Group Dynamics And Groupthink In A Management Environment

Groupthink is a prevalent process in many organizations and businesses. This paper will examine the definition of groupthink as it relates to management decisions compared with similar group performance factors and situations leading to the thoughts and processes of business decision making, group dynamics and interpersonal operations within the group from both a business standpoint and a psychological standpoint. These standpoints will evaluate the effects of dominance, cohesion, anxiety and group norms leading to either effective or defective group process and group decision making. As with all group dynamics there are many factors involved such as race, gender, religion, political and cultural views. The paper will examine the interactions involved within a group and examine how groupthink is often allowed to be the overall choice made by the group. The author will also examine the difference in definitions form the Janis (I. L. Janis, 1982) model and the Management text book definition (Bateman, Snell, 2011) to gather a sound definition for business purposes. GROUPTHINK IN ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT Organizations and managers must make critical decisions on a daily basis. As business is such a highly complex environment spanning both national and global markets decision making must be thought of in a larger field of view taking into account many factors such as bias, culture and customer attitude to name a few. No one person generally has all the knowledge or experience to tackle every conceivable issue that may arise or need to be considered. A good manager or leader knows that they alone are not the only one to solve the problem and thus look to others to help with the puzzle needing to be solved. There is a substantial need to gain broad spectrum opinion and ideas in business today which leads effective managers to seek and develop effective groups to provide that broad spectrum and increase idea flow from different perspectives. The â€Å"Brain-Storming† in business today is much more complicated and involves large numbers of variable factors that can best be resolved by the group process allowing for varied input and expertise information to be injected into the final decision making process. This does not always define an effective group or process as we will see throughout this paper. Decision Making Management must make decisions in different ways to handle different problems on a daily basis. Many of these decisions are programmed decisions based on past experience and working knowledge based on procedures already in place. These programmed decisions are normally simple in nature and are more of an automatic response versus having to think of or develop a new solution. As we know, things are not always as easy as we may wish and in business, with its ever changing nature, problems and issues arise that require the manager to be creative and adapt new thinking and new solutions to properly make an effective decision. This nonprogrammed decision making process involves the manager weighing the good with the bad and attempting to identify all the unknown variables. It is at this stage that an effective manager or leader knows to review his limitations and seek guidance from others with the knowledge to provide information needed to develop and informed and effective decision. The adage â€Å"knowledge is power† comes to mind and the manager, leader seeks out those who can assist in providing that knowledge to lower risks and gain a better reward. The effective manager, leader will practice stages of the decision making process, as they normally might, in identifying the problem and generating alternative solutions. In the process of attempting to generate solutions the manager would best be served by obtaining that knowledge of others to compensate their own. This is where they may decide to form a group and begin the group process to ultimately solve the problem and make the best decision possible. Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing In the decision to form a group to aid in difficult decision making there are several key items management must consider in selecting members of the group and being aware of possible negative effects of the group members involved. One of the first items to be considered is the size of the group needed and what skills or knowledge is required and what skills or knowledge each member may provide. The smaller group may require less group maintenance but provide less needed input. A larger group may provide more information but require a higher degree of group maintenance thus rendering them less effective. Management may choose to seek well known members or possibly new members. Newer members may provide new ideas and concepts while more well-known members could tend to adhere to the current policy and procedures and not be as creative and more satisficing. Group make-up must also avoid dominance type personalities to allow for a more free flow of ideas and creativity thus reducing group anxiety. Group management must be foremost in the mind of the manager to best achieve the goals and allowing for the best decision to be made. Knowing each person in the group individuals personality can be critical to proper selection but as with all people each are different and demonstrate different personalities in different situations. Group management must be maintained and observed to avoid conflicts based on personality and not creativity. Short of management being trained in psychology a group of members is selected based on management’s best knowledge and understanding of each individual member. Forming is the stage of group dynamics where the members first come together and normally demonstrate polite and positive attitudes to one another, as in any greeting situation, and is usually short in time. The next stage of development in the group is often difficult and delicate as members try to determine their role and place within the group. Storming identifies this stage by the way in which the members may question the validity or purpose of the group, including those within, and challenge or attempt to assert authority within the group. They may also feel overwhelmed by the task at hand and not yet understand their purpose of being there. It is not uncommon for groups at this stage to fail or cause some members to feel undervalued. When all, or most, of the difficulties are settled to member’s satisfaction the group moves forward with an understanding of their place within the group. Norming is the stage where the group comes together to identify the common goal and progress with the understanding and social acceptance of the group members as a whole. Forward progress and the ability to share in the group vision or goal being established, next stage, performing, is achieved. The group now functions well together and their work begins to bare the fruit of their labor. Process and structure have been established and work continues to achieve the main objective as group members satisfaction has increased. Managing Group Dynamics in Decision Making As we now have a better understanding of group dynamics in their basic form we realize that management must remain vigilant in all of the stages but certainly the performing stage the most. It is at the performing stage where most can go wrong and where complacency is most likely to occur. Group members are now comfortable in their role, leaders in the group have been well established and the work of the group may continue as if on autopilot. This may lead the group to fall into the trap of familiarity and allow the status-quo. Other factors may emerge from leaders or members within the group such as dominance and familiar cohesion where members chose to avoid disagreement and merely agree to consensus. Groupthink Phenomenon Should the group be allowed to fall into this trap it would be clear that management has failed to recognize the problem thereby allowing the creativity and effectiveness of the group to become ineffective. This phenomenon was described by Irving Janis (1972, 1982) as faulty decision making in a group when members do not consider all alternatives and desire unanimity at the expense of quality. There are several variations to the groupthink model such as â€Å"The term groupthink is appropriate only when the concurrence seeking emerges prematurely, thus curtailing thinking and discussion, and increasing the likelihood of poor decision outcomes (Longley and Pruitt, 1980). This variation does not always hold true in all cases. Based on groupthink in juries it is also evident that the information has been discussed and thought of critically but the jury member (group member) gave in more to peer (group) pressure from either the authoritative jury foreman, jury members or merely the desire to agree for their own personal benefit, such as the desire to end their sequestration if involved in a lengthy case. Groupthink Variations Janis (1972, 1982, 1989) defined groupthink as the extreme concu rrence sought by decision-making groups. Groupthink is most likely to occur when a group experiences antecedent conditions such as high cohesion, insulation from experts, limited methodological search and appraisal procedures, directive leadership, and high stress combined with low self-esteem and little hope of finding a better solution than that favored by the leader or influential group members. Such conditions lead to symptoms of groupthink such as illusions of invulnerability, collective rationalization, belief in the inherent morality of the group, stereotypes of outgroups, pressure on dissenters, self-censor-ship, illusions of unanimity, and self-appointed mindguards† (Turner, Pratkanis, Probasco, Leve,1992). Causal factors in groupthink seem to not fit only one model such as Janis describe. There are varied reasons group members seek concurrence unanimity in decision making, emotion, anxiety and coercion are some of only many reminding us that in managerial decisions we must remain mindful of the group members involved and maintain an active role in managing both the group and the decisions that come from within the group. If a manager is effective at management they will be better able to recognize the possible factors within the group before a faulty or ineffective decision can be made. Conclusion In examination of the decision making method we can see that there is a much larger degree to utilizing the group method requiring the manager to not only manage the personnel but also manage the group. A thorough knowledge of group dynamics is most important when selecting group members which can be difficult at times when expecting group performance based solely on an individual’s subject knowledge with little to no understanding of their interpersonal skills. The manager must be willing to accept risks certainly, if they expect to gain the best possible solution with the most creativity available. But the effective manager must also invest time and observe the group at different stages and evaluate member selection within each stage to ensure the proper choice made is still the best fit. The effective manager must be alert for telltale signs of conflict within the group and be prepared at all stages to make replacements available to include the group leader or dominant members within the group. Managing personnel on a factory floor and managing decision making groups are two very different levels which require a far greater knowledge and understanding on the manager’s part. If a manager is not able to recognize interpersonal skills and weaknesses then there is little chance they can effectively manage a group and expect positive results from that group nor would they recognize the proper decision to be valid or invalid. In the business world of today that could make the difference between being successful or going out of business. As was stated early on, managers are not expected to be psychologists but a truly effective manager will have and know the basics to understanding human behavior to remain an effective manager.

