What are the four functions of management?

The four core functions are planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.

How does SWOT analysis help managers make decisions?

SWOT identifies internal strengths and weaknesses alongside external opportunities and threats to support strategic planning.

What is the difference between a business's general and specific environment?

The general environment includes broad external forces such as economic and technological trends, while the specific environment includes stakeholders that directly affect the business, such as customers, competitors, and suppliers.

Free Course Image Introduction to Management

Free online course Introduction to Management

Duration of the online course: 4 hours and 32 minutes

4.4

(5)

Build practical management skills fast with a free online course—planning, decision-making, strategy tools and ethical leadership basics. Certificate-ready learning.

In this free course, learn about

The four core management functions: planning, organizing, leading, controlling
Management hierarchy and what top, middle, and first-line managers do
Mintzberg’s managerial role categories and key roles within each
Scientific management (Taylor): efficiency, standardization, productivity focus
Administrative management: Fayol’s 14 principles, incl. authority & responsibility
Weber’s bureaucracy: formal rules, hierarchy, merit-based staffing, impersonality
General vs specific external environment and how each affects a business
Environmental scanning and analysis to track external changes and uncertainty
Kohlberg’s moral development stages, incl. the society-expectations stage
Shareholder vs stakeholder views of social responsibility (Friedman’s view included)
SMART goals and why goal setting improves performance and commitment
Rational decision-making model steps and why generating many alternatives matters
Strategic tools: SWOT, BCG Growth-Share Matrix categories, and Porter’s Five Forces
Innovation S-curve meaning and factors that help/hurt creativity at work

About the free online course

Strong management is a career advantage in any industry, whether you supervise a small team, lead a project, or want to understand how organizations make decisions. This free online course gives you a clear, modern foundation in what managers do, why it matters, and how to apply core concepts to real workplace situations. You will learn how effective management turns goals into coordinated action, aligns people and resources, and keeps an organization responsive when conditions change.

You will explore how management work differs across levels of an organization and how responsibilities shift from setting direction to executing strategy. Along the way, you will connect classic and influential viewpoints on management to today’s challenges, building a deeper understanding of leadership behaviors, organizational design, and what helps teams perform consistently. You will also examine how ethics and social responsibility shape long-term business outcomes, developing a stronger sense of how values, stakeholder expectations, and moral reasoning influence choices managers make under pressure.

Because great management is not only about ideas but also about action, you will practice turning priorities into well-formed objectives, using goal-setting approaches that drive commitment and measurable progress. You will strengthen your planning and decision-making skills with structured methods that help you define problems clearly, evaluate options rationally, and avoid common pitfalls. The course also introduces widely used strategic analysis tools that support smarter assessments of situations, markets, and competitive dynamics—useful whether you work in operations, marketing, entrepreneurship, or nonprofit environments.

To help you think like a manager who can thrive in uncertainty, you will learn to scan and interpret external environments, distinguishing broad forces that shape industries from the immediate players that influence day-to-day performance. You will also discover how organizations approach innovation over time and what conditions make creativity more likely in real workplaces, enabling you to contribute ideas and improvements in a way that fits business realities.

With short videos and knowledge checks, this course is designed for beginners and busy learners who want a credible introduction they can apply immediately. By the end, you will be able to communicate management concepts with confidence, make more disciplined decisions, and approach leadership and strategy with a practical toolkit you can use throughout your career.

Course content

Video class: Introduction to Management: A Look Into the Management Process 05m
Exercise: Which of the following best represents the four functions that are crucial for successful management?
Video class: The Management Hierarchy: A Look Into the Different Levels of Management 08m
Exercise: Which type of manager is responsible for executing goals set by top management and coordinating resources across business units?
Video class: Mintzberg's Managerial Roles 09m
Exercise: According to Henry Mintzberg's managerial roles framework, which of the following is NOT one of the categories of roles that managers serve in an organization?
Video class: Frederick Winslow Taylor's Scientific Management 08m
Exercise: What was considered the major threat to American society by Frederick Winslow Taylor?
Video class: Administrative Management and Henri Fayol's 14 Principles of Management 09m
Exercise: Which one of Fayol's Management Principles states that employees should have the right and the power to give orders and assume responsibility?
Video class: Weber's Bureaucratic Management 07m
Exercise: What is a key characteristic of Weber's ideal bureaucracy?

