Overview Essays

Overview Essays Overview Essay Overview Essay Organizations which adopt technological innovations in order to capitalize on their core competencies are called high-technology organizations (cited in Laudon Traver, 2007). Strategic management of high-technology organizations involves a constant process of managing change because the need is one of implementing a continuous improvement program by automating existing business processes. As a result high-technology organizations go through a constant process of business process reengineering. Existing business processes are reengineered to capitalize on technological innovations. Embedding technological innovations into existing business processes is not an easy task because the need is one of ensuring strategic alignment between business strategies and technology strategies. There is no doubt that technological innovations can save costs by streamlining the different business processes. However there are challenges to implementing these technological innovations and that is why, w hen it comes to managing high technology organizations, there is a critical need for the management to create an organizational culture which values strategic change.Case briefThe issue of the case is GE’s migration to the technological innovation of conducting business operations online. The case highlights Welch’s leadership as the critical factor in GE’s transformation as a high-technology organization. When Welch became CEO, he immediately set out to change the organizational culture of the company by streamlining and redefining its processes, by developing the people and by renewing its strategies. Nearing retirement, he was still a stranger to the business potential of the Internet until he saw the light while on vacation. Upon returning he immediately launched the e-business initiative. GE Plastics had already started an e-business initiative on its own. However Welch’s initiative speeded up the transition. GE Plastics served as an example for the other business units. Dissemination of information in the company was facilitated by a regular series of meetings and discussion forums round the year. Transferable best practices were researched and applied and through this process GE evolved from selling online to buying online to conducting its internal operations online. GE Plastics was the success story as it targeted conducting 90% of its transactions online. However, given the massive size of GE at the time it was implementing the e-business initiative, managing change was a complex task. The case illustrates the organizational culture that was GE’s number one enabling capability in managing the structural change of migrating to Internet-age competitiveness.GE’s capabilitiesCapabilities are the basis on which an organization builds its competitive advantage and in this respect one of the most important capabilities at GE was its environment which promoted a continuous process of strategic change. Capabilities lo se their value if they are reproducible by competitors. Therefore business organizations strive to develop core competencies which make its operations unique in terms of efficient and effective resource allocation. The challenge for the management in this respect is to develop the kind of core competencies which competitors cannot copy. This was the area in which GE had one of its most important capabilities: the area of organizational culture. One of the most important cultural characteristics at GE was the spirit of innovation. The management and the employees at GE were always collecting information on the existing business processes and disseminating it throughout the organization so that best practices could be identified and embedded in all business processes. The competitive advantage that resulted from this process of structural transformation was sustainable because competitors could not possibly replicate the cultural mindset that made the continuous improvement process wo rk at GE. If GE’s capabilities had included a collection of automated business functions, then the resultant competitive advantage would not be sustainable because competitors would soon automate their business functions as well. But since GE’s capabilities were based upon software, people and their intellectual capital which took years to develop, and not hardware, its competitive advantage was sustainable. The spirit of learning and growth that characterized the organizational culture at GE was the bedrock on which was built its other capabilities, such as customer-oriented business processes and the forward-looking performance measurement system. These capabilities built a sustainable competitive advantage by capitalizing on an organizational culture of boundaryless information transfer which in turn facilitated transfer of best practices from one business unit to another. As a result of this continuous process of benchmarking in terms of resource allocation, capabi lities such as customer focus or performance management constantly evolved to build a sustainable competitive advantage.Welch emphasized building a social architecture which could capitalize on the capabilities that GE possessed. In this he focused on developing the people, redefining the processes and revising the strategies. Even though Welch started out as CEO by eliminating nearly 100,000 positions, his focus was always on bringing the best of out his people. In this he invested a considerable level of resources in the Crotonville education center so that managers and their subordinates received training of strategic value. Welch also redefined processes by eliminating bureaucracy and in the process he created the sort of organizational culture which was intolerant of bureaucracy. He encouraged discussions between representations from different business units of the company. Implementation of the six sigma program and diversification into product services were some of the strate gies that GE implemented under Welch’s leadership. Welch used these revised strategies and processes to build and reinforce GE’s capabilities.Competitive advantage in internet-based businessOne of the strategies that Welch followed in revitalizing the culture was to transform GE into a boundaryless company. This enabled the Best Practices program which benchmarked GE both externally and internally. External benchmarking enabled the company to catch up and develop a competitive edge in the internet-based business. Because the organizational culture emphasized the need to incorporate best practices found in other industries, the GE staff was instantly able to find a parallel for its e-business initiative in the e-commerce sector by studying how Amazon took away market share from Barnes and Noble. So at the outset of executing the e-business initiative, the assumption was