Comparing “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Band of Brothers”

All Quiet on the Western Front's primary purpose is to depict the horrors and realities of war and reactions of soldiers towards it. Remarque recounts WWI from the perspective of the defeated, Germany, just after the war was finished. It makes no attempt to glamorise war, instead describing the life of â€Å"a generation destroyed by war. † Remarque uses this book as a voice of the fallen. All Quiet on the Western Front secretly criticises the German government and military for persuading young men to go to war. For this reason, the book was burned and banned in Germany. The book also shows how war has physical and psychological effects on men. Band of Brothers is a television series that follows the â€Å"Easy Company†. Easy company is part of the United States Army. The series is set in WWII in Europe. WWII is more than 50 years before the series in made. It is important to note, that this film shows heroism of these men. This is mainly because the director wants to engage the audience of America. Americans believe that they are victors and for this series to be appealing this needs to be shown. However the horrors of war are still established as well as the soldiers reactions. The director of this series changes the soldiers reactions however towards the end. Mateship and heroism in these dark times are shown to greatly contrast All Quiet on the Western Front's themes. Band of Brothers shows a variety of battle scenes that reveal different reactions of soldiers. In â€Å"Day of Days†, the attack against the artillery gun at the end of the episode is made by soldiers who are fresh to the experience of war. The attack, although confusing to the Audience at times, is organised and orders are given and followed with clarity. Historically this attack is still used by WestPoint as an example of fine military action. The director used some shaky cameras to illustrate the shell fire and the soldiers movements. There are some partially obscured POVs shots helps the audience to sense realism of the event. However mostly the camera shots are midshot and longshot. This gives the audience a relative sense of order to the sequence. The audience is well orientated. Given that this attack is considered to be a American Military Achievement, it is unlikely that the director would use cinematography to reflect chaos of such event. In contrast to the surprise attack in the episode â€Å"Last Patrol† shows different reactions from the soldiers. In this, the soldiers have been engaged in the warfare for some months. Although battle hardened, they are disillusioned with war. The episode emphasises how the soldiers are willing for the war to be over. They are resentful of being asked to cross the river and to take German POWs and know the risks well. When assaulting the building, after Jackson ran into the explosion of his own grenade, there is a change in cinematic techniques. During this sequence a swinging camera coupled with multiple shots is used. This emphasises the chaos as the view takes the role of one of the soldiers in the room constantly moving the sightline. It also close ups to the soldiers' faces emphasising their emotion. The sounds are chaotic and loud. This disorientates the viewer. THe director has used these techniques to show how risky the situation is. The director in this episode shows this point of view as he has more freedom. He no longer needs to produce the idea of the â€Å"American hero. † After crossing the river, they go into the basement. Here it is also chaotic. The soldiers are confused and are not in control as they gather around Eugene who is dying. After his death there is a stop in the gunfire, emphasising the shock. Eugene, the medic has a voice over giving a personal view on the death. â€Å"He enrolled young† makes the viewer feel sympathetic for the soldier. In All Quiet on the Western Front, there are many examples of the reactions of soldiers. In battle, soldiers act violently in order to survive. They â€Å"have turned into dangerous animals. † This shows that they use instinct to kill without any real hesitations. They need to do this to survive.

Create-A-Greeting-Card College Scholarship Contest

With college costs on the rise, more and more families are looking for ways to bridge the gap between what they can afford to pay and the price of tuition and fees. Fortunately, a number of independent scholarships exist to help students attend their dream colleges. While securing these scholarships isn’t as simple as filling out the FAFSA form, students who are willing to put in the time and effort can often secure significant amounts of money toward financing their college education. Different scholarship opportunities exist to recognize students with various talents, skills, and interests. For high school students who are artistically minded, it might be worth considering the Gallery Collection’s Create-A-Greeting-Card College Scholarship Contest. The winner of this award receives a $10,000 college scholarship, with an additional $1,000 award going to the student’s high school. The Create-A-Greeting-Card contest invites applicants to use their innate talent and creativity to design a holiday, get well, or birthday greeting card. To apply, simply submit a work of art, computer graphic, or photo intended for the front side of a greeting card. Each image must be submitted in JPEG format and be two megabytes or fewer in size. Entries will be judged based on the following factors: Candidates can view current designs online at www.gallerycollection.com . To apply for this scholarship, you must be a high school, college, or university student who is currently enrolled in school. All applicants must be U.S. citizens. If you have additional questions or concerns about the requirements, feel free to contact the Gallery Collection online at scholarshipadmin@gallerycollection.com . Estimating your chance of getting into a college is not easy in today’s competitive environment. Thankfully, with our state-of-the-art software and data, we can analyze your academic and extracurricular profile and estimate your chances. Our profile analysis tool can also help you identify the improvement you need to make to enter your dream school. It’s not enough simply to hope you get a scholarship for college. Savvy students seek out a variety of contests and programs offering scholarships to reduce the cost of their degrees. Fortunately, you don’t have to look far to find lucrative opportunities. Not only do a number of high schools boast scholarship programs targeted toward college-bound students, but many community organizations offer contests as well. You can discover scholarship programs through your town or city, church, Lions club, or even businesses in your community. When deciding which scholarships to target, students often ignore contests with smaller awards. While you might be hesitant to invest time and energy into applying for a $500 scholarship, the truth is that these awards can add up quickly. After all, winning five $500 scholarships is the same as securing one worth $2500. Moreover, the number of applicants might be lower because of the smaller potential payout. So your odds of winning might be higher with these contests. Similarly, scholarship contests that require a lot of work tend to draw a smaller applicant pool. After all, busy high school seniors are often hesitant to invest their time in writing lengthy essays or shooting video submissions. According to one Money.com article , scholarships requiring 1000-word essays tend to receive fewer than 500 submissions. So don’t be afraid to put in a little extra effort to score some additional funding. Unlike student loans, scholarships represent financial awards that don’t have to be paid back. So it’s only logical to apply to a wide range of contests and opportunities. At , we created our Applications Program to help students gain admission to their dream schools and find the financing they need to make their dreams a reality. From creating a custom roadmap for the applications process to filling out FAFSA and scholarship forms, we help students best the competition. To learn more about our services, call today or contact our team online.

Reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 10

Reflection paper - Essay Example Each one of us is familiar with the experience of having to drive several times around city blocks looking for parking space. In this article, Donald Shoup says that various studies have shown that on average 36% of cars in congested downtown traffic were cruising, looking for curb parking. The article cites a 2008 study for a 15-block area of Upper West side of Manhattan where the average cruising time was only 3.1 minutes and the average cruising distance only 0.37 miles. Even for such small time and distance, the high traffic density causes 366,000 miles of excess travel that puts out 325 tons of carbon dioxide every year into the atmosphere in the area. As we know from our own experience, cruising times and distances in most large cities is several times larger than the Manhattan area numbers cited above. Urban planners have sought to remedy urban parking problems by legislation requiring any new redevelopment plans in downtown areas to provide space for off-street parking. The high prices for land in such areas or the simple fact of non-availability of sufficient land have prevented much needed redevelopment in crowded downtown areas. The second solution attempted has been to install parking meters and charge high prices for parking and time limits such as 30 minutes or one hour for parking. These time limits are often impractical. For example someone going for a meal in a restaurant or for a show in a theater would need much longer parking time. High parking rates are also opposed by retailers and businesses in the area that fear that these rates would drive their customers away to other streets where parking may be easier. Donald Shoup advocates a deceptively simple solution for the urban parking problem. He recommends that parking prices be set to achieve an optimum 85% occupancy rate which translates to 1 or 2 open slots in a city

Challenges and opportunities arising from the expansion of the Essay

Challenges and opportunities arising from the expansion of the European Union - Essay Example e significant changes in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992 and this momentous event has had numerous ramifications for this multilateral organization. How should the EU expand? Should it continue to move eastward towards the former Yugoslavia or even expand towards Istanbul? Can a majority-Muslim country, i.e. Turkey, actually be European? Seeking to address these questions and many more with respect to European growth in the twenty-first century, the following will provide a comprehensive overview of a fascinating phenomenon. After the fall of communism and state-sponsored socialism at the end of the twenty-first century, the European Union has had to face many challenges dealing with integration and potential enlargement. This essay will explore the demand for eastern growth within the EU and look at the consequences, both intended and unintended of enlargement. The focus will be on Turkey and the ramifications of this controversial expansion. Following this, thi s essay will conclude with broad prescriptions for the future growth of what remains the most powerful multilateral political organization on the planet (Warleigh 2004). The European Union is a multilateral political body composed of a variety of different states, found throughout continental Europe and within the European region. While the composition of each member state differs from a social, political or economic perspective, the members of the EU share a common bond and common values such as pluralism, democracy and the belief is collective negotiation to achieve regional aims. Accordingly, multilateralism is an important feature of the modern EU, and numerous different interests – national as well as regional – are represented within an overarching transnational political framework. Significantly, the EU’s multilateral political framework insures that all member states subscribe to commonly-held principles such as democracy and at its base, capitalist economic

