Emotions are reflective of a society’s weakness and strengths and can be disruptive and interfering when displayed at a wrong time. However, when expressed constructively it can play a role in organisational effectiveness. The ancient sacred teachings of the Bhagvad Gita can enlighten an employee to identify, interpret and apply emotions in their personal and professional life. Hinduism advocates that ‘a man should first seek wisdom and thereafter pursue material ambition’. In order to achieve self-realization, one must have perfect emotional self-control. The Indian scriptures state that our senses are like wild horses, the body its chariot and the mind its reins. Intellect is the driver. The Atman is the Lord of the chariot. If the senses are not kept under proper control, they will throw this chariot into a deep abyss. He/she who keeps the reins firm and drives this chariot intelligently by controlling the horses (senses) will reach Continue reading
Modern Management Practices
About United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) – 10 Principles of UNGC
The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) is a tactical strategy scheme for companies who commit to align their operational strategies to the principles outlined by the UNGC whose main purpose for existence is to assist businesses in managing risks and opportunities presented to them in certain areas such as the environment, society and authorities like government divisions and laws. This initiative also aims to integrate their ten principles as universal to businesses and societies for mutual benefits. It is independent of the government which entails that their rules and regulations is not government mandated law though it does support and is in-line with certain government policies that mainly focuses on the social responsibilities of a corporation. Commerce, as the main factor influencing globalization, plays a major role in societies and economies anywhere in the world. UNGC requires participating businesses to submit a Communication in Progress (COP) report once a year, Continue reading
Background of Lean Manufacturing
Lean is a philosophy that spurred from the Toyota Production System (TPS). TPS was created by Toyota’s founder Sakichi Toyodo, Kiichiro Toyoda, and Taiichi Ohno. Much of TPS was also influenced by W. Edwards Deming’s statistic process control (SPC) and Henry Ford’s mass production lines. However, the Japanese were not impressed with Ford’s approach because it was filled with over-production, lots of inventory, and much waiting. Toyota identified these weaknesses in Ford’s production line and adapted the production line to create a more productive and reliable production line. TPS and lean also use just-in-time inventory where only small amounts of inventory were ordered and very little inventory was left waiting in the production line. This also was very different from Ford’s production line which usually bought high volumes of materials and had high inventory levels to lower costs. After TPS proved to be successful for Toyota, many companies adapted their Continue reading
Concept of Virtual Network Structure (VNS)
In today increasingly stiff competitive environment, organisational structure is becoming a very important role to a company in the market competition. The organisational structure is explained as the formal decision-making framework that will be done by dividing, grouping and coordinating job tasks. However, in order to design organisation structure managers need to address six key elements, those are work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, decentralization and formalization. Secondly, for the face on the sharply environment change, HR managers should divide the tasks and then coordinate those, in essence balancing job-related specialization with group, inter group, and organisation-based integration as necessary. They also said that organisational structure defines the firm’s decision-making authority and serves as the connecting fibers between the company’s strategy, the actions and behaviors of members. For example, organization must design structure that facilitates close to coordination between the activities of manufacturing and those of research, Continue reading
Talent Management – Management of Human Talent
Definition of Talent Management Talent management is the use of an integrated set of activities to ensure that the organization attracts, retains, motivates and develops the talented people it needs now and in the future. The aim is to secure the flow of talent, bearing in mind that talent is a major corporate resource. Talent consists of those individuals who can make a difference to organisational performance either through their immediate contribution or, in the longer-term, by demonstrating the highest levels of potential. In a competitive marketplace, talent management is a primary driver for organizational success. Broadly defined, talent management is the implementation of integrated strategies or systems designed to increase workplace productivity by developing improved processes for attracting, developing, retaining and utilizing people with the required skills and aptitude to meet current and future business needs. It’s pretty clear that people are a business’s most important asset and in Continue reading
Activity-Based Costing for Small and Service Industries
Activity Based Costing (ABC) is an accounting method that assigns costs to activities according to their use of resources, rather than products or services. This enables resources and other related costs to be more accurately attributed to the products and the services which they use. It does not change or eliminate any costs, in the other way; it provides detailed information on how costs are consumed. The main benefits of Activity Based Costing are providing understanding into the fastest growing and least visible element of cost-overhead. We can also improve profitability by monitoring total life-cycle cost and performance so that we can improve the effectiveness of budgeting by identifying the cost of different service levels. In addition, ABC costing does encourage continuous improvement and total quality control because control and planning are directed at the process level and it links the corporate strategy to operational decision making. By using ABC Continue reading