...Organisations can gain a competitive advantage through managing people effectively. “Achieving competitive success through people involves fundamentally altering how we think about the workforce and the employment relationship.” (Pfeffer, 2005) Pfeffer argues that wage compression and symbolic egalitarianism are practise that can be used in order to gain a competitive edge. Wage compression is flattening out the differentials between the highest and lowest paid jobs. Wage compression can create a sense of teamwork, collaboration and cooperation. Symbolic egalitarianism can signal to insiders and outsiders that there is a comparative equality within the organisation. This is done by diminishing status distinctions, for example eliminating executive dining rooms and not having reserved parking spaces for certain employees (Standford University, 1994). Pfeffer’s arguments can be valid however they can also be questionable, in whether they are the right practices to use. Culture, job factors and organisational context are important aspects to consider in determining whether these practises may or may not work. Pfeffer’s rationale and casual logic for wage compression is that by “reducing interpersonal competition and enhancing cooperation, can lead to effective gains.” (Pfeffer, 2005) Although Pfeffer recognises that large differences in rewards can increase motivation and improve performance, Pfeffer believes that wage compression can produce a higher overall performance, as...
Words: 1779 - Pages: 8
...4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 Introduction Models to Understand Human Behaviour Implications for the Organisation Personality Determinants of Personality Type and Trait Approaches to Personality Theories of Personality Importance of Personality Attitudes Attitudes and Organisation Values Socialisation's Influence on Personality, Values and Attitudes Schein Socialisation Model Summary Self-Assessment Questions Further Readings 4.1 INTRODUCTION It is very essential to understand human behaviour in today's world as the existence of the organisation depends op the employees/individuals. Without understanding human behaviour it is very difficult to work in an organisation. In order to understand human behaviour let us see how the perception of human being has changed from time to time. All organisations are composed of individuals, with different personality, attitudes, values, perception, motives, aspirations and abilities. The main reason to understand behaviour is that individuals are different. No two individuals are similar. In the early studies, theories of organisation and management treated people as though they were the same; scientific management was based on the similarities among workers, not the differences. In contrast, modern theories of human behaviour are based upon the differences among people and how those differences can affect the organisation. Individual differences are many for example some employees are motivated to work and some are not. This can...
Words: 7370 - Pages: 30
...sufficiently important. The dilution of the term strategic is unfortunate because one of the key functions of general managers in all organisations is to engage in strategic thinking. Strategy has a long heritage. The word ‘strategy’ comes from the Greek word for generalship. This betrays the origins of strategy, which lie in the military. Indeed, long before companies were said to have strategies, strategy was a well-developed art within the military sphere. The first writer on strategy is generally held to be the Chinese philosopher, Sun Tzu, whose most popular work, The Art of War, is widely read to this day (Sun Tzu, 2005). In Sun Tzu’s view, the art of generalship was about outmanoeuvring your opponent, convincing them that you were strong in places where you were weak and, conversely, that you were weak in places where you were strong. It was about luring the opposition into a position of weakness before battle was engaged, so that even if you possessed weaker forces, you could overcome the enemy through guile and cunning. Military writers often make a distinction between strategic decisions and tactical decision-making. Activity 1.1 Strategic and tactical decisions Pause here to reflect. Try to identify some differences between strategic and tactical decisions. Generally speaking, strategic decision-making is about the big picture. In the military, for example, it is about how you plan the campaign, rather than how you engage in battle on...
Words: 6213 - Pages: 25
...1. Introduction Although not a guarantee for success, strategic management allows organisations to make effective long-term decisions, to execute those decisions efficiently and to take concrete actions as needed to ensure success ([Thompson & Strickland (1999)]). The importance of mission statements to the effective strategic management of business organisations is well documented in the literature. A mission statement is a general expression of the overriding purpose of an organisation that, ideally, is in line with the values and expectations of major stakeholders. Mission statements are often regarded as ‘enduring statements of purpose that distinguish one business firm from others’. Some theorists regard the organisation's mission as a ‘cultural glue’ which enables it to function as a collective unit. This ‘cultural glue’ consists of strong norms and values that influence the way in which people behave, how they work together and how they pursue the goals of the organisation ( [Campbell & Yeung (1991a)]). A well-designed mission statement is essential for formulating, implementing, and evaluating business strategy ( [David (2001)]). The role of the mission statement in the strategic management of business firms has not been sufficiently highlighted in the research literature. As [Campbell & Yeung (1991a)] note, regarding the mission statement ‘there is little research into its nature and importance’. Since this refers to the management literature generally, it is not...
