Do performance management systems in organisations lead to improvement Essay

Do performance management systems in organisations lead to improvement - Essay Example Performance management systems make use of the fact that performance is increased on the part of all concerned and there is no shortfall as concerns to commitment, dedication and devotion when at work. The performance management systems can ensure the right people for getting the bonuses, incentives and so on as well as point out the ones who have fallen short on the company’s expectations over a period of time. This would help in giving them rewards and incentives which will eventually make one and all happy at the end. Also this will continue their desire to achieve more and more within a specified period of time and thus come into the good books of the company. In return, they can be given all these rewards so that they could be encouraged in line with their work attitudes. Moreover, the people who lag behind with regards to their work schedules and dedication levels will stand up and take notice and thus would want to be counted as the effective and efficient ones within the company as well. The role of organizations in the maintenance of these systems is also very paramount. The role played by the organizations in advancing their performance management systems is immense since a lot of the population depends on them for their needs and wants. This is met in a fair manner courtesy the E-government initiative adopted by several different companies and organizations. All such innovations which help and facilitate the related process must indeed be given thumbs up since these try to solve the miseries of the people and it is because of these people that the performance management systems are put into place originally. This further pinpoints the fact that the deployment of an efficient performance management system policy within the organization would indeed help it to essentially tackle its internal issues in a better and more effective manner possible. There is a lot of growth potential for the sales force to be automated in the

Tools And Techniques In Environmental Analysis Commerce Essay

Tools And Techniques In Environmental Analysis Commerce Essay Strategic management is also called institutional management. It is the art and science of making, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decision making that helps an organization to achieve its long-term objectives. In this process the organizations mission, vision and objectives are discussed and developed. After these objectives are developed, the policies, plans, with respect to projects and programs, are designed, and then resources are allocated or budgeted to implement them and achieve the objectives. (wikipedia n.d.) Strategic management consists of a set of activities that come under setting goals and over the process of putting together tactics to achieve these goals and objectives. How strategic management is carried out depends on the organizational structure of the company. The Board of Directors, the management team as well as other stake holders of the company can be involved in these activities that fall under strategic management. Strategy can be defined as unified, comprehensive and integrated plan that relates to the strategic advantages of the firm to the challenges of the environment. It is designed to ensure that the basic objectives of the enterprise are achieved through the proper execution by the organization. (Jauch and Glueck 1988) Formulating a strategy for achieving an objective or a set of objectives is a combines three main processes which are: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ By analyzing the situation, self-evaluation and competitor analysis: both internal and external, both micro-environmental and macro-environmental. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ After this assessment, objectives are set. These objectives should be parallel to a time-line; some are in the short-term and others on the long-term. This involves creating vision statements (which is the long term view of a possible future), mission statements (which is the role that the organization gives itself in society), overall corporate objectives (both financial and strategic), strategic business unit objectives (both financial and strategic), and tactical objectives. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ These objectives should be studied along with the results of the situation analysis and a strategic plan can be formulated. The plan provides the details of how to achieve these objectives. Environmental analysis is a process that begins from identification of environmental factors, assessing their nature and impact, auditing them to find their impact to the business, and making various profiles for positioning. All the decisions taken by the organization and the impact of these decisions depend on the organizations internal and external environmental factors. These environmental factors should be carefully analyzed before taking any decisions. Environmental analysis is made up of the processes of scanning, monitoring, analyzing, and forecasting the business situations and variables of the environment. Scanning is done to get information from the environment. Monitoring is done to check the nature of the environmental factors. Analyzing requires data collection and the use of tools and techniques. Forecasting is a method to find the future possibilities based on the past results and present scenario. (Business Environment Analysis n.d.) Different types of methods, tools, and techniques are used for environmental analysis. Some of the major methods of analysis are Scenario Building, Benchmarking, and Network methods. Scenario building gives an overall picture of the total system with the factors which affect it. Benchmarking is to find the best standard in an industry and to compare the ones strengths and weakness with the standard. Network method is to assess organizational systems and its outside environment to find the strength and weakness, opportunity and threats of an organization. Some of the techniques of primary information collection can be Delphi, Brainstorming, Survey, and Historical enquiry. Delphi technique collects independent information from the