How to become a VETERAN Manager

Explore the foundations and history of management, from ancient planning concepts to the contemporary understanding shaped by industrial revolutions, classical and behavioral approaches, and contingency theories.

Explore the history and evolution of management from the 19th century to modern theories, including scientific, administrative, behavioral, and organizational approaches.

examine scientific management theory, its rational and functional view of management, and how time and motion studies, division of labor, standardized work, and incentive pay boost productivity.

Explore how scientific management drives efficiency through standardized products, quick service, and performance metrics in organizations like call centers and McDonald's, highlighting throughput and productivity.

Examine the administrative principle and bureaucratic organization, highlighting foresight, planning, resource allocation, unity of command, merit-based hierarchy, and Follett’s social focus with CSR and gain-sharing.

Explore the behavioural approach to management, highlighting Hawthorne studies, Maslow's needs, and McGregor's X and Y to show human-centered motivation and group dynamics.

Explore the modern approach to management, emphasizing contingency and that no single model fits all organizations. Understand systems thinking, subsystems, and environment-driven inputs shaping output for the customer.

Explore Henry Phil's planning concept as the blueprint that sets direction for management, within the planning leading organizing and controlling framework, and its tools and types.

Planning sets direction for managerial actions by defining objectives, assessing present versus desired states, and following a five-step process to implement and evaluate outcomes in a turbulent environment.

Learn the types of plans managers use, from short-range plans under a year to long-range plans over three years, including intermediate plans and strategic, tactical, and operational plans.

Explore the organizing function by placing the right people and resources into the right spots to shape the organization's structure, including matrix, bureaucracy, and hierarchy.

Organizing as a manager's function arranges people and resources to accomplish goals, allocating the right people and resources, using division of labor, and coordinating results within formal and informal structures.

Explore traditional organizational structures, including department organization and departmentalized work. Functional structures group similar skills, offer economies of scale and problem solving, but risk unclear responsibilities.

Adopt divisional structure to group staff by product, location, customer, or process in large organizations. Benefit from flexibility and clear responsibilities while risking inter-division rivalry and drift from the goal.

Explore the matrix structure, a mix of functional and divisional forms that enables functional cooperation, communication between function and division, better customer service and accountability, while risking two-boss power struggles.

Explore the leadership function in management, examining earliest, behavioral, and contingency theories plus recent developments to develop your leadership skills.

Explore core leadership theories and the distinction between leading and managing, and learn how visionary leadership inspires teams, communicates a clear future, and drives change.

Explore the sources of power in leadership, distinguishing position power—reward, coercive, and legitimate authority—from personal power, including expert and referent power, and how leaders are shaped by others.

Explore the controlling function as a control mechanism to monitor progress, measure outcomes, and ensure the organization reaches its desired state.

Explore how control functions in management as the third process, measuring performance to keep plans on track, monitor progress, and address deviations from desired outcomes.

Identify and apply three control types—feed-forward (preliminary), concurrent (steering), and feedback (post)—to assure quality, align processes, and gather end-of-process insights across organizations like food service and tech.

Learn manual control with four steps: set objectives and standards, measure performance, compare results, and take corrective actions, distinguishing from cybernetic automated control.