that competitors who were already using the internet to conduct their businesses would have the same kind of competitive advantage over GE that Amazon did over Barnes and Noble. Proceeding under that assumption, the GE team began to assess its own vulnerability against high-technology competitors by forming the dyb.com. In manning the dyb.com team, Gary Reiner emphasized that the people who worked in the team had to have three attributes. They needed to have strong marketing background, they needed to have project management skills and they were also required to have a passion for the internet. Skills and interests from all these three areas had to be coordinated in creating a technological solution that had to be mission critical. The dyb.com team began by analyzing how a hypothetical internet company could take market share away from GE and the analytical template they used was the case of Amazon.com vs. Barnes and Noble. Dyb.com was also given the task of developing preemptive measures and countermeasures for possible scenarios. In performing these tasks, the team was given cons iderable flexibility and was encouraged in out-of-the-box thinking as long as it did not break established company values.The formation of dyb.com was the critical first step which enabled GE to make a smooth migration to the new technological platform even though it was late in the game. However the efforts that the dyb.com people put in would not have the same level of energy if Welch had not constantly kept in touch with them and impressed upon them the importance of what they were doing. Top management support is critical when it comes to managing change because employees are not in a position to assess the strategic importance of managing change. Welch’s continuing support for dyb.com serves to illustrate the need for management support when it comes to business process reengineering with technological innovation as GE was doing at the time by migrating into the Internet based business. Given GE’s late arrival on the scene, it is doubtful whether the company would have made a successful transition, even with the help of first-mover GE Plastics, if Welch had not made it totally clear that successful implementation of the internet-based business was the only item on his agenda.Diffusing innovations through trustThe Chief Information Officer Gary Reiner emphasized the importance of company-wide communication as a means of diffusing innovations through all of GE’s business units. This was facilitated by the operating system calendar which scheduled a regular series of meetings between delegates from different business units where there were exchanges of ideas on best practices. The operating system calendar ensured that when Reiner started out in promoting the e-business cause, there was already a culture of trust pre-existing. This was a cumulative effect because the meetings under the operating system calendar were not standalone incidents. Each meeting in the calendar built upon the previous in terms of scope and each served to acceler ate the momentum with which initiatives were put into operation. According to this operating system, each initiative went through cycles of improvement. For example, the globalization initiative had been enriched through more than a dozen cycles. Other initiatives such as six sigma, services and e-business were in the fifth, the sixth and the third cycle respectively. These initiatives were put in operation in all business units and performance results were compared across business units during the meetings. The sharing of information that facilitated these comparisons built trust among employees from different sub-units.In diffusing the e-business innovation throughout GE, Reiner went beyond the operating system calendar to schedule additional meetings and to develop additional measurements that were more targeted towards the e-business initiative. In this respect he emphasized identification of transferable best practices which facilitated the development of peer-to-peer relations hips. Because CEOs from different business units discussed with each other the progress they were making in implementing the e-business initiatives in their own departments, all departments benefited from the shared information. It was the cross-functional interaction throughout the operating system calendar that Rainer built upon that enabled GE to diffuse all three technological innovations of e-sell, e-buy and e-make throughout the organization even though the strategic impact of all three innovations was still not clear.System Complexity and couplingGE managed system complexity and coupling well because it managed to diffuse technological innovations successfully through all twenty business units. Technological innovations are particularly difficult to integrate into existing business processes because they have to be customized towards serving the strategic focus of the company. Therefore it is well for the company incorporating technological innovations by stages as GE was doi ng to be able to tap into past experience. The management at GE made this possible by means of the operating system calendar according to which managers and employees from different business units exchanged ideas in meetings and discussion forums. The operating system calendar is an example of using coupling to manage system complexity. The coupling in this case was taking place between different business units in the form of transferable best practices. Therefore even though the information system that GE was developing was steadily growing in system complexity as it evolved from selling online to buying online to automating internal business processes online, the conversion process was efficient because lessons learned from applications in one department were periodically disseminated to the rest of the organization under the operating system calendar. In this way all the different business units were interconnected and diffusion of innovations occurred without losing their effect iveness in system complexity.As stated in the case, managers and employees at GE were not sure whether the internet was making a difference to the extent that Welch had promised them. However this was not an indication of how well the company was managing system complexity. It was simply an indication of industry trends according to which the market was not ready yet to conduct transaction online. For example, one of the conclusions from dyb.com’s studies was that an Amazon-style threat did not exist. Therefore GE clearly implemented technological innovations successfully. If they did not reach the desired targets, it was only because the company was moving ahead of the industry. That is evidence enough of the success with which GE managed system complexity in it’s ever evolving information systems.

