...Does IT Matter? An essay presented to the Department of Information Systems University of Cape Town in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the course on Information Systems Honours (INF 414W) by ( March 200x Declaration 1. I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another’s work and pretend that it is one’s own. 2. I have used the APA Convention for citation and referencing. Each contribution to, and quotation in, this essay from the works of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. 3. This essay is my own work. 4. I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy my work with the intention of passing it off as his or her own work Signature …………………….. Date ….../….../…...… Full name of student: A Table of contents 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………1 2. Resources: what makes them strategic?.....................................................1 1. Characteristics of Strategic Resources………………………..…………2 3. Strategic value of Information Technology………………………….………..2 4. The evolution of the IT function in business………………………………...4 5. Using IT to gain Sustainable Competitive advantage………...……………7 6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….8 7. Bibliography………….………………………………………………………….9 ...
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...Internal and External Factors Paper MGT/230 October 12, 2015 INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS PAPER The purpose of this essay is to explain how both internal and external factors affect the four functions of management. And how those factors also affect the organization of Verizon wireless Level One Heading The major four functions of management includes planning, controlling, organizing, and leading. These four functions could be affected by both internal and external factors in any business environment. Planning in management is systematically making decisions based on goals and activities that will be pursued by an individual. Controlling in management is the Monitoring performance and making changes. Organizing in management is assembling and coordinating human, financial, physical, information, and other resources needed to achieve goals. Leading in management involves the manager’s efforts to stimulate the high performance by employees. The external forces that affect the four functions of a business in management includes political, economic, technological, and sociological. Sociological is the demographics status in which helps management to plan for the future and design products for different aspects of people. Political and Economic includes all essential factors such as competitors and suppliers and customers as well this allows them to study their suppliers and competitors. Technology has a big effect on businesses, and...
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...The Importance of Moral Values in Our Life Essay Positive moral values are important because they allow you to have an overall feeling of peace and joy. Moral values can give meaning and purpose to your life. You are able to direct your behavior towards beneficial and fulfilling activities. When you live your life according to moral values that are based on honesty, compassion, courage, modesty, and forgiveness, then you can also form positive bonds with other people. Incorporating the moral value of honesty in your life make you trustworthy. You will have a clear conscience because you can respect yourself. The people that you come into contact with will be able to count on you to be fair and sincere. Your integrity will allow you to advance in both your personal and professional life. There are more opportunities for you to fully experience life when you are an honest person. In addition to honesty, you also need to incorporate the moral value of compassion into your life. Compassion allows you to have sympathy for the misfortunes of other people. It also motivates you to want to give them any type of assistance that you can. Compassion results in your having feelings of mercy towards other people. When you have compassion as a moral value people are more likely to put their trust in you because you will be non-judgmental of their circumstances. Thirdly, the moral value of courage gives you the determination to face anything that impedes your progress through life. You...
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...Behavior 160 Mid-Term Exam #1 Study Guide - Chapters 1 through 7 Test Format: 40 multiple choice questions worth two points each. Questions will be taken from textbook, lectures, videos and class discussion. Four essay questions worth five points each. 2-3 essay questions per chapter are included below. Test essay questions will be chosen from this list. Chapter One 1. Describe the four managerial functions and discuss how knowledge of Organizational Behavior helps managers perform these functions. 2. Describe two of the four critical OB challenges that have increased over the last two decades? Chapter Two 3. Define personality and describe how nature and nurture influence it. 4. The Big Five model of personality identifies five major personality traits; identify and describe two traits. 5. Define the “Locus-of-Control” trait and describe the two viewpoints that characterize it. Chapter Three 6. Describe and list your work values; define and discuss whether yours are more intrinsic or extrinsic. 7. Discuss how job satisfaction affects performance, absenteeism and turn-over. 8. Choose one of the four theories of job satisfaction (Facet Model, Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene, Discrepancy Model, and Steady-State Model) and define and describe it. Chapter Four 9. Name and define the three components in perception. 10. What are schemas? Are they functional or dysfunctional? 11. There are six common biases. Define and describe three of them. Chapter Five 12. Describe...
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...organisations strategic potential, what it can do and strategic ambitions, what it actually seeks to do (Johnson et. al 2011). This requires good understanding of the externalinternal environment, organisational purpose and culture. The tools commonly used to develop understanding and perform a strategic analysis are presented in Appendix 1.0.This essay aims to lay the foundation for a comprehensive analysis of current strategic potential of Singapore Airlines (SIA). Firstly, the focus is on how to identify the sources of information about macro environment, unique features of airlines industry and in depth view of internal dynamics of SIA. Secondly, the focus is on comparison of four core tools in terms of relevance, advantages, disadvantages and creative adaptability for SIA. A preliminary application of these tools is made to illustrate the arguments for or against using a particular tool. The essay briefly touches on another crucial aspect of right expertise and competence for an effective analysis. The essay concludes with key observations and recommendations for a further comprehensive analysis of SIA.A simple structure is adopted in this essay as indicated in Fig 1.0 The airlines industry in general, with no exception of Singapore Airlines, has always been viewed as having certain unique features in terms its external environment. Johnson et al. (2011) describes the external environment in form of layers as shown in Figure 2.0. Environmental scanning is the acquisition and use...
