...Assignment #4 | | | | | | | | | | Introduction Modern businesses are facing major challenges if they plan on meeting that sensitive balance between business demands and customer satisfaction. The problem that exists is how to use the current guidelines in place that will provide a better business market without totally corrupting the fabric of moral integrity. While the concerning objective for most businesses is to make money, it is a delicate balance to do so without causing too much of an uproar within the economic structure. The problem to be investigated is where the beginning of industrialism starts and where capitalism ends and what factors should be addressed to ensure that the business industries do not yield totally under the invisible existing economic pressures. This paper will examine Michael Novak’s outlook concerning capitalism and the corporation and take an even closer look on what, if any, pressures will take place in shaping the modern business corporation. More so, this paper will attempt to answer the questions provided in the reading to help interpret basic concepts between capitalism and corporations. How long has the corporation existed? Business corporations have existed for many centuries and over an even longer period of time. By definition, a corporation is an entity that allows individuals to do business without exposing themselves, personally, to the financial liability or loss associated with running a genuine...
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...ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND WAL-MART SUCCESS Introduction The paper analyzes the corporate culture of Wal-Mart in the context of its establishment by its owners as well as its future changes due to operational needs (e.g. outsourcing marketing to external people). The structure can be somewhat futuristic that will serve as a guide for companies that have adopted or will change their corporate culture. The paper contains overview of Wal-Mart’s culture and related organizational culture theories while the latter part analyzes Enron scandal and Standard/ relating them to cultural issues related to Wal-Mart. There is a conclusion to elaborate on findings and implicate results to current issues confronting Wal-Mart. Overview of Wal-Mart Generally, the culture of Wal-Mart is engraved in treating other people as one wants to treat itself. This reflects how they create relationships with customers, associates and suppliers with an initiative to provide excellence to show their competence and upper hand from industry players. The company’s official website has a dedicated icon that explains their culture. Opening remarks before detailing them comes from the CEO who presents financial and operational performance of the firm. Such design is strategic in order for website visitors and people to know that they have an effective corporate culture which results in positive outcome for the company and its customers and business partners. There...
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...PhD(ABD); B293/MAN2062 Section 07 Business Ethics course. Ethics Today I have realized more over the years of my professional career how much ethics plays a role in daily activities and practices of a business. In my eyes, businesses can still maintain competitive in their industry while preserving high ethical values. Unfortunately, to get to the point where ethical standards are today we had to go through many growing pains of greed, sly executives, and false accounting practices to get here. History mixed with present situations has allowed international expectations on how ethical standards are being held at a higher priority; it seems it even might be placed higher than a budget priority because it is imperative for a business to represent itself and its employees in this manner. Change is hard for some to accept, but social ethics shift over time and it is highly important for new laws and regulations to be updated, revised, and created for ethical standards because it is a moving target to hit and forget about completely. There are constantly new issues arising in respects to ethical situations. From personal experience I encountered an insight on ethics from a multinational corporation level where the phrase, “Corporate responsibility” became words thrown around and done robotically versus taking action and being proud of the corporate responsibility. Employers must keep secure on values it wants to represent and proactively evaluate ethical predicaments budding...
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...in a gallery in Wafi City- Dubai but the gallery was closed and replaced by an online store. Beside the online store, ARJMST pieces are also sold in Etihad Airlines and in different exhibitions including the latest international jewelry and watch exhibition 2013 in Abu Dhabi. ii. The Founder Azza AlQubaisi is a young Emirati jewelry designer from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. In 1997, Azza started her higher education in London Guildhall University in Arts and later on graduated with a B.A. in Jewelry Design and Allied Crafts in 2002 and held many exhibitions in UAE as well as other cities such as London and Helsinki since then. After graduation, she started her jewelry designing career as the first Emirati jewelry Artist, Corporate Gift and Awards Designer and established her own brand “ARJMST”. She is a member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen, London since 2002. II. The story “The dessert dunes, the shapes, patterns, texture and color of the grains of sand highlighted by a few green strokes…There is movement in the far distance coming closer every minute until I can see my own reflection in the eyes of the wise man walking in front of a caravan...”- Azza AlQubaisi (Azza alQubaisi, 2013) In 1997, Azza’s journey started in the United Kingdom. She chose to complete her higher education in Chelsea College of Art and Design...
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...Patagonia Case Study - Harsha Narravula Patagonia has a unique culture when compared to other corporate companies. They seem to simplify their values around 3 key cultural elements, caring about environment through corporate responsibility and furnishing profits by producing high quality and innovate products. These values were not just a marketing campaign but were well established/ visible throughout the company through visual artifacts, communication and pursuing business strategy in line with the values. It is these strong values that have set the company apart from competition and helped the company during economic down turns (values create identity, Lencioni, Pg6). These corporate values were so strong and dominant that it affected day to day business (Concept of core values, Lencioni, Pg6). Top level management, CEO’s and board members were hired in line with the culture and shared the same values that have existed. Deviation from the values sometimes has resulted in rapid turnover of top level management. This strong culture stemmed from its founder Yvon Chouinard establishing strong set of values that had initially worked well for the company (Strong Culture, Greenberg, 371). Due to the continued success, these values permeated through the company even without Yvon being involved in a formal position (Organizational memory, Greenberg, Pg 375). As stated above the corporate responsibility to environment is a core value that the company practices. The...