experts without mixing them. Brainstorming is information collection technique being open minded without criticizing others. Survey is to design questions and to ask them to the participants whereas the historical enquiry is a kind of case analysis of past period. Analysis tools can be statistical such general descriptive tools as mean, median, mode, frequency or tools can be inferential as ANOVA, correlation, regression, factor, cluster, and multiple regression analysis. (BADU 2002) SWOT Analysis A scan of the internal and external environment is an important part of the strategic planning process. Environmental factors internal to the firm usually can be classified as strengths (S) or weaknesses (W), and those external to the firm can be classified as opportunities (O) or threats (T). This is called SWOT analysis. (QuickMBA n.d.) The SWOT analysis provides information that is helpful in matching the firms resources and capabilities to the environment in which it operates. The SWOT Matrix A matrix of these factors can be constructed. This matrix will be helpful in developing the strategies for the firm. The SWOT matrix (also known as a TOWS Matrix) is shown in the next page: SWOT / TOWS Matrix Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities S-O strategies W-O strategies Threats S-T strategies W-T strategies S-O strategies pursue opportunities that are a good fit to the companys strengths. W-O strategies overcome weaknesses to pursue opportunities. S-T strategies identify ways that the firm can use its strengths to reduce its vulnerability to external threats. W-T strategies establish a defensive plan to prevent the firms weaknesses from making it highly susceptible to external threats. ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OR EXTERNAL AUDIT The organizations should adapt themselves and their strategy to the external environment which is constantly changing. The external environment is also called macro environment. These forces of the external environment cannot be controlled and can be analyzed using a variety of tools and techniques such as Environmental Scanning and PEST analysis. Environmental Scanning Environmental scanning is defined as the process that seeks information about events and relationships in a firms environment, the knowledge of which help top management chart the firms future. In this process, the external environment is divided into sectors or areas such as political, economic, cultural, technological and further analysis such as Pest analysis can be done after scanning the environment. Information is collected by monitoring and forecasting any changes that occur to the variables of the environment that have been identified earlier. This collection of information helps the organizations to find out where they are lacking and what exactly they need which helps them in formulating the strategies. (Acar 1995) Environmental scanning is used to gather information from the environment. PEST Analysis A PEST analysis looks at the Political, Economic, Social and Technological drivers or the external forces that affect the organization. It is most useful when used together with other tools such as the SWOT analysis. Political Factors These factors may have direct or indirect impact on the organizations operation. Decisions made by the government may have an effect on the business. The political arena has a big influence on how organization operates. Economic Factors Economic factors such as the market prices and market cycles affect the purchasing power and behavior of the consumers. Sociological Factors These factors include the demography, lifestyle, cultural aspects of the consumers. These factors have a big influence on the consumer needs and wants. Sociological factors also affect the size of potential markets. Technological Factors Technological changes play an important role in shaping how organizations operate. Technological factor is very important to gain competitive advantage. Technological innovation can also improve the production efficiency, quality and speed. New technology is changing how organizations operate. Porters Five Forces Analysis Porter identified the following five forces model of competitive strategy: The threat of new entrants and the appearance of new competitors The degree of rivalry among existing competitors in the market The bargaining power of buyers The bargaining power of suppliers The threat of substitute products or services which could shrink the market The strength of each of these forces varies from industry to industry, but taken together they determine long-term profitability. These five factors affect the strategy of the organization. It is important to analyze and study these five forces to be able to craft a successful strategy. To be successful, the organization must respond effectively to the pressures of these five forces. INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS The resources, strengths, behaviors, weakness and distinctive competences are major components of the internal environment of an organization. An organization uses different types of resources which help them achieve their objectives and the way in which they utilize their resources can be the source of their strengths or weaknesses. This can also be defined as organizational capability which is used to develop the strategies and objectives which the organization can achieve and these should not unrealistic according to its capabilities. Some of the components of the internal environment of an organization are: Organizational Resources These are all the tangible and intangible inputs used in the organization to create outputs in the firm of product or services through a transformation process. Organizational Behavior The behavior of an organization demonstrates is the result of forces operating internally which will determine the ability or constraints in the usage of resources. Competency Competency of an organization is the ability to do what its competitors cannot do or the ability to do better than what they can do. This concept is used for strategy formulation. CONCLUSION It can be seen that the analysis of the environment is critical to the success of the decisions that managers have to make which have widespread impact on the functions and processes of the business.

