UNIT 1

1. The functions of management.

 Planning:
 Set objectives
 Develop strategies, plans and tactics  achieve the objectives
 Allocating resources of people and money
 Organizing
 Analyse and classify the activities of organization and their relations
 Divide work  manageable activities  individual tasks
 Select people to perform these tasks
 Intergrating: Practice social skills  motivation & communication
 Communicate the objectives to people who responsible for those objectives
 Make these people form team
 Make decisions  pay and promotion
 Supervising subordinates’ work
 Work with people in other areas/functions
 Measuring performance
 Check if the objectives or targets are being achieved
 Developing people: Both their subordinates and themselves
 UNIT 2
Theory X Theory Y
Type of Factory workers Skilled professionals
people
Worker’s People who are lazy and will avoid People have a psychological need to work,
characteristic work and responsibility if they can creative, ambitious, self-motivated
Motivators Lower order needs: job security, Higher order needs: esteem (
monetary incentives like pay achievement, status & responsibility) and
rise/bonuses self actualization (personal growth,
fulfilment) under right conditions
Mananging Closely supervise and control Self-direction & self-control

1. According to theory X, why do employees have to be closely controlled?

 Because they’re lazy and try to avoid work and responsibility
2. According to theory Y, why should employers give their workers responsibilities?
 Because a responsible job is necessary to people’s psychological well-being
3. Why did Maslow criticize theory Y?
 Because there are people who are unable to take on responsibility and be self-disciplined
 UNIT 3
Chain of command (line Functional structure Matrix management
structure)
Definition One person or a group of Organize a company People report to more than one
people at the top and an into different leaders
increasing number of people departments based on
below them at successive areas of expertise…
level
Pros • The role of each • Employees often • It allows good communication
individual will be clear and display a high level of between all members of the
well-defined. departmental loyalty team.
y and pride in the work • It cuts across traditional
• Shows who each person of their department. boundaries between departments
reports to or who to talk to • It encourages in a hierarchy.
about specific projects employees to become • There is less chance of people
• Motivates employees with specialists and this can focusing on just what is good for
clear career paths and increase efficiency and their department as the aim is
chances for promotion productivity. to focus on the project and the
• Gives each employee a • Departments are led business as a whole.
specialty by managers who are • Crossover of ideas between
people with specialist knowledge
 • Creates camaraderie specialists in the in different areas tends to
between employees within functional area. create
the same department more successful and innovative
solutions.

Cons • Can slow down innovation or • The structure is a • There is less direct control
important changes due to vertical one and this from senior managers as the
increased bureaucracy often does not allow teams may be empowered to
• Can cause employees to act for good connections undertake
in interest of the between departments. and complete a project.
department instead of the • Coordination between • Passing down of authority to
company as a whole departments is more junior employees can be
• Can make lower-level therefore difficult, for difficult for some senior
employees feel like they example, when managers
have less ownership and can’t developing a new to accept.
express their major project. • Reduced bureaucratic control
ideas for the company • Communication flows may be resisted by some senior
through the managers.
department heads to • Team members may have two
the top management, so managers to report to. If the
employees may business retains levels of
feel remote from hierarchy
senior management.
• There might be for departments but allows
competition between cross- departmental teams to be
departments, which created, each team member has
two
may not benefit the
bosses. This could cause a
whole organisation. For
conflict of interests.
example, competition
for financial resources
is based on getting the
most for the
department and not
necessarily considering
what is best for the
business as a whole.
 UNIT 4
1. Richard Lewis model of types of culture
Linear-active Multi-active Reactive
1. Organized and rational, try 1. Feelings, emotions, intuition, 1. Listen to and establish
to act logically than relationships and connections  other’s position, then
emotionally imp react to it
2. Plan in advance 2. Flexible, good at changing plans 2. Rarely interrupt speakers
3. Like to do one thing at a and improvise 3. Avoid eyecontact
time 3. Like to do many thing at the 4. Formulate approaches
4. Believe in respecting rules, same time which suits both parties
regulations and contracts 4. Believe in social or company
hierarchy, respect status
Universalists - Individualists Collectivists - Particularists
Not afraid of confrontation Personal relationships and Avoid confrontation, don’t
Compromise to achieve a deal friendship > rules and regulations want to lose face or cause sb
else
Britain, the USA, Germany… Southern Europe, Latin America, Asia
Africa…