Employee Relation E-portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Employee Relation E-portfolio - Essay Example Equally important, I have realized that gone are the days when workers could depend on the trade unions and employers to look after their welfare, while they focused more on their careers. This is because with the shortage in employees’ skills and knowledge, today’s working environment has become tougher. Besides, today’s employment patterns have undergone significant changes. To illustrate, nowadays, most employees are focussing on setting career goals that are short term, while they constantly update their skills in order to grasp the available opportunities. This paradigm shift has been caused by the recruitment behaviours of organizations, governments, and other agencies. As such, it is arguably true that over the recent years, the idea of job satisfaction and organizational career success has taken a broad twist, as many employees no longer depend on a regular promotions within a single organization. Comparatively, I have come to learn that present day employees are focussing on developing their organizational skills and knowledge in a way that they will become valuable members of an organization. Hence, in a bid to increase the organizational performance as well as decrease employment costs, many companies have adopted the use of temporary employees thus changing their employment patterns. By using the temps, the company does not only save on the salary costs arising from fewer benefits and lower wages, but also in the underlying fact that the organization will relatively use fewer resources in training the temps. In addition, using the temps has allowed companies to become more flexible since the management has the capability of terminating the work relationship whenever the need arises. This session was highly educative as it provided me with quite a huge bank of knowledge more pertaining the bargaining rights of employees. I also realized that today, a number of countries have adopted newer forms and