Words: 1712 - Pages: 7
...4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 Introduction Models to Understand Human Behaviour Implications for the Organisation Personality Determinants of Personality Type and Trait Approaches to Personality Theories of Personality Importance of Personality Attitudes Attitudes and Organisation Values Socialisation's Influence on Personality, Values and Attitudes Schein Socialisation Model Summary Self-Assessment Questions Further Readings 4.1 INTRODUCTION It is very essential to understand human behaviour in today's world as the existence of the organisation depends op the employees/individuals. Without understanding human behaviour it is very difficult to work in an organisation. In order to understand human behaviour let us see how the perception of human being has changed from time to time. All organisations are composed of individuals, with different personality, attitudes, values, perception, motives, aspirations and abilities. The main reason to understand behaviour is that individuals are different. No two individuals are similar. In the early studies, theories of organisation and management treated people as though they were the same; scientific management was based on the similarities among workers, not the differences. In contrast, modern theories of human behaviour are based upon the differences among people and how those differences can affect the organisation. Individual differences are many for example some employees are motivated to work and some are not. This can...
Words: 7370 - Pages: 30
...JOANNE COLLIER Critically evaluate, in your organisation, the impact of two HR interventions of your choice on engagement, commitment, motivation or job satisfaction. WRITER. MR Muhammad Ahmed RAJA ST.ID:100018073 Introduction Diversity and Empowerment have been selected for this critical evaluation reporting in the Kandore Pvt Ltd. The reason these interventions have been selected is that these are the most important issues of modern times along with other important HR issues of employee’s motivation and commitment. Due to the global migration of population from developing countries to more Developed Countries of Europe, America and Middle East dealing with issues like diversity and empowerment is present time an important role of HR professional not only in national SME & Large organisation but also in global multinational 0rganization as well. Keeping in mind the nature of the issues and purpose of the report. Kandore Pvt Ltd has been selected, where the write has worked for more than 7 years and felt that these were the most important issues being ignore by the top management of the Kandore . During this employment with the organisation, the writer has felt that Kandore continuously ignored these elements of human resources, which if dealt professionally would have, not only benefitted the organisation in managing its human resource more efficiently but also have created an image of the organisation where people want to work as motivated and ...
Words: 2578 - Pages: 11
...accident but no one wears protective eyewear because they have never had an eye accident?”. We had heard story upon story of major transgressions that weren’t picked up in the structured interview approach. This experience confirmed our assessment that a narrative approach is great for yielding new, and otherwise hidden, insights. A number of years and many clients later, we have seen that there is something even more important narrative techniques provide: a resolve among people to do something about the situation and a frame for mapping how to do so. Stories provide people with a keener awareness of their current situation, a clearer vision for their desired state, and a palpable sense for why and how to close that gap. As a result, a narrative approach to change and continuous improvement enables organisations to better prepare themselves for dealing with today’s complex challenges and...