2. The conflict between globalization and localization

Refers to the conflict between the forces of global integration and local autonomy.
 Globalization:
 increasing interconnectedness and interdependence among countries, economies, and
cultures.
 involves the flow of goods, services, capital, information, and ideas across national
borders.
 Localization:
 emphasizes the preservation of local customs, traditions, languages, and identities.
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a multinational company adapting its
management methods to the local culture in each country in which it operates?
 The advantage of adapting is that the company can learn a lot from different cultures
about how they manage people, how they operate, how they live their lives, etc. These
factors alone can greatly influence the company. The downside of this is that they might
get too attached to these cultures and might have conflict using the adopted cultures
from other companies in other places for they might see it as inappropriate or ineffective
UNIT 5
1. Why is it normal in some countries not to include photos or personal details on a
CV/resume?
 Employers might be instantly prejudiced against the way applicants look. This could be
because they do not match the employer’s stereotype of a competent person, or because
of prejudices against ethnic or relegious groups, candidates of a certain age. (In some
countries, employers want to know personal details – age, marital status, whether the
candidate has children, in other countries it is not normal to offer this information).
2. Why might an employer want to know about candidate’s hobbies and interests?
 Because hobbies and interests can reveal candidates’ skills and motivations
 UNIT 8
1. What do production and quality managers do?
Production managers: coordinate all people + equipment in manufacturing process  try to ensure
production runs smoothly
Quality managers: ensure the quality of products/services  try to improve it
2. What are the objectives of a production department?
- Produce products at minimized cost
- Concentrate on quality and product liabilties
- Producing the maximum volume of output
- Ultilizing the plant/workforce
- Reducing lead time
- Maximize return on assets
- Ensure flexibilities for changes
3. The process of industrial production
Preservation & collection  Data analysis  Processing  Hosting & archiving  Review 
Production
 Advantages Disadvantages
Capacity Insufficient  Long lead time  allow competitors
capacity to enter the market
 Lead time increase  customers may
go to other supplies
Excess  Under ultilizing workforce
capacity  May be forced to produce additional,
less profitable products
 Have to reduce prices to stimulate
demand
Large facilities Production volume increase   Finding enough workers &
Get economies of scale (the coordinating material flows 
average fixed cost per unit difficult
decrease)  Working environment  get worse &
industrial relations could deteriorate
Inventory  Lead time increase   Costs of storage, handling,
customers may go to other insurance, depreciation, cost of
supplies capital
 More flexible in product  Risk of obsolesence, theft,
scheduling, have longer lead breakage…
time and lower cost operation  Have to reduce prices to stimulate
through larger production demand
runs with fewer set-ups
 Meet variation in product
demand
 UNIT 9
1. Different strategies for stock control and manufacturing (Pull and Push strategies)
Pull strategy: based on current demand, both production and suppliers are constantly reacting to
the actual conssumption of components, rather than planning ahead.
Push strategy: based on estimates of future demand and begins according to the planned
production lead time
Advantage & disadvantage: Satisfy current demand while holding the minimum of inventory is
financially efficient, but does not allow organizations to meet an unexpected increase in
demand. Holding a large inventory in case of increased demand allows a business to satisfy all
potential customers, but comes at a cost – cash tied up in unsold goods.
Advantage:
 Production runs are short  manufacturers can quickly move from one product to another
 Reduce costs by minimizing warehouse needs.
 Spend less money on raw materials (buy just enough resources to make the ordered products
and no more).
Disadvantage: Potential disruptions in the supply chain.
 If a raw-materials supplier has a breakdown  cannot deliver the goods promptly stall the
entire production line.
 A sudden unexpected order for goods  delay the delivery of finished products to end
clients.
1. Explain the balance or trade-off between customers’ needs and having local stock or
inventories?
 It is easier to satisfy customers’ needs and deliver products quickly if you have inventory
stored near the customers, but the convenience of this must be balanced against the cost.
 UNIT 12

2. Role of marketing: has to be all-pervasive

 Intergrate the costumers into the design of the product
Four main roles:
- Identifying consumer needs.
 - Satisfying customer needs.
- Maintaining customer loyalty.
- Building customer relationships.
3. Pricing and distribution strategies
Market A small company that concentrates on one or more particular niches or small market
nicher segment
Market The collection, analysis and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing
research situation
Market A part of market, a group of customers with specific needs, defined in terms of
segment geography, age, income, sex,..
Market The process of dividing a market into distinct group of buyers who have different
segmentation requirements or buying habits
Market Setting a high price for a new product, to make maximum revenue before competing
skimming products appear on the market

Under what circumstances would manufacturers either set prices that try to maximize

profits, or deliberately charge a low price?