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...The Composition Of Virgins Portfolio Marketing Essay The Virgin Group is a multi national corporation with a hugely diversified business portfolio. This essay examines how the Virgin Groups corporate strategy has allowed it to sustain competitive advantage. The first area that is covered is the composition of Virgins portfolio, namely what businesses Virgin is in and what is the logic of their portfolio. Within the composition section it puts forward two models that help to show why Virgin has chosen particular avenues for achieving growth and sustaining competitive advantage. The Core Competence Theory and Parenting Concept are then reviewed critically in regard to Virgin. Porters three tests are then related to the Virgin Group. Next the co-ordination of Virgins portfolio is addressed, how Virgin has managed its portfolio in its quest for growth and a sustained competitive advantage. Within the composition section of the essay is the issue of control versus the co-operation of Virgin and its business units. It then handles the four concepts of corporate strategy and how Virgin can and has used them to add value to its business units. The link between Virgins Corporate and Marketing strategy is then discussed before the other side of the argument is considered, looking at how Virgins corporate strategy destroyed rather than added value. Finally having synthesised the various diverse elements the essay concludes by using the knowledge gained to raise questions for Virgin about...
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...organization you will dins their core values everywhere. They are not just words written in a company pamphlet of posted on a wall somewhere. The values and culture actually shows in their employees and customer service. The ten family core values that Zappos bases its culture on are: • Deliver WOW Through Service • Embrace and Drive Change • Create Fun and A Little Weirdness • Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded • Pursue Growth and Learning • Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication • Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit • Do More With Less • Be Passionate and Determined • Be Humble At Zappos they believe that if you get the culture right everything like great customer service, building a great team, having passionate employees and customer will all happen on its own. At Zappos the culture all starts at the hiring process. The way that Zappos hires new employees contributes greatly to their culture. At Zappos a person has to go through two different sets of interviews. The first interview is done by the hiring manager and his or her team. What they look for in a person is relevant experience, technical ability, and fit within the team. The second interview is done by the Human Relation Department and they are only looking for a cultural fit Organizational Culture of that person. If a potential employee doesn’t pass both interviews they are not hired. If a person is hired they will go through a four week training process. Two weeks...
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...Introduction to Business 110/1 Student number: 140009376 Module Tutor: Glen Chapman Submission Date: 14/03/2014 TITLE: Compare and Contrast the four types of Business Culture illustrated by Charles Handy. Discuss which culture is appropriate for an innovative business Word count: 1327 words Despite not always being an intentional creation, every company has a culture, which evolves from the core values belonging to the business. Culture can be loosely defined as shared beliefs and values of a group: the beliefs, customs, practices, and social behaviour of a particular nation or people. In the world of business this definition of culture can be used to differentiate one business from another. Different businesses have different values, customs and practices in the way they run their organisations and thus it is important to be able to identify the culture a business implements because this can be said to be the core foundation of a business. Innovation might be defined as the act or process of inventing or introducing something new, a new invention or way of doing something, innovation is the core of many businesses in the 21st century, due to the rapid advancement in technology. This essay aims to narrow down and compare and contrast the four type’s business culture presented by Charles Handy. This essay will also discuss which culture might be most suited to an innovative business. Handy (1993). Handy (1993) illustrates the power culture as a ‘web’. He suggests...
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...their personal and professional growth, the benefits of lifelong learning, and the impact of these elements on their future. Policies Students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality. Point Values for Course Assignments...
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...Memes with high survival value are able to infect whole societies to propagate themselves. For example, as Gladwell in his essay points out the "Greensboro Lunch Counter Encounter"(Gladwell,133). As he describes that 4 college students were seated at seats which were designated to the whites. That encounter could perhaps be termed as a meme of "high survival value," as Gladwell mentions "By next morning, the protest had grown to twenty-seven men and four women, mostly from the same dormitory as the original four"(Gladwell,133). In fact, the key to a "high survival value" meme is the notion of "strong ties," which Gladwell repeatedly mentions in his essay. The 4 students taking part in the Greensboro Lunch encounter were very close to each other, two of them were dorm mates while other two were the same, and 3 of those had gone to the same high school. The "Strong tie" relationship is very important in order for a meme to be of "High Survival Value." Furthermore, Gladwell mentions the likes of Al Qaeda and Red Brigades to further strengthen his point regarding the "strong ties" phenomena, suggesting those group had recruits with strong ties within the group, which is why those groups tend to work pretty well. Indeed, the strong...
