...even the 21st century (Gospel, 1988:105). In contrast to the contingency approach, Chandler (1990) advocates the American way of organisation as the ‘one best way’ for all countries [1] . Yet, can one size fit all? We shall refer to different country examples, industries and time periods to find out. Chandler argued that large managerial enterprises have managed to prosper through the years due to a basic economic logic, which he named ‘three-pronged strategy’ [2] (Chandler, 1995). According to this concept, firms should invest heavily in both their production and distribution functions in order to fully exploit economies of scale and scope at a national and international level (Chandler, 1990; 1995). This can only happen when the firm relies on the accurate judgment of skilful professional management. The aim was to create organisational capabilities and benefit from first-mover advantages via ‘related diversification’ (Chandler, 1995; Whittington et al., 1999). The implemented structure can best be described, using the author’s own words, as ‘centralised and functionally-departmentalised’ (Lash and Urry, 1987: 43). Countries that ignored the logic [3] were doomed to moderate performance and low competitiveness (Chandler, 1995). Hence, Chandler’s thesis was twofold: first, he stressed the relative economic consequences of the multi-divisional structure and second, he argued that the strategies and thus structures of advanced economies are converging towards those adopted in...
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...and Contrast the Linear and the Adaptive Approaches to Strategy Formation A strategy is commonly explained as a broad plan developed to take an organization from where it is to where it wants to be. A well-designed strategy will help an organization reach its maximum level of effectiveness in reaching its goals while constantly allowing it to monitor its environment to adapt the strategy as necessary. Strategies are established to set direction, focus effort, define or clarify the organization, and provide consistency or guidance in response to the environment. Each organization ends up developing its own nature and model of strategic formation, often by selecting a model and modifying it as they go along in developing their own planning process. Certain models such as the Linear and Adaptive approaches are identified by Chaffee (1985), for the purpose of strategy development, and hence they will be further outlined as the topic develops. According to Chaffee the linear approach consists of making decisions and formulating plans of action that will set and achieve viable goals. This tends to predominate in top-down organizations and assumes that future conditions will be fairly stable or predictable. It is a planned determination of goals, initiatives and allocation of resources, along the lines of the Chandler definition, which recognizes the importance of coordinating management activities under a well-structured strategy. Interactions between functions were typically handled...
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...Chandler Major Claim: Successful firms are the ones that first capitalize on economies of scale and scope, create management structures and invest in research and development which allows them to stay ahead of the competition. Second Claims: Unrelated diversification leads to problems in the long run. Business ownership patterns have diminished the likelihood of many firms’ long term success. Claims: important to invest, be committed/ companies still ignore logic/ pursuing a wide mkt is key/ hard to enter a mkt when there’s already a 1st mover/ company succeed when it dvlps an economy of scale and scope Major Concepts Economies of scale: Doing things on a greater scale makes things cheaper. Economies of scope: Being able to make other things based on the knowledge and materials you have. Functional divisions: Example: Sales, Management, Accounting. Management Hierarchy: Levels of Management. Bosses, ect… First Movers: First to hire managers, to grow, move. Once a firm loses the opportunity to be a first mover, it is difficult to regain competitive advantage. * Confidently seize opportunities through major commitments * Constantly improve and aggressively compete * Manage logically and systematically * “Maintain and nourish their competitive capabilities” Research and Development: New technologies, improving quality, price/cost. Managerial enterprises: build large and efficient pdct capacity, compete aggressively and never let...
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...Alfred D.Chandler Alfred Du Pont Chandler, Jr. born in 15 of September 1918 in Guyencourt, Delaware and he is the son of Alfred DuPont and Carol Remsay Chandler. He was an American known as an economic historian who reformed the writing of business history and has added greatly to our understanding of corporate organization's critical role in economic development and died on May 9 in Cambridge, Mass and he was 88. Even though he was busy with administrative duties since he began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1950 as a research associate until he become chairman of the Historical Advisory Committee of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in 1969, a post he held until 1977, he still find time to write and one of his famous achievement was his book The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business which is the conclusion of his point of view on the operation of American business and earned the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes in 1978. Moreover, he wrote The Essential Alfred Chandler: Essays toward a Historical Theory of Big Business (1988), and his Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism was written with the assistance of Takashi Hikino (1990). Scale and Scope was hailed as an imperative historical reference covering three-quarters of the twentieth century. Alfred Chandler contribute on management and as business historian he studied the management from a historical perspective and see the business firms in the environmental context...