Clothing Is a Mode of Non-Verbal Communication Essay -- Nonverbal Comm

Crossed arms, dilated pupils, and fake smiles are all examples of nonverbal communication. However, the one that may have the biggest impact on a person’s opinion of the wearer is the type of clothing he or she is wearing. Clothing is often the first impression of a person that someone gets, whether it is accurate or not. People often use clothing to indicate their age, gender, political views, and economic class. Without even realizing it, most people make assumptions about a person based on their clothing. People make assumptions and pass judgment about other’s emotional, moral, education, and social prestige (Dynamism of Fashion Among Female Undergraduates and its Effects in the Sight of Beholders in a University of Education, Nigeria 2011). We commonly expect people to dress a certain way before we learn anything about them personally, or their qualifications. So often, people try to pick out their nicest outfits when they are attempting to make a good first impression before the employer ever ask them any questions. First impressions are very important and clothing is usually one of the prime factors in determining them (Pelham 2010). A person’s personality and cultural beliefs can be communicated through their clothing options. Clothing can also be used to tell whether the wearer is conventional or audacious, outgoing or aloof, casual or organized, a leader or a follower, or poised or insecure. However, making assumptions like the ones previously stated can be mistaken (Dynamism of Fashion Among Female Undergraduates and its Effects in the Sight of Beholders in a University of Education, Nigeria 2011). Clothing styles such as very tight clothes may be suggestive, showing off, or possibly even unappealing, while clo... ...be identified as an Indian or as Hindu while she may very well be neither (Pelham 2010). I am often told that people are watching me. Not to hear what I say, but to see what I do, how I do it, and even what I’m wearing. While they watch me, they are forming their own opinions. Whether or not their opinions are factual is not the point, the point is that they are basing their assumptions on nonverbal communication. The outcome is that nonverbal communication can be misconstrued at any time; it just depends on the person analyzing it. Works Cited "Dynamism of Fashion Among Female Undergraduates and its Effects in the Sight of Beholders in a University of Education, Nigeria." Academic Leadership The Online Journal 9, no. 2 March 2011. Web. 20 March 2015 Pelham, Libby. Clothing as a Form of Non Verbal Communication. July 12, 2010. Web. 20 March 2015

Cooper Industries’ Corporate Strategy Essay

1. What is Cooper’s corporate strategy? How is Cooper Industries adding corporate value to its portfolio of businesses? Would you recommend any changes in corporate strategy? Cooper’s corporate strategy is diversification through acquisitions and mergers. This diversification is in both related and non-related businesses to lessen its dependence on the capital expenditures of the natural gas industry. Cooper’s started acquiring low-technology manufacturing companies. The companies were premium-quality products with strong brands names mainly still own by the original family owners that have seen better days. Once Cooper’s acquired the companies they would update the processes and equipment and consolidate the plants. In a few cases, moved entire manufacturing plants to new plants in the southern part of the country to break away from practices of 20 years ago. They called this the â€Å"Cooperization† process which is one where they create lean independent business. The â€Å"Cooperization,† process included plans for divisional managers to seek out complementary acquisitions for further expansion of the Cooper Empire. Let’s now look at ways they add this value to the Cooper Portfolio. Cooper empire added value to the corporation in a variety of ways: Manage Cooper’s over all corporate portfolios †¢Pursuing companies have stable earning or earning counter cyclical to oil and natural gas †¢ 30 years acquired more than 60 manufacturing companies †¢Retain only best top leadership from the acquired business †¢Centralized activities including managing inventories, sales, shipping, billing and headquarters. †¢Over 30 divestitures in under 20 years in efforts to only keep business that would continue to add value †¢Half of growth depends upon internal growth and other half from acquisitions †¢Reviewed about 100 potential acquisitions annually. †¢Division had a global responsibility for its operations. †¢Close examination of business parts in order to place different products into a more well suited area of the corporation. †¢Corporate management teams participate in every policy decision made in the organizations †¢Internal audit staff and four person team of manufacturing cost systems experts available †¢Labor relation, shareholders and public relations, environmental matters, legal affairs, administering personnel policy and benefits programs handle by one person. †¢Strong union-avoidance policy †¢Precisely