Managing Human Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words - 1

Managing Human Resources - Essay Example For the last two decade they had achieved 20% growth annually, whereas similar types of organization had failed to continue their business. According to the higher management of the Container Store their success is due to the unique recruitment and training policy of the organization. It also spends 18% of the sales revenue on their employees. The performance review system for employees of the organization is also unique in nature. This paper will enable us to appraise the contribution of Human Resource Management in the organizational development, strengthening the employee-employer bond and increase in productivity within the organization. It will also enable us to know the importance of human resource management in an organization. This paper will impart knowledge about the dynamic nature of the HRM and how it helps to increase productivity within an organization. This paper will mostly deal with relevant industrial facts and analysis revolving around the mentioned case. It will h elp us to understand and evaluate whether the HCM model adopted by the Human Resource Management is best fit for the Container Store outlets or not. Moreover, this paper will also help to analyze the problems of a manager during the performance evaluation of the employees in the best practice model of HRM. Human Resource Management in an organization T The current corporate and business culture has been marked by â€Å"The elimination of many middle-management positions, the vertical and horizontal compression of job assignments, and self managed work teams draws attention to ‘strong’ leadership and corporate culture, and the critical role of HRM.† (Bratton & Gold, 2000, p.56) In simpler words, HRM is a process of managing the employees of an organization. It is also an innovative process of managing the workplace. It includes organizational, personnel administration, manpower and industrial management. It is a complex interlinked process between activities which are considerably affected by external factors like legal, economic, political, geographical, social, technological and global environment. The HR activities are managed, designed and changed in respect to these earlier mentioned different external factors. The important HR activities comprises of Strategic HRM, equal employment opportunity, staffing, talent management and development, total rewards, risk management and worker protection, as well as employee and labor relationship. Through these activities HRM plays its part and helps to give a competitive edge to the organization by properly managing the workforce as well as the workplace. Organizational strategies are mostly based on the areas of strength of the organization. So, core competency is a unique capability of organization which helps to create differentiation and high value from its rivals. Value creation is also a very important thing which is now being performed by the HRM. This helps to give a competitive edge to th e firm over its competitors and also helps to focus on the firm’s core competencies (Han, n.d., p.3). Several roles fulfilled by HR Department are administrative, operational and employee advocate, as well as the strategic role. High degree of alteration in role is also noted in the process of HRM. Now-a-days HRM is divided into traditional HRM and Strategic HRM. This new form SHRM creates a value generation to the organization. Between the two different processes HRM and SHRM,

Applying Ethical Frameworks in Practice Essay Example for Free

Applying Ethical Frameworks in Practice Essay Patient confidentiality is essential in developing a trusting relationship between a healthcare worker and the patient. Confidentiality means that the patients personal and medical information that is given to a health care provider will not be disclosed to others unless the patient has given permission for the information to be released (Confidentiality, 2014). There are situations where a breach of confidentiality may occur and is acceptable. These situations include information when an individual has been diagnosed with a specific disease, such as Tuberculosis or an injury, such as a gunshot wound. Other situations may be when there is evidence that the patient may cause harm to himself or others. The nursing profession is one that promises to abide by the laws of patient confidentiality. Protecting the patients’ rights is guaranteed by both common law-which is the decisions of the courts, and statute law-which is passed by Parliament (O’Dowd, 2014). This commitment to the patient helps preserve high quality care for that patient, as disclosing important information between the patient and nurse, is essential for the patient to receive the appropriate medical care. Patients put their trust into the nurse, as they expect the nurse to respect their privacy, when that trust is broken, the relationship between the nurse and patient declines. Losing the trust is one of the ethical implications that may occur when a breach of confidentiality occurs. Other ethical implications that can occur are disciplinary action by the employer, disciplinary proceedings under the health professionals regulatory statute, and a fine may be imposed (Patient Confidentiality, n. d. ). Pamela G. Nathanson wrote an article in reference to an episode of NBC’s ER which reveals an ER nurse who faces an ethical dilemma in regards to patient confidentiality. The ER nurse has made a promise to two fourteen year old girls that she will not disclose any medical information to their parents. The girls trust the nurse that she will keep her promise; therefore, they disclose their personal concerns. One of the girls test positive for a serious medical condition, at this point, the ER nurse has reached an ethical dilemma. She needs to make an ethical decision as to whether or not she should disclose the information to the young girls’ parents. In this situation, the ER nurse has made the appropriate decision to have a breach of confidentiality and inform the young girls’ parents of their daughters’ medical condition. In understanding ethical theories and/or ethical principles, this has assisted the ER nurse in making the correct decision. Ethical theories and principles guide individuals in making decisions. When using ethical theories to determine an appropriate decision, the theory must be directed towards a common set of goals, which are ethical principles (Rainbow, 2002). The ER nurses’ goal is to ensure that the young girl receives the appropriate medical treatment for her condition. Ethical principles that can relate to this situation are beneficence, which is to do what is good and least harm, which is to do the least harm to an individual. In looking at ethical theories, using Deontology and Utilitarianism is useful in that Deontology relates to the nurses obligations and duties to disclose the information and Utilitarianism relates to being able to foresee the consequences of actions if the information is not disclosed. A utilitarian looks at what is the greatest benefit for that individual (Rainbow, 2002). When an individual is confronted with an ethical dilemma, using an ethical-decision making model is useful. This type of model assists in breaking down all the facts and individuals’ involved in the dilemma and helps to develop possible alternatives to address the dilemma. It guides ones’ decision making from an objective, cognitive perspective, rather than an emotional perspective (GCU, 2014). In the article discussed, the ER nurse can incorporate an ethical-decision making model to make the most appropriate decision. First is to address who is involved and what the actual dilemma entails and identify the ethical dilemma. Next, she can look at the situation at hand and determine how her own personal values see this issue and determine what alternatives can be used to help resolve the dilemma. Once the alternative actions are decided upon, the ER nurse can look at each one and decide if they conflict with her own personal values. If so, she may need to get another health care provider involved to eliminate any biases. In the article, the nurse is advised by the physician that the girls’ parents need to be informed; therefore, guiding her into making the appropriate decision. The next step is to prioritize the acceptable alternatives from most acceptable to least acceptable. The alternatives in the articles dilemma can be 1). The young girl informing her parents herself. The implication with this alternative is that most likely she will not inform her parents. 2). The nurse informing the parents of their daughters medical condition. The implication here is that the patient will not feel she can trust the nurse; however, by choosing this alternative, the decision is in the best interest of the child and 3). Not disclosing information at all. The implications here is that the minor child will not receive the appropriate care needed which will cause further harm. The significance in using this model is to ensure that the appropriate ethical decision is made. Ethics committees are available as well to assist and guide when ethical dilemmas occur. In regards to the article, an ethical committee can discuss the alternatives and make recommendations, still keeping in line with the patients’ rights. These committees focus on issues of morality, patient autonomy, legislation, and states’ interest. They have a significant influence on decision making and the power to influence a judge or jury (GCU, 2014). Ethical dilemmas will always be in a health care professionals’ daily work. Using ethical theories and principles will guide health care professionals in making the most appropriate ethical decision. Following these theories and principles will ensure that the patient is receiving the best quality care that they deserve. References

