CREATIVE INSIDE LEARNING VISION

How the Operation Management and Environmental sustainability effects business - keeping in view Risk Management

2023-04-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

Table of content

1. Background

2. Research methodology

3. Data analysis

4. Ethics, Validity, and Reliability

5. Gantt Chart: Time Plan for Completion of Project

Background

In this research, we propose to get knowledge about how operations management works for the betterment and success of a business. It is an opportunity that a business should work along in detail because a well-chalked-out process of operations management helps a business to grow and expand. Effective operations are not only an opportunity for the business in itself they also help the business grow and expand because they form an integral function of the organization. Many organizations forget that while working out their operations effectively they should keep in mind the sustainability of the environment as well as a managing risk which are integral elements of successful operations management. Risk management includes various activities that deal with risks after they are identified and evaluated. Risk management commences when there is enough evidence for hazards identified and evaluated by risk assessment.

Operations management can be explained using the process that involves the planning, forecasting, and controlling of activities that modify the efforts and hard work of employees into finished goods and services. It is a vast field of study, which highlights how an organization can effectively work, plan and control its operations via the study of concepts related to the effective operations of the organization. These concepts include design engineering, industrial engineering, management information systems, risk management, quality management, production management, accounting, and numerous other essential functions, which influence the operations of the organization (Chase, Jacobs & Aquilano, 2006, pp. 42-54).

Operations management is all about making the best use of the resources that an organization has and employing them to bring satisfaction to the final consumer. This happens by providing the finished goods or services to the final consumer, as per his need, in a timely and economical way. Operations management needs to be aligned with the core strategy of an organization. In this research proposal, we will analyze a case study of McDonald's in which we will study how it has been addressing the issues of environmental sustainability within its operations and how it is taking care of risk management for the successful operations of its business. This will help other businesses understand these two factors as integral elements of successful operations of their business while analyzing how Mcdonald’s gained success in working them out effectively.

Problem Statement & Rationale for the Problem

To analyze operations management from the environment sustainability perspective and to evaluate how effective risk management can work as an opportunity for the successful operations of an organization. The rationale behind this research is to understand operations management not only through its key processes that help it happen successfully but analyzing it dealing with opportunities for effective risk management and environmental sustainability which play an integral role in the overall operations of an organization.

Aims & Objectives of Research

To understand how environment sustainability forms an integral part of effective operations management

To understand risk management and how to take care of it for effective operations of a business.

To understand the issues that may arise in risk management and environmental sustainability

Research Questions

How effective operations management helps an organization to expand and grow?

How environmental sustainability helps in the effective operations management of a business?

How risk management if handled carefully will work for the effective operations of a business?

What could be the issues that may come up in risk management and environmental sustainability?

Research Methodology

The study will be carried out by employing the qualitative methodology. To find precise results both the primary and secondary data shall be collected. The primary research will involve data which will be collected through questionnaires and surveys will be conducted for the employees of the company. Interviews will also be taken up with the employees to get to know the real stats of how risk management and environmental sustainability have helped McDonald’s see progress in its operations. The research would also make use of secondary data accumulation. The data would be taken out from various journals, articles, and books. Secondary research of this article is depicting information assembled by literature, broadcast media, publications, and other non-human origins. In this study, we would also be using the descriptive method of research to get a closer understanding.

A qualitative study does not necessarily need to fit squarely within a specific approach. Once you have the groundwork in the different approaches and the different ways to gather and analyze data and have a good depth of understanding of that, you'll start to see that actually what might effectively answer a research question is a little more blended or adapted using multiple approaches or an adaptation. The key thing you need to do is consider what is needed to validly answer that question. And it might be that an analysis approach that is part of one qualitative approach can be combined with another or that a data collection approach, something more ethnographic might be more appropriate based on your population, but a different type of analysis might be needed. The main thing is to have a good understanding of all of it and to explain why you would want to carry it out and make your case. It's almost like being a lawyer. You make your case and make it stronger. And, be able to justify why you are taking some specific decisions. All these decisions will be the key to making your study strong. Another thing to consider as you are carrying out research and evaluating it on a qualitative end is to make use of a multi-method approach where you know a blended approach within qualitative multiple approaches within the same paradigm.

Data Collection Method

Data for this study will be collected through questionnaires asking McDonald’s employees about the organization, its successful operations management, and how it has handled the issues of risk management and environmental sustainability as part of its operations effectively. The study will also assemble data through interviews. Detailed interviews will be taken up with people from the top management level as well, who will explain how they strategize this process and make the best out of them using them as opportunities for the business to expand and grow.

Sample Size

The sample size of this research is based on the formula presented by Rea and Parker with 10% of tolerance or margin of error and 95% of reliability. The following table 1 in this regard illustrates the sample size with an unknown or large number of populations suggested by Rea and Parker.

Where:

N= Sample Size

Z = Standard Deviation

Cp=Tolerable Error/Margin of Error/Sampling error

α = Significant Level

p = Population Value

Where:

Variable Value

N= Sample Size = 96

Z = Standard Deviation = 1.96

Cp=Tolerable Error/Margin of Error/Sampling error = 0.10

α = Significant Level = 0.05

p = Population Value = 0.5

Since McDonald’s worldwide has a huge set up of employees working globally there is no way to know relatively such a large population and corresponding population value (P value), hence the current research assumed and conservatively used Cp=0.10, α=0.05, and p=0.5. By using these, the minimum sample size of the overall respondents who are employees at Mcdonald’s also those who have been interviewed by the top management in this study would be 96 in total.

Sampling Method

The non-probability convenience sampling has been employed in this study as a sampling method to select the research participants. Convenience sampling has been chosen because it is one of the most widely used sampling methods in the exploratory phase of the study and is perhaps the best way of getting some basic information quickly and efficiently.

Data Analysis

Data analysis

The data collected through the questionnaires and interviews will then be studied and analyzed employing the qualitative research method which will consist of the experiences and valuable insights shared by the employees of McDonald’s. Also, several excerpts will be analyzed from the information collected through secondary research about the several factors that lead to social issues so that they can be solved for good.

What Sort of Timetable Is Required

The researcher must investigate and should take adequate measures to ensure that authentic responses and data are being obtained through surveys, questionnaires, and interviews. The time that will be required is good enough for chalking out the questionnaire, finding the right people, and getting the right response that will be of help. Hence, planning it out properly is integral. Everything should be planned out with a proper timeline so things move on smoothly.

Limitations

However, the current investigation has employed a survey through questionnaires from employees at McDonald’s. The questionnaire would be online because it needs the perspectives of employees working in its global setup. The researcher needs to assure that there is no pressure on survey participants in terms of answering any questions. An attempt to enhance the honest responses of participants has also been made by assuring the participants that confidentiality of their responses has been strictly made on all grounds. The available literature suggested that the promise of confidentiality may probably have a great effect on the willingness of participants to provide accurate responses to questions. Interviews are already a very safe means of obtaining information so they can be handled effectively.

Ethics, Validity, and Reliability

Validity refers to the degree to which the study completely illustrates the concept that the researcher aims to measure. Validity can be of three types which are content validity, construct validity, and criterion validity. Content validity determines whether the content of the measures fully demonstrates the study. Construct validity is a collection of opinions that are interconnected in a meaningful way to create a logical meaning. Face validity is not considered one of the statistical methods and it measures what we claim.

On the other hand, reliability is described as the extent to which results are accurate and consistent over time. Reliability is very essential to the research design as it helps to conclude the data collected through the study. Reliability can be either test-retest, inter-rater, or internal consistency.

The ethics, validity, and reliability of the research will include the economic, legal, ethical, philanthropic, and discretionary prospects of a firm. Until very lately, several firms looked at business ethics through means of administrative conformity with standards of law and faithfulness to internal rules and regulations that are related to transactions of international business. In the environment of today, it is essential to give ample attention to business ethics as it is happening and upgrading around the globe so that the firms can obtain the respect and confidence of their customers and remain successful throughout their businesses. Incorporating legitimate and ethical behavior is extremely important for companies and individuals as they would be held for all their actions, as the requirement grows for much better principles of social responsibility. Having a relationship of courtesy with the customers is important and paying off pending debts punctually is one more significant aspect that comes under social responsibilities, which deal with a business. Having a concept of optimistic behavior within the organization encompasses having a positive relationship with everyone within the organization and for any sort of dispute handling there should be a proper channel. It also includes dressing elegantly when coming to work within a professional organization to get respect from the customer’s side.

For ensuring validity, content validity has been used as it is considered by many researchers as the best validity criterion when instruments measure the opinions, perceptions, and attitudes of individuals on a certain perspective. The content validity of the data is often evaluated through opinions presented by a certain number of participants in the field involved. Based on their opinions, the content validity of the test is then considered satisfactory to the extent that such participants agree that the instruments used for collecting and analyzing the research topic are valid and met all requirements. 30 global employees which make up 20% of the respondents were selected in the pilot test to determine the validity of the data of instruments.

The content validity with these 30 employees suggested that all the respondents can easily understand the intended use of the questionnaire and that all the questions in the questionnaire applied to measuring the key objective of the research. Additionally, the validity test confirmed that the questions were easy to follow and logical and there was no negative feedback concerning the understandability of the questions. Lastly, the content validity suggested that the average time required to fill out the questionnaire is 10-12 minutes.

Gantt Chart: Time Plan for Completion of Project

Tasks

May.

June.

July.

August.

A critical review of the Literature

Preparing the questionnaire

Making appointments to interview the target samples

Conducting the interviews and surveys

Analysis of primary data

Literature review changes

First draft

Revisions

Second draft

Revisions

Final version submission

Management Skills And Entrepreneurship - Business Plan of a new product launch by a new business organization

2023-04-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

Task 1

Business Plan

This particular task will include analysis of a new product launch by a new business organization. We have taken account of Dawes Cycles, a company which deals in manufacturing and marketing of bicycles and has decent amount of experience in manufacturing of cycles. The company now intends to enter into fitness industry and is going to introduce exercising equipments. It will begin with exercising cycles first of all and success or failure of this product will decide their future plans.

Business Description

Dawes Cycles is one of the oldest names in cycle industry in United Kingdom. It was started in 1906 and thus has over hundred years of experience in production and distribution of touring bikes across the nation. The organization produces and markets tour bikes, mountain bikes and general bikes. Apart from that, the organization has been premier business in providing best quality goods and services to the organization. Having such wide experience in field of customer service could just mean that the organization has been able to serve customers well over the years. However, as it haes been noticed in case of other companies, the overall demand for bikes has drastically reduced over the past few years, especially post 90’s decades. Any business which does not opt for diversification, despite of changing market environment, cannot go to the distance. This is the reason why introduction of new products and services is necessary in case of such organizations.

Currently, the organization has different range of brands. Dawes brand include Galaxy and Super Galaxy; Barrosa and Dirty brands (“About Us: Dawes Cycles--nd”). One of the prime aspects which make the organization stand out of its rival is their ability to change their internal control systems and strategic management processes with course of time. The organization has constantly developed itself in accordance to change in business environment. No organization could be rigid in its approach and still achieve long term objectives. It is very important for an organization like Dawes to carefully assess the changes in business environment and alter their strategy. These days, the customer demand for exercising equipments has increased as people have become more aware about health and well being. This is the reason why introduction of exercising cycles to the customers will give necessary boost to the sales and revenues of the organization. The organization has no intention in reducing its production capacity for its flagship brands (“The Opportunist Model of Corporate Entrepreneurship--nd”). However, since it wants to capture the opportunity in the health and fitness industry, it will adopt aggressive marketing processes, which will be discussed in course of this particular task.

Business Opportunities

This part will include current set of opportunities in the market and potential customer analysis. Let us start with the customer analysis:

Potential Customer: The organization already has a decent number of brand loyal customers across the nation. With introduction of new line of products, the organization does not want to go beyond national boundaries and will not increase geographical dimensions. The existing customers will be approached first of all for marketing new product. However, it is very unlikely that persons using terrain bikes will go for purchasing exercising bikes. Exercising bikes are generally meant for people who have hectic work schedules and have no time for exercising and leisure related activities. This is the reason why, our potential customers will include corporate world workers, businessmen and service class people, who devote more than 40-50 hours a week in office. Also, it will be important that such persons are concerned about their health. Unless, they are careful about their health, they will never go for such fitness equipment’s shopping. As of now, it is not possible for us to extend marketing plan and create awareness about fitness and health related products. In current situations, we need to work over the existing opportunities in the market. The age group for the customers will be 25-60. We are targeting young to middle aged people having hectic schedules and working profiles.

Geographical Area: As discussed before, currently, the organization is not thinking to go beyond England and United Kingdom. However, if the project is successful, then organization is not going to restrict its operations within the nation and is open to any opportunity which might come across from rest of the world.

Business Competitors: There are number of competitors in this industry. The organization will also take account of second hand sellers on various platforms. However, chief competition could be expected from:

a) Technogym

b) Gym Company

c) UK Fitness Supplies

We anticipate a gradual increase in competition from online resellers; however, so many customers require hands on technical solutions, that we expect online retailers to actually drive business our way. Research has indicated that many of our customers use the Internet to shop and compare; but they want to do business with someone local, for hands on technical solutions.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy will be very crucial for success of the new product. The reason for that is simple—as of now, the organization, Dawes Cycles is well known for tour bikes and all terrain bikes. It is an unknown option in fitness related equipments. This is the probably first time when the organization is introducing new line of products. Therefore, it is crucial to inform the audience about forthcoming change in organization’s range of products. Marketing strategy has to be planned very carefully as the business cannot afford to overspend in the marketing process as the financial resources available right now are pretty much limited.

Initially, the marketing strategy will aim to present Dawes as latest entrant in fitness industry as an organization genuinely concerned about the health and fitness of the customers. We will underline how fitness helps our existing customers to lead a happy and healthy life. This will be done by using different modes of media. Some of the key components of the marketing plan shall include:

a) Launch promotions will be directed to our specific market through a cooperative effort with the PR consultants and to the market at large with billboard ads. Radio spots are planned for the first 4-6 months, and we plan to offer referral rewards and include special offers at the checkout.

b) We noted previously that the Internet serves our customers primarily as a shopping tool to learn more about our products and place an order for the product, but they prefer to come to the store for a variety of reasons. As we launch our store in new location, our website will already have been live for at least 8 weeks.

c) Social networking like Facebook and Twitter will be used extensively for the purpose of creating awareness about the product. Social networking could prove to be a better source of communicating awareness about the new product online as compared to company’s own website. These days, the potential customers spend a lot of time online and mostly on these social networks. This is the reason why Facebook and Twitter are primarily targeted for marketing process.

d) In store merchandising: Providing discounts and other schemes to the customers will also add on the marketing process. This helps in attracting attention of customers more than any other marketing process.

Business Operations

Business operations will include the following factors:

Operational function:

Since the organization is going to introduce entirely new range of product, hence operations will be reengineered accordingly. However, there will not be any substantial changes in the current decision making team and the organization will continue with same set of board of directors and managers. Since the current range of products of the organization is very limited, there is no reason why the organization cannot continue with same decision makers and add another line of product. However, there has to be separate production facilities and for that, human resource manager will also need to recruit new members in the organization.

Decision making personnel:

There shall not be many changes in organization’s current operational team. Since 2001, Dawes has been owned by Tandem Group plc, owners of Lincolnshire-based Falcon Cycles., which also owns Falcon Cycles. Frames are now all manufactured in the Far East, some using Reynolds 631 tubing, but the bicycles all assembled at the Falcom factory in Brigg, North Lincolnshire. It is expected that new machineries will be installed in existing factories and that will help in production of exercising cycles. Even though, the new product is extremely different from existing range of products, still since the organization produces most of the components and accessories within the factory, the new product will be produced within the existing facilities (“About Us--nd”).

Like any retail operation, there is always risk associated with operating a business. For Dawes, we see our greatest exposure in the current absence of very intense competition in this area. A significant threat to our business would most likely derive from a sudden influx of competing retailers, backed by a major corporation or conglomerate, setting up multiple locations within the downtown or city area.

In the event of a major change in the bicycle market, we might also expect to see. To reduce risk in this area, we have explored the possibility of partnering with a number of gyms and fitness centres, one of the best companies which have similar plans for expansion to promote both our businesses, and increase visibility to new customers. We have also plans to keep the costs as well as the prices very economical and thereby capturing a big part of the market, to help create a barrier to entry in this local market.