Video class: Episode 146: The General Environment: What It Is and How To Evaluate It 09m
Exercise: Which of the following areas is NOT considered a component of the general environment that influences a business according to the content provided?
Video class: Episode 147: The Specific Environment: What It Is and How to Evaluate It 09m
Exercise: What is the main difference between a business's general and specific environment?
Video class: Episode 148: Evaluating External Environments: Analyzing the General and Specific Environments 05m
Exercise: Which of the following processes is essential for managers to stay updated on changes in the external environment that could impact their organization?
Video class: Episode 149: Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development 08m
Exercise: What stage of moral development primarily focuses on society's expectations?
Video class: Social Responsibility Perspectives: The Shareholder and Stakeholder Approach 07m
Exercise: According to Milton Friedman's perspective on business social responsibility, which statement best describes his view?

Video class: Episode 112: Introduction to SMART Goals: How to Establish Goals That Create Long-Lasting Commitment 10m
Exercise: What is a key reason for the effectiveness of goal setting?
Video class: Planning in an Organizational Setting 06m
Exercise: What is the primary role of middle managers in the multi-level planning process of a business?
Video class: The Rational Decision Making Model 07m
Exercise: What is the first step in the rational decision-making model?
Video class: Episode 153: The Rational Decision Making Model, Part 2 03m
Exercise: What is the rationale behind generating as many alternatives as possible during the rational decision-making process?
Video class: Introduction to the SWOT Analysis: The Art of Conducting a Situational Analysis 07m
Exercise: What is SWOT Analysis used for?
Video class: How the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Growth-Share Matrix Works 15m
Exercise: In the context of the BCG Matrix, which category would a company's product fall into if it has a small market share in a market characterized by high growth rates?
Video class: Porter's Five Forces of Analysis: How to Determine the Attractiveness of an Industry 13m
Exercise: Which force from Porter's Five Forces focuses on the ability of suppliers to control prices within an industry?

Video class: Episode 154: Innovation and the S-Curve: Why More Money Doesn't Always Lead to Greater Improvements 07m
Exercise: What does the 's-curve' in the S-curve of innovation represent in the context of technological development?
Video class: Episode 155: Establishing Creative Work Environments 07m
Exercise: Which factor is identified as negatively impacting creativity in work environments?
Video class: Lewin's Force Field Analysis 06m
Exercise: In the context of Kurt Lewin's force field analysis, which of the following would be a viable strategy for managing change when driving forces and restraining forces are similar in size?
Video class: Episode 157: The Benefits of Teams: How Job Satisfaction and Productivity Relate to Teams 04m
Video class: Tuckman's Stages of Team Development 05m
Exercise: According to Bruce Tuckman’s model of team development, which stage is characterized by team members coming to agreement on goals and understanding their individual roles within the team?

Video class: Introduction to Human Resource Management 08m
Video class: Episode 160: Human Resource Selection: Predicting Future Job Performance 09m
Exercise: What is considered to be the strongest predictor of future job performance according to the selection tools discussed?
Video class: Introduction to Equity Theory: The Impact of Perception on Employee Motivation 08m
Video class: Douglas McGregor's Theory X 08m
Exercise: According to McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y, how do managers view employees under Theory Y?
Video class: Episode 85: The Job Characteristics Model of Motivation, Part 1 07m
Video class: Episode 86: The Job Characteristics Model of Motivation, Part 2 07m
Exercise: Which of the following examples best illustrates the concept of task significance according to the Job Characteristics Model?
Video class: Episode 161: Introduction to the Goal-Setting Theory 06m
Video class: The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership 10m
Exercise: According to the Path-Goal Theory of Leadership, which factor is NOT one of the main considerations a leader should take into account when choosing an appropriate leadership style?
Video class: Episode 163: The Role of Perception 08m

Video class: Episode 164: Introduction to the Balanced Scorecard 09m
Exercise: According to the balanced scorecard approach discussed in the text, which of these perspectives is NOT one of the areas managers should measure for organizational performance?