Huckleberry Finn: A Trip :: essays research papers

A Trip Within’ The Heart Of A Colorless Boy   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main characters take a trip within the heart, not just a trip down the Mississippi River. Throughout the trip down the Mississippi River, Huckleberry Finn’s, a homeless waif, thoughts about racism change from a racist unwanted boy to a true human being with a sense of his own destiny. Throughout the novel, Huck narrates his adventure and thoughts upon racism and inequality between “niggers'; and whites. Huck and “nigger'; Jim, runaway slave, float down the Mississippi River as unequal individuals, but towards the end of the novel Huck distinguishes that even African-Americans are as equal as white human beings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Huck never respects the “niggers,'; especially Jim since Huck and Tom Sawyer, a romanticized friend, continuously play tricks on Jim so they can feel superior to the “black'; race. Even though Huck escapes society and his abusive father, Pap Finn, he continues to play tricks on Jim, since Jim ran away from slavery. For example, when Jim explains that he ran off Huck disapproves but promises not to turn him in even though “people would call [him] a low-down Abolitionist'; (50). This demonstrates that Huck is a kind trustworthy racist boy; however, Huck’s superstitious character “curled [a rattlesnake] up on the foot of Jim’s blanket'; as a joke, although in the night the rattlesnake’s mate bit Jim (59). In addition, Huck “warn’t going to let Jim find out it was [his] fault'; nor apologize because he did not want to feel low to a “nigger'; (59). This incident demonstrates that Huck still views himself as su perior to Jim because of his skin color. At this point of the novel, Huck is helping Jim escape which makes him feel low down to civilization; however, he continues to trick Jim so he can be better quality. Huck maintains to treat Jim with little respect and even though he suffers for the trick, he never apologizes to Jim.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As they progress down the river, Huck begins to realize the true character of Jim as an equal man with greatness and kindness in his heart. During their ride down the river Huck decides to play another trick on the so-called unintelligent Jim. The final trick Huck plays on Jim while they are in the fog is making Jim believe that everything that has happened in the storm after they broke-off from each other only occurred in Jim’s mind.

