CPA Advanced Level
Leadership and Management cheat sheet
Every chapter's key points, formulas and definitions on one page, for the last week before the exam. Each heading links to the chapter that explains it.
Introduction to management
- Management is planning, organising, staffing, leading and controlling an organisation's resources to achieve defined objectives efficiently and effectively; it is both a science and an art.
- Top management sets strategy and direction, middle management turns strategy into departmental plans, and first-line management supervises day-to-day operational work.
- Mintzberg's ten roles describe what managers actually do: interpersonal (figurehead, leader, liaison), informational (monitor, disseminator, spokesperson) and decisional (entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator).
- Katz: technical skill matters most at supervisory level, conceptual skill matters most at the top, and human skill matters roughly equally at every level.
- Management focuses on execution, getting things done through people; administration focuses on policy and overall direction, though the two overlap at senior levels.
Key terms
- Top management
- Sets overall strategy and direction (e.g. board, CEO).
- Middle management
- Translates strategy into departmental plans, coordinates between top and operational levels.
- Lower (operational/first-line) management
- Directly supervises day-to-day operational work.
- Interpersonal roles
- Figurehead, leader, liaison.
- Informational roles
- Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson.
- Decisional roles
- Entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator.
- Management
- Focuses on execution, getting things done through people, more operationally oriented.
- Administration
- Focuses on setting policy and overall direction, more strategically oriented, though in practice the two overlap significantly at senior levels.
The rest of the sheet covers
- Evolution of management thought
- Leading as a function of management
- Other functions of management
- Environmental analysis
- Leadership approaches and strategy
- Decision making
- Enterprise management
- Project management
- Marketing management
- Leadership and strategic change
- Case studies in leadership and management
- Exam technique and revision
- Glossary