Commercial Contracts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Commercial Contracts - Essay Example Unless the seller can proof that all the goods were defective, the buyer is entitled to decline such a move and seek for legal redress. Watchtower vs. Classic Gift Ltd The two partners entered into a contract, where Watchtowers Ltd was supposed to supply Classic Gift Ltd with both the antique watches and the cleaning oil. The latter owns several shops that specialize in the sale of such watches. The managing director of Classic Gift Ltd agreed on a contract with Matthew Achbold, who was the sales director at Watchtower. It is this contract that was supposed to bund the two parties, in ensuring that everything happened according to the stipulations therein. The challenge After the delivery of the goods to Classic Gift, it was found that some of the oil provided had some defects. According to the letter addressed to the sales director of Watchtower, the oil led to malfunctioning of some watches, which were cleaned. It is because of this issue that Julie Fitz thought that they were enti tled to compensation because of the losses incurred. In their reply, the Watchtower indicated that indeed one of the batches of oil supplied may have been contaminated or had defects. The sales director however appeared to defend the fact that the rest batches were up to standard. However, according to the letter addressed to the supplier (seller), the buyer wanted full refund of the money used to make the purchased. In addition to that, the seller insisted that they need to be compensated due to the number of watches that had been affected. For that, reason, apart from refunding the total amount of purchase, there was need to further pay 2,000 pounds. Discussion Prior to the purchase of the materials, Watchtower provided Classic Gift Ltd with a document 1, which provided the terms and conditions that would make the contract legally binding. Some of the stipulations were that for the contract to remain binding, both parties had to address each other in writing, and within some stipu lated period of time1. Secondly, the seller was supposed to ensure that he supplied goods that were free of any defects to the buyer. However, to facilitate this provision, the buyer on the other hand was supposed to inspect the goods sent to ensure they were of the required standard and quality, upon detection of any anomalies, the buyer is obligated to address the buyer in writing, giving their dissatisfactions in the goods2. However, such a complaint was supposed to be done within the first 14 days. If these days elapse, the buyer was not entitled to any compensation. As part of ensuring that the seller was compensated, the terms and conditions stipulated that, the seller would either get partial or full refund. In addition to that, the seller may be provided with another butch of goods that meet the required standard. From the above explanation, it is clear that Classic Gift Ltd was entitled to compensation. The letter addressed to the supplier was made within 14 days. The lette r highlighted the losses that the company had suffered due to the contaminated oil. According to Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, it is imperative to ensure that the buyer of the goods proof reasonably that there was actually a loss that was incurred. Such a loss must be linked to the mistake done by the seller. In the above issue, it is outright that the seller was entitled to remedies. Firstly, it appears that the buyer may have had the knowledge that some of the oil supplied was defective.

The WTO has been hijacked by rich country interests, thereby worsening Coursework - 1

The WTO has been hijacked by rich country interests, thereby worsening the conditions of the poor in less prosperous countries - Coursework Example This research will begin with the statement that the World Trade Organization was formed with a motive of supervising the environment of world trade in a globalized world. At the inception of the WTO, the main focus of the organization was the promotion of the economic condition of the developing nations and to facilitate a  trade that would work in favor of the growth of these nations. However, there was very little development that was noticed due to the presence of WTO. It has been claimed by different experts of various nations that the WTO has been controlled by the selfish interests of the nations that are considered to be powerful in the world forum.   The decision-making process on the regulations and the principles of trade remained in their hands. In most cases, it has been seen that the developing nations have been controlled and manipulated by the large nations especially through investments and modern technology sharing. The developing nations are dependent on the ri ch nations for their prosperity mainly because they export to the developed countries and import the updated know-how of production and other necessary goods and services from the latter. The system of foreign trade has also become complicated with the multinational companies setting up subsidiaries in the developing nations. These actions have benefitted the developed countries more than it has helped the developing nations.... This particular example proves that the World Trade Organization only thinks about the rich and prosperous countries. In terms of agricultural subsidies, it can be stated that the subsidies provided to the rich world farmers can threaten the livelihood of the farmers of developing world or the third world countries. However, the members of the World Trade organization failed to agree on these things (Bruges, 2004, p.61). The World Trade Organization also failed to make clear the deliberately vague rules on the concluding trade agreements which can allow the developing or less prosperous countries to be influenced by the rich states. There are no such clear rules to protect the farmers or poor people while negotiating with the European Union as the poor African Countries have been forced to abolish tariffs on up to 90 percent of total trade. The World Trade Organization has failed to fulfil its agenda of protecting the interest of the developing countries in the arena of international trade which has been largely due to influence of the global economic superpowers. The rules proposed by the World Trade Organization for the developing countries were special and differential treatment rules which were meant to be reviewed by the WTO. The proposals have failed due to the interests of the global economic superpowers. The implementation of special economic zones and export processing zones in the less prosperous and less developed countries were proposed in order to maintain the equilibrium in international trade by stimulation of foreign investments which proved to be a failure (Ratnesh, 1999, p.47). WTO has also not been able to minimize the legal costs through improved access of its complex legal system to the

Fashion, Retail and Advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fashion, Retail and Advertising - Essay Example The paper "Fashion, Retail and Advertising" will study the intersect between these social and cultural trends, and the world of fashion retail and advertising from the year 2000 to date. Social trends matter in retail trade. As such, it is important to look into some of the trends in terms of social media, communication and culture that stood out the most in the last decade. It is worth noting that in recent times, the advertising industry is more incorporative of the trends, though this is not by choice. The modern day consumer has to be wooed into purchasing certain products by certain companies. This section examines what has been deemed trendy and fashionable in the 2000s. The 2000 has been perhaps the fastest evolving decade in terms of what was popular in this period. The years in this decade as pertains to clothing fashion, saw to the emergence of attributes such as markets flooded with numerous brand names. For example, brands such as Nike are no longer the only ones that are recognized in the retail industry, as there has been widespread infiltration of other brands into the market over the past decade. A good example of such is the emergence of names such as Forever 21. This has left consumers spoilt for choice, with the knowledge that quality is guaranteed, even though one opts to not stick to traditional brand names while acquiring different clothing. In addition to this, the fashion industry has witnessed the evolution of clothing, from conservative wear to clothing.

Financial Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 4

Financial Management - Essay Example The deal was not an easy one for Google considering that the company had to put in a lot of effort for obtaining the regulatory approvals for the same (Reuters, 2012). The deal was announced at $40 per share which added up to a total of $12.5 Billion which was at a premium of 63% to the price of Motorola shares at the end of August 12, 2011. The acquisition of Motorola was aimed at protecting the viability of Google android considering the fact that Google was recently facing a threat due to patent war existing throughout the industry, due to which the major android manufacturers like HTC and Samsung were being sued by giants like Microsoft and Apple for the infringement of patents (Gaughan, 2011, p.5). Google announced that it will run Motorola as an independent business. The deal received approval from the shareholders as well as from the United States Department of Justice and the EU in early 2012. The approval from Chinese authorities followed and the deal was completed on May 22 , 2012. The deal represented Google Inc.’s biggest challenge to Apple Inc., which was the leading player in the market of mobile phones and tablets. Economies of scale A vertical merger generally has a lower potential for economies of scale than a horizontal merger but the merger of Google and Motorola saw the achievement of economies of scale in both financial and risk bearing economies (The Economist, 2008). Technical, organizational, bulks buying as well as financial economies of scale were achieved from the merger (Thompson, 2012). Coordination improved in terms of cost fit, timing fit, size and communication fit within the business (Arnold, 2005, p.45). The merger immediately showed a success effect by increasing the market share in the world market for smartphones from 46.9% in the first quarter of 2012 to 68.1% in the last quarter of 2012. Economies of scale was achieved by getting other byproduct benefits such as the development of the next generation device for mobil e computing, extra services, for example, advertising to living rooms through Motorola'scable TV boxes which helped in boosting the staggering set top box business, in smartphone designs aimed to fulfil the government regulations and competing with Microsoft’s new release of Windows phones. The company achieved a higher output with lowering the average cost, thus increasing the profitability and ensuring lower price for the customers (Rosenbaum, 2012). Economies of vertical integration The move to buy Motorola had a positive impact on the margins. Major phone manufacturers show a trend of having slim margins (Neale, 2004). But market leaders like Apple and Samsung have been known to maintain a margin of 40-50%. Google maintained net profit margin of 25% without having to subsidize the cost of manufacture in order to attract new clients. The merger showed a 100 to 150 basis points positive impact on the profitability. The merger enabled Google Inc. to supercharge the Android e cosystem and enhanced it competitive features in the mobile computing sector. The merger also opened up new opportunities for cross licencing. Combining complementary resources One of the main motives behind the merger was Google’s intention to accelerate innovation by combining the technical resources of Motorola Mobility. Another primary reason was that Google wanted to acquire the huge number of patents that Motorola had. The acquisition of these patents was likely to give the company a high competitive strength against its

Diversity of Islamic ruling in the Practice of Islamic Finance Essay

Diversity of Islamic ruling in the Practice of Islamic Finance Industry - Essay Example Comparative Analysis on the Sources of Islamic Sharia The Islamic law governs the religious sector, the social aspects, and also the financial as well as economic aspects of the Muslim society. The Sharia is wide and was made on the basis of the life of Prophet Mohammed by the Muslim scholars. The Islamic law influences the legal code in the Muslim communities. This is a set of laws and also regulations that are put to rule the Islamic countries. The sharia law applies in the areas like custody, the personal status including marriages and divorces, inheritances, and the economy of the Islamic society (Letha 2011). The word sharia further means ‘path’ in the Islamic community. It means the set guidelines that rule all the areas of a Muslim individual. This includes the daily routine of an individual, the religious sector, and also the financial aspects of the Muslim society. The laws are from the life experiences and lessons, teachings, and practices of the prophet Mohammed. The past and the current Muslim community apply th ese precedents and the analogy from the book to address issues that affect the Islamic society (Johnson & Vriens 2011). The law developed from the prophet who acted as a role model for the Muslim community. The Muslim scholars developed also the ‘hadith.’ This sharia law is currently used by the population in the north and west parts of Africa and also on the eastern parts of china (Johnson & Vriens 2011).... The sharia law applies in the areas like custody, the personal status including marriages and divorces, inheritances, and the economy of the Islamic society (Letha 2011). The word sharia further means ‘path’ in the Islamic community. It means the set guidelines that rule all the areas of a Muslim individual. This includes the daily routine of an individual, the religious sector, and also the financial aspects of the Muslim society. The laws are from the life experiences and lessons, teachings, and practices of the prophet Mohammed. The past and the current Muslim community apply these precedents and the analogy from the book to address issues that affect the Islamic society (Johnson & Vriens 2011). The law developed from the prophet who acted as a role model for the Muslim community. The Muslim scholars developed also the ‘hadith.’ This sharia law is currently used by the population in the north and west parts of Africa and also on the eastern parts of china (Johnson & Vriens 2011). The Quran contains a compilation of the life and the practices of prophet Mohammed. Islamic law is also referred to as the Sharia in the Arabic and in the Muslim community. It is regarded as a deep and also a rich form of intellectual tradition. The Islamic law is replete with well-developing schools of thought. The tradition encompasses scholarly tomes and detail analysis with principles, texts, and other proofs. The Islamic jurisprudence in Arabic is fiqh, from understanding. It signifies the efforts of legal specialists to interpret the Sharia and apply it to particular human circumstances. A train expiry in jurisprudence is referred to as a faqih and is often when addressing the faqih it goes with the honorific

