IBM Lecture External Elements of the Business Context, Globalisation 28 November 2005

IBM Lecture External Elements of the Business Context, Globalisation 28 November 2005

Organisation do not operate in a vacuum, a business must be analysed within its environment. (external environment) can be understood as the sum total of the factors external to the org, which can influence the behaviour of the business and how it develops. External environment models:

1.Fahey and Narayanan grouped these complex interactions into four broad factors that influence the org, PEST (political econs social and tech). (PEST ModeL)

2.Porter 5 Force model, it says that, organisation will thrive (growing) when a force is determined as a “weak” force. that means, weak competitors, weak consumer expectation, etc.

3.Buyer Behaviour. this including 2 behaviours, which is Consumer behaviour (very much influenced by values, advertisement, mass media, global brand, etc) and another oen is Organisation behaviour. (depends on a number of factors)

PEST analysis may also help in identifying “long term drivers of change”, for example, given the increasing globalisation of some markets, it is important to identify the forces leading to this development. these include rapid change in tech, leading to shorter life spans of such tech, etc. PEST analysis also help to examine the differential impact of external influences on organisations either historically or in terms of likely “future impact”. and ask to what extent such external influences will affect different org, perhaps competitors, differently.

Globalisation and Business.

Theories:

1. Hirst and Thompson argued that globalisation is severely a continuation of long term processes. (expanding by opening a branch to cope bigger market e.g McD)

2. Kenichi Ohmae : world is now integrated and so borderless, Global village and markets, he interested in answering “how to manage well in a borderless world”.

the biggest factor that contributes globalisation is advance technology. Globalisation also influences not only the external environment, but also internal environment as well. one result has been an

International division of labour (Outsourcing), simply said, the more technical, research based and service related skills are often sited in developed countries, with the so called third world or developing countries being used as manufacturing bases, using low-skilled and very much cheap labour.

Problems: identify the country, selection of overseas partners, reconfiguring the structure, variation in exchange rate, etc.

“Global benchmarking is seen to result from increased interaction between businesses in different parts of the world, and sharing of knowledge between them.” (Grint)

Altough many theorists argue that globalisation results in a convergence (standardisation) of practises, culture and consumer demand, others believe that globalisation also brings a need to protect identify and an interest in the diversity of cultures (divergence).

Multinational Companies::

1. an international company has its base in one country (home country), trades overseas from that single base.

2. a multidomestic company has a home base in one country (home country), but has then established operations in a number of other countries. (host country)

3. a transnational company (TNC) is an organisation that is consciously attempting to be global by disassociating itself from one home country.

4. a global company has no national identity whatsoever. (usually those that have merged a number of different firms, each with different original home bases.

Grint’s 8 reasons why Multinational Companies (MNCs) differ from the past.

1. knowledge, due to need to discover raw materials for the manufacture of good

2. competition, take advantage of cheaper labour markets and more lax (not strict) regulation.

3. markets, offering a new market for products, rather than only the opportunity for manufacturing.

4. information technology, rapid tech innovations that allow events and processes to be experienced simultaneously throughout the world.

5. governance, no universally recognised global form of governance.

6. nation-states. the increase of power base of the MNCs, (more powerful compared to the nation itself)

7. risk, trying to aim to a focus on avoiding risk (risk averse)

8. virtual economy, flexibility of being able to move money and operations to the country which can offert the most beneficial terms.

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IBM Lecture Culture Organisation 28 November 2005

IBM Lecture Culture Organisation 28 November 2005

Culture: the system of shared meaning held by members of an organisation that distinguishes that organisation from others. The shared attitudes, behaviour, beliefs and values.

Why would managers want to create a different culture or change the existing one? one reason is that the existing culture could be seen as an “Obstacle” to planned strategic change. and also due to the perceived link between organisational performance and culture. (Peters and Waterman 1982). also, a strong culture may have some problems, which is a huge resistant to change, may stress wrong values, and in case of a merger or aquisition of a company with others, clash of culture is likely to happen.

Geert Hofstede, studied the IBM, research found that national culture had a major impact on employee’s work – related values and attitudes – more than sex, age, position or profession. Four dimensions of national culture: 1. Power distance, 2. Uncertainty avoidance, 3. Individualism, 4. Masculinity. however, some has citicised it on the grounds that its generalisations are based on observations from one organisation only, ibm. the dimensions are also criticised for being too narrow. Hofstede’s research, since then altough the value dimensions still remain the same, the extend of values over the years due to globalisation and tech have change. for example is spore, walking from high power distance to less power distance, while US are more on collectivism, and the europeans are more individualism.

