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

Developmental Approach to Performance Appraisal

The developmental approach to performance appraisal has been related  to employees as individuals. This approach has been concerned with the use of  performance appraisal as a contributor to employee motivation, development,  and human resources planning. The developmental approach contained all of the  traditional overall organizational performance appraisal purposes and the  following additional purposes: Provided employees the opportunity to formally indicate the direction  and level of the employee’s ambition. Show organizational interest in employee development, which was cited  to help the enterprise retain ambitious, capable employees instead of  losing the employees to competitors. Provided a structure for communications between employees and  management to help clarify expectations of the employee by  management and the employee, and Provide satisfaction and encouragement to the employee who has been  trying to perform well. Who are Appraisers? The appraiser may be any person who has thorough knowledge about the  job content, contents to be appraised, standards Continue reading

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Four Generations in the Workplace

For the first time in history, the workforce has become a melting pot of four diverse generations. While diversity is increasingly common in the workforce, usually it is only considered in differences of race, religion, sex, nationality, education, and skill level. While each of these traits can contribute to an employee’s perception of work and preferences in the workplace, generational differences will also have an effect. When organizations try to understand and cater to differences in generations, they will experience benefits both for the organization and the individual employees. By offering more of what employee’s want, an organization can begin to see the benefits of a multi-generational work force. Currently, there are four prominent generations in the workforce. A generation is defined by demographics and key life-events that shape, at least to some degree, distinctive generational characteristics. Since the 1920s, key historical events have shaped society. It is argued that Continue reading

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Approaches to Demand Forecasting in Managerial Economics

All firms forecast demand, but it would be difficult to find any two firms that forecast demand in exactly the same way. Over the last few decades, many different forecasting techniques have been developed in a number of different application areas, including engineering and economics. Many such procedures have been applied to the practical problem of forecasting demand in a business  system, with varying degrees of success. Most commercial software packages that support demand forecasting in a business  system include dozens of different forecasting algorithms that the analyst can use to generate alternative demand forecasts. While scores of different forecasting techniques exist, almost any forecasting procedure can be broadly classified into one of the following four basic categories based on the fundamental approach towards the forecasting problem that is employed by the technique. Judgmental Approaches. The essence of the judgmental approach is to address the forecasting issue by assuming that Continue reading

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Demand Forecasting in Managerial Economics

One of the crucial aspects in which managerial economics differs from pure economic theory lies in the treatment of risk and uncertainty. Traditional economic theory assumes a risk-free world of certainty; but the real world business is full of all sorts of risk and uncertainty. A manager cannot, therefore, afford to ignore risk and uncertainty. The element of risk is associated with future which is indefinite and uncertain. To cope with future risk and uncertainty, the manager needs to predict the future event. The likely future event has to be given form and content in terms of projected course of variables, i.e. forecasting. Thus, business forecasting is an essential ingredient of corporate planning. Such forecasting enables the manager to minimize the element of risk and uncertainty. Demand forecasting is a specific type of business forecasting. Concepts of Demand Forecasting The manager can conceptualize the future in definite terms. If he Continue reading

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Forex Operational Risk Management through Production Management

There are four production related strategies available to deal with foreign exchange operational risk. These are input-mix, plant location, relocation of production and cost cutting. Input-mix: Global sourcing is a great strategy to deal with operating risk. In a survey of 152 manufacturing companies world over, the Machinery and Allied Products Institute, a research firm, found that 77% of them had increased their global sourcing since the rise of the dollar, which rises dollar cost. This is as it should be. The principal effect of a real exchange rate change is to change the price of domestically produced goods relative to foreign goods. A well-managed firm should be searching constantly for ways to substitute between domestic and imported inputs, depending on the relative prices involved and the degree of substitution possible. Plant Location: A firm without foreign facilities exporting to a competitive market, whose currency has devalued against currency of Continue reading

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Approaches to Working Capital Financing

Having dealt with the size of investment in current assets, the methods of financing of working capital needs our attention. Working capital is financed both internally and externally through long-term and short-term funds, through debt and ownership funds. In financing working capital, the maturity pattern of sources of finance depended much coincide with credit period of sales for better liquidity. Generally, it is believed that funds for acquiring the fixed assets should be raised from long term sources and short-term sources should be utilized for raising working capital. But in the recent modern enterprises, both the types of sources are utilized for financing both fixed and current assets. There are basically three approaches to financing working capital. These are: the Hedging approach, the Conservative approach and the Aggressive approach. Hedging Approach:  The hedging approach is also known as the matching approach. Under this approach, the funds for acquiring fixed assets Continue reading

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