Dear Doug Essay Example for Free

Dear Doug Essay I am happy to hear you are adjusting to college life. I’m sure it’s a big change, but at least you have found friends to help you with the transition. It is also good to hear that you have a diverse group of friends, even though you do not all agree on the same thing. It will be a really good opportunity for you to show them the Christian view and maybe question their own beliefs. So I saw your question from Nathan about if God created all of nature, everything would be divine. No, not everything is divine, but God did create everything. Divinity has characteristics specific to itself that are lacking in finite (human) beings, animals, and material things. For instance, none of these are omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotence (all-powerful), omnipresent (always everywhere), or immutable (non-changing). Therefore, nature is created by the divine (God), and is a work of His creative nature, but nature is not divine in itself. Human beings were created in the image of God†, meaning that He provided us with the knowledge and gifted us the Holy Spirit, which gives us a connection, a relationship with Him. Now the question about the trinity is hard for everyone to understand. Since we as human are very visual and physical we try to understand that trinity in our own terms, but since it is something out of our nature we have a hard time grasping the concept that God is three in one. In the essay â€Å"Are all Religions One† by Douglas Groothuis he explains that there is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4), who eternally exists in three equal persons: The Father (Ephesians 1:3), the Son (John 1:1), and the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-5). The trinity teaches that there is one divine essence that exists in three persons, not that one person equals three. Also I do not think God is a human invention. If we believe that we exist because of matter and chance then how could we trust our own minds? There would be no reason to trust our own mind since there is no absolute truth. Also everyone has a sense of right and wrong, well again evil could not exist if there was no truth, and God is our truth. I think it is pretty hard to make say God is a human invention and then have no explanation for the creation around us. Last but not least you asked about what is the Christian view of God. The Christian view would be that Physical and non-physical things both exist, such as morality, minds, souls, and numbers. Also while physical things change, non-physical things do not. Therefore, Christians believe that God (non-physical) exist and is unchangeable. Along with that he is all knowing and all-powerful, creating the universe in which we live. God is not dependable on us, but we sure are dependable on him. I hope this helps answers some of your questions, have fun on your date night! Cannot wait to hear all about it. Sincerely,