Handy’s classification (typology) in his boog “Gods of Management”.

Handy gave a name to each type of culture, proposes four classification:

1. Power culture, represented by Zeus, Web Structure.. this type of org attempts to dominate its environment. those who are powerful within organisation strive to maintain absolute control over subordinates. decisions are made by top, dependent on affinity and trust. change is a very much determined by the central power sources. Often found n family run businesses, small companies with a dominate manager and entrepreneurial ventures. (entrepreneurial org)

2. Role culture, represented by Apollo, Greek temple structre, apollo is a god of the role culture and bureaucracy. however, altouhgh the strength of the org is in the pillares, powers lies at the top. strong emphasis upon hierarchy and status with rights and privileges defined and adhered to. Often found in semi-state org and the civil services. (govt org)

3. Task culture, represented by Athena, Net structure, represents management completing a succession of projects or solving problems, concerned with the continuous and successful solution of problems and performance is judged by the success of tas outcomes. expertise is the major source of individual power and authority, and will determine an individual’s relative power in a given situation. (often found in Apple, Dell company), This culture is extremely adaptable and individuals retain a high degree of control over their work. it is successful in highly volatile or ever – changing environment. (unstable environment)

4. Person culture, represented by dionysus, cluster structure, found where the org whose purpose is to serve the interest of individuals within it. completely differ from the other three, since the org in this instance exists primarily to serve the needs of its members. often found in clubs, societies, professionals bodies and small consultancies.

Robbins has put forth the characteristics of culture, these char are no static as claimed by him as the org progresses along its lifecycle, hendy’s view of evolving culture is pertinent, the practices such as policies, procedures, power dispersion and others tend to make up the org cultures.

Conclusion: developing culture has a direct relationship with organisation performance (peters and waterman) developing a right culture or optimum culture is easily said than done, some org may even take years to establish the right culture, the situation may become more complex and perhaps challenging for a global organisation which learns to adjust its operation i the country in which it operates. hence according to handy, culture is evolving and represents learned social practises.

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Vindicated, numa numa song

Vindicated

Hope dangles on a string

Like slow spinning redemption

Winding in and winding out

The shine of it has caught my eye

And roped me in

So, mesmerizing and so hypnotizing,

I am captivated, I am

{Chorus}

Vindicated

I am selfish

I am wrong

I am right

I swear I’m right

Swear I knew it all along

And I am flawed, but I am cleaning up so well

I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself

So clear

Like the diamond in your ring

Cut to mirror your intention

Oversized and overwhelmed

The shine of which has caught my eye

And rendered me

So isolated,and so motivated

I am certain now that I am

{Chorus}

So turn

Up the corners of your lips

Part them and feel my finger tips

Trace the moment, fall forever

Defense is paper thin

Just one touch and I’ll be in

Too deep now to ever swim against the current

So let me slip away

So let me slip away

So let me slip away

So let me slip against the current

So let me slip away

So let me slip away

So let me slip away

So let me slip away

{Chorus}

My hope

dangles on a string

Like slow spinning redemption…

Numa song::

x5 Ma-ia-hii Ma-ia-huu Ma-ia-hoo Ma-ia-haa

Alo, Salut, sunt eu, un haiduc, Si te rog, iubirea mea, primeste fericirea. Alo, alo, sunt eu Picasso, Ti-am dat beep, si sunt voinic, Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic.

Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma, nu ma iei, Nu ma, nu ma iei, nu ma, nu ma, nu ma iei. Chipul tau si dragostea din tei, Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.

Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma, nu ma iei, Nu ma, nu ma iei, nu ma, nu ma, nu ma iei. Chipul tau si dragostea din tei, Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.

Te sun, sa-ti spun, ce simt acum, Alo, iubirea mea, sunt eu, fericirea. Alo, alo, sunt iarasi eu, Picasso, Ti-am dat beep, si sunt voinic, Dar sa stii nu-ti cer nimic.

Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma, nu ma iei, Nu ma, nu ma iei, nu ma, nu ma, nu ma iei. Chipul tau si dragostea din tei, Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.

Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma, nu ma iei, Nu ma, nu ma iei, nu ma, nu ma, nu ma iei. Chipul tau si dragostea din tei, Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.

x4 Ma-ia-hii Ma-ia-huu Ma-ia-hoo Ma-ia-haa

Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma, nu ma iei, Nu ma, nu ma iei, nu ma, nu ma, nu ma iei. Chipul tau si dragostea din tei, Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.

Vrei sa pleci dar nu ma, nu ma iei, Nu ma, nu ma iei, nu ma, nu ma, nu ma iei. Chipul tau si dragostea din tei, Mi-amintesc de ochii tai.

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~okthxbai~ 

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sux9r drop from kazzak, 15nov2005 

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IBM Lecture Organisation Structure and Technology 14 November 2005

IBM Lecture 14 November 2005. Org Structure + Technology.

Discuss how an organisation’s structure might change during the different periods in its life cycle.
Describe two ways an organisation might suffer if its structure does not match its life cycle change.
Why might employees present at the birth of an organisation find it difficult to adjust as it matures?

Organisation’s change depends on its internal environment condition. as an organisation grow from birth to mature stage, internal environment such as type of business, ownership, strategy, size, structure, technology, culture will also change, according to its needs. for example,

-At (birth stage) of an organisation, its size maybe small, owned by a person, as a sole trader, and the strategy needs to find the products or market in which it wish to establish presence. the organisation structure is simple, and depends on infromal structure to support the small nature of business. the technology used also suffice, as the business is young and new.
-As the organisation prosper, (growth stage), the business maybe add new products or new businesses, the ownership also expands via partnership, the direction of the strategy become more specific, the structure using rules and regulations, yet informal relationship still exist. the organisation also needs to develop more technology to increase its competitiveness.
-As an organisation become more mature (mature stage), it’s now highly structured, there’s less informal relationship, and the ownership of its organisation is shared to the public, raise capital to expand. the strategy planned also clear in terms of products and markets. firms also adopt advanced type of buraucratic orientation, primarily to control the worker’s behaviour. full scale of tech is required to satisfy the customer demand (become more competitive).

The mismatch of the structure and life cycle stage will lead to the decline of its organisation.
Mismatch at the birth stage: having a formal structure.
problems: new organisation, having a formal structure, imposed on newly born org leads to failure. rigid rules and regulations may prevent org from finding new directions, new markets, new products, innovation etc. example, media works that led to huge losses, employees were not able to innovate as the were given strict production budgets.
Mismatch at the mature stage: having an informal structure.
problems: become too large to be managed, dysfunctional effect occurs, over diversification, led to misconfiguration (restructuring)

Also, employees present at the birth of an organisation find it difficult to adjust as it matures because there’s no longer informal relationship available in mature stage, rules and regulations controlling the employees, the employees can no longer multitasking, instead of specializing at something. workers can no longer make their own decision. (mutual adjustment – Mintzberg).

Technology :: the study or use of the mechanical arts and applied sciences. tech is an important factor or element of the internal environment. (organisational dynamics). tech has a significant impact on: the way the business operates, how competitive it is, and also, how successful it is. person to mention : Joan Woodward
New tech will destroy old tech – Schumpeter.
resistance of new tech because:
1. fear that the new tech will replace the need for some employees.
2. fear of a change in the skills needed by employees.
possible that new tech can be used to motivate employees by increasing their capabilities and by increasing their skills base. (opportunity to earn higher wages) – Job Enrichment.
Open Socio-technical – Dr. Eric Trist – Tavistock institute, the best fit between the social elements (worker) and technical elements(tech), saying that the technology must be compatible to the needs of worker.
Intro to tech was seen as an alternative to Fordism/Taylorism. the new tech provided opportunity for workers to have more control over their work, like for example, in computing. (workers with new tech tend to have more satisfaction through Horizontal Job Enlargement), as opposed to the specialisation of the classical theory of weber and kawan2 (et al lol).

eXeQzaLie

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Excel? 死翘翘..

