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

The Customer Satisfaction Model – Based on American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)

Marketing Management

Challenges of Strategic Human Resource Management

Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) can be defined as a link between human resources and the strategic goals and objectives of the business. Most importantly, the aim of that is to improve business performance and to develop an organizational culture that will foster innovation, flexibility and competitive advantage. In other words, the HR function is seen as a strategic partner helping the company to implement and formulate strategies as well as reach its goals and flourish. The main activities of HR department include selecting and recruiting the right people for the job roles, training and rewarding them. Very often SHRM is being confused with HRM. SHRM has more of a long-term orientation towards objectives. It doesn’t focus on internal human resource issues; the attention is focused more on addressing and solving problems that have an effect on management programs in a long run. In other words, SHRM focuses on occurring Continue reading

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Critical Evaluation of Henry Fayol’s Principles of Management

Henri Fayol was a pioneer in developing the theories of management and published the leading book, ‘14 Principles of Management’. It was one of the first books of its kind to be published about management and to this day Fayol is known as the father or modern management. Fayol was instrumental in establishing original ways for mangers to guide their employees towards being more efficient in achieving goals. He is widely considered to be one of the most important theorists of his time and some of his ideas are still applied to modern day management. The first principle hypothesized by Fayol was the one of division of labor. Fayol argued that efficiency can be maximized by distributing tasks to employees according to their specialization or by achieving specialization through repetition. This theory is applicable to businesses who have many or even few employees. The theory suggests that work should not Continue reading

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Case Study on FEMA: RBI slapped Rs.125 crore on Reliance Infrastructure

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firm, Reliance Infrastructure (earlier, Reliance Energy), to pay just under Rs 125 crore as compounding fees for parking its foreign loan proceeds worth $300 million with its mutual fund in India for 315 days, and then repatriating the money abroad to a joint venture company. These actions, according to an RBI order, violated various provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). In its order, RBI said Reliance Energy raised a $360-million ECB on July 25, 2006, for investment in infrastructure projects in India. The ECB proceeds were drawn down on November 15, 2006, and temporarily parked overseas in liquid assets. On April 26, 2007, Reliance Energy repatriated the ECB proceeds worth $300 million to India while the balance remained abroad in liquid assets. It then invested these funds in Reliance Mutual Fund Growth Option and Reliance Continue reading

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Literature Review – Quality Management Systems

According to various authors, quality improvement and management has become a subject of great importance in organisations. Quality Management focuses on the overall process of a system rather than just concentrating on results, it is the determination and implementation of the quality policy with regard to the organisation. Many organisations throughout the world have started to realize the potential it holds for them and have therefore adopted new philosophies focused on quality management rather than just being focused on the end results. Some organisations already implementing the ISO 9001 Quality Management System are wondering is it worth maintaining and what significance does it hold for the company? Empirical studies have shown that Quality Management does indeed have a positive effect on the various business functions (Piskar & Dolinsek, 2006) and therefore calls for a deeper look. The empirical studies were undertaken through questionnaires during 2002 in Slovenia. 212 Companies that Continue reading

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Theories of Taxation

Attempts to provide a theoretical grounding to the practice of taxation are reflected in various theories of taxation, the evolution of which took place together with the development of various directions in economic thought. Classical Taxation Theory For a long time, the classical taxation theory was of most importance. As a result, taxation was only granted the fiscal role of providing state revenues. A. Smith is considered to be the father of the scientific taxation theory. In his monograph “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” Adam Smith gave a definition of the taxation system, indicating the main conditions for its formation and putting forward four main taxation principles: equity, determination, convenience and thrift of taxation administration. Smith’s work was developed later on by D. Ricardo, J. Mills, and W. Petty. All the theoretical deliberation and scientific debates of those years were focused on one Continue reading

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Employee Resistance to Change

Change comes from anywhere, and is the only constant. Propelled by the driving force of technology and globalization, the economic landscape continuously transform in a way that has come to undermine the relevance of received wisdom on how a firm should be managed and what underlies its success. In this new millennium, it is more challenging for an organization to sustain its competency or even survive in the diversity market. When an organization is threatened by environmental changes such as crisis or competition, it results in the increasing needs for communication as technology develops rapidly and higher customer demands will be foreseen. Organizational change is not an option; it constitutes a fundamental necessity for success within the new competitive landscape. An organization need to evaluate its performance and review its business strategies, corporate structure, operational process and HR policies to identify the areas that need transformation. To maintain its competitive Continue reading

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