Transnational Strategy Essay Example for Free

Transnational Strategy Essay This paper is about transnational strategy used by transnational companies in developing their business. The strategy will be shown on the specific example of globalizing an Australian wine company BRL Hardy. But first it worth determining transnational strategy as it is. During recent years much have changed in the world business economy, and most big companies started orienting towards globalization of their business. And host countries in their turn were first suspicious to such organizations and made a lot of restrictions for providing their business on the territory of the host country. There are ‘positive contributions that TNCs (transnational corporations) make to host states and encourages this trend, as well as the tensions that have existed between TNCs and host states and endeavors to provide legal responses that take into account the legitimate interests of these two main actors.’ (Ebow Bondzi-Simpson 1990, p. xiii). The main demand was to be responsive to local market and political needs of the country. ‘As a result of these developments, many worldwide companies recognized that the demands to be responsive to local market and political needs and the pressures to develop global-scale competitive efficiency were simultaneous, if sometimes conflicting. Under these conditions, the either/or attitude reflected in both the multinational and the global strategic mentalities were increasingly inappropriate. The emerging requirement was for companies to become more responsive to local needs while retaining their global efficiency—an emerging approach to worldwide management that we call the transnational strategic mentality.’(Bartlett 2004, p. 12). As for the way of management in such companies their key activities and resources are dispersed and specialized to reach competence and flexibility at the same time. Moreover, these dispersed resources are included into an interdependent network of worldwide operations. So, as we see ‘key activities and resources are neither centralized in the parent company, nor decentralized so that each subsidiary can carry out its own tasks on a local-for-local basis.’ (Bartlett 2004, p. 12). The main aim of all companies working on transnational level is to achieve the global leadership in the sphere of its business. And one of the qualities of such leadership is openness to new ideas that is most clearly and forcibly. Globalisation has given most organisations an international dimension. Concerning transnational network it is determined to be three-dimensional: supports a hybrid strategy of both product and market development across national borders; firm seeks both global efficiency and local responsiveness; excellent communications help managers to share vision and support learning. (Harrison 2003, p. 315). Governments of many countries support the idea of transnational companies and develop the appropriate documents, which sometimes appear to be a bit controversial. ‘The European Commission’s 1993 White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment, together with the 1994 White Paper on Social Policy (and the subsequent Medium Term Action Programme) have assigned a greater role and responsibility to the social partners at European level: this may generate more intensive transnational cooperation—but possibly also greater conflict.’ (Lecher 1998 p. xiii). So, let us speak about the example mentioned above to explain the strategy used in the company. First, we compare and contrast the influence of changes in internal management perspectives and the international business environment upon the strategic development of BRL Hardy in the 1990s. Applying to the history we may say that vines were first introduced into Australia in 1788 by Captain Arthur Phillip, who was the leader of the group of convicts and settlers, comprised the first fleet of migrants to inhabit the new British colony. During next two centuries wine became very popular and by 1996 there were two greatest companies involved in this business. First one was Southcorp and ‘the number two company was BRL Hardy Ltd. (BRLH), selling under the Hardy, Houghton, Leasingham, and other labels.’ (Bartlett 2004, p. 679). Earlier Hardy and BRL were different companies. But due to recession-driven market slowdown at home and problems in three of the European acquisitions in Hardy as well as struggle and search for ways to expand and upgrade its business in BRL led for the merge of these two companies in June 1992. Certain changes in the international business environment influenced the strategy development of the BRLH Company: A rationalization and consolidation among wine wholesalers and retailers. Exploiting modern viticulture and more scientific winemaking practices to produce more consistent high-quality wine by wine suppliers from New World. The first priority for the company after merging was the financial situation and domestic market as ‘both companies performed poorly the previous year†¦and the Australian market accounted for the vast bulk of their profit†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Bartlett 2004, p. 681). The emerged strategy was that the company would protect its share of the bulk cask business but concentrate on branded bottle sales for growth. This required a commitment to quality. To implement this strategy there was the need to change the company’s culture and management style, in other words to create a more decentralized approach, but to hold management accountable. ‘The results were impressive with both domestic bottle market share and profitability increasing significantly in the first two tears of BRLH’s operation.’ (Bartlett 2004, 682). As to the international experience, the company understood that ‘globalization of competition is triggered both by the emergence of Triad industrialized markets with relatively homogeneous demands, comprising the United States, the European Community, and Japan.’ (Ohmae 1985). Thus the key export markets were the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and Japan. To expand on its U.K. sale Hardy believed it should stop relying on importers, distributors, and agents. This led management to the decision of buying European wineries to give Hardy’s wines greater access to Europe. But unfortunately, such decision and the appeared problems had negative impact on the company and led it to the merge as was mentioned above. New management began to realize the situation and work out possible strategies to improve the company’s presentation on the foreign market. For that moment ‘a U.K. business selling a small volume of Hardy wines and just breaking even, a rapidly eroding BRL bulk business in Sweden, a weak Hardy-U.S. presence supported by a single representative, and a virtually nonexistent presence in Asia or the rest of Europe.’ (Bartlett 2004, p. 682). Realizing such situation the strategy was based on the strong quality brand image with the company’s marketing slogan ‘Quality Wines for the World’. As the implementation of such a strategy a group marketing and export manager Stephen Davies initiated a programme to rationalize the line and reposition a few key brands in a stepstair hierarchy from simple entry level products to fine wines for connoisseurs. In U.K. the company recently acquired two distributors, but their financial situation was disastrous. So the managing director Carson reported such a situation to the Australian management and proposed a series of cost-cutting steps, installed strong systems, controls, and policies that put him firmly in charge of key decisions. As the result in 1992 the company promised to be profitable on the European market again. Despite improving results in the same year the company was facing several key problems: the need to build quickly on the 178,000 cases of Hardy-brand products that has represented less than a quarter of his total volume in 1991; the need to restore the financial health of its French winemaker, Domaine de la Baume; the need to protect an unstable imported Chilean product that had come as a Whiclar and Gordon agency. Though the headquarters understood the significance of the appeared problems the relationship was an uneasy one as they supported delegation only to those who ‘earned their stripes’. The next difficulty was weather the BRL management understood international marketing. To expand the sales in Europe Carson clearly understood the need to relabel, reposition, and relaunch the brands as current image had eroded in the U.K., but the Australian office did not want to hear of it. In the long run they agreed to such an offer and in 1993 they relabled and relaunched Nottage Hill and repositioned Stamps. In this case the initial negative attitude towards relabling the product brought only delay in expanding sales in the Europe. Fortunately, the changes were made and the company quadrupled the volume of Hardy’s brand from 1992 by 1994. By the mid-1990s the headquarters began to imagine the company not just as a ‘quality exporter’ but as an ‘international wine company’. Though the international environment hardly believed in the possibility of wine to become global brand, the company management believed that ‘changes in wine-making, the opening of global markets, and the changing consumer profile would all support their objective to become a truly international wine company built on a global branding capability.’ (Bartlett 2004, 687). This was the right choice though difficult because it is clearly stated ‘in response to global competition, successful companies are evolving from a product policy of offering customized products to that of offering globally standardized ones.’ (Kotabe 1992). In this case the company strategy was built on decentralization and wish to listen to and to support overseas ideas and proposals, but the role of headquarters should be as brand owners. And it is clear that ‘global companies conduct research wherever necessary, develop products in several countries, promote key executives regardless of nationality, and even have shareholders on three continents.’ (Eom 1994 p. 1). 2.In 1995-1998 managing director Christopher Carson developed certain strategy to build and sustain BRL Hardy’s competitive advantage in the UK wine market as in 1995 he was appointed chief executive of BRL Hardy Europe. We shall try to identify his approach and discuss its likely advantages and disadvantages. Carson had focused most of his attention on building sales of the Hardy brand wines but remained acutely aware of the importance of the other non-Australian product lines. It is obvious that quality of grapes as an agricultural product depends upon weather, disease and other factors. Carson proposed that one way to minimize that risk was the sourcing from multiple regions. Moreover, major retailers wanted to simplify wine buying dealing with a few key suppliers providing a broad line of quality products. For all these reasons Carson began to concentrate much of his attention on two non-Australian wine sources: Jose Canopa y CIA Limitada (Chile, Mapocho brand) and Casa Vinicola Calatrasi (Siciliy, D’istinto brand). These two projects were based on partnership relations and were a kind of transnational relations. ‘Transnational relations are understood as regular interactions across national borders in which either the administration itself or the actors with whom the administration maintains contacts act without a specific and clear national mandate when participating in negotiations and decision-making processes.’ (Jacobsson 2003). In both projects Carson offered the grape growers to send the winemaking specialist to enhance the value of their harvest through more productive vineyard techniques and new winemaking methods. Moreover branding could give the producers security of demand and eventually better prices for their fruit. The approach he used to develop his strategy was customer-focused,   a shareholder value approach as he saw the company as the private property of it s owners, linked to the concept of competitive advantage offering high-quality wines produced with the help of new technologies of winemaking. The advantageous goal of these projects was to offset projected Australian red wine shortages with alternative sources and to develop a brand responding to the average wine consumer interested in wine but not necessarily very knowledgeable about it. The new product was to give easy-to read labels with a pronounceable brand name. D’istinto line ‘can help us build BRLH Europe in size, impact, and reputation,’ said Carson. ‘We need to become known as a first-class branding company – a company able to leverage great distribution and strong marketing into recognized consumer brands.’ (Bartlett 2004, p. 690). As for disadvantages of Carson’s strategy, the Mapocho project was disappointing. The first samples were bad and the reason was controversial from both sides: ‘The Chileans thought the problem was due to the winemaker sent from BRL Hardy being unfamiliar with Chilean wine, while he insisted they had not provided him with quality fruit.’ (Bartlett 2004, p. 690). Canepa managers claimed the costs went up, and wanted to change the supply price, and then the new venture lost opportunity to get early access to the pick of the 1997 grape harvest. All this led to low sales contrary to expected (15,000 cases against 80,000 planned). As to the D’istinto, initialy it was planned to fill the price points that had been vacated as Stamps and Nottage Hill had become more expensive. But for the moment of discussion the Sicilian line clearly overlapped with Hardy’s core offerings. Nevertheless, D’istinto sales rose from 16,000 to 500,000 by year four and could have global potential. But despite such success and relatively small investment in the branding, packaging and launch expenses, the real financial risk could come later in the form of contract commitments and excess inventory because of continued difficulty with Mapocho sales. As a result the chosen strategy led to the brand fighting. The next step within the company was the strategic decision to promote Banrock Station as a global brand. As the Stamps and Nottage Hill brands became more expensive, Carson believed there was an opening for a new low-end Australian brand to fill the vacant price position, representing more than 80% of sales volume. The person in charge for this question was Paul Browne. He felt the market was ready for a brand which would appeal to a younger consumer gradually coming to buy Stamps and Nottage Hill later. ‘The brand he came up with was Kelly’s Revenge.’ (Bartlett 2004, p. 692). Meanwhile, in Australia, BRLH was developing a major new product targeted at a similar price point. The name of the new brand positioned as an environmentally responsible product and launched in Australia in 1996 came from the place named Banrock Station (a 1,800-hectare cattle grazing property partially converting by the company to viticulture) and acquired by the company in 1995. ‘Good Earth, Fine Wine’ was the motto of the brand. ‘The nomination process for the Banrock Station Wetland Complex was initiated by the sites owner, BRL Hardy Wine Company. Extensive consultation on the nomination was undertaken and coordinated by the South Australian Department for Environment and Heritage.’ (Wetlands Australia 2003). After the increasing success in Australia, convinced in its potential as a global brand, headquarters management decided to promote Banrock Station as a global brand in the countries of this company’s presence. In Canada and the U.S. there were no significant difficulties of implementing such a decision, but in Europe the management team expressed serious doubts as they already finished the Kelly’s Revenge project. In this particular question headquarters and European management appeared to be arguing parties. As Australians blocked Kelly’s Revenge and Europeans tried to block Banrock Station because they were projects worked out in these two organizations to satisfy the customer. But, Banrock Station was more successive in the market and Kelly’s Revenge was examined by the customers’ reaction, as the result ‘when we took it to ASDA, the UK grocery chain, they were not enthralled. ’(Bartlett 2004, p. 694). So this was the opportunity to give Banrock Station a try in European market. If determining this process deliberate or emergent we should say that to much more extent it was deliberate because the trial to launch D’istinto on a low price level was a failure and Banrock Station brand appeared to be much more successive on this level because of its devoutness to nature. Initially the program aimed ‘to restore the natural elements such as soil, water, natural vegetation and animals as they existed at Banrock Station over 200 years ago.’ (Banrock Station – Environmental). For this purpose the company bought the property in South Australia’s Riverland district. The deliberateness of the promoting process underlines one more fact that ‘during the planning and development phase, visitors’ universally positive reaction to BRLH’s ongoing conservation efforts – planting only 400 hectares while returning the remaining land to its native state including the restoration of natural wetlands – convinced management that the property had brand potential.’ (Bartlett 2004, p. 693). Emerging in all the process may be only the fact of acquiring the property. ‘Banrock Station now also supports wetlands restoration projects in other countries where it sells its wines including New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.’ (Landcare Australia 2001). For example in Canada ‘for every bottle sold, a donation is made to the Banrock Station Wetlands Foundation Canada to support wetland conservation projects.’ (Banrock Station Shiraz). The region under BRLH care in this project developed and increased its potential. ‘During 1998 Richard Stafford architects developed this project for the BRL Hardy Corporation as a combined wine tasting, visitor destination and information centre, to be known as the Wine Wetland Centre.’ (Banrock Station). ‘Banrock Station is an exemplary example of an innovative cellar door that truly reflects the brand.’ (Richard Stafford). The BRLH Company made a lot of successive affords to expand its production on the world market, though there were some faults and mishaps as it always happens when managers start doing greater business. The most significant is that the company should see its mistakes and try to overcome them with less looses for the company profit. And it is clear that ‘in the future, a companys ability to develop a transnational organizational capability will be the key factor that separates the winners from the mere survivors in the international competitive environment.’ (Rugman 1992, p. 1). The question of transnational companies was of great concern to many countries even in 1980s. ‘Discussions on the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) in the current international economic situation and on the modern phenomenon of transborder data flows highlighted the work of the Commission on Transnational Corporations at its tenth regular session, held from 17 to 27 April in New York.’ (UN Chronicle 1984, p.1). The idea of transnational companies became very significant in the twentieth century as ‘in the last quarter of the twentieth century the international flows of goods and capital increasingly broke down the notion of sovereign nation-states.’ (Pries 2001 p. 5).    References. ‘Banrock Station’ Available on http://www.emilis.sa.on.net/projects/emil_63.htm (Accessed August, 9 2005). ‘Banrock Station – Environmental rehabilitation of wetlands’. Available on http://www.austrade.gov.au/corporate/layout/0,,0_-1_-2_-3_PWB110405321-4_-5_-6_-7_DOCUMENT,00.html. (Accessed August, 9 2005). ‘Banrock Station Shiraz’ Available on http://www.churchillcellars.com/banrock_shiraz.shtml   (Accessed August, 9 2005). Bartlett, CA Ghoshal, S Birkinshaw, J 2004, ‘Transnational Management: Text, Cases, and Readings in Cross-Border Management’,Fourth edition, New York and London: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. ‘Commission Discusses Role of Transnational Corporations in World Development’ 1984, Magazine article, UN Chronicle, Vol. 21, July. Ebow Bondzi-Simpson, P 1990, ‘Legal Relationships between Transnational Corporations and Host States’, Quorum Books. Eom, SB 1994, ‘Transnational Management Systems: An Emerging Tool for Global Strategic Management’, SAM Advanced Management Journal, Vol. 59. Harrison, JS 2003, ‘Strategic management of resources and relationships: concepts and cases’, New York and Chichester: Wiley, p. 315. Jacobsson, B Là ¦greid, P Pedersen OK 2003, ‘Europeanization and Transnational States: Comparing Nordic Central Governments’, Routledge. Kotabe, M 1992, ‘Global Sourcing Strategy: RD, Manufacturing, and Marketing Interfaces’, Quorum Books. ‘Landcare Australia’ 2001. Available on http://www.landcareaustralia.com.au/sponsordisplay.asp?SponsorID=23 (Accessed August, 9 2005). Lecher, W Platzer, HW 1998, ‘European Union European Industrial Relations? Global Challenges, National Developments and Transnational Dynamics’, Routledge. Ohmae, K 1985, ‘Triad Power’, New York: The Free Press.   Pries, L 2001, ‘New Transnational Social Spaces: International Migration and Transnational Companies in the Early Twenty-First Century’, Routledge. ‘Richard Stafford Banrock Station’ Available on http://www.offthevine.com.au/ep27/industry_ep27.html (Accessed August, 9 2005). Rugman, AM and Verbeke, A 1992, ‘Note on the Transnational Solution and the Transaction Cost Theory of Multinational Strategic Management’, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 23. ‘Wetlands Australia — National Wetlands Update 2003’ 2003, Environment Australia for the Australian Wetlands Information Network (AWIN), Environment Australia, February, Issue No. 11, ISBN 0642549052.Available on http://www.deh.gov.au/water/wetlands/publications/wa11/banrock.html (Accessed August, 9 2005).