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...eight years. Nissans major problem were the extremely low margins due to its lack of brand power and the very unprofitable cost structure (especially regarding purchasing costs). Nissan’s organizational and financial structures where very traditional and typical Japanese (e. g. the cross-shareholdings within the kereitsu structures). All previous Nissan CEO’s where Japanese , probably each of them with a long tenure and history in the company. Each CEO was surely skilled and experienced in leading an international company. But it can be speculated that it is much harder for a Japanese CEO to make fundamental changes in Nissan's long-standing operating practices and behavioral norms of Japanese society that are deeply integrated in the corporate structure. The former managers were simply stuck in their Japanese organizational structures and no one wanted to break with their own tradition. In addition, the company advisors, a group of senior managers without line responsibilities, made sure that Japanese business practices were implemented and pursued. Some examples of these country specific, traditional structures are the kereitsu partnerships and the predominant seniority rule: Nissan was consistently strapped for cash and could not finance the development of its own products. Although Nissan actually had plenty of capital, it was locked up in noncore financial and real-estate investments and mostly in keiretsu partnerships. These partnership structures were typical for Japanese...
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...Stakeholder A person, group or organization that has interest or concern in an organization. Stakeholders can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives and policies. Some examples of key stakeholders are creditors, directors, employees, government (and its agencies), owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions, and the community from which the business draws its resources. Not all stakeholders are equal. A company's customers are entitled to fair trading practices but they are not entitled to the same consideration as the company's employees. An example of a negative impact on stakeholders is when a company needs to cut costs and plans a round of layoffs. This negatively affects the community of workers in the area and therefore the local economy. Someone owning shares in an business such as Microsoft is positively affected, for example, when the company releases a new device and sees their profit and therefore stock price rise. What is the meaning of "Take/Taken for granted'? Most common definitions: 1) to use, accept, or treat in a careless or indifferent manner: 2) to accept without question or objection; assume constituency the people involved in or served by an organization (as a business or institution) political action committee a group formed (as by an industry or an issue-oriented organization) to raise and contribute money to the campaigns of candidates likely to advance the group's interests advocacy advertising Advertising...
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...motivation. The behavioral disciplines of psychology, social psychology, sociology and anthropology form the basis for the study of organizational behavior. Psychology and social psychology studies the impact of conditions in the workplace and the impact to the employees’ performance. Within these sciences, learning theorists also studies the impact of change and how to reduce the challenges of change in the work environment [ (Robbins, 2011, p. 12) ]. According to the authors, sociology, and anthropology contributes to the study of organizational behavior by focusing on the relationship of employees as a group and the impact to the organizational structure. The culture and group dynamic of the employees will direct the level of motivation that in turn will negatively or positively impact the performance of the organization [ (Robbins, 2011, p. 12) ]. Psychology evaluates changes in individuals’ behavior and the impact to learning, Emotions, leadership, and decision-making processes in an organization. Social psychology observes peoples’ influence on each other, group behavior, identifies communication patterns and how trust is built in the organization [ (Robbins, 2011, p. 13) ]. Sociology studies group behavior within an organization and specifically organizational technology, communication, power, and conflict. The study of anthropology helps us...
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... 1. While most companies have difficulty producing sufficient quality candidates for top management succession, how has GE been able to create a surplus? What philosophy, policies, and practices have made it a “CEO factory” as Fortune called it, and “easily the world’s best machine for churning out corporate talent” as The Economist described it? GE leveraged best in class HR practices the level of sophistication in their polices gave them the opportunity to adopt practices that which in turn lead to the growth of leaders form within the company. The culture within GE was known for the development of leaders within, which helped drive a continuous improvement model for managers. The vision of the continuous improvement for managers was to become a expert in every field, or least in most of them. GE also provided job training to its employees through a university that was established through GE. They invested 10% of pre tax income to the development of its employees. 2. How generalizable are GE’s management development policies and practices? How transferable across cultures? Across industries? Across companies? GE is very successful in step-by-step development of their employees and management team. This allowed them to merge new employees with the culture that existed within the company with little push back as new employees adopted the culture quickly. GE also spent time in their recruitment process, which focused on graduates out of Universities that had been...
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...feedback as to how the changes would affect them and causing management to miss the language and culture already established by its workers. Case Questions 1. To what extent are the following approaches to change embedded in the DuPont story (justify your answer, provide specific examples): a. OD b. Appreciative inquiry c. Sense-making a. OD – Organizational Development speaks to the focus of the interpreter or coach change manager in this case. The coach as change manager concentrates more on the capabilities of the individuals in the organization, than on the specific processes (Palmer, I., Dunford, R., Akin, G. 2009). Tom displayed coach change manager characteristics when he sought out the academic community to assist in introducing DuPont’s managers to new ideas and rebuild its work culture. This revealed Tom’s commitment to a systematic diagnosis, of the whole organizational system and puts the focus on humanistic, democratic, and developmental aspirations (Palmer, pg 209). b. Appreciative inquiry – a method of problem solving that was pioneered by David Cooperrider in the mid 1980’s speaks to reviewing what is going well within in an organization and builds upon them. This approach recognizes and values the current contributions as well as explores and discovers new possibilities within the current corporate culture.( http://www.mindtools.com). An example of this is when managers discovered that workers were using a NASCAR metaphor as the created culture and language...
