Organizational Behavior and Management Control There is a close relationship between organizational behavior and management control system. A management control system seek to evaluate and regulate the performance of responsibility centers. The manager in charge of a responsible center is rewarded for good performance. At the same time when the performance of a responsibility center is dismal, the manager in charge is punished. Thus, a management control system acts as a double-edged sword. That is why manager are afraid of a control system and, may resist it. In order to make a control system successful, it is necessary to understand the factors that motivate, managers to achieve the results. Behavioral sciences have given several concepts that are relevant to management control. Some of these concepts at described below. 1. Perception. Whether a management control system is accepted and implemented successfully does not depend on the system. It depends largely on Continue reading
Strategic Management Concepts
The SCP Framework – Structure Conduct Performance Framework
The origin of the SCP (Structure-Conduct-Performance) paradigm can be traced to the work of the Harvard economist Edward Mason in the 1930s. It was popularized during 1930-60 with its empirical work involving the identification of correlations between industry structure and performance. This is a paradigm that is foundational to industrial organization economics, consistent with the positional view of strategy, as opposed to the resource-based view of strategy. There are two competing hypotheses in the SCP paradigm: the traditional “structure performance hypothesis” and “efficient structure hypothesis”. The structure performance hypothesis states that the degree of market concentration is inversely related to the degree of competition. This is because market concentration encourages firms to collude. The efficiency structure hypothesis states that performance of the firm is positively related to its efficiency. This is because market concentration emerges from competition where firms with low cost structure increase profits by reducing prices and expanding Continue reading
Shell’s Directional Policy Matrix (DPM)
The Shell Directional Policy Matrix (DPM) is another refinement upon the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix. Along the horizontal axis are prospects for business sector profitability, and along the vertical axis is a company’s competitive capability. Business sector profitability includes the size of the market, expected growth, lack of competition, profit margins within the market and other favorable political and socio-economic conditions. On the other hand company’s competitive capability is determined by the sales volume, the products reputation, reliability of service and competitive pricing. As with the GE Business Screen the location of a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) in any cell of the matrix implies different strategic decisions. However decisions often span options and in practice the zones are an irregular shape and do not tend to be accommodated by box shapes. Instead they blend into each other. Each of the zones in Shell’s Directional Policy Matrix is described as Continue reading
The Strategic Game Board
The Strategic Game Board is a concept coined by McKinsey & Company, this strategic framework can be used to identify the strategic management options in a competitive landscape by showing the strategists that the business organization can choose where (market segments), how (business system) and when (timing) to compete. A firm’s decisions pertaining to the scope and mode of competition and the time for the overall action should be based on a continuous analysis of the firm’s strengths, vulnerabilities, and resources in relation to those of its competitors. The strategic game board describes the options open to a firm regarding the scope and mode components of strategy. The vertical axis represents a continuum of where-to-compete options ranging from a sharp focus on a narrow market niche to competing across an entire market. The horizontal axis represents a continuum of how-to-compete options ranging from playing entirely by the accepted rules of Continue reading
Strategic Decisions for Sustainable Business
Strategic Management is a constant object of curiosity among psychologists and thinkers. On several occasions, senior managers are asked how they come up with strategic decisions. They have one pattern of making these crucial and company-light decisions. One would suppose these to be mathematical, based on rigid rules of logic or statistical treatments. But here’s the catch: The managers decisions were product of informal data gathering, intuition, innovation, and oral exchanges in 2-way communications. These managers have the feel of the whole situation besetting their companies and their impulse always has an accompanying relevance. Their minds transcend logical rules that are immutable and mechanical and perhaps by age and experience, they acquired an almost instantaneous and discrimination of what is effective and practical. They give a whole new meaning to the words feeling, judgment, common sense, proportion, balance, and appropriateness. They use these terms to effect viable actions that would Continue reading
Complexity Theory for Organizational Change Management
Complexity theory is defined as a study of non-linear dynamic systems and a conceptual framework that resolves the unpredictable outcomes of industries and emerges some unique patterns. This system was first developed in the perspective of physical and biological science. However, the social, economic and ecological aspect of this theory was developed later and evolved dynamically overtime. A company utilizes this set of ideas from the study of different natural resources such as weather conditions, animal behavior and then defines the behavior of the organization through several mathematical expressions. There are three key theories related to complexity theory for organizational change management. These are: Chaos theory Dissipative structures Complex adaptive systems Due to the complexity involved in the organization, there are several moments when a random chaos can be created within that organization. The random situation can be created of normal equations which can be further explained with the help of Continue reading