Organizational Decoupling Processes and Causes

Organizational Decoupling Processes and Causes The field of organizational decoupling is a field that has not been researched very much. Meyer and Rowan (1977) were some of the first authors who wrote about this subject and define organizational decoupling as separating formal structure from actual organizational practice. In short, this means that organizations say that they do one thing, but actually do something else. For instance, an organization can announce that it will start a stock repurchase program. The organization can announce that it will repurchase a certain amount of stocks but actually repurchase much less stocks or dont repurchase them at all (Westphal Zajac, 2001). In this particular example the organization decouples what it says it is going to do, with what it actually does. Thus, the organization separates formal procedures (formal structure) from practice. So organizations seem to decouple their structure from actual practice, but why? Why do organizations try to fool other organizations, clients, customers and possibly even themselves? I argue that the main problem is legitimacy, and by exploring organizations quest for legitimacy and the problems they might encounter along the way, this research tries to map the main causes for organizational decoupling and thus give an answer to the following research question: What are the main causes of organizational decoupling? This research consists of a step-by-step overview of the entire process underlying decoupling. Four steps will be taken to explore and explain why organizations decouple their formal procedures (formal structure) from practice. Namely, 1) looking at the context of organizations and their search for legitimacy, 2) looking at problems organizations might encounter while searching for legitimacy 3) identifying the problem that is supported to be the prime cause of decoupling and 4) looking at organizational reactions to these problems (using decoupling) to connect the causes the action (problems to decoupling). These three steps will be discussed in three paragraphs and each paragraph consists of a review of existing literature from different authors about the decoupling process. Figure 1.1 shows the conceptual model sketching the process underlying decoupling. This model is divided into theory and propositions. The theory section shows which concepts form the theory behind the proposit ions and the propositions section shows which propositions are extracted from the theory. These propositions will form the core of this research. Research Structure The first step in the research is to take a look at the context of organizations and their quest for legitimacy. Organizations are embedded into institutional environments, meaning that the environment expects something of these organizations (Boxembaum Jonsson, 2008). There are certain norms, values and rules that organizations are being expected to act upon. Organizations have to conform to these expectations to gain legitimacy and this is the one goal all organizations have. They have to be legitimate to operate, survive, gain control over resources and create stability (Meyer Rowan, 1977; Boxenbaum Jonsson, 2008). For organizations, expectations are being experienced as pressures to conform. Therefore, this research will use the term environmental pressures to refer to these expectations. However, using the term environmental pressure sketches an image that is too vague and incomplete. Therefore this research divides environmental pressures into normative pressures and coercive pressures (Dimaggio Powel, 1983/2000). The term normative pressures refers to the expectations of the public or the cultural audience. These are the people and other organizations that form society and expect organizations to behave in a certain way and to conform to moral norms and values. It is important to keep in mind that it is not illegal to disregard these expectations; they are social guidelines, not laws. Nonetheless organizations have to conform to these expectations to stay legitimate (Boxenbaum Jonsson, 2008; and others). Coercive pressures however do consist of laws. In some situations organizations have to conform to certain laws that are being imposed by the government and this creates a pressure to conform. Organizations must conform because disobedience is illegal and illegitimate (Edelman, 1992). The second step in finding the answer to why organizations decouple their formal procedures (formal structure) from practice lies in the problems organizations might encounter while pursuing legitimacy. This paper categorizes three different problems that might rise when organizations try to gain legitimacy by conforming to environmental pressures, namely: 1) organizations might encounter a misfit between the expectations of their environments and their practices (Meyer Rowan, 1977); 2) some organizations might encounter an inability to conform to the coercive and normative pressures (Oliver, 1991); and 3) in some cases what an organization is being expected to do is in conflict with the interests of the organization as a whole or of individual managers (Edelman, 1992; Westphal Zajac, 2001; Fiss Zajac, 2006). The third step is to identify one of the three possible problems as the one that is the most important or most found cause of organizational decoupling. This step will eventually form an answer to the research question. The fourth step is the step where organizations actually decouple their formal structure from practice as a response to the problems that have arisen as a result of environmental pressures. This chapter will discuss different ways in which organizations use decoupling to solve problems and it illustrates some particular situations and approaches to the different problems that might arise while trying to be legitimate. This chapter functions as a bridge between the problems and the actual decoupling. Relevance of the Research Because organizations experience the struggle for legitimacy on a daily basis, and therefore have to cope with problems that arise as a result, this research might give organizations an insight in how to deal with these pressures and problem situations. Managers of organizations can use the knowledge in this research to come up with strategies that both suffice the need for legitimacy as well as the need for efficiency and pursuing organizational interests. The process underlying decoupling as illustrated in this research might also be used as a mean to gain legitimacy on its own. Because this research provides an insight into the reasons that organizations have to decouple their structure from practice, the public or cultural audience might come to a better understanding of the situation. They might understand that organizations sometimes have no other choice than to decouple and that the actions of organizations are actually quite legitimate, even if they are not considered to be at the moment. The knowledge provided in this research can also lead to further research on decoupling an form a basis for other researchers to start from because it tries to explain the core concept behind decoupling and to give an answer to the why question. Theoretical Framework Theory The aim of this research is to explore and explain the process underlying organizational decoupling and summarize the main causes. But what is organizational decoupling exactly? Meyer and Rowan (1977) define organizational decoupling as separating formal structure from actual organizational practice, meaning that organizations create an illusion of their activities (formal structure) but actually perform different activities (organizational practice). Many authors have used the term organizational decoupling but most of them refer to Meyer and Rowan as the founding fathers of this field of study and therefore this research will use the definition of organizational decoupling as given by them. The second important concept in this research is legitimacy. This research hypothesizes that organizations are on a quest for legitimacy and might encounter problems along the way. Legitimacy is therefore one of the core concepts and will be defined as a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions (Suchman, 1995, p. 574). This definition will be used in this research because Suchman (1995) includes the importance of the social audience in his definition. As mentioned earlier, the audience defines the social pressure that organizations experience and is therefore an important player in the process underlying decoupling, which in a way determines what is legitimate and what is not, and should therefore be included in the definition of legitimacy. The third concept as mentioned in the conceptual model (figure 1.1) is environmental pressure. Meyer and Rowan (1977) call this environmental pressure myths. According to them, institutional rules function as myths to which organizations have to conform to be legitimate. This research however does not use the term myths but the term environmental pressure, the definition however remains the same. As mentioned earlier this research separates environmental pressure into two different sub pressures: coercive pressure and normative pressure. Coercive pressure will be defined as the demand of the state or other large actors to adopt specific structures or practices, or else face sanctions (Dimaggio Powel, 1983/2000 in Boxenbaum Jonsson, 2008, p. 80). Normative pressure will be defined as what is widely considered a proper course of action, or even a moral duty (Suchman, 1995, in Boxenbaum Jonsson, 2008, p. 80). These two definitions are chosen because they both point out the important difference between the moral and legal background of the concepts. The definition of coercive pressures specifically points out the role of the state and the risk of facing sanctions. This expresses the legal background of the concept. On the other hand, the definition of normative pressure points out the role of the audience. This on its turn expresses the social background of the concept. Dimaggio and Powel (1983/2000) also mention a third pressure, namely mimetic pressure. These mimetic pressures are mainly caused by uncertainty. This uncertainty for organizations causes organizations to imitate other, successful organizations to reduce their own uncertainty. Even though the concept of mimetic pressures is a part of the pressure package of Dimaggio and Powel (1983/2000) it will not be used in this research. The reason for leaving mimetic pressures out of the research and include only coercive and normative pressures is that this research hypothesizes that conforming to certain en vironmental pressure causes problems. Mimetic pressures however do not cause but rather solve problems (uncertainty)(Dimaggio Powel, 1983/2000). Propositions This research also mentions three different problems that organizations might encounter while trying to be legitimate. The first are efficiency problems. These problems are defined as problems that might arise when organizations try to conform to environmental pressures, which actually are in conflict with efficiency criteria (Meyer Rowan, 1977). The second problem is the inability to conform to environmental pressures. This problem will be defined as a problem that might rise when an organization has inadequate resources or capacity to meet the requirements of conformity (Oliver, 1991). The third are conflicting organizational or managerial interest problems. These are problems that might rise when environmental pressures are in conflict with the organizational or managerial interests (Edelman, 1992; Westphal Zajac, 2001; Fiss Zajac, 2006). Based on these three possible problems three propositions are made: Proposition 1 Organizational decoupling is caused by efficiency problems. Proposition 2 Organizational decoupling is caused by the organizations inability to conform to environmental pressures. Proposition 3 Organizational decoupling is caused by conflicting organizational or managerial interests. Table 2.1 Concept Definitions Organizational decoupling Separating formal structures from actual organizational practice Legitimacy A generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions Environmental pressure Institutional rules function as environmental pressures to which organizations have to conform to be legitimate Coercive pressure The demand of the state or other large actors to adopt specific structures or practices, or else face sanctions Normative pressure What is widely considered a proper course of action, or even a moral duty Efficiency problems Problems that might arise when organizations try to conform to environmental pressures, which actually conflicts sharply with efficiency criteria Inability to conform to environmental pressures Problems that might arise when an organization has inadequate resources or capacity to meet the requirements of conformity Conflicting organizational or managerial interests Problems that might arise when environmental pressures are in conflict with the organizational or managerial interests Research design This research can be characterized as both a descriptive and an explanatory research. It is both descriptive and explanatory because the aim on one hand is to describe current mainstream findings of other researchers on organizational decoupling and on the other hand to explain the whole process underlying organizational decoupling. This chapter will describe the process of data collection and data analysis using a part of the guidelines for conducting a systematic literature review as suggested by Tranfield, Denyer and Smart (2003). According to them conducting a review can be divided into several phases (table 3.1). These phases will form the steps used in this research for both data collection and analysis. Phases in conducting a review (Tranfield, Denyer Smart, 2003) Phase 1 Identification of research Phase 2 Selection of Studies Phase 3 Study quality assessment Identification of Research This phase of the research is the actual start of the data collection. According to Tranfield, Denyer and Smart (2003) a systematic search begins with identifying keywords and search terms. As mentioned in chapter 2 (Theoretical Framework), this research contains several concepts, which again can be found in the conceptual model (figure 1.1). These concepts are the core of this research and therefore some of them will be used as keywords to find relevant articles and papers. The first string of keywords is as follows: 1) Decoupling; 2) Legitimacy; 3) Institutional pressures. Table 3.2 shows the number of articles found for each keyword. Number of articles found Decoupling 12.262 Legitimacy 8.199 Institutional pressures 1080 To make the keywords more specific and to make sure that the results of the search are narrowed down the following, more specific keywords were identified and some keywords were added to the string (see table 3.2 for argumentation): 1) Organi?ational decoupling; 2) Acquiring legitimacy; 3) Maintaining legitimacy; 4) Conformity + institutional pressures; 5) Symbolic management Keyword argumentation Organi?ational decoupling Adding organi?ational to the term Decoupling makes the term more specific and narrows down results The ? makes sure that both the English and the American spelling of the