Financial Plan

B4L is currently funded by both equity and debt capital. The current capital structure has not be altered for long and has been successful. Funding has been used to complete the necessary improvements to the retail space leased at down town in London, and to cover initial inventory and payroll expenses for the first 8-9 months of business.

Based on our research and analysis, building on Dawes’ experience and what we feel are sound business assumptions, our second year capital requirements are for a $ 100,000-150,000 line of credit by, 2014. We intend to be profitable by July 2016, and anticipate covering our line of credit from cash flow beginning in July 2017.

To accomplish this goal, we have developed a comprehensive plan to

Maximize sales with an extensive campaign to promote our products / services.

• Add retail outlets and sales offices.

• Reinforce Customer Support services to handle the increased demands created by the influx of new orders and broader coverage of existing accounts.

• Augment company staff to support and sustain prolonged growth under the new marketing plan.

In the current set of conditions, when the demand for flagship products of the company is not very impressive, it will not be advisable to take huge risks and invest substantial amount of money in new range of product. However, since the demand for traditional and touring bikes is not going to improve any time in future, it seems to be the perfect time to enter in a completely new market. One of the prime reasons for entering in this market is because none of the traditional cycle manufacturers have thought of entering in this market yet. Fitness and health industry is not organized at all. There are number of players but not organized as compared to any other industry. We can take advantage of the situation and could initiate quality products to the customers. One of the main things in our favour is the fact that we have huge amount of experience in providing best quality products and services to the customers. No company in the industry has experience of over 100 years of serving customers. Even though we are new in this industry, still our experience of customer service could be utilized to carve a niche in this industry as well. With careful implementation of resources, it will be possible to have decent market share and achieve pre determined goals of the business and expansion.

References

THE OPPORTUNIST MODEL OF CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Retrieved on 31^st December 2013 from website:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1552926/opportunist-model-corporate-entrepreneurship

ABOUT US: Tanden Group PLC: Retrieved on 31^st December 2013 from website:

http://tandemgroupplc.co.uk/

About Us: Dawes Cycles: Retrieved on 31^st December 2013 from website:

http://www.dawescycles.com/t-about-us.aspx

The Opportunist Model of Corporate Entrepreneurship: Retrieved on 31^st December 2013 from website:

http://growfromwithinbook.com/2010/02/the-opportunist-model-of-corporate-enterpreneurship/

The Four Models of Corporate Entrepreneurship: Retrieved on 31^st December 2013 from website:

http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-four-models-of-corporate-entrepreneurship/

Marketing Management Practices and Porter's Five Forces

2023-04-07T13:34:00.002-07:00

Marketing Management Practices and Porter's Five Forces

INTRODUCTION

Marketing constitutes as one of the most important activities for the business structure of the present time when the market faces extremely tough competition. When the world economy grows at a larger scale and the human needs and desires diversify to make room for varied elements and subjects it becomes very difficult for a particular product or commodity or even a particular service to find its consumers and retain them for a longer period of time. Moreover, the market has extended to include various services and even education besides the existing products and commodities in the expanding arena of the market. Owing to the increasing number of products and services in the market which are completely operational it becomes immensely important for the manufacturing companies and the provider organizations to project the offerings to a larger section of the consumers and more importantly, in an effective way. Thus the need of good and intelligent marketing activities come to the fore and has become extremely important phenomenon in the due course of time (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000).

Marketing Management

In order to prepare a marketing plan for a company selling a particular product in the form of commodities, services or qualitative offerings, it is very important to analyze the marketing environment. It gives the company a scope to have an idea of the market scenario the company has to face when into the business structure. According to Assael et al., (1995) marketing environment analysis refers to the analysis of the different external and internal factors that constitute a business organization. There are quite a few factors that constitute to form the marketing environment. A complete analysis of all the factors gives the researcher a distinct idea about the needs and requirements for a given marketing environment. This in turn helps the researcher in finding out the ways in which new strategies can be formulated to facilitate the easy and fast increase in the sales volume of the company, in this case an increase in the number of students getting enrolled in the college and the rising popularity of the college.

The college is named as “Globe Trotter – A Tourism and Hospitality Institute” reflecting the specialization of the college. The name would give the people an idea about the purpose of the college which is offering tourism and hospitality courses. The college is situated in Crumlin, which is a town and community in South Wales, surrounded by the historic boundaries of the Monmouthshire. The setting up of schools, colleges and universities or the learning institutes altogether, needs a perfect environment. The suitable environment makes the process of learning more fruitful and ensures complete participation of the student, makes them more involved with the learning process. The newly set up institute needs a good marketing plan to make the maximum number of people to know of its existence and ensure a high number of student enrolment. For this very purpose the institute needs to draw up a well thought out marketing plan which will start with making an analysis of the marketing condition.

The analysis of the marketing environment goes a long way in providing success to the project and increasing its efficiency. The importance and roles of marketing environment analysis can be briefed in an organized order. Firstly, an analysis of the marketing environment of the concerned organization or company provides a scope to study the environment in which the company or organization is operating, in the first place (Baker, 2000). Knowing the environment makes it comparatively easier for the marketer to look out for the scopes for designing an efficient strategy and work on it. In the long run it would play a major role in ensuring successful plan for the successful market position of the company. Secondly, the analysis of the marketing environment helps in achieving the marketing goals of the concerned company or organization. During the analysis of the environment a detailed study about the market scenario is being made and in the due process the strengths and weaknesses of the market condition surfaces up. This provides a scope for making a marketing plan that would make up for the weaknesses and would make the plan stronger and ensure its success (Blythe, 2001).

Thirdly, during the analysis of the market scenario it studies all the factors of the business environment of the company that gives the company a clear estimate of its scope of business and probability of its success or failure. This will help the organization in setting up its expectations about the performance of the company and response from the consumers that can be measured in terms of quantity and not only in terms of quality. Fourthly, the detailed study about the business factors during the formulation of the marketing plan helps in assessing the factors that determine the business in the prevailing market and its impact of the marketing environment. Finally, during the study about the market scenario it exposes the major environment scenario categorized as macro (external) environment and micro (internal) environment factors of the business environment. The internal as well as external factors together create a combined impact of the market in terms of consumer behavior towards the adopted policies and offerings.

According to the observations of Vrontis and Pavlou (2008) the macro (external) environment consists of the culture, society, economical, political, technological and even legal ambit of the working scenario. Macro environment is the external environment of the organization that holds crucial place of importance for the success of mentioned college, both financial as well as corporate success (Davies, 1998). The macro environment for the company is very important for the survival of the company and a proper maintenance of the same is required in order to avoid any crisis or even for the purpose of dealing with the crisis as per the demand of the situation. On the other hand, the micro (internal) environment means the elements which are directly related with the functions of the organization like the education format, course fees, advertisement of the college, the teachers, students and other direct stakeholders of the company. It is very important to keep a close watch and study the micro environment because it is highly responsible for the success or failure of the organization (Beniger, 1986).

According to Porter (1980) the Five Forces Analysis formulated by him is a process for analyzing the market situation, for analyzing the business and develop the required strategies for the concerned business. The process of industry analysis formulated by Porter uses the economics of the industrial organization. According to him, it is the economics of the industrial organization that derives the five forces on which the entire mechanism stands. Not only this but they even decide the intensity of the competition and makes the market more attractive in terms of the offered competition and the prospect of activities resulting from the competitive atmosphere. Among the five factors three of them refer to the competition that the college would face from the external sources while the remaining two of the factors refers to the competition that the college would face from the internal sources. The Five Forces Analysis designed by Porter provides the college an opportunity to study and analyze the risk factors and adopt a marketing plan that would help the college in averting the threatening risks (Ellwood, 2002).

The Five Forces as stated by Porter (1980) for analyzing the competition faced by the concerned organization, in this case the college, will be helping the managing board of the college in preparing a marketing plan that will help it successfully achieve the target or objectives of the college. Among the Five Forces of market analyzing plan as stated by Porter the first force is the threat of the new entrants. With time the numbers of educational institutions are increasing very rapidly (Fill, 2002) increasing the competition between the different educational institutes. The already established colleges face a competition from the newly established colleges because the new colleges would have better infrastructure, better technologies that makes education more interactive, induces participation and in a way adds more quality to the education process and its ultimate end result and this will make education more interesting for the students. As a result the students will be drawn towards such colleges and the new entrants providing such facilities will attract more students than the existing colleges (McDonald, 2001).

The schools and colleges besides providing the education are even not charitable institutes so they do have a commercial outlook and commercial interests to look after their commercial gain so they need to more enrolment of the students for earning from their fees and maintaining the institution. When the new colleges attract more students with its advances features, the new entrants pose a threat to the existing colleges. The second factor of the Five Factors identified by Porter is the threat of the substitute products and services; in this case it is the other means of providing education or the alternative education system that has gained its due importance with time and changing attitude of the individuals. The alternative education system dilutes the presence of education system in the formal way but insists on imbibing knowledge in an all pervasive manner such that the individual is benefitted with an all round development instead of only academic expertise (McMartin, 1995).

The third factor of the Five Forces of market analysis as stated by Porter is the bargaining tendency and power of the customers, in this case it would be the tendency if the parents and in some cases the students for expecting more facilities than what are offered. The expectation of the parents or guardians from the institutes basically have always been more than what are offered and so they tend to be somewhat dissatisfied with the offered features and expect more from the institutes. This place is utilized by the competing institutions and thus can be considered as a threat to some institution. When the students and their parents turn out to be dissatisfied with the present college they can easily shift their ward to different college which they generally do. The marketing professionals should take care of that the students do not leave their college because that would contribute to the negative reputation for the company and this would further cause decrease in the number of enrolled students (Van Auken, 2002).

The fourth factor is the bargaining power of the suppliers which in this case in the faculty of the college. The faculty and the non-teaching staffs’ even engagement in bargaining of their needs and requirements in the form of salary, holidays and different policies. The college which offers such a high salary and other related facilities are more preferred by the professors and other non-teaching staffs. So this has to be kept in mind while formulating policies and regulations. The final factor of the Five Factors stated by Porter is the intensity of the rivalry of the competition. In order to have the advantageous position the colleges engage in the competition of proving itself as the best college and attract the students by applying any mean that would provide them an edge in the competition. This provides a threat to the organization from the other competing colleges. Thus the stated five factors were proposed by Porter for analyzing the market condition for any given organization. These five factors should be considered by this particular college for making a complete and effective analysis of the market situation and prepare an effective marketing plan (Weilbacher, 1993).

SECTION 2: MARKETING RESEARCH

The educational institution are established with the responsibility of offering education to the individuals but the underlining factor that makes it similar to the business houses is that the education offered there comes in exchange of a cost that has to be borne by the parents or guardians of the students. The higher educational institutions which offer specialised education have higher course fees structure and are thus subject to various speculation by the investing parents or guardians of the students. The colleges thus need to be very specific in targeting the group of people who can be converted into the students of the college. The marketing of the college has to be very strong so that the college gets a very good projection to the audiences and the messages can successfully convince the audience in enrolling themselves or their wards into the college. In order to prepare a successful marketing plan it is necessary to conduct a thorough study about the subject, study the strengths and weaknesses and prepare plan that would cover up the anomalies and provide much stronger features that would project the college as one of the best colleges to study into. This calls for the need of a proper marketing research.

Carrying on a research for the formulation of a proper marketing plan is very essential in ensuring its success and making the plan more efficient. The marketing research plays some important role in the success of the marketing of the college and secures the maximum number of students for the academic session. According to McCutcheon (2012) the marketing research plays varied roles in deciding the fate of the marketing plan and the business in the larger scenario. Marketing research plays a number of functions for the particular company which employs the particular marketing research. According to McCutcheon (2012) there are four primary types of functions performed by the marketing research. The first of the functions played by marketing research is the exploratory function. The exploratory function of the marketing research helps in when the researcher is completely unaware of the marketing condition.

It also helps when the researcher has limited knowledge about the market and even when the researcher is quite unsure about the outcome of the research activities. The marketing research process helps in having an idea about the market scenario and the possible outcome of the marketing activity. This gives the researcher a scope to make an idea about the market and design a workable plan for the same. The exploratory function of the market research also gives scope for understanding the reasons for a gradual loss of the company or poor performance of the products in the market. The exploratory market research could also be used to understand the though process of the consumers in making their purchasing decisions. In this case the exploratory market research could be used in studying the mindset of the residents in the adjoining area, the demographics and attitude towards education. According to the findings of the research the target audience would be chosen and marketing plan would focus on the target audience and with a specific attitude to bring out the required perception of education. When the researcher would know the details the marketing plan would become stronger and more efficient in registering a success (Ziethmal and Bitner, 2003).

The second function of marketing research is to perform the descriptive function. The descriptive function of the market research is to collect all the relevant information about the market, the process of marketing, and present the facts and information before the board so that the workable and most suitable marketing plan can be designed and implemented. The third function of the marketing research is the diagnostic function. The diagnostic function of the marketing research refers to the analysis of the data that have been collected through research of the market and studying the relationship between the data and different phenomenon. This function of the market research helps in deciphering the logical reasons for the nature, constraints and particular attitude of the market. In this context the marketing research would help the researcher in understanding the logical reasons for the attitude of the target audience.

Understanding the logical reasons would enable them to draw up a more workable marketing plan and work on it. The communication made during the process of marketing of the college the messages disseminated during the process would address the reasons that is putting constraints and preventing the success of the marketing procedure. It will help the college overcoming the hurdles and provide the advantage to increase the probability of its success. The marketing research also plays predictive function. By predictive function it means that the data and other relevant information collected during the process of marketing research would allow the researcher in making a collective judgment or predict the trend of the market that is to follow. The predictive function also allows the researcher in making a prediction about the outcomes the marketing decisions taken by the board and even about the reaction of the consumers on the decisions taken regarding the policies that affect the consumers directly or indirectly. When the market conditions are predicted it becomes easier for designing the activities for achieving the goals or set target of the managerial board of the college (Baker, 2000).

For carrying out the market research it is needed to follow a pre-defined set of methodologies. It helps in making the process more systematic; result oriented, and thus has more probability of success than failure. There are different methodologies that can be followed by a researcher for conducting a particular research. For this particular project the methodologies which would best suit the purpose are firstly, it would be survey. It would give a very clear picture of the demography of the area, data regarding the economic and political condition of the area of the college. It will also provide details about the people who are also the target audience. The second research method would be observation. The elements of the market that would indirectly affect the functioning of the market needs to be monitored closely. For this very purpose, the elements of the market need to be observed. The final method is the field trials. During field trials the success of the adopted methods would be tested thus making it correct.

MARKETING PLAN

The establishment of a college has to be planned with measured steps so that it can serve the purpose of its fundamental reason of establishment, that is, education as well as manage itself well as an organization that can generate revenue and maintain itself. For this very purpose it is very important to have a clear financial goal of the organization and chalk out a plan that helps in the successful achievement of the goal. When the college is at the very initial stage of its construction and before it gets to start functioning it needs to have a clear idea about the specialised education that it would offer and the segment of the students that it would target. It needs to make it clear to itself, that is, the managing board of the college, the place in which the college aims to reach. The concept of S.M.A.R.T. was coined by Peter Drucker and was put to use for the very first time by George T. Doran in the year 1981 (Fill, 2002).

The abbreviation of S.M.A.R.T stand to reflect the very objectives that needs to be adopted by the college which are namely “Specific” which means that the college needs to have an exact idea about its goals and not a general and common goal the more specific the goal of the college the more successful it becomes. General goals will give the college a moderate approach and average success. When the college has some general goals the efforts gets bifurcated to different directions and mostly misses to cause impact on the area that needed to create the maximum impact. As a result the effort does not bring out any successful result. With more such unsuccessful plans the college would move farther away from creating the much needed impact in the minds of the audience and most importantly the target audience. The second one is the “Measurable” which means that the college needs to follow a procedure that would check the success of the performance of the organization in attaining its goals from time to time. In this way it will measure the efficiency of the plans and programs adopted by them. It will help the managerial board of the college to evaluate their performances from time to time.