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...organizational communication, which implies communication among employees, as well as communication between different hierarchic levels in the same organization. Communication as an element of organizational behavior is seen through the group level as the independent variable. Throughout this paper it shall explain the importance of communication for organization, the communicational process and channels for information flow through the network of small formal groups and the network of informal groups. An efficient organizational structure can help any business operate and grow in a manner that can be better managed. Efficient structure produces communication that is consistent within the company, a uniform marketing message and a culture that helps encourage cohesiveness and good morale. To achieve this sort of alignment, you first must understand the elements of efficient organizational structure. High morale holds an organizational structure together. With high morale, productivity is elevated, and employees offer new ideas to help increase efficiency. Create incentive plans that offer pay to individuals who perform above expectations....
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...Case Back in the 1970s the Ford Pinto was debuted without regard to proper safety features and concern for proper ethics while producing this automobile. Buyers wanted lower pricing and bigger trunk space more than the consideration for safety. Lee Iacocca, president of Ford, ran the business striving for higher profits and cutting costs. His lack of interest for human life initiated many lawsuits against Ford and, in the end, was a far bigger cost than installing safety features in the Pinto in the beginning. The biggest concern regarding the role people played in the Ford Pinto case was the concern for cutting costs and making the biggest profits over the concern for human life. Severally jeopardized in this case were proper corporate morals and ethics. This started when Lee Iacocca acquired the position of president from the former President Semon Knudson. Lee Iacocca celebrated much success with the Mustang and wanted to market small cars to compete with the foreign car markets. Lee Iacocca drove to promote the Ford Pinto by 1971. Because it typically takes three and one-half years for the production of an automobile, to have the Ford Pinto to the showrooms by 1971, only left two years to launch the Ford Pinto. During the production process, crash tests revealed safety issues with the gas tank in the rear of the car. If the car were struck from behind even at a slow speed, the gas tank would rupture, and explode upon impact. Lee Iacocca’s decisions on cost savings...
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...Challenges of Strategic Integration. 2004. Stanford SM-123 1. What’s the rationale of LVMH’s creation through merger in 1987? a. The rational of LVMH’s creation through merger is to build the luxury empire and create the largest conglomerate of luxury brands in the world. b. To redefine a bunch of small and fragmented industries into coherent and growing sector, which put into a good position to dominate the markets. c. Arnault believed that the action should be taken quickly when the few “star brands” are still available before others realize it. 2. How do you evaluate LVMH’s corporate strategy and the brand-centric business strategies for the individual businesses? a. Tradition and vision lie with the brand, that the brand generates the energy and motivation. Thus, the independence of individual brands has be guaranteed during the pursuit of cross-brand synergy within LVMH Group. b. LVMH reflected the brand-centric culture. The headquarters flexibly review each brand’s business plan on a case by case basis and are very involved in deciding and assigning financial resources towards the implementation of the strategic plans. c. Strategic integration was established by formal dynamic and was gradually institutionalized. It started with the integration of the Perfume and Cosmetics branch, then created the Fashion group and the Watches and Jewelry branch. All the Wine and Spirites branch were integrated. The Seletive retails arm maintiend decentralized. d. By integration, LVMH...
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...Introduction * Current business environment: Responsible business is good business Both of us used to consider that if we become rich someday, what we can do or do something significant after I read some articles on corporate social responsibility. It is true that most of great companies always contribute to their wealth and to overall societal wealth by considering the effective on their employee, customers, the environment they existed, they competitors, shareholders and others to maximum the both wealth and improve their overall value when they making the decision in the current world. Not only consider about the money any more, they’ve move the main point to the both sides. Most of great companies are move their strategies on the understanding of the relationship between responsible business and good business. The external investors and market will measure the company’s strategies and performance based on their corporate social responsibility. It is a good approach that the CSR activities will help the company to build an effectively relationship with their customers and employees to acting responsibly towards then both of them will create more and more additional value for the company’s shareholders, stakeholders, and overall sides of company. Somehow, the company need to working close with their stakeholders to better develop their innovative and economically viable products, processes and services in order to improved environmental protection and social conditions...
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...History shows that racism existed and still exist. Although, it is not very clear when and how the term racism come into existence. There are several discussions and research in trying to understand how the concept of race prejudice found its way into humans. The Pinder chapters attempt to explain the controversial historical emergence of whiteness, race prejudice and the superiority feeling of the whites over other ethnic groups of color. At some point, race prejudice is thought to have found its way to America as a result of slavery. From my point of view, race prejudice must have been as a result of the whites’ feeling of superiority regarding nature, character, beliefs, culture, religion, ethical values and all other aspects of life that that disregarded or rather disrespected the concept of realism that existed in other ethnic races. The whites than...
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