word are being checked for Acquiring legitimacy Adding Aquiring to the term Legitimacy makes sure that the search focuses on the organizations search for legitimacy and not just on legitimacy itself Maintaining legitimacy Adding Maintaining to the term Legitimacy makes sure that the search focuses on the organizations struggle to maintain legitimacy and not just on legitimacy itself Conformity + Institutional pressures The term Institutional pressures refers to the pressures that weigh upon organizations The term Conformity refers to the theory that organizations have to conform to certain pressures to be legitimate Symbolic management Decoupling is using symbols to show that your organization conforms to certain institutional pressures (myths) (Meyer Rowan, 1977)The use of these symbols as a management strategy is called symbolic management (Westphal Zajac, 1998; 2001) The main source of information will be the ISI Web of Knowledge. This database contains thousands of articles and papers, which can be found using the license of the University of Tilburg. Unfortunately this license only allows the search for articles that have been published in 1988 or later. However, for the first step in searching relevant literature this is not a reason for concern. Again, to narrow down the results of the research and to exclude irrelevant results, the search will be refined to the general category Social Sciences. This makes sure that the search results do not include findings in irrelevant categories such as Science and Technology and Arts and Humanities. Second, the subject areas of the search are also refined. The subject areas that are included in the search are Business and Economics, Sociology and Behavioral Sciences. An example of the exact syntax of the search command can be found in the appendix. Besides using search-strings, this research also used the technique of snowballing. This technique uses the literature references of articles and papers that might have been found using the search-strings. For instance, the paper of Meyer and Rowan (1977) is being referred to by almost every author in the field of organizational decoupling. However, this article does not pop up in the search results in the Web of Knowledge database because it was published before 1988. By using snowballing other relevant articles about the subject can be found. The result of using this technique is that the latter part of the literature used in this research was found in the literature references of the articles that were found by using the organi?ational decoupling search term. Selection of Studies After searching for articles a selection of relevant studies had to be made. This process consists of three steps: 1) scanning the titles 2) reading the abstracts of the studies found and 3) matching the content of the studies to this researchs concept. The first and second step give an indication of what the studies are about. The title says a lot about the content of a paper and the abstract of an article gives a short summary of what the author has found in his or her study and thus gives an indication of the usability for this research. The third step is actually a sort of analysis of the studies that have been marked as relevant and usable in the previous two steps. This step consists of actually reading the selected studies and mapping their contents. Mapping the contents of a article or paper that are relevant for this research is being done by using a summary table (see appendix 6.2). This table is an oversight of the different articles and papers, their authors and the main concepts of these studies. After reading all the relevant literature this table is used to divide the different studies into different categories. The different categories consist of the core concepts of this study as shown in figure 1.1 (conceptual model), namely: 1) legitimacy; 2) conforming to coercive pressures; 3) conforming to normative pressures; 4) efficiency problems; 5) inability to conform to environmental pressures; 6) conflicting organizational or managerial interests; and 7) implementing decoupling. Dividing the literature into these different categories makes it easier to link them together in this research and to formulate an answer to the research question. Study Quality Assessment The quality of this research will be guaranteed by checking the literature that is being used as data. By checking the literature for times cited the reliability and validity of the literature is being secured. The more a particular article or paper is cited by other authors, the higher the reliability and validity of this particular article or paper. However, this also means that the older articles seem to be more reliable. To overcome this bias articles of more recent years have also been taken in to account and have been checked for usability separately. Another method for improving the reliability of the research is to use theoretical triangulation. By looking at different theories, the concept of organizational decoupling will be explained in a reliable and multidimensional way. To guarantee that this research can be replicated and checked for inconsistencies or to extend it, every step of the research process is being recorded. Also, the systematic way of analyzing the data ensures both replicabillity and reliability. Results As mentioned earlier, this research consists of three steps in explaining the causes of organizational decoupling. These three steps are according to the conceptual model (figure 1.1) and try to explain the process underlying decoupling step-by-step and will be covered in the following paragraphs. Quest for Legitimacy Before we can point out which problems could cause decoupling we must first take a look at how these problems rise in the first place. The theory shows that organizations try to be legitimate and are thus on a quest for legitimacy. Acquiring and maintaining legitimacy is the most difficult task for most organizations (Elsbach Sutton, 1992; Pfeffer Salancik, 1978: 194). Nonetheless, organizations have to be legitimate to operate, survive, gain resources and create stability (Meyer and Rowan, 1977; Boxembaum Jonsson, 2008). So one of the main goals of organizations is to be legitimate, but how do organizations achieve this? Boxembaum and Jonsson (2008) argue that organizations are embedded into institutional environments. Being embedded into institutional environments means that this environment has certain expectations of the organizations. These expectations are being experienced as pressures, and organizations have to comply with these pressures to maintain legitimacy (Dimaggio Powel, 1983/2000; Monahan, 2006). These pressures can be either coercive or normative (Seidman, 1983; Dimaggio Powel, 1983/2000). Coercive pressures refer to environmental expectations such as, for instance, laws. The argument that organizations have to conform to coercive pressures is supported by the work of Tsoukas (1994) who argues that in some environments organizations have to conform to rules and institutions as imposed by the legal state. Normative pressures refer to norms and values about what is considered proper or normal (Suchman, 1995). In their work on educational organizations and ranking Sauder and Espeland (2009) write about the normative pressures that educational organizations have to conform to. According to them, educational organizations are being ranked according to their performance. Schools have to be the best of the best to survive and thus have to conform to todays ideas of what is considered good quality and bad quality. Problems Along the Way So in short, organizations try to be legitimate by conforming to both coercive and normative environmental pressures. Conforming to these environmental pressures seems to be the right and only thing for organizations to do. However, this research hypothesizes that it might also cause certain problems. This research distinct three particular problems, namely: 1) efficiency problems; 2) inability to conform; and 3) conflicting interests. Efficiency Problems Meyer and Rowan (1977) argue that organizations that try to be legitimate by conforming to environmental pressures might encounter a misfit between the organizational structure and its practice. In other words, the environmental pressures are not in line with the organizational practice. For instance, Meyer and Rowan (1977) mention the example of a bus company. A bus company is expected to service certain routes, even when there are no passengers. This is highly inefficient, but the bus company has to conform to the environmental pressures. Edelman (1992) also point out the efficiency problems that might rise in their example of the equal employment opportunity and affirmative action (EEO/AA) law. This law is designed to ban discrimination in the hiring processes of firms and thus restricts organizations and managers to hire or refuse whomever they want. According to Edelman (1992) organizations experience this as highly inefficient and obstructing to managerial power. Inability to Conform A second problem that organizations can encounter is that they simply cannot conform to the environmental pressures. Oliver (1991) argues that some organizations are just not able to conform to certain environmental pressures because they do not have the needed resources or the capacity. For instance, it is more or less a social expectation (thus, a normative pressure) that the area surrounding a fast-food-restaurant is kept clean and clear of garbage by the restaurant itself. However, the restaurant might not have enough personnel or the material (resources and capacity) to conform to this expectation. It might also be possible that organizations simply do not know what is being expected of them or that multiple environmental pressures are conflicting with each other (Oliver, 1992). If any of these options is the case, then the organization might not be able to conform or choose to conform to one pressure, but ignore the other (conflicting) one. Conflicting Organizational or Managerial Interests The third problem that can rise as a result of trying to conform to environmental pressures is that certain organizational or managerial interests might be conflicting with the expectations (environmental pressures). Westphal and Zajac (2001) point out that some organizations that announce a stock repurchase program do not always fully implement these programs. According to them this might be a result of conflicting managerial interests. They argue that top managers might use this strategy, which is actually decoupling, to preserve free cash flow for themselves and thus to maintain managerial discretion over the allocation of resources. In other words, the organization is being expected to fully implement the stock repurchase programs, but top managers seem to want to keep control over the allocation of resources and thus do not (completely) conform to this environmental pressure. What is being expected, and the interests of the managers are conflicting with each other. The previous mentioned findings of Edelman (1992) about the EEO/AA law and its consequences for organizations are also supporting the conflicting interests argument. Edelman (1992) not only argues that conforming to the EEO/AA law, a coercive pressure, is inefficient but also argues that it is in conflict with organizational and managerial interests. Managers want to be free in hiring whomever they want but the EEO/AA law prohibits them from doing this. Thus, the coercive pressure to which the organizations have to conform is in conflict with the interests of the organizations themselves and their managers. Decoupling as  a Problem Solving Tool So far we have traced the process underlying decoupling from trying to be legitimate, to conforming to environmental pressures and to the problems this might cause. This research argues that these problems are the main causes of organizational decoupling but so far nothing has been said about the implementation of decoupling as a response to these problems. This paragraph will give some examples of how organizations use decoupling to solve their problems and will form a bridge between the problems and decoupling. According to Meyer and Rowan (1977), efficiency problems can be solved by formally adopting a structure but then internally decouple this structure from the actual practice. They give an example of how a hospital applies this strategy. In this example Meyer and Rowan (1977) point out that hospitals treat, not cure their patients. The environmental pressures prescribe that hospitals are being expected to cure patients. However, this is highly unpractical because they cannot cure every single patient. The solution to this problem is decoupling. Hospitals give an impression that they cure their patients, and thus conform to the environmental pressures, but actually these hospitals treat their patients and do not cure all of them. In fact, hospitals only publish numbers on treated patients and not or seldom on cured patients (Meyer Rowan, 1977). Edelman (1992), regarding to the EEO/AA law example, also gives a solution to the efficiency problems. Organizations create formal structures in the form of offices, positions, rules and procedures within the organization. These formal structures are actually symbols of compliance. They give the impression that the organization conforms to the environmental pressures, but in fact the organization can hire or reject someone on illegitimate grounds (Edelman, 1992). When an organization does not have the resources or capability to conform to environmental pressures, it will attempt to preclude the necessity of conformity or to conceal nonconformity behind a faà §ade of acquiescence (Oliver, 1991). Oliver (1991) gives an example: when a construction firm is building a house and they are expecting a government inspection of the building site, they might display several activities that normally are not there. For instance, rules require two men to operate heavy machinery on building sites. However, a building firm might not have enough personnel to put two men on the job and thus normally only one man operates the machinery. When the building firm expects an inspection it will, for instance, relocate someone from another building site to the one that is being inspected. So when the inspectors come, the heavy machinery is operated by two men, while normally it is not. This way the organization (construction firm) conceals its nonconformity. A possible solution to the third problem, conflicting organizational or managerial interests, is already mentioned shortly in the previous paragraph. The example of the stock repurchase program (Westphal Zajac, 2001) shows that individual managers simply do not implement the whole program when their interests are in conflict with the plans. So in short, decoupling actually comes down to the following: give the environment the impression that the organization conforms to all expectations (environmental pressures), but when these pressures cause some sort of problem for the organization, actually follow the organizations own rules and routines. Conclusions Recommendations This chapter will formulate conclusions that are derived from the results and give some recommendations for further research on organizational decoupling. Conclusions