It also provides them the scope to improve and rectify their mistakes. Having knowledge of the areas where it went wrong and the areas where it stands weak the college would be in a better position to apply more effective plans and thus ensure its possibilities of success. The third of the objectives is “Attainable” which means that the college should set the goals which are very could be attained by the activities adopted by them; it should not set impractical goals that cannot be attained. Setting higher goals is not the way to achieve maximum success. The goals when complimented by the practicality of the process are what that makes it successful. Not meeting the goals which are set to be achieved adds to the negativeness of the project and adds to the reasons of its failure. Moreover, by setting impractical goals it will complicate the procedure for the college and take it far from achieving its objectives. Thus the college should set up goals that are very much attainable, even if those are smaller one but they would be significant in the long run to contribute to the success of the college (McDonald, 2001).

The fourth one among the five objectives of S.M.A.R.T. is “Relevant”. The term “Relevant” in this context and as one of the elements of S.M.A.R.T. means setting goals, aims or objectives that is very much in sync with the nature and objective of the college. The goals of the organization is set for fulfilling its major and long term objectives which is largely dependent of the nature of the organization and the function it serves to the society. For instance, the college cannot have goals for becoming the top ranking sports body of the nation; it won’t be in sync with the nature and objective of the college. It is so because college is an educational institution that strives to offer quality education to its students and play a role in constructing a better society by providing quality education along with high moral values. The final element is “Time-bound” which means that the objectives set out by the college will have to have a deadline, that is, they have to be achieved with a specific period of time. When the objectives are not specified within a perfect time period it loses its credibility, efficiency and also drifts away from its aims.

Once the objectives are decided, it becomes necessary to define the process of reaching to the aims and set out objectives successfully. When sketching out the procedure of achieving the aims and objectives it is important to implement the theory of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning popularly known as the STP. According to this theory the product, in this case the education offered by the college, has to be primarily segmented to provide a specific market for the product. After a product is segmented from the other existing products it has to find its target customers. The existence of the product without its customers is superficial and is of no use to the company. In this specific case it is the existence of the students that is very important for the college. The marketing plans needs to identify the students for the college. Once the audience of the marketing communication messages is identified it will ease out the process of drafting the marketing plan. After identifying the audience of the marketing communication messages the product needs to be positioned in the specific market. In this case the education slated to be offered by the college has to be placed into the identified market. The positioning of the product is of immense importance because it will be the deciding factor in deciding its brand value in the later stage. The higher the brand value the higher the demand of the product in the market.

As the marketing plan is drawn up and implemented it needs to be evaluated from time to time. In the present age when marketing of a particular product or services plays the major part of ensuring its popularity it is very important for the college to check the qualitative aspect and success of the adopted marketing plan. The outcome of the marketing plan could be qualitatively assessed by the number of students getting enrolled into the college and the increasing popularity of the college. The other factor that will help to assess the success of the marketing plan is the number of people talking about the college outside the ambit of its reach. The purpose of the marketing plan was to ensure greater projection of the college to its target audiences. The success of the plan could be measured by the survey to know the number of people aware of the college.

Conclusion

Based on the above discussion, it was found that the college needs to ascertain the impact and influence of internal and external factors along with deriving an influential marketing plan that will help in highlighting the value of the college. It is also important to understand that competition in the form of existing colleges and institutes can dampen the prospects of the college and thus differentiation strategies need to be formulated and implemented to be different in terms of offering courses and value. Overall, it was concluded that the prospects of the proposed college can be quite good considering the theoretical value but the overall significance and value can only be determined by assessing the overall benefits and value generated by the college at the macro level.

References

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Baker, M. (2000) Marketing Management and Strategy, 3rd edition, Macmillan Business.

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Weilbacher, W. (1993) Brand Marketing: Building winning brand strategies that deliver value and customer satisfaction, NTC business books, chapter1 and 2

Ziethmal, & Bitner, (2003) Services Marketing: integrating customer focus across the firm, McGraw Hill, chapters 1,3 and 6

T20 World cup final, England won by 6 wickets

2022-11-13T04:14:00.003-08:00

T20 World Cup Final

England won by 6 wickets

What a fabulous victory of England. what a great performance throughout T20 world cup. England beat Pakistan by 5 wickets to win the T 20 world cup final at the Melbourne cricket ground. Pakistan cricket team could score only 137 in twenty overs. while on the other hand, Ben Stokes scored an unbeaten52 off 49 balls to a 5 wicket great win over Pakistan. it is Phenomenal day for England cricket team.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN AN AIRLINE INDUSTRY: THE BRITISH AIRWAYS GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

2022-11-13T03:43:00.006-08:00

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN AN AIRLINE INDUSTRY: THE BRITISH AIRWAYS GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Table of Contents

Introduction

Research Aim & Objectives

Literature Review

Airline Industry

British Airways

Human Resource Management

Ethical and Access Issues

Conclusion

References

Introduction

One of the emerging and successful industries in this modern business world is the airline industry. The competition is increasing in this sector day by day and highly related with the high level of technology. However, this industry also performs a significant role in the development of the economic conditions of the country. The airline industries ensure the savings of time of the people which actually helps in the development of the organization and the economy. With the development of airline industry different other sectors and activities have been expanded. Tourism industry has developed along with the development of the airline industry and on the other hand, the activities of the business organization have also been expanded due to the ease of journey from one place to another. Human are the core resources of this industry. With the development of the HR, the airline industries can ensure better performances to its ultimate customers (Armstrong, M, 2006). British airline is one of the largest airline industries in the world. For the betterment of this industry, the organization tries to improve the present conditions of the employees. To adopt with the latest technologies, the organization tries to provide proper training and development which ultimately helps this organization in developing leaders from among the employees of the organization (Bach, S, 2005).

In this competitive business world, to compete in the market, the organization needs to concentrate on the development of the HR besides the products and machines. Understanding the human psychology helps the organization in providing better customize services to its customers which is very important for the betterment of the organization. However, based on this, the structure, strategy, and even the machineries or products have also changes. These changes definitely ensure the success of the organization in an international marketplace. This report basically tries to covers the HRM practices in the airline industries (Brewster, C, 2008).

Research Aim & Objectives

This research study aims to analyse,

Existing human resource management practices in British Airways in general as well as to assess how HR functions are conducted and handled in a multinational airline such as British Airways.

Literature Review

Airline Industry

In this modern business world, competition is increasing day by day and to support the organization in this competitive business world the airline industry performs its activities effectively and efficiently. There is no doubt that service is the fundamental product of this industry. Besides services, the organization also need to confirm the safety of the people and products and provides the extreme support to other organizations in the competition. There are three main characteristics of this industry which mostly affects the HRM practices in the organization (Cho, S, Wood, 2006). These three characteristics have been covered in the below.

Firstly, the competition in the market mostly influenced by the performances of the airline industries. Most of the organizations in this world are now depends on the airline industries for the transportation of the products, people, and posts. Previously, the organization mainly focuses on the products and services but with the changing concept, the airline industries are now concentrating on the development of the people within the organization (Duarte, G, 2001).

On the other hand, for the expansion of the business, the organization tries to satisfy the customers. The improved behaviour of the employees and quality services ensure the satisfaction of the customers. In this process, customers also perform the role of the sales personnel by motivating other people in order to take the services of the specific airline industry (Gratton, L, 2003).

Secondly, ensuring the safety of the customers, products, and parcels is the most important part of activities of the airline industry. The airline industry is required to focus on the security system which is very important for the safety of the customers as well as the products. This truly ensures the performances of this industry. The managers of airline industry need to be trained in order to provide better services to the customers. In the airline industry, the people of different cultures, languages and countries travel from one place to another (Holbeche, L, 2009). Thus to support those customers, the employees of the organization needs to be capable of communicating with those customers otherwise, it will be difficult for the organization to provide their best services to the customers. The values, and ethics of the customers are also varies from each other. Some comments may hurt the others whereas other may take it as a joke. Thus it is essential to have a clear understanding of the values and ethics of the people from different countries for the betterment of the organization (Harrison, R, 2002).

Finally, for the betterment of the organization, the airline industry mostly focuses on providing quality and quick services to the customers. Based on the services, customers get motivated towards the organization and also try to influence others to take the services of this organization which ultimately ensure the growth of the organization. This actually helps in avoiding high marketing costs of the organization (Hom, P, 2001).

British Airways

British Airways is one of the largest airline industries in the world. From the beginning, this airline mostly focuses on the transferring of products and parcels rather than transporting people from one place to another. British airways was established in 1974 and in 1987 it moved towards the private sector. The current conditions of this airline industry are the merger of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and the British European Airways Corporation (BEAC), (British Airways, 2014).

In the marketplace, there are over 40 competitors with which the organization currently competes. But besides the all of the difficulties the organization tries to maintain its leadership position in the market not only in the UK market but also in some European market. Virgin Atlantic is the main competitors of British Airways which was established in 1984. However, the organization also tries to improve its market share even in the financial turmoil of the country (British Airways, 2014).

British airways has experienced a lot of downfalls and threats over the past few decades. After the 1990’s, when British Airways assumed that any strategy like 'cost control' or ‘operational efficiency' were started to replicate by means of latest information technology, the company looked upon a new competitive strategy 'customer service through resource planning' which was aligned to the company's corporate objectives.

Two training programs were designed to train staff and managers where the first training program 'Putting People First' helped the staff to understand how the image of helpfulness satisfy the customers and the second training program 'Managing People First' evoked the managers to breakdown the strict approach and strict behavioural boundaries. Due to the successful implementation of these training programs a significant cultural change was observed. (British Airways Plc. 2010)

The company had also undergone typical development program such as 'individual learning', 'individual employee development' by which it achieved a pool of competence. The company's HR department had emerged on its performance development for instance, 'appraisal scheme', 'improved reward system' that finally directed to the company's business performance. (British Airways Plc. 2010)

Human Resource Management

For the betterment of the organization, the British Airways tries to focus on the satisfaction of the shareholders values and to satisfy the customer’s requirements. From the financial perspective the organization tries to focus on the shareholder value whereas the employees of the organization are responsible for the satisfaction of the customers. The overall business operations actually developed in such a situation which tries to ensure the satisfaction of the customer’s requirement and to provide quality services to the customers (Khilji, S, 2006).

The British Airways is the service oriented organizations which mostly depends on the performances of the employees of the organization. The employees are the core resources of this organization. On the other hand, the British Airways also tries to concentrates on the development of the employees of the organization. To carry out the strategic decisions of the organization, the employees play the most important role. The HRM department of this organization mostly deals with the employees of the organization rather than the machines or technologies of the organization. In this modern business world, the human resources of the organization actually ensure the growth of the organization in the market. As the British Airways is the service based organization, the employees of the organization tries to provide the quality services to the customers in order to improve the image of this organization in the mind of the customers (Khatri, N., 2005).

This modern business world tries to improve the conditions of the business organization with the development of the employees. All over the world, the airline industry follow the standard procedures in recruiting and selecting new employees. With the passage of time, the organization has able to develop diverse workforces which actually covers all the areas of the airline industry. This diverse workforce ensures the implementation of the winning and developing strategies of the organization (Kaplan, R,S, 2008).

The organization also tries to motivate the employees to enhance the thrust for learning something which will be beneficial for the personal and for the professional life. The development of the employees itself also ensure the development of the organization. To provide better services to the customers, the British Airways also ensure separate customer services department which will be responsible for providing all the information related with their services and there is no doubt that the organization goes for choosing the best person for this service (Khilji, S., & Wang, X. 2007).

The HRM department of British Airways also focuses on the improvement of interrelationships among the employees of the organization. The supporting mentality among the employees helps them in providing best services to the customers. However, the organization also tries to treat its all of the employees fairly and equally. Besides this, the organization offers different other benefits to the employees which also attracts them to stay with the organization and to provide their best services to the customers which will be better for the organization. This process helps the British Airways in ensuring the growth of the organization in the international competitive market (Lawler, E. 2005).

Research Methodology

One of the most important parts of the research paper is the research methodology. The research methodology mainly covers the research approach, philosophy and strategies which are mostly requires for the proper completion of the research. Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (2007) has developed a research model for the proper understanding of the research activities which is named as the “Research Onion Model”. All the components of the research onion model have been covered and critically elaborated in the following.

Figure-1: Research Onion Model

Source: (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2007)

Research Philosophy

There are different philosophies available in a research. In this research philosophy, the study will cover both the positivist, and interpretive philosophies. In the positivist philosophy, the study will cover the quantitative methods along with some statistical discussion in order to improve the present conditions of the organization whereas the interpretive philosophy will evaluate the diverse workforce groups by providing a better explanation of the quantitative findings (Saunders, M, 2009).

Research Approach

Another important part of the research onion model is the research approach. Basically there are two types of research approaches available- Inductive and Deductive. In-order to complete this study, both the approaches will be covered. In the deductive approach, the research activities try to complete by considering the hypothesis developed by the researcher based on the research (Saunders, M, 2009). In this case, different types of proved data and theory have been covered for the proper development of the hypothesis. The deductive approach mostly developed based on different types of data collection process along with the settlement of hypothesis, development of theories and effective observation process. The positivism philosophy is the appropriately aligned with this approach (Yin, R.K, 2003).

On the other side of this study, the inductive approach is easy for the researcher to perform. This theory is not developed on the basis of some predetermined theories to conduct the research activities. However, observation process is the best process and practise for this approach. Based on observation, the researcher will try to identify the problems in order to achieve the overall objectives of this research (Veal, A.J, 2006).

Both the deductive and inductive approach will be covered in this study. On the other hand, to support the philosophy of this study. (Collis and Hussey, 2009).

Following hypothesis will helps the researcher in developing proper findings in order to achieve the research aim and objectives.

Research Methods

To complete the research activities effectively both the quantitative and qualitative methods will be used. The success of this study will be ensure by the proper cooperation of the research approach, philosophy, methods and strategies (Saunders, M, 2009). Moreover, the statistical information for the study completion purpose the observation of the employees and customers will also be required. And the proper combination of these two methods is called mixed method. This study will cover the mixed method for the successful completion of the study the (Veal, A.J, 2006).

Research Strategies

In order to perform the research activities, it is essential to ensure the strategies of the study. The research strategy actually will help the research in collecting the required information through a systematic process or channel. In this study, the experimental strategy will help the researcher in gathering the information. However, the interview, survey and case study process will also contribute a lot in this case (Saunders, M, 2009). In this study, the HRM practices in the airline industry have been covered basically from the British Airways perspective. Thus to gather related information, the survey, interview or the experiment of the organization will helps the researcher in getting required information. In this study, the deductive approach will help the researcher in gathering the information from the secondary sources whereas the inductive approach will cover the primary information (Yin, R.K, 2003).

Time Frame

As the study covers both the inductive and deductive approach the time frame for the completion of this study will also varies. The deductive approach mostly covers the secondary information which is readily available whereas the inductive approach will cover the primary sources. Gathering of the information from the primary sources will require some time. Different types of interview, survey and observation process will covered in this approach which are time consuming but the secondary sources are not time consuming. The secondary sources will ensure the gathering of the information within the shortest possible time (Saunders, M, 2009).

Research Nature

There are three different nature of the research is available like exploratory, explanatory, and descriptive. The current study will fall in the explanatory nature. Because it elaborates the effect of performance management practices on human resource managed performance.

Research Techniques

The data collection tools and techniques will be quite different in this study. As the researcher will use the mixed methods for the collection of data, the data analysis process will also be different or mixed in this study. The quantitative analysis of the information or data will ensure the presentation of the data along with some statistical tools (Veal, A.J, 2006). On the other hand, the qualitative information will help the research in developing some explanation of the quantitative data. However, overall findings of the study will be presented through tables and graphs for the better understanding of this study.

Sampling

The information will be collected from a sample of 100 people which will cover both the employees and the customers. Both the parties are important for this study in order to effectively complete the study(Saunders, M, 2009).

Ethical and Access Issues

In a nutshell, research ethics covers the conduct and behaviour of the researcher while conducting a research activity. As the information will be gathered from both secondary and primary sources proper validation of the gathered information will be done by the researcher(Saunders, M, 2009). All the updated information will be used in this study for having a clear picture of the present conditions of HRM practices in British Airways. However, all the information regarding the information providers will keep secret and the information will be used for the research purpose only (Collis and Hussey, 2009).