Words: 3800 - Pages: 16
...Module 5 – Managing Risk & Value PART A: TRUST, OPENESS AND TRANSPERACY 1. The loss of secrecy 5.5 2. Key definitions – Trust, Openness & Transparency 5.6 3. Corporate governance 5.7 4. Managing intangibles (Goodwill & Stock options) 5.9 5. People and complexity 5.9 6. Knowledge sharing 5.10 7. Social media 5.11 8. Teleworking 5.12 PART B: REPUTATION MANAGEMENT OF ORGANISATION 9. Introduction 5.13 10. Understanding the basics of reputation management 5.13 11. Reputation management in a crisis 5.15 11-1 Example 5.1: The Brent Spar crisis – Underestimating shareholder expectations PART C: PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF ORGANISATION 12. Introduction 5.17 13. What is intellectual property? 5.18 14. Importance of intellectual property 5.18 14-1 Example 5.2: Brand value v. net tangible assets 14-2 Brand values compared to tangible assets 15. Intellectual property rights 5.19 15. Types of intellectual property 5.20 15-1 Trademark 15-2 Patent 15-3 Utility model 15-4 Industrial design 15-5 Geographical indications of source & appellations of origin 15-6 Undisclosed information and trade secrets 15-7 Copyright 15-8 Related...
Words: 502 - Pages: 3
...employers and employees. Even if an employer has not made specific promises in that regard, every employee will appreciate clarity, fairness and good communication. Every employer will appreciate employees dealing properly with confidential information and doing good work. In addition to general obligations, the psychological contract is further augmented with written agreements, such as employment contracts (Huiskamp & Schalk, 2002). It is the psychological contract that effectively tells employees what they can expect from their job and what they are required to do in order to meet their side of the bargain. A good psychological contract provides a sense of identity that offers recognition for employee contribution and conveys a feeling of security. A breach of the terms of the psychological contract can provoke a loss of trust and a sense of betrayal. The psychological contract is the glue which holds together the employment relationship (Pilbeam, S et. al, 1998). As such, existing empirical research demonstrates that contract breach is related to lower employer trust (Robinson, 1996), job satisfaction (Robinson and Rousseau, 1994), organisational commitment (Coyle-Shapiro and Kessler, 2000), intentions to remain (Turnley and Feldman, 1999), in-role and extra-role performance (Robinson, 1996; Robinson and Morrison, 1995). Psychological contract Psychological contracts are defined as the beliefs individuals hold regarding the terms and conditions of the exchange agreement between...
Words: 1927 - Pages: 8
...It has been widely accepted that change is the only constant in life. Change is the process of moving from a current state to a potential future state, whether planned or unplanned and comprises of the expected and the unexpected (Dawson et al, 2014). Change is an ongoing phenomenon, existence is synonymous to change, as such, it is an integral part of the life of an organisation. Organisational change is the framework for managing the ‘transition state’ of the organisation. As earlier defined, change is a movement from a current state to a future state, however, for an organisation, there is a transition stage between the current and future state. The central managerial tasks rest within the transition state and centres around three core elements; “how to avoid resistance and motivate people to change, how to control and minimize the disruptive aspects of change, how to shape the political dynamics of change” (Dawson et al, 2014). As such, organisational change can be described as the movement over time from a current state to an emerging and uncertain future state which is sometimes planned and managed with the desire to secure set objectives and sometimes unplanned (Dawson et al, pg 90). In the hyper competitive and turbo charged changing business environment of today, managers strive to find stability within the uncertainties using planned change methods while conscious of the need for adaptability, flexibility and agility to leverage processual change methods in order to...
Words: 2454 - Pages: 10
...Kooistra’s example, there are some prerequisites to decentralising an organisation, such as a performance reporting system, bottom-up budgeting leading to accountability, and an incentive system. Many organisations nowadays are run by such methods However, the optimum structure may vary according to company, for which there might be several reasons. In this essay, I try to analyse which aspects of centralisation and decentralisation can enhance the function of a particular organisation. I set out various organisational circumstances, and then assess which types of companies are appropriate to be centralised. It has been argued that centralisation has to do with the locus of authority to make decisions affecting the organisation. It can also refer to the tools to measure the degree of centralisation ‒ how many decisions have to be referred to headquarters or to a parent organisation (Pugh et al,, 1968, p. 76)? From this point of view, centralisation can be regarded as the degree to which decision making is confined to the upper levels of the organisation. In a small organisation, decision-makers can make decisions well and efficiently; they can set goals by themselves, communicate them to the employees and properly evaluate performance, because they are able to acquire information and communicate with employees directly. In other words, centralisation can operate well in a small company, as the upper levels of the organisation are able to be aware of issues throughout the departments and...