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...TermPaperWarehouse.com - Free Term Papers, Essays and Research Documents The Research Paper Factory Join Search Browse Saved Papers Search Home page » Business and Management Hershey's Sweet MissionIn: Business and Management Hershey's Sweet Mission Running Head: Hershey’s Sweet Mission Hershey’s Sweet Mission HRM 500 – Human Resource Management Foundations Leslie Medlock Dr. James Ziegler April 27, 2011 Recommend the redesign of Hershey’s performance management system to appeal to the diverse groups that it employs: In answering the above question my recommendations of the redesign of Hersey’s performance management system to appeal to the diverse group that they employee would be to keep their current designed performance management system. Their redesign system caters to two specific generations, the baby boomers and the younger generation. Hershey has a system in place in which the baby boomers train/mentor the new “millennial” worker (employees in their twenties) due to, “the baby boomers tend to be interested in leaving a legacy, making the world better, so they generally are enthusiastic about mentoring their younger colleagues” (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, Wright, 2011). The baby boomers are role models, coaches, and advocates for Hershey. Mentoring gives them opportunities to utilize their abilities, experience, and wisdom both to their own benefit and that of Hersey’s to guide the younger generation employed with the company. Hershey...
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...CORE VALUES ESSAY: Verizon ------------------------------------------------- Paul Scott ------------------------------------------------- HRA-340 Organizational Training & Development ------------------------------------------------- August 30, 2014 Saint Leo University ABSTRACT This core values essay is about how Verizon’s integrity and ethics play a role on its training program. Verizon is a Dow 30 company with a workforce of over 180,000 diverse employees worldwide. Customer satisfaction is what Verizon depends on for it success. Verizon believes in providing quality, reliable, and innovative products to its customers along with outstanding customer service to ensure their customers are satisfied. I will be addressing the following five questions in this essay to further inform you about how Verizon’s integrity and ethics play a role on its training program. How does the training function support organizational strategy at Verizon? How does training provide a competitive advantage to Verizon? What role do ethics and integrity play in training Verizon? What does Verizon do differently that makes it one of the top 12 training companies in the U.S.? What do you think Verizon could do to improve its training function further? I will begin with how does the training function support the organizational strategy at Verizon. How does the training function support organizational strategy at Verizon? Verizon training function supports its organizational...
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...asking for help, and he distilled the responses into a list of 10 core values, including "Be humble," "Create fun and a little weirdness," and "Deliver WOW through service." Then he assigned and collected short essays from every employee on the subject of the company's culture and published them, unedited, in a book that he distributed to the staff. Every year, all employees, both new and old, contribute a fresh essay to the book, which has grown to 480 pages. Hsieh uses it as a way not only to get employees thinking about the meaning of their work but also to show the outside world what he has built. Talk to Hsieh for five minutes, and he will inevitably try to get your address so he can mail you a copy. The book is painfully earnest and yet affecting nonetheless. There are all the clichés one might expect -- acronyms, ridiculous overstatement (one call center rep compared Zappos to China's Ming Dynasty), and a fondness for the word Zapponians. It often goes way over the top. "Could you imagine if Zappos was more than an online retailer, or the job that pays the bills, but actually became a way of life?" wrote Donavon Roberson, a pastor who left the ministry before joining Zappos. Most Zappos employees are familiar with all this history. In fact, despite all the research I did before heading to Las Vegas, I didn't know that Nike had spurned Zappos until I sat in on a two-hour Zappos history class -- part of a four-week course on the subject -- and watched as employees called...
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...The Reluctant Workers Essay BUS/375 April 29, 2012 Managing projects within time, cost, and performance is easier said than done. The project manager’s environment can be extremely brutal and is composed of numerous meetings, reports, conflict resolution, planning, communication, and crisis management. This essay will briefly discuss the case study of the reluctant workers and cover the core skills that were in play with the scenario, along with an analysis of skills and the effectiveness of the project manager’s skills. Additionally, this essay will discuss what kind of support the project manager received and any recommendations for the project manager and his executives. Analysis of Core Skills, Execution, and Effectiveness After analyzing the scenario, the author found some inconsistencies of the way the project manager was handling his team first, one of the responsibilities of a project manager is using his or hers team-building skills. Team-building entails a whole range of management skills required to identify, commit, and integrate the various task groups from the traditional functional organization into a single program management system. He or she must have good interpersonal relations, expertise and resources, good program leadership, open communications, clearly defined goals and objectives, and team members who are committed to the program (Kezner, 2009, p. 149). Motivation is a personal choice and Mr. Aston should understand that he cannot...
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...required core and menu core courses. The required core courses consist of financial accounting and reporting, and statistics and data analytics. Under the menu core, which includes firms and markets, foundations of finance, global economy, leadership in organizations, marketing, operations management, and strategy, five areas are to be chosen. In the second year, up to three specializations can be chosen from over 20 options and electives from over 200 options. Twenty-five percent of courses (five courses) can be taken at other NYU graduate schools. Students can also participate in the semester exchange at 47 Stern partner schools in 30 countries. The DBi (Doing Business in) program of one or two weeks is available around the world between semesters and other breaks. Additionally, Stern offers experiential learning opportunities to tackle real-world problems in real time. Application requirements: One Stern MBA application is adequate for candidates to apply to four MBA programs (full-time, part-time, tech, and fashion and luxury). An application for both a primary and an alternative program can be made if the candidate so chooses. Candidates who represent Stern’s core values of “IQ + EQ” and demonstrate excellent intellectual ability, interpersonal skills, and a desire to serve business and community are preferred. Their academic profile, personal achievements and aspirations, and personal characteristics are also evaluated. The candidate needs to submit three essays—an essay each...
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