Conclusion

For the development of the British Airways, the employees of the organization are working hardly. The quality services of the employees helps in achieving the trust of the customers and gaining the satisfaction. Customers are the all in all in this sector as the organization is a service based organization. However, the growth of this organization mostly depends on the improvement of its employees who actually deliver quality services. This study helps the researcher in identifying the HRM practices in the British Airways which may presents the whole picture of the airline industry (Armstrong, M, 2006).

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Recommendation and justification of change management programme that may assist McDonald’s in realising its strategic objectives.

2020-11-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

Introduction:

The board of directors of McDonald’s Inc approached me. They wanted my advice, as a strategic consultant, on the future strategic direction of the company. The board of directors wants such a development strategy that makes McDonald’s resilient to changes in the external environment and makes it's business sustainable.

Critical Analysis:

McDonald’s runs a chain of fast-food restaurants across the world. It is present in more than 100 countries. The company’s business strategy is to be a cost leader. It tries to operate at lower costs than rivals. It transfers the cost savings to customers in the form of lower prices.

Lately, the company has been lagging behind its rivals in many large emerging markets. These emerging markets include countries like Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The company’s board is not clear what its future strategic direction should be in these countries.

Development strategy can be one of the following: inventive strategy, denotative strategy, or incremental strategy. Inventive strategy means having a completely new strategic direction for the future. The denotative strategy is not to have a clear strategy but just an indication of what are the strategic objectives of the organization. In incremental strategy the strategic development is slow and gradual; it builds on the existing strategic framework of the organization (Kvint 2009).

Analysis of internal factors of McDonald’s

The company’s strength is in delivering good quality fast food items, in a clean ambiance at reasonably low costs. The strategic capabilities of a company include those capabilities, resources and organizational skills that give a sustainable competitive advantage to the organization.

Supply chain management is one of the strategic capabilities of McDonald’s. Efficient supply chain management plays a significant role in McDonald’s ability to keep costs low. It has a network of dedicated suppliers. Some of these suppliers work exclusively for McDonald’s. McDonald’s pursues strategic collaboration with its suppliers (Hill & Jones 2012).

Operations management is also a strategic capability of the restaurant chain company. Operations management in restaurants ensures that there is a standard quality of products and services in McDonald’s restaurants across the world. The standard quality of food and services delivered in its restaurants is an important aspect of its brand image.

Cost control is implemented at every step of the supply chain.

McDonald’s key resources include its human resources, the location of its restaurants in strategic areas, and the institutional knowledge of the restaurant business that it has gained over the years.

It is these strategic capabilities that give McDonald’s a competitive advantage over its rivals. Competitive advantage is the advantage that a firm has over its rivals. The competitive advantage allows a company to have a higher market share than its rivals, or to charge higher prices than its competitors and work at higher margins (Kvint 2009).

McDonald’s has used its competitive advantage to have a higher market share than its competitors like Burger King, KFC, Subway, and others. Actually, McDonald’s faces competition from a number of local players in every market in which it operates.

The organizational culture of McDonald’s is one that is in sync with its cost leadership strategy. The culture of efficiency prevails across the organization of the company. If McDonald’s adopts an inventive strategy then it will also have to change its organizational culture.

Analysis of external factors of McDonald’s

Most of the countries have not recovered fully from the economic slowdown caused by the 2008 financial crisis. In such an economic scenario, customers have become more value-conscious – they want more value for every dollar that they spend.

Customers in emerging markets have lower per capita income than their counterparts in developed countries. They, therefore, have lower disposable income too. McDonald’s cost leadership strategy suits these emerging markets. In some emerging markets, McDonald’s needs to offer its products at even lower prices than what it is currently charging (Hill & Jones 2012).

SWOT Analysis

Strengths: McDonald’s enjoys cost leadership over many of its rivals. It has a presence across the globe. Its brand image is one of quality, reliability, and value. Its capabilities in supply chain management and operational management give it a sustainable competitive advantage.

Weaknesses: McDonald’s menu is a limited one. It has been unable to come up with new products at the pace at which many of its rivals have done lately. For instance KFC has become the market leader in many emerging markets as it has been able to offer more products and more value to customers lately.

A large number of restaurants of the company are owned and managed by franchisees. It is a challenge to ensure that the product and service quality delivered in franchisee-owned restaurants is up to the standards of McDonald’s. A few franchisees of McDonald’s in remote developing markets have repeatedly failed in keeping up with the standards required by McDonald’s.

Opportunities: There are significant market penetration opportunities in emerging markets and the least developed countries of Africa. These countries now have a large population of middle-class consumers. McDonald’s target customers are middle-class customers.

Threats: The main threat to McDonald’s comes from its competitors like KFC. Its rivals have emulated its capabilities in supply chain management and operations management. So McDonald’s has lately lost much of its competitive advantage over its rivals.

On the basis of an analysis of the internal and external strategy of McDonald’s, it is recommended that the company’s strategic direction should be one of incremental strategy. It should keep following the cost leadership strategy. It should improve its cost control further so as to strengthen its cost leadership (Drucker 2000).

Such an incremental strategy will enable McDonald’s to increase its market share across markets. It will also make McDonald’s more capable of dealing with the challenges being posed by its rivals.

Task 2: Critical evaluation of the recommended strategy

The recommended strategy is to follow an incremental strategy over the existing cost leadership strategy. Following a completely new inventive strategy will not be a suitable strategic direction for McDonald’s. It will require a change in the entire culture of McDonald’s. Without a change in culture, a new strategy will not work effectively.

The existing strategy of cost leadership has worked till now. It won’t be appropriate for the company to change its strategy of cost leadership. It just needs to make its existing strategy more effective by following an incremental approach. This will make its competitive advantage more sustainable and will ensure that McDonald’s remains resilient in the face of adverse external shocks.

A denotative strategy has no clear long term goals and objectives. Such indicative strategy changes in response to changes in the external environment. A denotative strategic direction is taken by companies that don’t have a clear strategic direction. A denotative strategy is suitable for companies who are not sure what would be the right strategy for them. They, therefore, adopt an indicative or denotative strategy as a hit-and-trial way of identifying the right strategy.

An incremental strategy will involve McDonald’s tightening its cost control so as to create more value for itself and for its customers. The company’s human resources are competent inefficient operations management. They can be educated and trained further so that they can become more efficient in operations management.

The company’s supply chain capabilities can be leveraged further. Its suppliers can collaborate in strategic implementation. Its capabilities in operations management and store management can be honed to lower operational costs further (Drucker 2000).

McDonald’s follows a strategy of customization when it comes to products and pricing. It customizes its menu according to the local culture and local tastes and preferences. It doesn’t sell its popular beef burgers in its Indian restaurants because eating beef is considered a taboo in Hindu India. It doesn’t sell pork products in Islamic countries; it sells only kosher products in Jewish Israel.

It prices its products at lower margins in low-income countries in order to make them affordable for customers. By implementing tighter cost control McDonald’s can lower the price of its products further. This will enable it to increase its market share in emerging markets and in the least developed countries.

McDonald’s should follow this incremental strategy in product innovation. It needs to expand its menu by creating more products. More value offerings need to be created for customers in low-income countries.

McDonald’s has the financial resources required for implementing an incremental strategy that can make its operations even more efficient. It can invest in training of its franchisees so that they can become more efficient in the management of the stores.

McDonald’s training facility, Hamburger University, is in Illinois. The training facility is spread in an area of over 130,000 square feet. McDonald’s can use its training infrastructure for training its employees so that they can become more efficient and effective.

It has the technological infrastructure, like electronic data interchange, in place. This technology infrastructure enables it to share data and information with suppliers in real-time. Using its technology infrastructure McDonald’s can implement the incremental strategy effectively.

Task 3: Change Management Program

The implementation of the incremental strategy will require tightening of cost control. This will require some change in the organizational culture. Employees need to become conscious about costs as well as customer service at the same time. New areas of cost savings will have to be identified.

The employees have to be involved in this change. The need for this change should be communicated to them. The strategic objectives of the company should be explained to them. How will the employees benefit from the change? This should be explained to them.

Employees may be resistant to changes. This resistance to change can be dissolved by having clear communication with employees during the change management process. Communication is the key to change management. It is through clear two-way communication that cooperation of employees in change management can be gained (Mulcaster 2009).

Resistance from employees can hinder the change management program. This in turn will prevent the company from achieving the objectives of the incremental strategy. The organizational culture of the company in emerging markets will have to be changed. Only then will McDonald’s be able to lower prices further in these markets. One of the key strategic challenges before McDonald’s is how to increase market share in emerging markets (Mulcaster 2009).

It will be difficult to implement the culture of efficiency in some emerging markets. McDonald’s policy is to employ locals in each national market. Many emerging markets do not have a culture of efficiency. Employees coming from such cultures may find it a challenge to adjust to McDonald’s culture of discipline and efficiency.

McDonald’s has a process-oriented approach to operations. In order to enhance the efficiency of its operations, it needs to improve its processes further. This will require training of human resources so that they can operate the improved processes.

The change management program for the incremental strategy should have the following stages:

i) Communicating with the employees the need for change. How the change program will benefit them?

ii) Addressing any grievances that employees have about the new strategy and the ensuing change.

iii) Implementing the change across the organization at the two levels: people & processes.

iv) Monitoring the implementation of change.

The implementation of change in organizational culture should be simultaneous with the implementation of an incremental strategy.

Conclusion:

The development strategy should be informed by the current strategy of the organization. If the current strategy has been successful in achieving organizational goals and objectives then the incremental strategy is the right approach. The current strategy of McDonald’s has been highly successful in achieving its objectives. Therefore it should follow an incremental strategy. Such an incremental strategy that strengthens its cost leadership will make McDonald’s more resilient in the face of adverse external shocks like an economic crisis. It will also give a sustainable competitive advantage to the company thereby ensuring its sustainability in the long run.

IKEA EXPANSION INTO THE INDIAN MARKET

2019-06-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

Introduction

1. Assessment of the favorability of the Market Condition

1.1 PEST Analysis

1.2 Critical Analysis of Internal and External Factor in Holistic globalized Strategy

1.3 The Holistic Concept and Key Elements

2. IKEA localization Vs Globalization Strategy

2.1 Identification of Strategic Orientation

2.2 Various Pertinent of IKEA business

2.3 Advantageous Areas of IKEA and their Implication

2.4 Recommendation for balancing Optimum balance of Globalization and Localization

3. The ethical challenges and approaches to corporate social responsibility of Ikea

3.1. Ethical issues in the Indian Market of Ikea and the Challenges it faces

3.2. Current CSR activities in the Indian Market and the involvement of Ikea

3.3. The CSR activities of Ikea in India and global integrated strategy

3.4. International Business and CSR strategy of Ikea and its impact on different stakeholders

Conclusion

Reference

Introduction

The global environment is related to multidimensional issues like cultures, economics, technologies, laws and many more (Weiss, 2014). The international business is directly or indirectly controlled by these multidimensional factors. During expanding any business these factors are analyzed to evaluate the viability of the decision. Besides, different ethical and social issues take place for the sustainable expansion of the business. When a business is considered as socially reliable, it is considered as the trustworthy or reliable (Hartman et al., 2014). This paper explains different issues regarding the expansion decision of the Ikea in the Indian and Chinese market. The report emphasizes more on the Indian issues. This paper also examines the internal and external conditions of the Indian market and also indicates strategic approaches to adapt to the situation. Besides, the recent ethical issues are also discussed considering the Ikea and its CSR activities.

1. Assessment of the favorability of the Market Condition

1.1 PEST Analysis

It’s very important for IKEA to conduct PEST analysis before making such investment on expansion in Indian and China. The PEST analysis consist of analysing the political, economic, social and technological factor (Henry and Herzog, 2008). The current condition of a country is basically reflexed through the PEST analysis and gives the indication of making any investment decision. So the PEST analysis is showed below:

PEST Analysis

(Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010)

Political

The political condition of India is stable and most of the political parties have rational thinking and concern for the development of the country (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010). The political unrest sometimes create chaos and make it harder for companies to conduct their operations. However in most of the cases, the countries’ policy makers and government are very consistent about development and progress issue (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007). So, IKEA can actually invest as the Foreign Investment Promotion Board has cleared the proposal of investing in their land.

Economic

Although the country’s economy is rapidly growing and the GDP is going up very fast, the two fifth of the population are still below poverty line. So it must be taken to consideration that, IKEA have to design certain products specialized only for that subcontinent (Henry and Herzog, 2008). On the other hand they should follow volume metrics to survive in the large market. However, the furniture industry may not be as profitable in India as other big companies in different industries because the predicted unit sales growth is estimated lower (5.44%) compare to other countries like Vietnam and China (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010).

Social

The social condition of the country is challenging as the countries’ culture, norms, language etc. are very different and it varies from state to state (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007). Apart from that, the countries’ major population is hard working people who is not used to luxurious product and lifestyle. So it has to be content with the urbane middle class and upper-middle class family.

Technological

One of the most important factor of PEST analysis is the technological factor which are determined based on the technological advancement and efficiency of the country (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010). It’s very astonishing and also considerable fact that, the country is technologically advanced and proficient in production and operations as they need to serve a large number of population regularly.

Country Attractiveness

The country has a large population, proficient labor, the size of the market is huge and growth rate is higher. So it’s highly attractive and vertical expansion is more compare to the horizontal expansion. So IKEA can make the investment as the ROI will be higher and also the volume metrics can be applied to increase the profit margin (Henry and Herzog, 2008).

1.2 Critical Analysis of Internal and External Factor in Holistic globalized Strategy

The company has potentialities in international market and the scope of investment in foreign countries have opened a new dimension (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007). However it also becomes more challenging to conduct a critical assessment on the internal and external factor as the different market condition are added. The global and local selling, the company has to imply different strategies as it’s already discussed (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010). There are still couple of facts that must be taken under consideration before making any changes in business strategies.

The Internal and External Factors

The Strength, weakness and opportunity, threats are internal and external factors of the company which are assessed based on the holistic globalized policy. The sales goals and objectives and conduct market research to provide efficient furniture. For an example in Mumbai, the latent demand is for less space consuming sofa which can be used as bed as well etc. (Henry and Herzog, 2008). The internal factors are critically analysed below:

SWOT ANALYSIS

Figure 2: (Henry and Herzog, 2008)

Strength

· The company has large financing and large number of cash flows to invest (Henry and Herzog, 2008)

· The company provides quality products with new & innovative design, shapes and colors

Weakness

· The company doesn’t have enough trained proficient workers (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010)

· The high pricing of current products are not affordable to a large number of population

· Top-level management in different region as well as the workers in order to make them updated and functional with the requirements (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007).

Opportunity

· The company can use country labors and workers for recruitment and train them

· The company can gain positive perceived value by accomplishing CS responsibilities.

Threats

· The social values and cultural difference is a great threat for the company (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007)

· The political unrest may hamper operational activity of the company

1.3 The Holistic Concept and Key Elements

The holistic concept is basically the total procedure of conducting the whole business from top to bottom level and in this sector, the market is very detailed and consequence based (Henry and Herzog, 2008). For IKEA to conduct a PEST analysis before making such investment on expansion in Indian and China. Analysis consist of analysing the political, economic, social and technological factor (Henry and Herzog, 2008). The integrated market starts with the 3V model which is described below:

Value Segmentation

The whole market need to be segmented based on the earning and demographic variable. The urban upper middle class family should be targeted at first (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010). Political condition of India is stable and most of the political parties have rational thinking and concern for the development of the country (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010). Unrest of politics sometimes create chaos and make it harder for companies to conduct their operations.

Value Positioning

The positive perceived value must be captured by the company which will create a positive image of the company (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007). The countries’ policy makers and government are very consistent about development and progress issue (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007). IKEA can actually invest as the Foreign Investment Promotion Board has cleared the proposal of investing in their land.

Value Networking

The company have several options which are establishing factories and start manufacturing and selling at the same time or import it and sell it in local market. The most important factor of analysis is the technological factor which are determined based on the technological advancement and efficiency of the country (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010).