Words: 580 - Pages: 3
...An Introduction to Organisational Behaviour for Managers and Engineers This page intentionally left blank An Introduction to Organisational Behaviour for Managers and Engineers A Group and Multicultural Approach First Edition Duncan Kitchin AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann is an imprint of Elsevier 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK First edition 2010 Copyright Ó 2010 Duncan Kitchin. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The right of Duncan Kitchin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (þ44) 1865 843830, fax: (þ44) 1865 853333, E-mail: permissions@elsevier. com. You may also complete your request online via the Elsevier homepage (http://elsevier.com), by selecting ‘‘Support & Contact’’ then ‘‘Copyright and Permission’’ and then ‘‘Obtaining Permissions.’’ British Library Cataloguing in Publication...
Words: 91601 - Pages: 367
...Business Ethics - Assignment 1 The case study outlines a number of major ethical dilemmas pertaining to the conduct of the employees of Galvatrens, and also shows a number of flaws in the way in which misconduct is reported. The first is the fact that the scheme could have happened in the first place. The second is that Terry had found out about Greg, had dealt with the problem, and then not reported it to anyone. The third is the lack of managerial intervention and their lack of oversight in the way this scheme was carried out. The Fourth was that the open door policy had been set up to the detriment of those who in management were busy and did not have the time to actually do anything about the problems. The fifth was that the channels for confidential reporting were not as confidential as they should have been. The biggest of these problems however seems to be Sydney Baydowns continued employment with the company, as a member of the ‘old guard’ his ideas seem to reflect those of an Authoritarian perspective, as such he does not seem capable of working in the new system. His moral individualisation was different from that of the rest of the company executives, and this has led to him implementing the requests of Chip Brownlee the CEO in a very different way to what Chip had intended. This change in style of leadership has meant that requests of Chip have been executed differently to how they were originally intended to operate. You can see in the final page of the...
Words: 2167 - Pages: 9
...NAME: HILDA ODEI –TETTEY STUDENT NUMBER: C14758791 “Ethics has no place in business” Discuss Introduction Ethics is a key factor in responsible decision making and encompasses and involves all aspects of human life. According to the dictionary Ethics is the “moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity” cite here;; Ethics very simply are beliefs of what is right or wrong. Essentially what is good or bad and considerable what is considered to be ethical behaviour something that conforms to our personal belief about what is wrong or right. The interesting thing about ethics is it something that is kind of in the eye of the beholder meaning people have a different based on their personal belief. Unethical behaviour on the other hand something that does not conform to an individuals belief about what is right or wrong which is based on their moral values and also their social context in which they grew up in. so for example,if you grew up in home where it was considered to be okay to maybe forge on your tax returns ,then the likelihood is when you grow up ,tax forgry will be an acceptable behaviour to you. There have been a little research on why people cheat, lie, steal and so on and there was a study done by Dan Ariely and he did a number of different studies with regards to why people essentially lie and his hypothesis is people with opportunity generally cheat just a bit not in significant amount. (Ariely, 2012) Ethics...
Words: 1343 - Pages: 6
...dynamic interactive process that involves various dimensions, including planning, organising, directing and controlling. The activities of an organised group can be influenced by a process in which the efforts to achieve the goals and tasks are managed by leadership (Roussel, Russell & Swansburg, 2006). Leadership is also defined as inducing individuals or a group to take an action in accordance with the purpose of the leader. Moreover, Roussel, Russell and Swansburg (2006) correctly pointed out that leadership can be explained as a group of individuals who have been inspired by a person to work together toward achieving common goals and missions using appropriate means. A crowd can be transformed into a functioning and useful organisation, and this is a vital component of leadership. Leadership can be formal or informal. As Sullivan and Decker (2004) explain, it can be...
Words: 1915 - Pages: 8