focused upon complying with strategy rather than upon assigning blame for poor performance. †¢Knowledgeable, understanding, and supportive division managers. Managing each individual business owned by Coopers †¢Focus on products that served basic needs and suspending manufacturing on unprofitable products. †¢Vertical integration of other business to lower supply and dealer cost. †¢ Gain leverage with distributors because of greater sales volume and wider product offering. †¢Decentralized operation philosophy. †¢Bottom-up strategic planning. Managed linkages among different divisions of Coopers businesses †¢Combining sales member from other companies to promote all products creating a small yet efficient sales team. †¢Strong brand name for superior quality. †¢Ã¢â‚¬Å"Cash flow is king,† implemented thinking in divisions to keep money on hand to be able to acquire businesses fast and efficiently if needed or  opportunity presents itself. †¢Production improvements based upon broader perspective of manufacturing plants they one plant can have. †¢Established purchasing council negotiated advantageous prices †¢New building and/or major construction products would be expected to purchases Cooper’s supplies. Manage change in the businesses owned by Coopers †¢Combining duplicate product lines to one division  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å"Lean and mean,† cost structures while limited power of spending habits to lower level managers. †¢Rationalized manufacturing facilities to close underutilized plants †¢Consolidating sales and marketing programs to help develop a unified market identity and then construct showroom to display all of its products, train architects, designers, and to show off product lines. †¢Enhanced management of distribution-oriented businesses because of experience at Cooper’s. Recommendations for changes in future acquisitions and mergers: It is my belief that Coopers has a first-class corporate strategy that is very effective at making money. They have great portfolio management skills with obtaining and releasing companies that is best for the stockholders. This means there is little agency problem that occurs in the corporation. Coopers is also great at creating productive manufacturing companies with little worries about foreign competitors due to high-quality products, technologies and management teams in place to direct uncharted directions. The only recommendation of change I have is for the company to have a greater appreciation of people currently running the acquired businesses. Yes, Coopers obtained them in a rundown condition, but the companies are still in business. That means the few people holding the company together could be lost with the â€Å"my way or the highway† philosophy of Coopers. This only need to be a small change, Coopers is good at identifying profitable parts of a business except mid and low level human based resources. Cooper should start an evaluation process of current workers and the ones that are a superior fit should be sent to a different part of the corporation to be trained in the Cooperization process in hopes they will one day become a greater asset to the company. 2. How is Cooper Industries structured? Is this structure  appropriate for its strategy? Would you recommend any structural adjustments? Divisional Structure The diversification structure is very appropriate for Cooper Industries. Cooper has operations in manufacturing, administration and finance across many different products creating synergy throughout entire corporation. These operations across many different products, areas, and customers gives enhanced flexibility to the corporation as a whole in responding to change. This flexibility creates enhanced coordination across the functional departments due to expertise focus. The diversification structure combined with an expertise focus allows Coopers to evaluate internally to give clear responsibility with a mature sense of correction. As if the diversification structure with the expertise focus wasn’t enough, Coopers added a system of control on top of all this to ensure success. This control required all division to propose a standard 150 line item monthly financial report, guidelines to help direct potential acquisitions, and strong brand name awareness for quality creating a well-built company. Cooper recommended structural adjustments In the case of Cooper’s structure I believe it is prestige and shouldn’t be touched. The fact that the company gives up control of day-to-day activities with monitoring and guidance available creates trust in throughout the entire organization. Secondly, because the Cooper’s breaks up newly acquired companies and transfers resources among the different business units or even to relocates a full line to different divisions show that this is a forward thinking company. Thirdly, it would be unachievable for another corporation to compete on the same level as Cooper because it has co-leader in every divisional segment. Lastly, even if a company does become available to purchase you better be ready to compete with Coopers which is a force you don’t want to come against.