2. IKEA localization Vs Globalization Strategy

2.1 Identification of Strategic Orientation

The company has to imply different strategy based on the selling nature and conducting business. If the company is currently operating in local market only, then the strategic formulation will remain unchanged, otherwise, the strategy should be:

· Both short termed and long termed related to sales

· IKEA can use Competitive parity method (Henry and Herzog, 2008)

· They can use AIDA model which maintain the sequence of creating attention, interest, desire and finally action (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010).

· Using Integrated marketing channel

2.2 Various Pertinent of IKEA business

The company have other association with food and beverage industry but the supply of these are limited by the country government (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007). Apart from that, the company has corporate social responsibility and can actually contribute by developing certain factors in those areas like China, India etc. Country’s economy is rapidly growing and the GDP is going up very fast, the two fifth of the population are still below poverty line. The IKEA have to design certain products specialized only for that subcontinent (Henry and Herzog, 2008).

2.3 Advantageous Areas of IKEA and their Implication

The biggest advantages of IKEA is the size of the company which made it competence and reliable of providing large quantity of population (Henry and Herzog, 2008). In addition to that, the company has stable economic condition and strong financing which allows the company to offer more designable and customized product at cheaper rate than the competitors.

2.4 Recommendation for balancing Optimum balance of Globalization and Localization

To balance the global and local selling, the company has to imply different strategies as it’s already discussed (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2010). However, there are still couple of facts that must be taken under consideration before making any changes in business strategies.

· Rotating top-level management in different region as well as the workers in order to make them updated and functional with the requirements (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007).

· Company has potentialities in international market and the scope of investment in foreign countries have opened a new dimension (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007). It also becomes more challenging to conduct a critical assessment on the internal and external factor as the different market condition are added.

· Specify the sales goals and objectives and conduct market research to provide efficient furniture. For an example in Mumbai, the latent demand is for less space consuming sofa which can be used as bed as well etc. (Henry and Herzog, 2008).

3. The ethical challenges and approaches to corporate social responsibility of Ikea

Every business has some responsibility towards the society where it belongs to. This corporate social responsibility becomes more vivid for the multinational organization. But to undertake different programs regarding corporate social responsibility, a good and effective plan is essential. But for the conflicting interest and priority problem different difficulties come out about the corporate social responsibility (L’Etang, 1995). Besides, the ethical issues play significant roles. The ethical corporate social responsibility is essential for the sustainable development of any company. The Ikea undertakes different programs of corporate social responsibility considering the environmental issues. The company faces different challenges regarding the issue and to solve this problem the proper approaches of the corporate social responsibility is essential. Social condition of the country is challenging as the countries’ culture, norms, language etc. are very different and it varies from state to state (Rollinson and Dundon, 2007). The countries’ major population is hard working people who is not used to luxurious product and lifestyle.

3.1. Ethical issues in the Indian Market of Ikea and the Challenges it faces

Ethical issues in India are severely mixed with the corporate social responsibility. In India, the ethical issues are closely related to the culture. In India, corporation faces corruption and it is divided into two major types that are political corruption and administrative corruption (Aga, 1994). To expand the business in India, the Ikea has to consider this corruption and undertake internal plans to face it ethically. Besides, the environmental deterioration in India is severe. The company need to collect raw materials from the local market and the wood materials is directly related to the environment. The Ikea may face protests from different social organizations related to the environment.

3.2. Current CSR activities in the Indian Market and the involvement of Ikea

In India different corporate social responsibility programs are undertaken by different corporation. The issues become more illustrated when some of the Indian leaders raise the ethical movement ( (johnston, 2007). Anna Hazari, Momota Banargy and some other leaders raises program against different governmental and private firms which are engaged in unethical issues. The Ikea can engage themselves in the environmental movement and social issues.The goverement of india has implemented some code of ethics for any company after this incident to safe guard sexual harrasement and other issues that are already enforced within the developed world one such example of controlling incident that have been on all channel is the Rape case (india, 2015). The rape is one of the major issues in India now. The company can formulate a corporate code of conduct considering the sexual harassment. Besides, the ethical issues play significant roles. The ethical corporate social responsibility is essential for the sustainable development of any company and IKEA can be a role model using its operational and strategic policies and procedures they have already practiced and implemented in both developed and under develop coutries. Another great example of IKEA localized approach in India’s is it undertaking of different awareness and training programs of corporate social responsibility considering the environmental issues that is now become a global factor and this will help the country to go towards Global Green Environment[i]. The company faces different challenges regarding the issue and to solve this problem the proper approaches of the corporate social responsibility is essential. The Ikea also can engage itself in environment pollution movement, water pollution movement, proper sanitation movement and so on.

3.3. The CSR activities of Ikea in India and global integrated strategy

The Ikea has conducted different corporate social responsibility program in India. The company is related to women empowerment program in India since 2000 (Ikea, 2015). The company has a foundation named “Ikea Foundation” which donates in different countries every year. In the year 2013, the foundation got €101 million as a donation from the Ikea. The Company also engaged itself in child survival and protection program along with UNICEF in India (UN-Business, 2015). The company spends a lot of amount in the corporate social responsibility program throughout the world. The global CSR program of the company is to contribute to the human welfare while earning profit. The company considers the sustainable development in all its activities. The Ikea has a positive impression for its engagement in the social issues all over the world.

3.4. International Business and CSR strategy of Ikea and its impact on different stakeholders

The Ikea is globally recognized multinational company and it has business in many countries. The company audits its working condition and environment for the employee safety in each level of the company. The company is concerned about the social need of the area where it works. As a result the stakeholders become benefited in different ways. The ethical corporate social responsibility is essential for the sustainable development of any company. The Ikea undertakes different programs of corporate social responsibility considering the environmental issues. The company faces different challenges regarding the issue and to solve this problem the proper approaches of the corporate social responsibility is essential. The sustainable profitability is ensured which provide a constant growth rate of the return that benefits the stockholders. The employee and suppliers along with the customer’s interests are also considered in its international business strategy.

Conclusion

India is 2nd largest populated country after china and the peoples standard of life and trends are changing and people like to purchase high quality product which is IKEA’s trademark. The world is getting more morally and socially connected as compared to late 90’s so globally people and companies are more tide up with their social responsibilities. India is also in its reformation stage where IKEA localized approach using its Globalized vision from its developed world can lead other companies to implement and execute best CSR and policy that will help IKEA and other companies to acvhieve their strategic targets with fulfilling their corporate social responsibilities. Every business has some responsibility towards the society where they belongs to. This corporate social responsibility becomes more vivid for the multinational organization like IKEA. But to undertake different programs regarding corporate social responsibility, a good and effective plan is essential. As a result, other competitors of the company has been engaged in unethical activities which is both opportunity and threat for the Ikea. The company needs to formulate more customer oriented strategy considering the ethical issues and it also needs to engage in the social activities in India.

Reference

1. Weiss, W.J. (2014) Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach, 6^th Edition, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.: San Francisco.

2. Hartman, P.L, Desjardins, J., & MacDonald, C., (2014) Business Ethics: Decision Making for Personal Intrigrity and Social Responsibility, 3^rd Edition, McGraw-Hill, Inc: New York.

3. Aga, R. D., (1994) Changing the mindset: Reflections of a chief executive, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited: New Delhi.

4. L’Etang, J. (1995) Ethical Corporate Social Responsibility: A Framework for Manager, Journal of Business Ethics, 14:2, P.125.

5. UN-Business (2015) IKEA Social Initiatives, [Online], Available From: https://business.un.org/en/documents/8372 [Accessed: 27 March, 2015].

6. Rollinson, D. and Dundon, T. (2007) Understanding Employment Relations, London: McGraw Hill

7. Beardwell, J. and Claydon, T. ( 2010) Human Resource Management : A Contemporary Approach, 6th ed., Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall

8. Blyton, P. and Turnbull, P. (2004) The Dynamics of Employee Relations, 3rd ed., Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan

9. Armstrong, M. (2010) Handbook of Reward Management and Practice: Improving Performance Through Reward, 3rd ed., London: Kogan-Page

10. Daniels, K (2008) Employee Relations in an Organizational Context, London: McGraw Hill

11. Dundon, T. and Rollinson, D. (2011) Understanding Employment Relations, Maidenhead: McGraw Hill

12. IKEA (2015) Women’s Empowerment Program in ‘the carpet belt’ in India, [Online], Availablefrom:http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_AU/about_ikea/our_responsibility/ikea_social_initiative/women_empowerment_in_india.html [Accessed: 27 March, 2015].

13. Gerhart B. & Rynes, S. L. (2003) Compensation: Theory, Evidence & Strategic Implications. Sage.

14. Ahlstrom, D. and Bruton, G. (2010) International management. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning, pp. 131-136.

15. Henry, A. and Herzog, C. (2008) Understanding strategic management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 51.

16. Website access 3:54pm 27/04/2015, p10

https://is.mendelu.cz/dok_server/slozka.pl?id=39939;download=120520

17. india, p. t. (2015, April 28). the indian express. Retrieved April 28, 2015, from www.indianexpress.com: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/ikea-foundation-earmarks-25-million-euros-for-india-this-year/

18. johnston, p. (2007, March 02). academia.edu. Retrieved 04 20, 2015, from academia.edu: http://www.academia.edu/445721/An_Ethical_Framework_for_Multinationals_Doing_usiness_in_India_and_a_Proposal_for_a_Globalization_Ethic_-_India_Study_Tour_Project

The importance and application of Balanced Scorecards in Hospitals.

2019-05-26T16:50:00.002-07:00

ORGANZIATIONAL AND MANAGERIAL PERFORMANCE

What is Organizational Performance?

Organizational performance can be termed as “The actual results or output of an organization as compared to its desired output or results”. Organizational performance measures are taken to ensure that this difference between the intended and actual results is kept as minimum as possible, keeping in view that the desired objectives do vary from actual, due to changing circumstances.

Organizational performance covers three areas of an organization’s outcome, which are its products market performance, financial performance and shareholders return. In case of hospital this concept would include return on investment made also. Also the beneficiaries should get benefit from the confidence reposed by them in the trustees of the trust.

What is Managerial Performance?

Managerial Performance, in general and also for a private hospital would include patient’s satisfaction over the long-term, maximizing confidence of the patients, maximizing return on investment and securing long term well-being of the organization.

Measures of Organizational and Managerial Performance

The measures of organizational and managerial performance enhance the strategic planning along with the operations of an organization. Also the measures would help improve the financial matters. Organizational and managerial performance measures would also have an impact on legal matters arising if any ,like in cases of assault and other related legal matters, what standard procedure would be followed at managerial level and also the organizational level. Budget would be allocated appropriately if the measures of organizational and managerial performance are adequate. The measures improve the customers/patients satisfaction, staff satisfaction and are important to promote good will of the organization along with innovation, creativity, staff performance and profitability of the organization and the organizations without these measures would be without clear aims and objectives and lesser customer satisfaction would accrue.

BALANCED SCORECARD APPROACH

Advantages of Balanced Scorecard Approach

The balanced scorecard which is usually termed as a tool for performance management, is a semi-standard structured report sustained by design procedures and automation , that can be used by managers to keep record of the execution of work done and other related activities by the staff ,within their control and to monitor the consequences arising from these activities. One main objectives of the Balanced Scorecard is the consistent transformation of visions into strategies, objectives and measures and are typically designed to monitor business process. Balanced scorecards are usually being used by government agencies, non-profit organizations, and schools. One of the common uses of balanced scorecard is to support the disbursement of incentives to employees.

Balanced Scorecards can be implemented through methods based on email, phone calls and office software, so it provides an advantage in the form of easy access. One other advantage of using this approach is that it alerts the managers about areas where performance deviates from intended results and they can be encouraged to divert their attention on these areas, and as a result initiate improved performance within the part of the organization they lead. In case of a small private hospital the advantage would come in the form of a report of work done and other associated activities by the staff which includes doctors, management and nursing staff.

One of the advantages of this approach is that it helps focus managers divert their attention on strategic issues and the management of the implementation of strategy and moat importantly recognition of financial and non-financial measures and assigning tasks to them, so that when they are reviewed, it is feasible to determine whether existing performance meets the anticipations. Other advantages would include translating the vision into operational goals, interconnecting the vision to individual performance, planning the hospital business and feedback from the doctors and other staff and adjusting the strategy accordingly. Some other advantages that would accrue from the use of balanced scorecard approach would be better organizational and strategic alignment.

Disadvantages of Balanced Scorecard Approach

One of the disadvantages of Balanced Scorecard is that it has no role in the formation of strategy but they co-exist with strategic planning systems and other tools. Also the methods of gathering and reporting balanced scorecard information can be labor intensive and is likely to face procedural problems i.e. getting all relevant people to return the information within the required date

In complex organizations, where there are several balanced scorecards to report and there is a need for co-ordination of results between balanced scorecards i.e. if one level of reports depends on information collected and reported at a lower level, then the use of individual reporters is problematic. Empirical nature of framework of this approach also attracts criticism from academic community. There is lack of citation support which adds to the disadvantages of this approach and it also does not provide a bottom line score or a unified view with clear recommendations i.e. it is solely a list of metrics. Another disadvantage of this approach is that it based upon the principle of shareholders being the ultimate purpose, so other stakeholders deem to be undervalued. Also it cannot be determined what the organization would have achieved if the change had not been made, so it is problematic to attribute changes observed over time to a single intervention. In case of a small private hospital this approach would confine itself to doctors which are deemed to be the major stakeholders, which would end in other stakeholders being undervalued

BALANCED SCORECARD FRAMEWORK

Balanced Scorecard application

JUSTIFICATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Ø Financial Perspective

The measures relating to return to shareholder’s or trustees on the investment made for constructing and operating a private hospital is an important area of organizational and managerial performance. Cost and equity management along with the shareholder’s return at an appropriate level will be an important measure of organizational and managerial performance.

Ø Patients/Customers Perspective

For a small private hospital the customers who are usually the patients should be satisfied and doctors should be available in emergency and should be well known to deal every patient’s condition.

Ø Internal Process and Employee Growth

Measures of organizational and managerial performance should be like, the team of doctors and employees should be given positive feedback. Employee coordination should be encouraged and objectives of the hospital generally and in the perspective of doctors, owners, trustees, beneficiaries should be the primary focus for better organizational and managerial performance.

IMPLEMENTATION & EVALUATION

Implementation

The measures of organizational and managerial performance can be implemented through methods based on email, phone calls and office software, so it provides an advantage in the form of easy access. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software can also be used for the implementation of methods of organizational and managerial performance

Monitoring

These methods can be monitored through proper balanced scorecard approach. The comparison should be done on regular basis whether the intended results deviate as to how much from the actual results

Reviewing

The review can be made by a balanced score card on the feedback provided by doctors and patients of the performance measures already adapted.

Evaluation

Evaluation of the performance measures can be done by the comparison of score card giving the comparison of objectives, strategies, initiatives and the deviation of actual results from the intended results.

STAKEHOLDERS AND OPINION

There are three kind of stakeholders in a hospital .These are characterized as internal, interface and external stakeholders.

INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

Ø Management staff

Ø Professional staff

Ø Non-professional staff.

INTERFACE STAKEHOLDERS

Ø Hospital staff

Ø Medical board of trustees

Ø Tax payers

Ø Other contributors

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

Ø Suppliers

Ø Patients

Ø Third party payers

Ø Financial community

OPINION

The medical staff admits the patients and provides many services to a small private hospital so it makes them the most important stakeholder in a hospital. The doctors keep shifting between hospitals and patients so their relationship can be best characterized as mutually dependent though they are an important stakeholder having a very important view about the performance of the hospital but cannot be considered as the only stakeholders having legitimate view about the performance of the hospital.

British Airways and Porter Five forces framework.

2019-05-16T18:07:00.003-07:00

Introduction

British Airways (BA) is one of the well known airlines in UK and it is one of the biggest airlines which operates more than 550 destinations worldwide. British Airways was established on 25th August 1919. British airways finished 91yrs in airline industry. Privatized in 1987, it has continued to increase in growth in spite of stiff competition (Connell, Williamson 2011, 115). British airways not even provide the services on domestic and international level but it also provide the service of charter for ancillary and freight (British airways 2010). There are round about 57000 employees who work in the British airline till date (Data monitor 2010).

British airways carries approimately more than 33million passengers, and earning billions in revenue. Based in the principal business places of London, the company has significant presence at Heathrow, Gatwick and London City. The company holds a very strong customer base as it is operating across the globe. British Airways is divided in to two groups one is British Airways Plc and other one as British Airways holidays limited.

