Four Types of Entrepreneurs According to Clarence Danhof

An interesting distinction about types of entrepreneurs is the one proposed by the author Clarence Danhof, which classified entrepreneurs into four groups based on economic development. He based his classification on his study of American agriculture, and he observed that entrepreneurs could be classified depending upon the level of willingness to create innovative ideas; so there can be the following types of entrepreneurs: Innovative: an aggressive assemblage and synthesis of information and the analysis of results deriving from new combination of factors of production characterize this type of entrepreneurship. These entrepreneurs have the ability to think newer, better and more economical ideas of business organization and management. They are characterized by the smell of innovativeness, and they are aggressive in experimentation and in putting attractive possibilities into practice. An innovative entrepreneur sees the opportunity for introducing a new technology, a new product or a new market. Schumpeter’s entrepreneur was of Continue reading

Flexible Working Arrangements – The Future of Work

Flexibility in the organisations is driven by many contributing internal and external components since it has got the popularity of linkage with good people management practices and better performance objectives. Flexible working has been achieving a greater pace in its development and wider usage in small businesses and MNC’s. The society in which we live has seen many radical changes in the last 2-3 decades and it certainly has its impact on the life style of people and the organisations they work (in context of technological and demographic factors). The demographical changes have a heavy influence on the size and composition of the work force the labor market now-a-days consist of an equal composition of male to female work force as opposed to earlier traditional workforce. The issue of women in the work force have become more pertinent due to the potential labor shortages in some sectors even with all Continue reading

Cross Cultural Decision Making – Programmed and Non-Programmed Decision Making

It is becoming quite apparent that businesses, big and small, need to understand how decision making affects their entire operations. When making decisions, managers in organizations apply either a programmed or a non programmed decision  making process. Both processes are affected by the culture of the society in which the decision is being made. For example, mangers in countries with relatively low tolerance for ambiguity, such as Japan and Germany, avoid non programmed decisions as making. Operating manuals in organizations in these cultures tend to be relatively thick. In contrast, mangers in countries with relatively high tolerance for ambiguity, such as the United States and Norway, seek responsibility for non-programmed decision making. The secrets of effective decision making lie in the balance between rational and intuitive thought. The following strategies provide a useful framework for making effective decision. Determine the problem and identify the goals to be accomplished by your Continue reading

Aligning HR Strategy with Organizational Strategy

Business Strategy emphasizes how it intends to succeed in its chosen market place. It mainly focuses on competitive advantage. Business Strategy helps to establish the direction in which the organization is going in relation to its environment. The Business Strategy of an organization must reflect the intentions of managers about what they expect to achieve over a stated period of time. Business Strategy is therefore, about beating competitors in meeting customers needs, but this does not mean that a Business Strategy is the same thing as a marketing strategy. Business Strategies should take into account the changing needs and critical resources needed to carry out the strategic aims. Thus, organizations must unavoidably make choices about how they would pursue competitive advantage. Business plans are prepared to work on three to five years cycle and annual business plans are formed within this. These plans consist of strategies like innovation, cost reduction, Continue reading

5 Challenges Faced by Women Entrepreneurs

Women constitute around half of the total world population. So is in India also. They are therefore regarded as the better half of the society. In traditional societies, they were confined to the four walls of houses performing household activities. In modern societies they have come out of the four walls to participate in all sorts of activities. The global evidences prove that women have been performing exceedingly well in different spheres of activities like academics, politics, administration, social work and so on. Now they have started plunging into industry also and running their enterprises successfully. Women entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal need and become economically independent. There are economical, social, religious, cultural and other factors existing in the society which responsible for the emergency of the entrepreneurs. Al through small businesses owned by women have traditionally focused on fashion, fond and other Continue reading

Information System (IS) Applications in Human Resource Management (HRM)

A unified data model provides a single, accurate view of HR activities ranging from recruitment, employment, training, performance management, compensation management and real time management. Oracle human resource leverage workflow and internet-based processes optimize various HRM activities. The system maintains global HR data in case of Trans-national companies and total organizational human resource data in case of national companies in a single location for accurate and easy availability. The system of applications of Information Technology (IT) in HRM is referred to as Human Resource Module. HRIS merges some of HRM functions with the IT field, wherein the planning and programming of data processing systems have evolved into standardized routines and packages of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. ERP integrates the human resource module with finance, production, and sales and administration modules. Generally, traditional HRM functions are common to all organizations. They consist of tracking data regarding personal histories, family details, Continue reading