Ecological business strategies consist on the firm’s position vis- Ã -vis the natural environment; they define the firm’s relationship with nature. They describe strategies for use of environmental resources and acceptable environmental impacts of the company’s activities. Ecological strategies try to minimize long-term environmental damages by managing the company’s inputs, throughput’s, and outputs. Just as “Total Quality Management” in corporation demands attention to each stage of the design and production process, a “Total Environmental Management” perspective can optimize the performance of the total system. Every organization requires materials and energy as inputs to its production process. Primary industries such as mining, forest products, pulp and paper, and oil and gas are particularly oriented toward extraction and utilization of raw materials. Secondary (manufacturing) industries such as steel, construction, automobiles, and petrochemicals are important users of materials and energy. Service industries (e.g. health care, education, legal, consulting, etc.) maker fewer demands for materials Continue reading
Modern Management Concepts
Principles of Effective Leadership
Leadership is often the key to the success or failure of organization in all contexts whether business, religious groups, Military, academic institutions etc. People everywhere are starving for leadership… starving to connect with leaders who are believable, trustworthy, and capable of actualizing constructive changes, who can transform the character of organizations and curtail the exploitation of people and natural resources, inequalities of educational and economic access, and stress from an impossible pursuit of happiness through unlimited desires and acquisitiveness In order to be a successful manager, one has to be an effective leader. The difference between a manager and a leader is that the manager stays at the back and pushes people into the system, while a leader stands in the front and pulls the people along with him. The manager administrates and maintains, while a leader innovates and develops. The manager relies on system and counts on control while Continue reading
Salovey and Mayer’s (1990) 10 Original Facets of Emotional Intelligence
Emotion is a relatively difficult concept to clearly delineate but it is generally accepted that it is an organised mental response that includes physiological, experiential and cognitive aspects. Emotions are largely, but not exclusively, related to interpersonal relationships and specific emotions are relatively resistant to cultural and individual differences, although these can affect the way in which emotions are expressed or perceived. Personal intelligence is defined as the feelings and emotions of oneself and the ability to understand and interpret these feelings in order to guide behaviour. This can be expanded into emotional intelligence by including the application of this knowledge to other people and also to regulate actions based on it. The term emotional intelligence (EI) per se was coined in 1990 by Salovey and Mayer. The term EI applies to an ability to process emotional information in an appropriate way, with a balance being achieved between emotion and reason. Continue reading
Why Business Models Matter in Business?
Business model is a concept used in explaining various aspects of the business ranging from its value proposition to the innovation process that a particular business entity wants to adapt in its business activity. A a business model comprises two elements. These are a specific business system and a profit model. The aim of framing a business model is to conceptualize a picture on how a business operates in its operating environment. In addition to this, a business model also provides the opportunity of using the available resources best as per the ability of the firm. The aim of the firm is to maximize the utilization of the resources available to them. The two components of the business model are inclined towards describing the maximum utilization of the resources and deliver the products to the consumers in a profitable manner. The business system is concerned with the system of work Continue reading
Overcoming Resistance to Change
In the previous post, we deal with the various sources of resistance to change. In this post we discusses strategies and tactics to overcome resistance to organizational change. Kotter and Schelsinger (1979) has identified six general strategies for overcoming resistance to change. Education and Communication : Resistance can be reduced through communicating with employees to help them see the logic of a change. This tactic basically assumes that the source of resistance lies in misinformation or poor communication. If employees receive the full facts and get any misunderstanding cleared up, resistance will subside. Communication can be achieved through one-to-one discussions, memos, group presentations, or reports. Does it work? It does, provided the source of resistance is inadequate communication and that management-employee relations are characterized by mutual trust and credibility. If these conditions don’t exist, the change is unlikely to succeed. Participation and Involvement : It is difficult for individuals Continue reading
Organizational Effectiveness Through Adaptive-Coping Cycle
The organization must develop a system through which it can adapt or cope with the environmental requirements; Edgar H Schein has suggested that an organization can do this through the adaptive coping cycle, which consists of various activities that enable an organization to cope with the dynamics of environment. Adaptive-Coping Cycle is a continuous process. There are six stages in the adaptive-coping cycle as follows: Sensing of Change: The first stage is the sensing of change in internal or external environment. Most of the organizations have adaptive sub-system such as marketing research, research and development and other similar devices for effective coping with the environment. Importing the Relevant Information: Organizations must be able to take the relevant information from the environment, which constitutes the input. Changing Conversion Process: The organization takes the inputs from environment for further processing, normally known as conversion process. Stabilizing Internal Changes: The fourth stage of Continue reading