Company Overview (British Airways)

British Airways Plc (BA) is the UK’s largest international airline industry. BA is affianced in the operation of international and domestic with the service of carriage, customer traveling and the ancillary services (Data monitor, 2008). British airways fly to more than 300 destinations and more than 33 million passengers with the earning over £8.7billion in revenue in 2007/08 (British Airways, 2008). British airways (BA) has been nominated as the world’s first airline to Participate in a scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (2002) and to allow passengers to print online boarding passes (2004) (British Airways, 2008). As BA announces its aim of becoming the ‘world’s most responsible airline’ in the latest annual report which indicates that great importance lies in developing guiding principles and careful strategic and critical direction to allow the achievement of this goal.

British Airways (BA) main base is at London Heathrow Airport in west London, England. British airways also have a major presence at Gatwick Airport. It also has a base at London City Airport (LCY), with a major presence from its subsidiary BA City Flyer, which is the largest operator from LCY. BA had previously operated a well known hub at Manchester Airport. Manchester operations and international services outside of London were sold due to a lack of profitability. Passengers wish to travel internationally with BA from regional UK destinations. The common of BA services operate from Terminal 5, with the exemption of some short-haul flights at Terminal 1 and some long-haul flights at Terminal 3. British Airways serves in 150 destinations which include six domestic.

Current Strategies (British Airways)

This report is designed with the consideration of BA’s current strategies (British Airways, 2008):

1. To upgrade customer services via the introduction of text and mobile services for business class customers.
2. To bring up to date aircraft fleet and offer new services to the customers.
3. To manage the cost base issues.
4. To increase the corporate accountability through environmental performance and partnerships.

Current Position in the Market (British Airways)

British airway is on a healthy position as compare to its other competitors. It is one of the premium service providers in the market. British airways joined hands with many other leading airlines and already segmented its market. British airways are the largest international flight operators, international and domestic freight and charter service provider. British airways established as one of the greatest player in the airline industry and it has highest operational strength.

Porter Five forces framework (British Airways)

Using the Porter Five Forces tool it analyzes the current strategic position of British Airways.

Source: (Principles of Marketing, Kotler)

Threat due to new entrants in the market: All the UK airline industries are highly deregulated sector and there are least direct entry limitations for competitors. However, British Airways face low threat factor due to following reasons which are as mention below:

1) Large capital requirements for new entrants in airline industry because with low capital the competitor cannot enter

2) Saturated the long haul market.

3) Saturation of the domestic market by other competitors such as Easy Jet and Ryan air.

4) Governance of British Airline of major routes and hubs gives the airline high power.

5) Many of competitors are failed to enter such as Zoom and XL in 2008 and they afraid by not being potential entrants.

Threat of substitute products: The threat for British airway related to long-haul market is Low. But in domestic market the threat exists in UK’s market. Customer main requirement is the cheaper fares which large number of the airlines offers to them. And for those customers brand name is not much important as compare to customer demands because it saves their money which is the positive point for them.

Power of Buyers: Buyers have the high power at the regional level. Maximum customer attracts due to the low cost which make the buyer power high. Customers have many alternative cheap options to choose and there are approximately eight other airlines with low cost fares which are currently operating in UK. Due to the increase in technology there is option of internet through which customers can easily access the quick price comparison of fares. In UK near to 46 % of customers book their tickets online. As compare to long haul service the buyer have low power due to less product and price differentiation.

Bargaining power of suppliers: British Airways acquire high power of suppliers. The airline faces the risks from 25 suppliers. Distraction of suppliers operations would weaken the British airways all operations because without fulfilling of the demands the airline cannot proceed further and it affects the customers. British Airways is working with lot of suppliers for example supplier of Airbus and Boeing (British Airways 2010, 31). British Airways employees acquire tough bargaining power through their unions and this make the profits for the organization.

Competitive rivalry: The main advantage to British airway is that is offer the package for both services which are long and short haul. The difference of price with its competitor is not as much for long haul flights. But the competition still lies in the form of fragmented short haul market with furious competitive tactics used by competitors and with increase consolidation between British airways competitors.

Organizational and Performance Measurement using Balance Score Card and its Applications in a Private Hospital

2019-05-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

Importance of organizational and managerial performance measures

Measures of organizational and managerial performance are very critical to any organization. Managers should be able to asses and evaluate performance using different type of criteria. They should be able to look at performance in terms of agreed aims and objectives, priorities, purpose and outcome. They can only measure performance from what was set out to be achieved. Organizational and management performance measure has a key role to play in improving the overall value of an organization (pettinger

Organizational and managerial performance measures are very important to any organization because it helps maximize customer, client and user satisfaction of products and services over time. It helps maximize the confidence of everyone involved or affected by the organization over a long term. (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2010)

Performance measures Will help long term owner/shareholder value and getting the best possible return on investment for both public and commercial undertaking; securing the long term future and wellbeing of the organization working within the particular context and environment, with special recognition of functions inside and outside the organizations control. All this can be effective if everybody knows and understands what is intended by the organization as a whole and what the individual and collective contributions to this core purpose are to be (pettinger, 2012)

Risks of not having performance measures in an organization are that managers will not have data and information that can help them make informed decisions and actions that quantifies efficiency and effectiveness of the organization, ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure’ (kaplan & Norton, 1990) (Neely, Adams, & Kennerley, 2002)’. Sadly the number of organizations with hopeless performance measures that entirely drive the wrong behaviours is immense. (Neely, Adams, & Kennerley, 2002)

The balanced scorecard

The balanced scorecard is a strategic performance tool introduced by Drs Robert s. Kaplan and David p. Norton in the early 1990s. It is used by managers to help organizations with their objectives, plans and future growth. The purpose of the balanced scorecard is to measure and determine whether the set goals have been met or not. It adds both non-financial and traditional financial metrics to give a well-balanced performance of an organization. That allows an organization to measure the cause-and-effect chain by which customer and shareholder value is created. In different organizations, the perspectives and the leading indicators can be different, but the idea of the balanced scorecard is to provide a balanced set of indicators. The following are the four aspects of balanced scorecard; (kaplan & Norton, 1990)

Learning and innovation ;this measures how the organization often introduces new products and services or production techniques.in this way, the organization makes sure that it does not become complacent, but rather continuously renews itself.

Internal business perspective; this measure the business internal process, answers questions of improvement and value creating to the way the organization is run. Its strategic objectives are to shorten cycle time and reduce work in process.

Customer perspective; measures performance in terms of how clients experiences the values created by the organization. It answers question of how our customers’ see us, its objective is improve quality and improve delivery reliability. (Verweire & Van Den Berghe, 2004)

Financial perspective; measures the bottom line such as return on investment{ROI}, growth and other traditional measures of business performance, the key objectives are to increase market share and create more shareholder value . (De waal, 2007)

ADVANTAGES

Drive better performance:

When individuals and groups of an organization know how they are doing and what needs improving, they do better.

Implement s strategy

The balanced scorecard will translate your strategy into real terms and help you track its implementation. Balanced scorecards are developed in a way that specifically directs attention to your strategy and future direction.

Encourages balanced performance

Balanced scorecards which are very well designed keep the right balance of operational and strategic factors on your watch.

Balanced scorecards will point out what is missing

The balanced scorecard will help the manager see if any key factors are missing, if you use unstructured measures without an underlying performance model you will have no way of knowing what maybe be missing.

Encourage good management

Balanced scorecards make it possible to readily monitor all measures in a complex organization. As a result, reviews are regular and thorough. When performance issues stands out on a top level scorecard, it’s possible to evaluate data to get further details, the point is that a balanced scorecard encourage thorough monitoring and timely corrective measures.

Communicates; it tells the story

Many managers and groups take keen interest in the performance of an organization, so a strong scorecard will help you tell the full story of performance- how the complex variables are being balanced as a group. This will allow presenting a compelling picture of performance that is undistorted by focusing on individual issue.

To sum it up, the advantages of using the balanced scorecard are that by looking at the four aspects of the company’s performance you will get a balanced view of what is going on with the organizations performance. The balanced scorecard will give you a full picture as to whether the company is meeting its goals and objectives. The company may seem to be doing well financially, but the customer satisfaction is down, the training for employees is inadequate or the processes are outdated. Using the balanced scorecard allows stakeholders to determine the health of short, medium and long term objectives at a glance. By using a balanced scorecard an organization can be sure that any strategic action implemented matches the desired outcomes.

DISADVANTAGES

Costly and timely

While are balanced scorecard has been used effectively by many companies for its use as a strategic planning tool, they have also admitted that it can be costly and time consuming. The correct use requires a thorough understanding of the process; it may involve the use of an outside consultant to help with the process. Those involved in the planning process and the use of the scorecard to manage the process and track results all need to have the knowledge of how it works. For maximum effectiveness, the entire organization should understand the theory behind the use of the balanced scorecard and the importance of achieving balance across various measures and how it can be used for process improvement. That can be challenging for smaller organizations to accomplish.

Incomplete information

The effective usefulness of the balanced scorecard is dependent on the value of information that is driving the process; if you input garbage definitely the results will be garbage. It will only work if all the right elements have been selected and if the information used to evaluate progress is complete, accurate and relevant to the area being addressed. (top achievement) (top achievement)

Employee resistance

Some employees and even managers may not be believers, they may feel that it is just the flavour of the month and resist its implementation. This is true if implementation requires employees to go through training activities or put in extra time to learn about the balanced scorecard and its use. Organizations that are effective in the application of the balanced scorecard need the support of everyone in the organization to achieve maximum success.

To sum all this, the balanced scorecard takes forethought. It is not a tool you can just think of one night and solve a problem. It is recommended that you hold a meeting to plan out what goals you would like your organization to reach in each of the four areas. Then you breakdown these objectives in what you will need to bring these objectives to function.

While the balance scorecard gives the overall view of the four areas of concern in the organizational growth and development, the four areas does not paint the whole picture, the financial information included on the scorecard is limited. To be successfully implemented, the balanced scorecard must be part of the bigger strategy for the organizations growth that includes meticulous accounting. Many companies’ uses metrics that are not applicable to their own situation, it is vitally important to make the information being tracked applicable to your needs otherwise its meaningless.

Recommendations

Customer perspective

Clients are very important factor for any organization, as for the private hospital the following clinical performance indicators has to be measured:

You have to monitor the return rate of patients with injuries whether they should be less all equal to seven days. The return rate for adult patients with asthma whether it should be less or equal to 24 hours. The return rate of sick children in paediatrics should be zero to sixty hours etc.

Financial perspectives

Hospital costs mainly comes through human resources; human resources productivity has to be measured, you have to measure the percentage of hours put in by management and operational support workers if it can be adjusted to increase financial efficiency, you have to measure the percentage hours of registered nurses if they are equivalent to the output produced, all in all you have to measure the overall hours worked and come up with questions of Either reducing the management and support hours by 50% and increase registered nurse hours by 30%.

Internal perspectives

It is very important for stakeholders to communicate with patients so that they know who we are and what the organization is capable of doing. Work on minimizing negative workplace environmental factors; you need a health work environment .listen and Learn from clients in order to advocate solutions to their problems and to communicate with the community you are serving. Today’s managers must encourage employees to initiate process improvement and new ways to respond to patients needs but in a controlled way.

Learning and innovation perspectives

A well trained and experience personnel is key to any operation, it’s very important to monitor hiring, retaining and training ratios to align resource and competencies, nurture a work culture that supports the importance of work and life balance. Encourage a culture that encourages innovation, teamwork, knowledge sharing and leadership. (top achievement)

Implementing, monitoring, reviewing and evaluating

The requirement in the implementation of a successful strategy is to focus attention on the five Cs which are coordination, communication, command, control and conflict as the basic requirement. Patients are important to the organization; surveys have to be introduced by means of questionnaires to find out about the overall impression of the patients. Ask questions about how their hospital stay was viewed? How well was information communicated with the patient and family? The amount of time patients waited before being seen by the doctor or receive test. Review this information within three months, then compare outcomes with other hospital and then improve on your findings. (white, 2004)

As earlier mentioned, most costs come through hours put in by employees, to implement measures that can balance financial cost and employee input you should specifically involve the staff involved. Have a meeting and explain what you want to accomplish financially by putting in more flex hours worked by full time employees as over-time and cut part-time staff. Establish a six month time frame to monitor and measure progress, see if your set goals are met or not.

Stakeholders has a key role in communicating frequently with clients, patients with on-going problems who visits the hospital regularly must be asked about their visit each time and the findings must be recorded for comparisons sake with their next visit. That way, we will be able to monitor our progress and know if we need improvement. Some patients prefer not to speak out face to face, so management can put out surveys and suggestion boxes around the hospital which can be reviewed and evaluated monthly.

Of course a well trained personnel make most things look easier, firstly specify what you what to achieve and who should be involved. Arrange a meeting and training program for the staff involved, monitor progress through tests after each session and at the end of the program. Review if the program has achieved its required goals within three months by either asking immediate supervisor for their views on performance or checking if frequency rate of mistakes has drop. Then evaluate and decide whether to continue with the program or not. (Frost)

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

There are a lot of stake holders in a health care environment which include medical team, government through the general medical council, patients and the community etc. In practice, there is often an immediate problem with agreeing aims, objectives and priorities. A medical team has the treatment of patients as its priority; managers have remaining within the budget and delivery value for money their priority. (pettinger, 2012)

Patients want compassion as well as skill with clear communication. Compassion is one of the core values of medicine and is an essential element of a therapy relationship. Compassion is based on respect for patient’s dignity and values but goes further in acknowledging and responding to vulnerability in the face of illness. If patients sense the doctor’s compassion, they will be more likely to trust the doctor to act in their best interest and this trust can contribute to the healing process. (association, 2013)

Good medical practice is the government’s core guidance to doctors. Through the general medical council, it sets out values and principles on which practice is founded. This is divided into the following domains; knowledge, skills and performance, safety and quality, communication and partnership and teamwork and maintaining trust. It’s responsible that the patients can trust doctors with their lives and health. (council, 2013)

Doctors alone amongst healthcare professionals must be capable of regularly taking ultimate responsibility for difficult decisions of clinical complexity and uncertainty, drawing on their scientific knowledge and well developed clinical judgement. The doctor’s role must be defined by what is in the best interest of the patients and of the population served. As we know the purpose of the hospital is to cure patients, in that context I will agree with the point of view that doctors are the only stakeholder with legitimate views on performance of the hospital. (council, 2013)

Having said that, to improve service delivery processes the hospital will need to actively engage a wide variety of people such as clinicians, administrative staff, patients and user groups. It helps the hospital to avoid conflict and associated delays. (association, 2013)

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE (TPM) - UK BASED EXPORTING COMPANY.

2019-05-11T17:24:00.000-07:00

Introduction

TPM tools limited is a UK based exporting company whose area of specialization is in exporting specialized hand tools of high quality towards African countries especially those that are English speaking. The specialization is in such tools as the tile cutters, wrenches as well as frame saws among others. Correspondence between the UK productions and the market, which is mainly in Africa, is through agents which are situated within the market countries and which links the management from the mother country. Moreover, the management gets information from customers on the state of the market through emails and mails whenever they visit the countries or through the agents who represent the companies within the countries. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that the information given by customers through the mails or letter are often contradicted with the information given by the agents representing the countries and this points to a major information breakdown.

Knowledge management problem

In reference to knowledge management as being the capacity of an organization to adopt and use knowledge for achieving organizational objectives, it involves capturing, sharing, developing as well as the effective use of knowledge from an organization. This communication barrier between the management and the customers at the ground level therefore presents the main knowledge management problem that TPMT faces in its operations. There needs to be effective communication between the management, the employees as well as the customers at the end of the supply chain. Customers communicate with an organization on the levels of satisfaction as well as the need to improve on particular areas of production. This therefore shows that information flow is a basic feature that every business must work on. The case study however reveals that information given by the customers is often distorted when it reaches the management through the agents hence the potential ineffectiveness in addressing customer concerns from the destination countries.