Theory of Organizational Culture

It should have made clear and obvious that sustained profitability and high financial turns are not enough to survive and remain successful in today's highly competitive markets because there Is considerable evidence of conflicts and misunderstandings caused by cultural differences. Therefore It Is sensual that firms need to understand their own and other firms' organizational culture and need to adjust their ways and traditions while conducting business with other firms, organizations or individuals with different cultural values. 1. Generally, in lay man terms, culture in an organization can be answered as simple as the way we do things here'. This defines the consistent way in which the tasks were reformed, conflicts were resolved and how customers and employees were treated. In a more articulate manner, an organizational culture can be defined as a core values that defined that particular organization itself. It comprised of its member shared values, behaviors, beliefs and teamwo rk that guide and determine the organization decisions and actions and how it behaves in the local as well international market. 1. 3 Why Does it Matter?In the context of whether it matters or not, an organizational culture is something that cannot be easily capture or define but at the same time it is not something that NY of the organization should take for granted. Many anthropologists and coaches had noticed that ineffective leadership tends to be the major factors of an organization diminishing and weakening (Alveolus, 2002). Rolling back to the Ancient Rome era, the great empire had endured a series of terrible emperors. Due to the culture and structure of the empire was great enough; the tide was often overcome even after decades long.However, one cannot be in denial that without a strong top leadership eventually would be the cause of the fall of even the great empire. 1. 4 Understanding the Organization Culture There is proverb that goes â€Å"When in Rome, do as the Roman s do†. The essence of this is that blending oneself into the foreign environment. Every organization is unique in nature; which is to say the culture of an organization may vary from one another despite having the same nature of business or having the same geographical locality.Even in cases where top managers have strong awareness of the significant of culture, there is often the case that lack of understanding on how the people and organization function in terms of culture. It is normally difficult to attain high level of cultural awareness to decide actions. Understanding organizational culture is essential as a way of understanding the organizational life in all forms and variations (Rachel Parker). Section 2: The Types of Organizational Culture 2. Types Organizational Culture There are few quadrants to be relating to where most of the organizations will fall organization feels comfortable to operate in. However it should be noted that none of the quadrants is inherently b etter than one another Just as there is no culture is necessarily better than another (Tarp). 2. 1. 1 Control (Hierarchy) This culture focused on stability and control in the organization. It strongly emphasized on standardization, integration as well as the decision making mechanism.This means there is layers of management for the decision to go through before the final decision is made. One of the giant companies that practices this pattern of organization culture is Ford Motor Company; they have seventeen levels of management. Government agencies are also well to be associated with this type of culture. 2. 1. 2 Compete (Market) This type of culture focusing on external orientation rather than internal and they emphasized on differentiation greatly than anything else. This culture concentrates n competitiveness and productivity through emphasis on partnership. 2. 1. Collaborate (Clan) Collaborate approach emphasize more on flexibility and discretion over stability and control. The total opposite of individualism, this culture give due credits to team work. Take for example; the Japanese firms have strong Collaborate culture among themselves. They appreciate cohesion, loyalty, and group commitment, and therefore they operated more like families than a team. 2. 1. 4 Create (Autocracy) In this value matrix, they value flexibility and discretion however not to the extent of sharing the inward focus. Instead this culture focused on flexibility and adaptability.This is essential in thriving in the world that many would view as impossible. Google is a good example of a prototypical autocracy organization. Their ability to capture market share has made them leaders in the marketplace and eliminating competition among the industry players. Section 3: The Patterns of Organizational Culture 3. 