 Companies with a new high-tech or high-quality product

 price-skimming strategy to make maximum revenue before competing products appear on
the market.
  Any company with anything approaching a monolopy  charge high prices
 Companies with new products  charge a low price (a market penetration strategy)  get a
large market share before competitors appear on the market
1. Give examples of products for which demand is elastic, and which you would only buy if

the price went down?

 Luxury goods are often considered examples of elastic demand because they are not essential

items people need to survive. Examples of luxury goods include high-end clothing, jewellery,

and designer handbags

 Gasoline: When the price of gasoline increases, people may choose to carpool or take public
transit instead
2. Which products are for you not price sensitive, so that you would buy them even if the

price increased significantly Food – water – housing

Food of some kind is usually necessary, whatever its price. There are also high-quality goods for
which producers can charge very high prices, as there are a sufficient number of consumers who
think possessing the product gives them high status. This is called premium pricing or prestige
pricing
 3. What kind of companies win price wars?

It's usually established market leaders with large amounts of cash that win price wars and
competitors with smaller market shares that lose them.
 UNIT 13
1. Different kinds of sales promotions
- Free samples
- Price reductions
- Competitions
1. What are the two functions of advertising?

 To inform (consumers about products and services), and to persuade (them to buy them)
2. What three different methods of determining advertising spending are mentioned

 Spending a fixed percentage of current sales revenue, spending as much as competitors, and
increasing current spending in order to increase sales
3. What does the text describe as disadvantages of traditional advertising?

 It is expensive, it doesn't always reach the target customers, and it isn't always welcome as
interrupt people when they are trying to do something else
4. What ways of using the Internet to advertise are mentioned?

 Blogs, online forums, commenting on blogs and social networking sites, podcasts, viral videos
5. The disadvantages of traditional advertising and the advantages of viral marketing?
Traditional advertsing is expensive and doesn’t always reach the target audience. If it doesreach
the intended customers, it might be interrupting them while they’re trying to do something else 
annoy them
Viral marketing allows companies to inform and persuade consumers, quickly and at very little cost.
If people share videos,.. with their friends, the customers reaches lots of potential consumers at
no extra cost, like with word-of-mouth advertising
2. Conditions to make a successful advertising campaign