Web 2.0

Organizations however adopt various tools for communication such as through direct correspondence via telephone, personalized emails, agency correspondence as well as person-to-person communication among others. It is to be noted that information technology has increasingly shaped the modes of communication adopted within an organization and this explains the emergence of such communication mechanisms as through websites, social media as well as through teleconferencing services. Recent developments have seen the development of a specialized web which is referred to as ‘Web 2.0’ and which allows communication between many people on the same web platform. Web 2.0 technologies, which are the most modern technologies for use in such a venture as this, allow ease of communication between organizational management, employees as well as the customers. Suppliers as well as other persons involved within the supply chain management also take advantage of the ease of communication through eth web 2.0 inventions and this improves the performance of the organization. At the time when dot com era was overtaken, technological advancement in web development brought about new web applications whose main feature was online interactive pages. This simply took the name Web 2.0 and as referred to previously, the web based system allows increased interactions by people from the same web page. Therefore, it represents varying ways through which web pages are designed and adopted for use. Moreover, it incorporates other features as instant messaging, group diaries, virtual offices that are hosted, video and audio conferencing as well as address books which all aid in effective communication. Paramount to notable advantages with this technology is that people would adopt a virtual community through which communication and interactions would be through social media. Therefore, the members to such a virtual community would be in a position to communicate, exchange materials, share information as among other practices which were not enabled by previous versions of web pages. E-library, e-learning as well as interactive social media platforms adopt the new web development applications for ease of convenience and economies. Nevertheless, increased awareness has in the recent past seen the technology gain popularity among firms playing the information sector, journalism as well as within entertainment industries across the globe. It adopts internet as the main necessity, just as was previously used by other web versions but has higher appliances such as phones, tablets, laptop computers and notepads among others.

Advantages of Web 2.0 to TPMT

It is to be noted that Web 2.0 has brought about great revolution in modern day communications and interactions across different geographical localities. Virtual communication has been in the rise with the designing and adoption of the technology with physical communication being in the verge of being overtaken and forgotten in business transactions.

a) Communication efficiency: Ease of interactions and communication through the virtual platform aids in good management of such an organization. Customers at the destination countries where the organization exports its products to get easy means to communicate direct to the management on which ever the concern they would like addressed as well as on commendation to the organization. Such platforms as social media provide rather cheap means through which customers and the organizational management would interact and this would reduce instances of information distortion between either party in the communication. The technology through which the web 2.0 web version relies on is therefore very effective in addressing the challenge of physical distance as well as communication through provision of virtual interactive platforms, which require little technical expertise.

b) Marketing: The entire process involved between the production of products by the producer and the consumption by the final consumer sums up marketing process, which comprises a wide range of processes that include proper identification of consumer needs and wants, and formulating mechanisms to meet the needs, and satisfy the wants. Marketing has been seen to satisfy needs and wants by giving information to target groups as well as bringing the products to their reach. In reference to knowledge management, marketing involves effective capturing, sharing, developing as well as the effective use of knowledge from an organization to gain customers for the products. The technologies of Web 2.0 have been in the recent past adopted as effective tools for organizational management of information, which is not limited to marketing knowledge.

c) Cost: As a profit making organization, TPMT have an obligation to adopt the most cost effective means of management of organizational information in order to maintain low profile of operational costs for profit making. Web 2.0 has been shown to be easier and effective in passing information from a person to another as it is applied within such simple appliances as the telephone. The organization would have no need to use the rather expensive mechanisms as mails and letters, which are cumbersome and take long time in response.

Challenges

i. Over exposure of organizational information: It is a concern in the modern era that social media places so much information open to all people in the internet which threatens levels of secrecy and security of an individual or such an organization as TPMT. Hackers as well as such other intruders whose motives would be bad threaten the well-being of such an organization through the ease of access to the sensitive information exposed through the web.

ii. Hacking: Hackers and such intruders invade the systems of an organization through malware or specialized programs, which would rely on such information, share across the social media platforms. Therefore, the cyber crime should be an urgent matter to consider while investing in and adopting internet use in organizational management. Malicious software has been in use even with the previous version of web application and is equally a potential threat to the welfare of any individual or organization operating computerized systems. The software in use include viruses which gain access to computer systems of an organization and corrupt the stored information or copy it and replicate it which over exposes it to unintended persons. The result would be very disastrous to any organization hence the concern that web 2.0 increases the threat of hacking.

iii. Installation costs: technology advancement is very expensive to any organization especially on setting up the infrastructure. As a relatively small organization, TPMT faces a challenge in raising adequate capital in resources for which to install physical infrastructure necessary for instituting web 2.0. Relatively larger organizational enjoy benefits of accumulated capital for installation of complex systems of IT such as the system of web 2.0.

Proposed knowledge management system

As has been revealed through the discussion above, TPMT limited is a relatively small organization as shown by the few employees who serve as agents within ten countries of supply as well as the periodic hiring of others to serve within the five other countries whenever need arises. This is the main reason why effective communication is a challenge between the organization management based in the United Kingdom and the customers within the African countries, which are the target markets for the tools. One outstanding feature in the overall picture of this organization is that the management of the supply chain has particular challenges, which needs to be addressed through adoption of an effective knowledge management system, which will link together the customers, agents, management and all other parties that are involved within the supply chain. The above discussion has revealed that emerging trends in organizational management of knowledge and information is through cloud computing as well as through the interactive web 2.0 services. With just a pool of six permanent employees who include the three owners in the UK, the organization is very small to operationize fully-fledged cloud computing system and such hiring such services proves to be the main proposal of this paper. These services will be prerequisite to the organization adopting the online processes of information management and sharing of knowledge through the Web 2.0 technologies. It is however necessary that this organization invests in the system, as it will enable the management directly communicate with the customers in relatively cheaper means such as through social media. Besides, marketing and advertisement of the tools in the English speaking countries would be effective through such technologies. The parts of the organization, which will be supported through the particular information technology, are such departments as data storage departments, marketing departments, as well as human resource departments. The departments would be effective in performance through adoption of IT because they involve much of data, which can be easily stored online for ease of access and safety. Nevertheless, departments responsible of manufacturing, warehousing, value adding as well as transporting the products would not require such services directly because of the nature of the products involved. However, interactions through the system adopted would ease the process of ordering by customers as well as management of activities involved in the supply chain.

The particular assumption that is made in the recommendation of adopting the hired system of cloud computing and Web 2.0 is that initial cost of installation of the infrastructure for such services is enormous for the organization to manage. Moreover, we assume that by the virtual of the target market being English speaking, communication over such platforms as the social media is easy and that little skills and knowledge are required in operating the system to all persons in the 21^st century.

Conclusion

The TPMT organization has been shown to operate from UK but with market segment in African countries, which speak English. Due to its small size, employing many people has been a challenge and thus only a few people are employed to serve in UK and in the African countries. However, due to the limited number of personnel, communication between customers ad management is hindered which necessitates the organization to adopt effective tools for communication.

Redundancy and Procedure, Responsibility of Employers, Engagement of Employees and Motivational Strategies.

2019-05-08T18:09:00.003-07:00

Redundancy and Procedure, Responsibility of Employers, Engagement of Employees and Motivational Strategies.

What is redundancy?

Professionally and legally an employee is deemed to be redundant or dismissed when the following conditions would be fulfilled:

Ø The employer has ceased or has intentions to cease the operations of the existing business

Ø Those job tasks due to which an employee was recruited to perform are ceased

But nowadays almost everywhere there are employment contracts and that vary from company to company. There are many rights granted to employees so they feel secure and do their jobs with full performance and motivation. Employment Laws are very strict about employees and employers rights. At the time of the contract employee and employer may design their redundancy or termination procedure according to their will and terms and conditions.

Responsibility of the employer

This is a huge responsibility of the employer to make evident to the employees that redundancy is necessary. Employers cannot just decide that redundancy is required they have to prove it that why it is required and how it would be.

However, in case of redundancy employer should discuss with every employee and staff the need for downsizing and clearly explaining them that why redundancy is the only solution of every problem. Because they aren't able to run an organization in the future if they do not lessen down their operating costs.

Selection criteria

Selection criteria, that which roles are to become redundant, are one of the toughest parts while implementing the redundancy procedure. It is necessary to be very fair while selecting employee to be redundant especially when there are more than one employees working in a same job. Selection criteria should be applied fairly and equitably. Although employers conduct in these matters should be very sensible but there is no legal obligation on employers to discuss that organization is going for redundancy with the individuals employees beforehand.

Those employees or staff members who are problematic for the charitable house and has little interests and motivation level should be considered strongly for redundancy. And organization should retain those who are profitable and efficient.

However ethically and socially employer should prepare their employees and discuss with the individual employees beforehand the need of redundancy and how it will be so that employees equally cooperate in this sensitive matter as there are many employees who are aggressive in nature and may not like abrupt redundancies.

What should be done?

They should adopt a very decent and fair process like explaining every employee through a meeting or any forum that how they are going to select and how staff will be made redundant. Employees and staff members should be given opportunity to put questions and requisitions. The whole staff should be well understood that why organization need redundancy.

Company should apply different selection criteria that every employee sees it as fair and equitable and possibility of every employee being selected is cent percent. There should be no favoritism all the decisions should be based on merits and on qualifications and knowledge.

Reductions made in the staffing are appropriate as the organization is retaining the number of employees who will be sufficient for the operations of the business. The responsibility of the retaining employees will be increased but that can be tackled by boosting up the morale and motivation level of employees so they feel the power of authority as the responsibility increases on them. By applying this procedure an organization can easily handle the sensitive issue of redundancy by keeping the management of the Caring for Children in the employees’ good books.

2. Engagement and Motivation

There are many theories made on the employees’ motivation, that what motivated him towards his job. There are many answers to this but all vary case to case. Some employees are motivated only by giving them monetary rewards and incentives and others seek motivation from non-monetary rewards such as giving them more sense of authority which boost their self-actualization and self-belonging and make them superior in others and etc.

No matter what but every human being want self-actualization in the end as his lower needs get fulfilled, whether he is a clerk or not. This tells us that motivation is dependent on social factors also and sometimes employees give more attention to the other social factors than the pay itself.

According to the Maslow “Hierarchy of Needs” theory the self-actualization has the highest level that ultimately the goal of every human being is to satisfy the highest level as the lower levels get satisfied. He supported that lower levels should be satisfied first in order to satisfy the higher level.

It is known that job satisfaction always arises from the work which is enjoyable. A job which has variety in itself and has challenging tasks will always satisfies the employees. The environment should be lively so employees feel motivated and enjoy doing their job. The organization should make their employees feel that they care for them and they take them as their assets.

Monetary rewards and non-monetary rewards goes side by side but as this is the charitable organization and going through financial distress so at this time the huge monetary awards may not be possible for the management to give to their employees but on non-monetary awards are not less in the importance. The non-monetary awards are a good way to increase the motivational level of employees by keeping their spirits and morale high so they feel they are the integral part of the organization.

Motivational Strategies

Applying simple low cost procedures management can easily motivate the employees as:

Ø Appraisal of work

Ø Face to Face compliments

Ø Employee of the month

Ø Acknowledgments

Ø Reward the best suggestion

Ø Implementing recreational activities

Ø In-house sports competition

By applying these easy and low cost procedures the motivation and engagement of employees will certainly be improved and the results will be fruitful both for the staff and the company itslef.

3. Management Training

It would not be wrong to say that development in human resource has increased tremendously. It has given great importance and nowadays every organization takes the human resource development with a long term perspective.

Human Resource director of any organization really wants to train their employees as some employees really lack the management’s skills but as per the financial expenses the director should opt those methods which are equally efficient and cost effective. There are many benefits of the management training which are:

Training Benefits

Ø Management Training increases the productivity of the employees so the organization may attain the long term goals and objectives.

Ø Training boost up the team spirit, sense of team work and inter team collaborations.

Ø Training also increases the effectives among the employees and improves the whole organizational culture

Ø Training makes the employees flexible so they can easily adapt the changes in the environment.

Ø Training helps the employee to achieve individual as well as organizational goals simultaneously.

Ø Training develops the leadership skills so they can participate effectively in decision making process

Ø Management Training helps in developing the personalities of the employees

Methods of Training

There are very popular management training methods which most of the organizations nowadays use and which are cost effective and resulting too are On the Job training and Off the Job training.

On the Job training

The effectiveness of this method is well known and don’t need any elaborations on its efficiency. This is the most used method for training managers. This training method increases the knowledge, skill and talent of the employee so they do their jobs at most efficient level and with greater accuracy level. Job training is very important both for the employee and the organization itself. This makes sure that employee is doing his job correctly.

Training has several other ways too like coaching, workshops, seminars, etc

Senior managers can also train the operating managers as this will reduce the cost of hiring the outside trainers.

Off the Job Training

This training occurs outside the premises. This involves the assessments and examinations etc. This training involves the activities not related to their job tasks. This training improves the overall personality and knowledge of the employees so they easily adapt themselves according to the changing environment.

Management of an organization should opt the training methods that are efficient and cost effective. They should analyze whether the in house trainers should be hired or they should outsource it depending on the cost efficiency. The director should go for training in each branch or settle the schedule such so that every manager from the branch can be at some specific place where all can have combined training.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN AN AIRLINE INDUSTRY: THE BRITISH AIRWAYS GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

2019-04-22T18:21:00.001-07:00

Introduction

One of the most successful industries in the business world of United Kingdom is the airline industry. The competition in this industry is increasing day by day and highly related with the high level of technology. The airline industry ensures the time saving for people which actually helps in the development of the organization and the economy. With the development of airline industry different other sectors and activities have expanded also. Tourism industry has developed along with the development of the airline industry. In this industry Human Resource can act as a competitive advantage for the organization. With the development of HR, any airline organization in the Industry can ensure better performance tools customers.

UK Airline Industry is one of the biggest in the world. Major competitors in the industry are Easy Jet, Monarch, Virgin Atlantic, Thomas Cook Airlines, and British Airways etc. To adopt with the Dynamic Technological Environment of the industry, the organization tries to provide proper training and development which ultimately helps the organization in developing leaders among the employees of the organization.

To compete in this competitive industry, the organization needs to concentrate on the development of HR besides other resources. Recently British Airways has focused Human Resource in order to make its performance outrageous. On this basis British Airways is chosen for this research assignment. Some of the HR programs which British Airways pursued were,

· Individual Learning
Individual Employee Development
Putting People First
Managing People First etc.
Understanding the human psychology helps the organization in providing better customized services to its customers which is very important for the organization. These changes ensure the success of the organization in the international market.

Research Aim & Objectives

Following are the main research and objectives of this research proposal.

Ø To analyze existing human resource management in British Airways.

Ø To give attention to performance management practices (PM) and employee attitudes to achieve successful managed performance.

Literature Review

Airline Industry

In this modern business world, competition is increasing day by day and in this competitive business world the airline industry performs its activities effectively and efficiently to survive successfully. Service is the core product of this industry. Besides services, the organization also needs to confirm the safety of the people and products. There are three main characteristics of this industry which mostly affects the HRM practices in the organization. These three characteristics are:

Firstly, the competition in the market is mostly influenced by performance. Ease and time saving transportation system, actually improves the level of competition in the market. Many organizations in this world now depend upon the airline industries for the transportation of the products, people, and posts. Previously, the airline companies mainly focused on the products and services but with the changing concept, the airline industries are now concentrating on the development of the people within the organization.

Secondly, ensuring the safety of the customers, products, and parcels is the most important part of activities of the airline industry. This characteristic is built in the system of the airline industry. During that moment, the airline industry needs to focus on the security system which is very essential for the safety of the customers as well as the products. This actually ensures the performances of this industry. The managers of airline industry need to be trained in order to provide better service to the customers. In the airline industry, the people of different cultures, languages and countries travel from one place to another. Thus to support those customers, the employees of the organization needs to be capable of communicating with those customers otherwise, it will be difficult for the organization to provide their best services to the customers. The values and ethics of the customers also vary from each other. Some comments may hurt the others whereas other may take it as a joke. Thus it is essential to have a clear understanding of the values and ethics of the people from different countries for the betterment of the organization.

British Airways

British Airways is the second largest airline based on fleet size, International destinations, and International flights in the world. British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom and one of the largest airlines in the country. From the beginning, this company mostly focused on carriage of goods and parcels rather than transporting people from one place to another. This airline industry was established in 1974 and in 1987 it moved towards the private sector. The current condition of this airline industry is the merger of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and the British European Airways Corporation (BEAC). Presently this industry has its 120 destination branches in the entire UK and Europe, Africa, North and South America, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific along with 240 air crafts which provides the services consistently.

