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

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

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

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

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

Capital Structure Theory – Modigliani Miller Proposition

Capital Structure Decision in Corporate  Finance The corporate finance is a specific area of finance dealing with the financial decisions corporations make and the tools as well as analysis used to make these decisions. The discipline as a whole may be divided among long-term and short-term decisions and techniques with the primary goal being maximizing corporate value while managing the firm’s financial risks. Capital investment decisions are long-term choices that investment with equity or debt, and the short-term decisions deals with the balance of current assets and current liabilities which is managing cash, inventories, and short-term borrowing and lending. Corporate finance can be defined as the theory, process and techniques that corporations use to make the investing, financing and dividend decisions that ultimately contribute to maximizing corporate value. Thus, a corporation will first decide in which projects to invest, then it will figure out how to finance them, and finally, Continue reading