The emotional intelligence field is a very new area of study in psychological research. The definition therefore is varied and is constantly changing. It was only in 1990 that Salovey and Mayer came up with the first published attempt in trying to define the term. They defined emotional intelligence as the ability to monitors one’s own and other feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide ones thinking and actions. Emotional intelligence to a larger extent involves “emotional empathy” which is the ability to concentrate on one’s emotions and recognize mood both of themselves and others. It further describes how well one is able to adapt to various life challenges like stress and difficult incidences. It also involves the ability balance “honest expression of emotions against courtesy, consideration and respect”. This would obviously involve possession of some level of good social and communication skills. Continue reading
Modern Management Concepts
The Role of Leadership in Innovation
Now more than ever, companies are putting more attention to innovation that make their products and services more competitive, thereby enable them to survive and flourish in the changeable and challenging global environment. Innovation is regarded as a key driver of competitive advantage in organizations. Innovation is defined as the first attempt to carry out a new creative idea, and translate it into practice. However, it isn’t easy; it’s a difficult and complex task. There are two primary factors influencing the success of innovation: technical resources (people, equipment, knowledge, money, etc.) and the abilities in the organisation to manage these resources to encourage innovations. Organisation is a kind of breeding ground for generating creative idea and capturing new opportunities. An innovative organisation has several key components: appropriate structure, effective team working, external focus, leadership, key individual, creative climate and etc. All the factors are absolutely essential. All innovative organisations needs Continue reading
Discontinuous Improvement – Abernathy and Utterback Model
The common innovation process happens in a set frame, following certain rules and ways of thinking. This ‘game played’ by competitors is to innovate by doing what has been done before like product or process innovations or even position and paradigm innovations, but doing it better. In this competition of ‘playing the same game’ some firms manage to do better than others and can gain a competitive advantage through these innovations, but the ‘set of the game’ is accepted and do not change. Very rare something happens that breaks up this framework and changes how the game is played. This will not happen every day but when this arises the rules and boundaries of a market change rapidly. This will result in upcoming new opportunities and challenge the existing players in their way of working, thinking and doing business. A discontinues improvement occurs out of a technological and conditions stable Continue reading
Levels of Organizational Change Programs
The various levels of organizational change programs may be classified into individual level changes, group level changes and organisational level changes. Individual Level Change Programs Individual level changes may take place due to changes in job assignment, transfer of an employee to a different location or the changes in the maturity level of a person which occurs over a passage of time. The general opinion is that change at the individual level will not have significant implications for the organisation. But this is not correct because individual level changes will have impact on the group which in turn will influence the whole organisation. Therefore, a manager should never treat the employees in isolation but he must understand that the individual level change will have repercussions beyond the individual. Group Level Change Programs Management must consider group factors while implementing any change, because most of the organisational changes have their major Continue reading
Learning Organization – Meaning and Importance
Learning organization means organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together. From this definition we can understand that learning organization is a team and organizational process rather than individual and it is a continuous never ending process. It is essential for a learning organization to make creative and better ways of learning and improving its performance. It becomes a part of the continuous process of sharing information with people and the environment, and exchanging and disseminating information. A learning organization is entirely different from a traditional organization as it has the capacity to make changes continuously. The theory of organizational learning stresses the importance of policies and procedures inside the organization in response to the outside consequences even though Continue reading
Responsibility Reporting
The essence of responsibility accounting is the collection of costs according to responsibility centers in order that variances from standard costs and budgets can be identified with persons, and based on the causes of variances, corrective actions may be initiated. Reports are prepared to inform a responsibility center manager how well he has performed in terms of costs. The purpose is not to indicate failure or to find fault. Responsibility reporting is the crucial phase of responsibility accounting. Responsibility reporting requires grouping and defining responsibility within an organization structure, determining and assigning costs to appropriate levels and activities and placing a strong emphasis on cost controllability. Reports prepared under responsibility accounting may be known as performance reports. These reports are prepared with the purpose of: informing each manager of his achievement in controlling costs of his center; pointing out each manager’s accountability for costs incurred; and presenting cost information Continue reading