In the market over 40 competitors are available with which the organization currently competes. Besides all the difficulties, the organization tries to maintain its leadership position in the market not only in the UK market but also in European market. Virgin Atlantic is the main competitor of British Airways which was established in 1984. However, the organization also tries to improve its market share even in the financial turmoil of the country.

Human Resource Management

The organization also tries to motivate employees to enhance the drive for learning something which will be beneficial for the personal and professional life. The development of the employees itself ensures development of the organization. To provide better services to the customers, British Airways also ensures a separate customer services department which will be responsible for providing all the information related with their services and also helps them by selling tickets to them. In this case, the organization provides equal chance to everyone. The organization goes for choosing the best person for this service.

The HRM department of British Airways also focuses on the improvement of interpersonal relationships among the employees of the organization. The supporting mentality among the employees helps them in providing best services to the customers. However, the organization also tries to treat its employees fairly and equally. Besides this, the organization offers different other benefits to the employees which also attracts them to stay within the organization and to provide their best services to the customers which will be better for the organization. This process helps the British Airways in ensuring the growth of the organization in the international competitive market.

The Company has experienced a lot of downfalls and threats over the past decades. After the 1990’s, when British Airways assumed that any strategy like 'cost control' or ‘operational efficiency' were started to replicate by means of latest information technology, the company looked upon a new competitive strategy 'customer service through resource planning' which was aligned to the company's corporate objectives. However, the company's HRM department had started with heart and soul to achieve the company's corporate objectives. Two training programs were designed to train staff and managers where the first training program 'Putting People First' helped the staff to understand how the image of helpfulness satisfy the customers and the second training program 'Managing People First' evoked the managers to breakdown the strict approach and strict behavioral boundaries. A significant cultural change was observed in the organization on successful implementation of these training programs.

Research Methodology

In order to be industry leader the organization is now focusing on the improvement of the employees, who provide the services to the customers to ensure their satisfaction level over the organization's services and products. Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (2007) have developed a research model for the proper understanding of the research activities which is named as the “Research Onion Model”. All the elements of the research onion model have been covered in the following.

Research Approach

Another important part of the research onion model is the research approach. Basically there are two types of research approaches available- Inductive and Deductive. For the completion of this study, both the approaches will be covered. In the deductive approach, the research activities consider the hypothesis developed by the researcher based on the research.

The deductive approach is based on different types of data collection processes along with the settlement of hypothesis, development of theories and effective observation process. The positivism philosophy is the appropriately aligned with this approach.

On the other hand, the inductive approach is quite easy for the researcher to perform. This theory is not developed based on some predetermined theories in order to conduct the research activities. The observation process is the best process for this approach. Based on observation, the researcher will try to identify the problems in order to achieve the overall objectives of this research.

Both the deductive and inductive approach will be covered in this study. On the other hand, to support the positivism and interpretivism philosophy of this study both the approach will be required.

Following hypothesis will help the researcher in developing proper findings in order to achieve the research aims and objectives.

Hypothesis		Result
H1:	There is a positive relationship between employee attitudes and managed performance.	Supported or not
H2:	There is a positive relationship between performance management practices and employee attitudes.	Supported or not
H3:	There is a positive relationship between performance management practices and managed performance.	Supported or not

In order to complete the research activities properly and effectively both the quantitative and qualitative methods will be used in this study. The success of this study will be ensured by the proper cooperation of the research approach, philosophy, methods and strategies.

Besides the statistical information sometimes for the study completion purpose the observation of the employees and the customers will also be required. The proper combination of these two methods is known as the mixed method. This study will cover the mixed method for the successful completion of the study.

Research Strategies

In order to perform the research activities, it is essential to ensure the strategies of the study. The research strategy actually will help the researcher in collecting the required information through a systematic process or channel. In this study, the experimental strategy will help the researcher in gathering the information. However, the interview, survey and case study process will also contribute a lot in this case.

In this study to gather related information, the survey, interview and secondary data available on the World Wide Web will help in gathering required information. Thus deductive approach will help in gathering the information from the secondary sources whereas the inductive approach will cover the primary information.

SAMPLING

Data will be collected from the managers of British Airways different departments. The population of study is 190 managers and the sample size is 24 that are calculated from survey.com using sample size calculator. The confidence interval computed with the help of calculator was 18.80.

Time Frame

The deductive approach mostly covers the secondary information which is readily available whereas the inductive approach will cover the primary sources. Gathering of the information from the primary sources will require some time. Different types of interviews, survey and observation process will be covered in this approach. The secondary sources will ensure the gathering of the information within short time.

Research Nature

There are three different kinds of research i.e. exploratory, explanatory, and descriptive. The present study will fall in the explanatory nature because it elaborates the effect of performance management practices on human resource managed performance.

Research Techniques

The study would use a systematic research and interviews as research strategy to collect study data. The deductive approach would use secondary data from a systematic literature review because a survey would be expensive in terms of time and resources to collect data in either longitudinal or repeat studies, which will sufficiently explain the effect of performance management (HR) practices on managed performance over a period, for example in 2-4 years, instead of data collected in one survey that will be inadequate.

On the other hand, the inductive approach would gather primary data from a panel of experts. The panel of experts would be sampled using judgmental sampling to find experts on human resource who have the relevant knowledge and are available for the study. Interviews would be used to collect data because it is able to collect comprehensive data because it allows for clarification of unclear responses.

Ethical and Access Issues

Research ethics covers the conduct and behavior of the researcher while conducting a research activity. As the information will be gathered from both secondary and primary sources proper validation of the gathered information will be done by the researcher.

All the information used in this study will be current, for having a clear picture of the present condition in British Airways. However, all the information regarding the information providers will keep secret and the information will be used for the research purpose only.

Conclusion

The quality services and service delivery of the employees help in achieving the trust of the customers and gaining the satisfaction. Customers are the all in all in this sector as the organization is a service based organization. However, the growth of this organization mostly depends upon the improvement of its employees who actually deliver quality services.

It is expected that the process of continuous improvement of the outlook that attempts to explain P.M practices in achieving managed performance in organization will continue to undergo changes & also be carried out to establish the intervention effects of employee attitudes between P.M & managed performance.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN PAKISTAN

2019-04-15T17:32:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Organizational culture is the system of shared assumptions, values and beliefs that results in the unique and psychological environment of an organization.

Every organization has its own unique culture. This unique environment of an organization is stated as its culture. Numerous studies and researches have been taken place in this regard to explain several types of cultures and most importantly, the ways an organizational culture can affect itself and its ultimate influence on other employee related variables such as commitment, satisfaction, cohesion and performance etc. In a group of people working together, organizational culture is obviously an indistinguishable factor but also the most powerful force that affects the behavior of the members of a group. In this current organizational environment, culture is considered as the powerful tool to showcase numerous phases of an organization and also defines the proper functioning and operation of the business. Others scholars have concluded that organizational culture not only display, guide and change but also can contribute by affecting the overall performance.

In- spite of the fact, there is a large amount of literature on the subject of organizational culture and in a number of countries especially regarding Pakistan.

The organizational culture of Pakistan has shown number of diversions and changes. All those facts and figures are mainly based on the roots of the norms and the values of the organizations which are different of each of them. But the organizational culture in Pakistan has a wide influence on the workers due to a proper typical authoritative style, as the positive culture will inculcate positive impacts on the employees and workers performance and the negative culture will surely deduce the progress and performance of the respective employees.

Objectives

The main objectives of this research explaining organizational culture in Pakistan are stated below:

Organizational culture in Pakistan

Impact of organizational culture on the respective performance of employees and workers.

Organizational culture in Pakistan

Organizational culture in Pakistan is quite different from western organizational culture. In-spite of the fact that the number of well-established recognized firms is very few except banking sector etc.

In most of the organizations of Pakistan including Banking sector the typical Authoritative culture is being validated by the leaders as they are the boss and they have full chain of employee working under them without any right to speak up in front of the boss, in such cultures Boss is always right who dictates policies and procedures, decides what targets needs to be achieved, strategy is being forcefully implemented without any meaningful participation of by the subordinates (employees). As it states that the leader has all the power and vision in mind and should be able to motivate and encourage subordinates to get the job done under close supervision. Subordinate's answers to the orders given are either punished or rewarded. Leaders have unlimited authority don’t like sharing of power so what he has said is the ultimate order and has to be fulfilled at any cost. The biggest example is the textile industry of Pakistan.

Authoritative leadership

There are some organizations which have involved all the employees with them as the information flow in both directions; from top to bottom as well as bottom to top. In those organizations employees are considered as the valuable assets and make decisions. Although, not every employee of every level is being involved but still many of them are given the authority to speak and give the opinion. These organizations include the educational institutes of Pakistan and banking sector up to some extent.

In-case of educational and some corporate firms of Pakistan which have given each employee the liberty to give their information as such organizations are ready to adopt the change. Such firms and organizations have belief on power sharing because authority is not being conserved in one hand but is being distributed in the people. Group sharing and group works are being more promoted and preferred as compared to divided works. This brings more efficiency in the decision making which is being made by the combined several brains of several people, so the best out of the best is being selected. Such kind of Pakistani Corporate and Organizational Culture can be observed in “Telecom industry” and other growing industries as well.

Organizational culture in Multinational Companies of Pakistan

Organizational culture in Pakistan varies from organization to organization. In term of big organizations like banking sector organizational culture is based on centralized decision making. There is no doubt that banking sector is one of the largest and growing sectors in the country. It is considered to be very strict and prudent in its very conditions and operations. The top management has the right to make decision and then the branch members and other staff members will follow the decision. Though the employees have rights to make decision that they think is good for the employees. Every employee has his/her own personal computer to perform day to day business operations. There is a good communication level among all employees at any level and also there is good cooperation among them. There is a proper training program for the employee’s learning and focuses on the implementation of that knowledge at the work places so that changed could be measured.

Integration among individual needs and organizational needs is very important aspect of business. Organizational culture is all about matching needs and wants of people and companies where they perform their day to day activities.

Coca-Cola is Tall in terms of organizational complexity structure and controlled through a vertical hierarchy. Decision-making is in the hands of company’s upper management which act as a role model to ensures that rules and regulations are been applied and closely review their employees performance and behavior. Daily and routine decisions are made by the supervisors at the middle level.

The largest beverages selling company Coca Cola (Pakistan) says that diversity is injected in their culture which is the integral part of who we are, how we operate in the present and how we see the future. It creates such a culture which provides growth opportunities and communication opportunities to its employees irrespective of racial background gender, race and nation.

To sum it up, everybody has equal access to information. Coca cola Pakistan organizational culture is defined by seven core values: passion, integrity, leadership, collaboration, quality, diversity, and accountability.

Role culture is a culture which coca cola adopts where employees have a predefined task to do. Role culture is split up into a number of functions that are structured in a hierarchical way. Organizational structure of Coca-Cola is divided into various functions like marketing, accounts and production. These functions also have hierarchical ordering. This type of culture works only by logic and rationality. Role culture is mainly used in large organizations. In this culture position is considered as the main source of power and rules and procedures are the source of influence in the marketplace and in the work place which is critical to our sustainability.

So, we can say that organizational culture is very advantageous in many manners because of unity and positivity. Increased productivity is one of the merits of organizational culture. Sometimes, new recruits can be damaging for an organizational culture in such a way that they do not follow the predetermined rules and regulation of the organization. An employee should work accordingly with the culture of organization.

Job Satisfaction and Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is interrelated with job satisfaction of employees. If we look at the centralized based and role based culture of Pakistan’s organizational structure. The culture of the organization also contributes to the ways by which employees move towards their own organizational goals and targets, and execute their given work and use the resources in an appropriate way to have them. The climate of an organization has also an effect on the minds of people, by which they intentionally and unintentionally think feels and make their decisions.

According to Deal Kennedy (1982) and Pates Waterman the climate of the organization has a sound effect in particular areas like job satisfaction, execution of tasks, achievements and commitment. The satisfaction level and dedication of the individuals to firm may change because of their personal beliefs, attitudes and personal values.

National Culture impact on Organizational Culture and Job Satisfaction in Pakistan

The behaviors, functioning and expectations of employees in an organization may change in different set of cultures at national level.

The system by which companies and organizations are being integrated, national culture has also impact on them. The example of Pakistan implies that it is influenced by different families. Due to this type of hold, there is bureaucratic form, promotion of power and decision making made at higher level produce the low quality and quantity of work. In most of the cases position is given on the grounds of family belongings and linkage of relationships. On the contrary, the public stock holders of western firms and organizations are owner and expert mangers run them. These western companies are discouraging centralized decision making and adopt flat and simple structure. Workmen at different levels of position may make independent decisions. Merit policies, skills and expertise are the main determinants for getting promotion. Because of increasing tendency of globalization, organizations with their bosses must aware and have knowledge of compulsory constraints for companies known as effective leadership and assess lines of commitment for the satisfaction of jobs.

Conclusion

To sum it up, research has shown heterogeneous results depend on the type of organizational culture in Pakistan.

Therefore, it is concluded that in-spite of authoritative culture in big organizations employees are working efficiently and progressing with the passage of time.

Author has worked for the banking sector and feels that organizational culture in Pakistan is an ideal workplace where you can adapt your personality according to the scenario. Supervisor would be employee friendly with great communication skills and could coach and lead you to meet common and rewarding goals. And employees are largely extrinsically oriented as the premium placed on their monetary rewards is very high.

CREATIVE INSIDE LEARNING VISION

How the Operation Management and Environmental sustainability effects business - keeping in view Risk Management

Table of content

1. Background

Background

Gantt Chart: Time Plan for Completion of Project

Management Skills And Entrepreneurship - Business Plan of a new product launch by a new business organization

Marketing Management Practices and Porter's Five Forces

T20 World cup final, England won by 6 wickets

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN AN AIRLINE INDUSTRY: THE BRITISH AIRWAYS GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Recommendation and justification of change management programme that may assist McDonald’s in realising its strategic objectives.

IKEA EXPANSION INTO THE INDIAN MARKET

Table of Contents

The importance and application of Balanced Scorecards in Hospitals.

ORGANZIATIONAL AND MANAGERIAL PERFORMANCE

What is Organizational Performance?

What is Managerial Performance?

Measures of Organizational and Managerial Performance

BALANCED SCORECARD APPROACH

Advantages of Balanced Scorecard Approach

Disadvantages of Balanced Scorecard Approach

JUSTIFICATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Ø Financial Perspective

Ø Patients/Customers Perspective

Ø Internal Process and Employee Growth

Implementation

Monitoring

Reviewing

Evaluation

STAKEHOLDERS AND OPINION

INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

Ø Management staff Ø Professional staff Ø Non-professional staff.

INTERFACE STAKEHOLDERS

Ø Hospital staff Ø Medical board of trustees Ø Tax payers Ø Other contributors

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

Ø Suppliers Ø Patients Ø Third party payers Ø Financial community

OPINION

British Airways and Porter Five forces framework.

Organizational and Performance Measurement using Balance Score Card and its Applications in a Private Hospital

Drive better performance:

Implement s strategy

Encourages balanced performance

Balanced scorecards will point out what is missing

Encourage good management

Communicates; it tells the story

Costly and timely

Incomplete information

Employee resistance

Customer perspective

Financial perspectives

Internal perspectives

Learning and innovation perspectives

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN TOTAL PRODUCTIVE MAINTENANCE (TPM) - UK BASED EXPORTING COMPANY.

Redundancy and Procedure, Responsibility of Employers, Engagement of Employees and Motivational Strategies.

Redundancy and Procedure, Responsibility of Employers, Engagement of Employees and Motivational Strategies.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN AN AIRLINE INDUSTRY: THE BRITISH AIRWAYS GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Introduction

SAMPLING

Time Frame

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN PAKISTAN

Authoritative leadership

Ø Management staff

Ø Professional staff

Ø Non-professional staff.

Ø Hospital staff

Ø Medical board of trustees

Ø Tax payers

Ø Other contributors

Ø Suppliers

Ø Patients

Ø Third party payers

Ø Financial community