Excel已经做到腻死了.. 下步骤不懂要加什么东西.. 等里拜一我会和老师讨论些… 做了到一半然后不知要怎么继续? .. 内容又不太丰满, 嗯. … 我选了”网页统计技术” 作为主题, 难做啊.. 早知道我选其他范围.. 这下子怎么办那我向老师谈谈吧…

最近忙着学习和工作, 很少打游戏了.. 哦对!wow黄金的需求量很高!, 很多人要跟我买黄金呢, 可惜我只剩差不多 2K, 我给了 mmwow 2k 黄金, 等了差不多2个月, 还没收到钱呢. (被骗的感觉..) 我其实满相信她, 有可能她在国内(中国)不知道怎么寄钱给我.. 算了..

哦对… 人家都说我变瘦了点, 可是我没什么感觉.. 我又不是故意要减肥.. 嗯, 以恢复我皮肤颜色, 我这里拜六,天, 打算一整天在家里发呆…呀.. 在家里很多事可以做的.. 包括复习 (CF 一定要复习.. 要不然明年死很惨..), 打游戏, 整理房间, 等等无聊的事..

明天早上打 onxyia, 希望掉我最想要的头… 哦对! 说实话一点, 我前3天抽过烟 咯咯!!.. 好奇心啊 !! 刚好我朋友摆那烟在我前面, 本来不想抽…后来被我朋友说服… 哈哈… 抽烟.. 哼! … 第一次抽我没有咳嗽, 因为我没有吸到很深… 然后我朋友就讲别抽那样.. 没什么感觉的.. 然后他继续教我怎么抽.. 哈哈.. 我感觉一般, 没什么好讲滴,.. 哈哈.. 嗯.. 只希望我以后我不是个一手烟.. T_T 到此为止啦.. 改天有时间再聊.. …

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For the Alliance! 

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IBM lecture Organisation Structure 7 November 2005

IBM lecture Organisation Structure 7 November 2005

Structure of an organisation refers to the pattern of relationships that exist between the different parts of the business and between the different people who work within it. The structure therefore provides the “Framework” for organisational activities and facilitates the management of them.

An organisation without a proper structure will lead to these consequences like: low productivity, inefficient use of resources, unmotivated staff and low morale, slow decision making, conflict between groups of org, lack of coordination between activities and so failure to achieve goals. e.g poorly designed structure of org, “ford” higher cost and many layers of its org, Malaysian airline system; hierarchical structure and centralised decision making.. etc.

Types of structural organisations may be vary, according its goals, as Alfred Chandler argue that ” Structure should support the strategy of the organisation ” 1.Cost leadership strategy could use function based structure, since this structure emphasises on specialisation of functions, efficiency and stability of the environment. (simple and reduces overall cost). 2. Differentation strategy could use team structure, since this structure emphasises on the innovation, flexibility in the changing environment.

Mintzberg ::
“As organisational work becomes more complicated, the favoured means of co-ordination seems to shift from “mutual adjustnment” (simplest mechanism) to “direct supervision”, then to “standardisation”, preferably of work processses or norms, otherwise of outputs or skills. finally reverting back to “mutual adjustment”. but no organisation can rely on a single one of those mechanisms; all will typically be found in every developed organisation.

Centralisation:
centralisation is the systematic and consistent reservation or withholding of authority at control points within the organisation.
advantage: economies of overheads, during crisis, better control and supervision of staff, maintain secrecy.
disadvantage: in situation of growth, doesn’t motivate staff, slow decision making, bureaucracy (red tape)

Decentralisation:
when the org is large and complex, management cannot centrally control all information necessary for decisions. Delegation refers primarily to the transfer of authority from one individual to another, decentralisation applies to the systematic delegation of authority to all units in an organisation context.
advantage: relieves burden of key persons, increases motivation of the staff, diversification, top mgt can concentrate on strategic planning
disadvantage: higher cost (more mgers means more cost of course), problem of control and coordination, good mgers hard to recruit, etc

Matrix structure:
a more flexible and adaptable system was needed to achieve project objectives. the matrix org attempts to merge traditional line authority for decision making with a project oriented, multi disciplinary, TEAM BASED approach. (innovation and differentiation goals)
project mgers –> what has to be done, functional mgers –> how to do it.
advantage: frees senior mgers from day-to-day decision making, stimulates interfunctional cooperation, one person supervisory responsibility, respond quickly and innovatively to changes in environemnt and tech.
disadvantage: power struggle between mgers, more discussion than action, req high interpersonal skills, costly, affects morale when prsonel are rearranged from project to another.

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abisini elo bakalan kemana? 

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