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound
 UNIT 23
- The level of consumption: the decisions of millions of people whether to spend their money and
borrow more, when the economic outlook is good, or spend less and save more, when the economic
outlook is bad or when interest rate increase
 Internal causes:
- Changes in demand
- Fluctuations in investments
- Macroeconomic policies
- Supply of money
 External causes:
- Wars
- Technological shocks
- Natural factors (floods, droughts…)
- Population expansion
1. Why does unemployment rise during the recession phase of the business cycle?
Unemployment rises during the recession phase of the business cycle because the aggregate supply
is typically more than the aggregate demand so there is less of a need for employees, and fewer
goods and services are being produced. Cyclical unemployment increases because businesses began
laying off workers in the need to save money because of low demand for their products
2. What is the difference between a recession and a depression?
A recession is when an ecoomy is on a more gradual decline while depression is when an economy is
on a steep downturn, more than a recession
3. If a country is producing beyond its production possibilities curve, what phase of the
business 3cycle is it most likely experiencing?
It is likely experiencing an expansion, where unemployment is significantly decreasing and inflation
is increasing. This is typically an unsustainable period that leads the peak where the economy
starts slowly receding
4. During a downturn, to what extent should the government intervenes in the economy by
creating demand or jobs? How could it do these things?
The keynesian argument  governments can increase demand and employment by way of fiscal or
monetary policy, either by public works (building roads, schools,…) or by decreasing taxes,
lowering interest rates or increasing the money supply, so that consumers have more money to
spend
 Makes more sense to pay people to create something than to pay them unemployment
benefits to do nothing
Government spending reduce the amount of money available to private companies, thereby
hindering the revival of the economy
Although governments can still make tax and spending decisions, in many countries they no longer
have control over interest rate decisions as the central bank is independent from the government.
Similarly, decisions about money supply are often made by central bank rather than the
government. The most common way of changing the money supply is by selling short-term bonds,
called treasury bills, to commercial banks, or buying them back
 UNIT 24
1. Responsibilities of businesses
- Avoid pollution
- Conform to rules
- Eliminate discrimination
- Increase profits
- Provide employment
2. Illegal acts (non-ethics business practices)
- Bribing corrupt foreign officials to win foreign orders
- Industrial espionage: spying on compertitors’ research and development departments with
hidden camera, mircrophone or bribing their employees
- Sell durable goods with built-in- obsolesence
- Try to persuade politicians to pass law favorable to a particular industry
- Telling only half the truth in advertisments
- Whistle blowing: revealing confidential information that a company is breaching
1. In what negative way do “socially responsible” actions affect stockholders, customers
and employees?
The cost of socially responsible actions has to be paid in the form of lower dividends, higher
prices, lower wages
 2. According to Friedman, in what way are socially responsible actions by businesses
“undermocratic”?
Because they involve doing things that should be done by government and if a government is not
doing these things it is because the electors chose a government that did not say it was going to
do them
3. Why is it not sufficient for a company to do things for the community?
Because if their employees, suppliers’ employees are badly treated, the company will not get the
goodwill of its own employees
 UNIT 27
1. Theory of free trade
Free trade is the unrestricted importing and exporting of goods and services between countries.
- Comparative advantage
2. Advantages and disadvantages of free trade.
5 Advantages of Free Trade
- It stimulates economic growth
- It helps consumers: When trade restrictions are removed, consumers tend to see lower
prices because more products imported from countries with lower labor costs become
available at the local level.
- It increases foreign investment
- It reduces government spending: Governments often subsidize local industries, like
agriculture, for their loss of income due to export quotas. Once the quotas are lifted, the
government’s tax revenues can be used for other purposes.
- It encourages technology transfer: businesses gain access to the latest technologies
developed by their multinational partners.
5 Disadvantages of Free Trade
It causes job loss through outsourcing
It encourages theft of intellectual property: Without the protection of patent laws, companies
often have their innovations and new technologies stolen, forcing them to compete with lower-
priced domestically-made fake products.
It allows for poor working conditions
It can harm the environment
It reduces revenues
1. Discuss whether imposing tariffs will benefit the domestic economy?
Imposing tariffs helps to raise tax revenues for the government. This will benefit the economy as
the money can be spent on healthcare and education… Also, tariffs raise the price of imports and
so may reduce the demand for imports. Tariffs can also be used to protect infant industries,
allowing them to grow and become internationally competitive.
However, tariffs might not be effective as they simply cause other countries to retaliate and
impose their own tariffs. Also, for a country like Singapore that relies on imports, tariffs raise
the costs of imported raw material and so can cause cost-push inflation in the economy
2. Explain the difference between international trade and free trade
International trade refers to the exchange of goods and services beyond national borders. It
entails the sale of exports and imports. Free trade means that international trade can take place
without any forms of protection, barriers to international trade, such as quantitive limits or taxes
being imposed on exports
3. Identify three methods of trade protection that a country could use.
Tariffs, quotas, subsidies for domestic firms, administrative restrictions and boycotts
4. Explain benefits of free trade
- Allows a country to specialize in what it is best at producing
- No tariffs charged or quotas imposed on exports/imports  increase international trade and
cooperation
- Increased competition  force firms to reduce costs and increase their productivity
- Access to larger global markets enables forms to take advantage of economies of scale
- Employment opportunities from higher export sales and from multinational companies
- Firms have access to more raw materials and capital goods, which improves their operational
effiency
- Consumers have greater access to better-quality goods and services  improve their
standard of living
5. Explain disadvantages of international trade
- Domestic firms can go out of business if products from foreign firms are more competitively
priced and better quality, which can lead to domestic unemployment
- International trade may allow the import of harmful products, which adversely affects the
economy and the well-being of a country’s people
- Economic dependence on other countries. Can put the country into a vulnerable posistion if
there is a political-economic conflict
6. Reasons why countries might decide to trade with each other
- The lack of scarce resources in the domestic country,. Vd: Bangladesh does not have
sufficient supplies of crude oil and natural gas, whereas Brunei Darussalam does not have a
arable land needed to grow rice and tropical fruits so they need to trade with other
countries
- It is often cheaper to import products than to produce them domestically. Vd: Sweden could
grow its pineapples and bananas but it would be more economical to purchase these from
overseas countries such as Thailand, the Phillipines and India.
- International specialization and trade can benefit consumers as there is more competition
leading to more choices and improved quality of products
- Employment opportunities can also arise from international trade and greater volumes of
output