1 The Cultural Patterns in Construction Industry Due to the rapid internationalization of the construction industry, there is a growing of interest in developing a deep understan ding in the organizational culture and how t can be implemented in this competitive market.It appears that one of the reasons for why the organizational culture gained importance is because more construction companies are conducting business in international markets. (Low, 2001) In addition to the emphasis put on the internationalization of the construction business, the adversarial relations between different stakeholders is considered to be the sensitivity of different project participants to cultural differences which have a culture is claimed to be an effective way to respond to the environment; thus achieving a superior performance.Considering the hyper-turbulent environment and fragmented nature of the construction industry; understanding and managing organizational culture is of particular importance in enhancing organizational performance (Ankara, 2005). 3. 2 The Organization Culture in Malaysian Construction In Malaysian construction industry, Malaysian contractors shared t he same views that the project culture plays enormous impact on the construction project control dimensions such as time, cost, quality and loyalty.In Malaysian construction industry, there are few types of culture that are being practiced by many of the construction rims. These cultures are presented in the below table: Types of Culture Tiger Culture Monkey Culture Rabbits Culture Elephant Culture Dragon Culture Definitions Competitive and Achievement Orientated Teamwork and loyalty Flexibility and creative Strong hierarchies and order Combines the disparate and beneficent attributes of lesser beings into one of extraordinary capability and power Table 1 : Types of Cultural Practices in Malaysia Based on the current research paper produced by C.Wang and H. Abdul Raman (Raman, 2010), the findings below has shown that the â€Å"Monkey Culture† is insider as the most applicable type for the organizational culture in Malaysia. Figure 1: Applicable cultural practices Through the questionnaire survey forms collected from this research, Malaysian contractors have ranked that teamwork and loyalty as highly important in an organization culture. Therefore this has puts â€Å"Monkey Culture† above the rest of the other cultures.In contrast with the US firms which very often considered as individualistic, the Malaysian contractors are very similar to the Japanese culture in the sense of the Japanese has always been a collectivist culture and communities hat put group's welfare over any own individual welfare. The Japanese companies have successfully created an environment and culture where the sense of family has greatly prevails among the employees. Take for example, Toyota, one of the Japanese cars manufacturers, has provided a day-care center for young mothers who wish to work.While the Malaysian contractors have not gone to the extent of creating the family culture in their practice, they have emphasize strongly on good teamwork and coordination between the management and the employees. Figure 2 below shows the analysis extracted from the Hypotheses dimension on Malaysia's organizational Figure 2: Hypotheses Dimension: Malaysia dimension namely Power Distance Index (PDP), Individualism (DVD), Masculinity (MASS) and Uncertainty Avoidance Index (AJAX).The fifth dimension which is not included in this analysis is found later after the implementation of the four dimensions. The fifth dimension is the Long-term Orientation (L TO). As shown in Figure 2, individualism (DVD) has ranked the lowest among the rest dimensions. This shows that Malaysian do not prefer to work alone. Malaysian in fact are very social community and they also practice collectivist culture like the Japanese do. This applies in the case of the construction industry. All members work in a team and like a team.The Project Manager needs his subordinates to cooperate with him in order to get the project running and this applies to the subordinates as well. Like the prov erb goes â€Å"No man is an island†. Therefore, Malaysian construction industry sees this as an important elemental culture that should not be ignored. During the tenure of Tuna Dry Mathis Mohammad as the Malaysia's fourth premier way back in the asses, Dry Mathis has ladled for the citizens of Malaysia to practice the â€Å"Look East Policy'.He considered that the secret of Japanese success and its remarkable development lies in its labor ethics, morale, and management capability. For this purpose, Malaysia decided to dispatch their students to Japan, to study not only academics and technical know- how but also to learn labor ethics and discipline of the Japanese people. One good example of the Japanese culture that should be implemented in the Malaysian construction industry would be the Japanese strong sense of family.