Concepts of Throughput Accounting and Theory of Constraints

Financial Management

Kaizen – Understanding the Japanese Business Philosophy of Continuous Improvement

Operations Management

Role of Leaders in Shaping Organizational Culture

Management Principles

Organizational Culture – Development and Importance

Management Principles

Five Important Organizational Cultural Models

Management Principles

Managing and Leading Change Effectively in Organizations

Organizations experience change due to factors that may be internal or external. While an organization can control internal factors, external factors are outside the control of an organization. However, change is inevitable in an organization and therefore all Organizations must put proper measures in place to ensure that change is embraced. Organizational change is prompted by factors both internal and external to an organization. An example of an internal factor that may cause a change in an organization includes changes in management. This is especially the case when there is a need to replace the existing managers due to retirement transfer or promotion. However, each manager has a unique style of working in an organization and may, therefore, bring new ideas to an organization. This, therefore, results in the change of managerial relationships between the managers in an organization.  This may also spark an attitude change in the personnel within Continue reading

Abey Francis

Literature Review – Organizational Learning

Organizational learning is the ‘activity and the process by which organizations eventually reach the ideal of a learning organization’ (Senge, 1990). Organizational learning is just a means in order to achieve strategic objectives. But creating a learning organization is also a goal, since the ability permanently and collectively to learn is a necessary precondition for thriving in the new context. Therefore, the capacity of an organization to learn, that is, to function like a learning organization, needs to be made more concrete and institutionalized, so that the management of such learning can be made more effective (Dunphy, 1998). Learning organizations are 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 to see the whole together. (Senge 1990: 3) The Learning Company is a vision Continue reading

Abey Francis

Green Strategies and Green Marketing Strategy Matrix

Industry green norms and potential green market size are key issues for companies looking to gain competitive advantage with green marketing. Companies should consider the likely size of green markets in its industry as well as how can they differ their green products or services from their competitor’s one’s before they take steps on going green. There are four types of green strategies: Lean Green, Defensive Green, Shaded Green and Extreme Green. Following Green Marketing Strategy Matrix illustrates the need for companies to identify their position in regards to substantiality of green market segments and differentiability of greenness in order to choose the right strategy to enter a green market. Promotions tools adopted by this strategy are rather quiet such as public relations versus mass advertising. The Shaded Green strategy puts some secondary emphasis on greenness in its more overt promotional efforts and also pursues green product development as well. Continue reading

Abey Francis

Case Study: The Collapse of Enron

Enron Corporation is an energy trading, natural gas, and electric utilities company located in Houston, Texas that had around 21,000 employees by mid-2001, before it went bankrupt. Its revenue in the year 2000 was more than $100 billion and named as “America’s most innovative companies for six consecutive years by Fortune. Enron was a company that was able to profit by providing the delivery of gas to utility companies and businesses at the fair value market price. Enron was listed as the seventh largest company in the United States and had the domination in the trading of communications, power, and weather securities. In 2002, the company used to be a member  of the top 100  fortunes companies but later on after facing an accounting scandal, the company started to collapse. The scandal of Enron has been the largest corporate scandal in history, and has become emblematic of institutionalized and well-planned Continue reading

Abey Francis

Whittington’s Classical and Processual Schools of Thought

Strategic management is becoming more important for business construction. Especially, the changing in business environment could threat to organization’s stability. Whittington (2000) introduced four approaches to strategy which are classical approach, systemic approach, evolutionary approach and processual approach. Whilst planning are made through market changes adaptability in classical school, strategies must be updated daily to survive in unpredictable market in evolutionary school. Different from the two approaches, Whittington, 2000 mentioned: “ Processualist emphasis the sticky imperfect nature of all human life, pragmatically accommodating strategy to the fallible processes of both organizations and markets. Systemic approach is relativistic, regarding the ends and means of strategy as inescapably linked to the cultures and powers of the local social systems in which it takes place” Whittington noted that the main principle of “processual” is to accept unattainable ideal of rational fluid action and work with it. The Approach was laid by American Carnegie Continue reading

Abey Francis

Strategic Human Resources Planning (SHRP) Process

Human Resource Management (HRM) and Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) Human resource management (HRM) is that part of management process which makes, enhances, manages and develops the human element of the enterprise measuring their resourcefulness in terms of talents, abilities, total skills, creative, knowledge, and potentialities for effectively contributing to the organizational objectives. Human resources are precious and a source of competitive advantage. Human resources may be tapped most effective by mutually standard policies which promote promise and foster an inclination in employees to act flexibly in the interests of the adaptive organization’s pursuit of excellence. Human resource policies can be joined with planned business and used to reinforce appropriate culture. Human resources play a critical role in enabling the organization to effectively deal with the external environment challenges. The human resource management has been accepted as a strategic partner in the formulation of organization’s strategies and in the implementation Continue reading

Abey Francis