managing, or being managed.
◦ What activities (if any) remained on your list after Part 1, and
why you felt they escaped from any relationship with managing?

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 Activity 2:
Managing is a serious business
 Based on your reading and your own work/life experience if
applicable, list three changes taking place now that are likely to
affect the way that we work in the future.

 What kinds of inequalities do you encounter in your workspace?

 Research the answers for the following questions:

◦ What is the downside of mining ‘big data’?
◦ What might be the main benefit of storing ‘big data’?
◦ What is a ‘wicked’ problem?
◦ How does ‘managing’ differ from ‘management’?

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 Activity 3: The representations and
realities of your job
 Search for your job description (most organisations have these
specifications available online). Read through it carefully and
think about how much it reflects the job that you do every day.

 Answer the questions below:

◦ How far is the description just a representation of your job?
◦ To what extent does it reflect the reality of what you do on a day-to-day
basis?
◦ What is missing from the description, i.e. what do you spend time on that
is not even mentioned in this document?
◦ Does it contract you for a specific number of hours per week, or does it
state ‘until the job is completed’? Is this a fair and accurate representation
of the hours you actually work per day/week?

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 Activity 4:
Managing and controlling at work
 Provide instances where you might be controlling or
managing others, and how you are also being
controlled/managed at work.
Forms of control Managing others Being managed
Direct control
Bureaucratic control
Cultural control
Control through output

 Which one is most dominant in your workplace?

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 Activity 5:
When pluralism looks like unitarism
 Now it is your turn to apply these ideas to your own organisational
practices.
1. Draw up a list of the different departments in your organisation (or one you
are familiar with).
2. Divide people into subsections within those departments – or by roles in the
organisation, such as senior management team, finance director,
accountants, sales people, marketing, etc.
3. Who else works in the organisation (for example cleaners, canteen staff,
receptionists, trade unionists, shareholders)?
4. Finally, make a list based on your best guess about the different agendas that
these people might have towards the organisation, or even for going to
work.

 In view of your answers to the above questions, do you think any

sort of organisation can be unitarist?

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 Activity 6:
They’re talking about me!
 Think for a moment about the question, ‘Who am I?’
◦ This is a question concerning identity, and one aspect is central to
who you are right now, this moment: a student.
◦ ‘Managing’ yourself as a student is challenging, and requires ongoing
discipline and sacrifice, but also hopefully enables you to enjoy a
rich set of experiences where you start to think differently, about new
ideas and possibilities, especially when it comes to the world of
work.

 So, who are you and why you want to pursue your MBA?
 Can you reflect about the way that MBA students have been
portrayed? How might you analyse these ideas?

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