Once Bitten Twice Shy

Once bitten twice shy is a great, and fairly common saying. It is an idiom that means if somebody is said to be once bitten twice shy, it means that a person who has been hurt, or who has had something happen to them that was life changing in a not so desirable way then they will be far more careful the next time around. I think everyone has experienced situations such as this. Whether it be a deal you made where you ended up getting cheated out of some money, or a time when you got your heart broken by someone you thought would never hurt you.Either way it happens and makes a person leery of trusting others for a long while, if ever again. As a small business owner I have experienced many situations in which I was the target of somebody trying to pull the wool over my eyes, and/or screw me out of some money. At one point in time a few years ago, I had a small crew of people working on a job for me in Rolla Mo. while myself and another crew member were working on a different job in S t. Robert.I trusted the crew members that I left alone without supervision because they were all hard and honest workers, at least I thought they were. I had been leaving this crew on the Rolla job for about two weeks with very little supervision from myself. The only time I really stopped by there was to drop off more material, and take a quick look around at the work they were doing and all was well. That is until I got a call one afternoon from the contractor that I was doing this job for.The call started with me getting an ass chewing like I had never had before, and caught me totally off guard. After some time on the phone with this man I kind of figured out what was going on. It seems one of my crew members that I had been leaving alone on the job for a while was planning to screw me over. They had been sabotaging my job in hopes that they would be able to show the contractor the shoddy work that was going on behind his back so that he would fire me and hopefully hire them to replace me.Well, luckily I had known the contractor for years and after some smooth talking I convinced him that I would finish the job personally and fire the member of my crew that caused these problems. So, the plan backfired for the sneaky crew member. Not only did they not get hired by the contractor, but they lost the steady job they already had. Even though this situation didn’t turn out all that badly for me, it still caused me some friction with the contractor, and caused me to never have the same level of trust in my employees ever again.

Bird Characteristics - Animals and Wildlife - About.com

Birds are unmatched in their command of the skies. Albatrosses glide long distances over the open sea, hummingbirds hover motionless in mid-air, and eagles swoop down to capture prey with pinpoint accuracy. But not all birds are aerobatic experts. Some species such as kiwis and penguins, lost their ability to fly long ago in favor of lifestyles suited more for land or water. Birds are vertebrates, which means that they are among those animals that possess a backbone. They range in size from the minute Cuban Bee Hummingbird (Calypte helena) to the grand Ostrich (Struthio camelus). Birds are endothermic and on average, maintain body temperatures in the range of 40Â °C-44Â °C (104Â °F-111Â °F), though this varies among species and depends on the activity level of the individual bird. Birds are the only group of animals to possess feathers. Feathers are used in flight but also provide birds with other benefits such as temperature regulation and coloration (for display and camouflage purposes). Feathers are made of a protein called keratin, a protein that is also found in mammalian hair and reptilian scales. The digestive system in birds is simple but efficient (enabling them to pass food through their system quickly to minimize the extra weight of undigested food and the time it takes to extract energy from their food). Food travels through the parts of a birds digestive system in the following order before it is excreted: esophagus - narrow tube that carries food to the crop crop - a sack-like widening of the digestive tract where food can be stored temporarily proventriculus - the first chamber of a birds stomach where food is broken down by digestive enzymes gizzard - the second chamber of a birds stomach where food is ground up by muscular action and small stones or grit (ingested by the birds) intestines - tubes that continue to extract nutrients from food after it has passed through the gizzard Refs: Attenborough, David. 1998. The Life of Birds. London: BBC Books.Sibley, David Allen. 2001. The Sibley Guide to Bird Life Behavior. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.The University of California, Berkely. 2006 (Accessed Online). Museum of Paleontology.