Cash Grants Essay example -- Mexican Government, The Cash Program

Consider the compact of co-responsibility between the government and recipients. What is needed to make the compact work? Progresa had the goal of increasing the basic capabilities of extremely poor people in rural Mexico (Levine, 2007, p.67). Progresa is a program developed by the government of Mexico in 1997, and was implemented by President Ernesto Zedillo. With the help of Santiago Levy who was an economist, Progresa was developed to help break the cycle of poverty in Mexico. In order for the compact to work between the government and the recipients, a change had to take place from the governments’ standpoint. The government came to the realization of what the recipients needed and to provide that for them. Since the government was willing to fund the program to help the recipients, it demanded the recipients’ responsibility towards the program. For the first time, the Government of the Republic set in motion a program that will deal with the causes of poverty in an integral manner (Levine, 2007, p. 67). The recipients would be held accountable for their part in the program. They would be held liable for participating in the program by being responsible and attributing the responsibility of their choices towards the program. The government funded the program financially while the recipients’ responsibility included sending the children to school, getting the children immunized, and making sure their healthcare and nutritional needs were met. What was needed to make the compact work was the union and responsibility of the government and the recipients as a team. Why were the cash grants given to mothers? Do you think this was a good idea or a bad one? What might have been positive and negative consequences of this choice... ...not efficient there can be a greater risk of funds not being used wisely. There would be a need to have precautions set in place to prevent funds from being misused or even the overspending of funds that would be used to distribute to recipients. One way of creating an efficient system â€Å"is to have simple delivery mechanisms. Evidence suggests that small regular, automated payments are less likely to suffer corruption than large, infrequent, discretionary payments. The spread of computerisation will help in this regard, but will be much reinforced by the eventual introduction of personal identity systems, and the registration of births, deaths and marriages†(Farrington,2005). Organization is also a key to being an efficient program. With organization their can possibly be less confusion of how the program is intended to be designed so it can grow towards success.

Laughter :: essays research papers

A little old lady went into the Bank of Melbourne one day, carrying a bag of money. She insisted that she must speak with > the manager of the bank to open a savings account because, "It's a lot of money!" > After much hemming and hawing, the bank staff finally ushered her into the managers's office (the customer is always right!). The bank manager then asked her how much she would like to deposit. > She replied, "$165,000!" and dumped the cash out of her bag onto his desk. > The manager was of course curious as to how she came by all this cash, so he asked her, "Ma'am, I'm surprised you're carrying > so much cash around. Where did you get this money?" > The old lady replied, "I make bets." > The manager then asked, "Bets? What kind of bets?" > The old woman said, "Well, for example, I'll bet you $25,000 that your balls are square." > "Ha!" laughed the manager, "That's a stupid bet. You can never win that kind of bet!" > The old lady challenged, "So, would you like to take my bet?" > "Sure," said the manager, "I'll bet $25,000 that my balls are not square!" > The little old lady then said, "Okay, but since there is a lot of money involved, may I bring my lawyer with me tomorrow at 10am as a witness?" > "Sure!" replied the confident manager. > That night, the manager got very nervous about the bet and spent a long time in front of a mirror checking his balls,turning from side to side, again and again. He thoroughly checked them out until he was sure that there was absolutely no way his balls were square and that he would win the bet. > The next morning, at precisely 10am, the little old lady appeared with her lawyer at the manager's office. She introduced the lawyer to the manager and repeated the bet "$25,000 says the manager's balls are square!" The manager agreed with the bet > again and the old lady asked him to drop his pants so they could all see. The manager complied.