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...Mintzberg’s (1987) strategy distinctions between planning strategy and crafting strategy. Planning strategies being those which are internally defined and implemented, similar to that of a blueprint (Findley, 1988). Crafting strategy is a continuous form of strategy which incorporates the learning process into the decision making. From this it is important to recognise the definition of strategy according to Mintzberg who bases his assumptions on “a pattern in a stream of decisions” (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985, p. 259). Mintzberg (1987) had found that “an organisation can have a pattern without knowing it, let alone making it explicit”. The article ‘Crafting strategy’ by Mintzberg (1988) represents the argument that strategy is deductive and not inductive, strategist recognise patterns and do not plan. To find a company strategy you can look at the interplay of the environment as well as the leadership and organisation of the company, Action leads to change and innovation, this in turn leads to strategy. Mintzberg (1987) sets out to compare the lone work of a potter to that of an organisation. Using this potter as a metaphor Mintzberg aims to demonstrate that both face the same strategic issues of being able to know their own capabilities well enough in order to formulate a ‘strategic direction’ through crafting. To integrate the article into the wider debate of Strategy we must look at the two key schools of thought, that of deliberate strategy (planning) and emergent strategy (crafting)...
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...MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING (Author’s name) (Institutional Affiliation) Management accounting combines finance, accounting and management with other leading edge techniques necessary for managing a successful business. The fact that organizations are made of people the management structure must accomplish its objectives by working through the people. Since the director’s of companies cannot execute their company’s strategies on their own, they have to rely on people and thus create an organization structure that allows decentralization of management responsibilities. According to Hoskin & Macve (1990, pg. 17), management invented modern business. Early forms of management accounting integrated both decision-making and analysis, going beyond financial and operational performance data. Chandler stated that before managerial, there was no equivalent of the modem multi-unit organization as there was nothing remotely like the divisional Wed corporation (Chandler 1977, pg.18). Chandler states that the managerial revolution invents something new which it is frequently misunderstood as the "modern business enterprise". This did nothing less than overturn the old economic world which is a world within which he tells much basic economic theory is still distressingly rooted. The new form of management was accelerated by industrial revolutions in the 19th century. After the 20th century the impending requirements by financial accounting in most organizations developed...
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...Project Management Methodology Guidelines Project Management Methodology & Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Successful Projects Project Management Methodology Guidebook Table of Contents Table of Contents 1. Project Management Overview ............................................................................1 1.1. Background ..................................................................................................1 1.2. An Overview of the Project Management Philosophy and Mission...............1 1.2.1. The PMO’s Mission............................................................................2 1.2.2. What Is A Project? .............................................................................2 1.2.3. What Is Project Management? ..........................................................2 1.2.4. What Is A Project Management Life Cycle? ......................................3 1.2.5. Deliverables Typically Produced for Each PMBOK Knowledge Areas4 1.2.6. Project Management Life Cycle and Knowledge Areas .....................5 1.2.7. Elements of Successful Project Management .................................15 1.3. Project Approach Selection Technique - Selection Indicators ....................15 1.3.1. Indicators for User Workshops ........................................................15 1.3.2. Indicators for Interviewing................................................................15 1.3.3. Indicators for Questionnaires................................
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...review of literature on student learning loss over the summer months. Summer learning programs have the potential to help children and youth improve their academic and other outcomes. This is especially true for children from low-income families who might not have access to educational resources throughout the summer months and for low-achieving students who need additional time to master academic content. Because many students loose learning over the summer and some students need more time on task to master content, participation in summer learning programs should mitigate learning loss and could even produce achievement gains on standardized test such as MAP. Overview One hundred and fifty Title I-eligible students from Chandler Creek Elementary school will enroll each summer in a four week reading and math program sponsored by the Title I department of Greenville County Schools. Thematic studies will provide a framework for reading/writing and math activities that will improve student attitudes and achievement and encourage parent participation in education. The summer school program will target students in grades K-2 that have difficulties in math and...
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...Decoding Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding model Stuart Hall is a prominent sociologist and cultural theorist and author of the significantly influential essay Encoding/Decoding; published in 1973 during the time of his position as director of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University (Chandler 2001). Encoding/Decoding is a theoretical framework devised to critically examine how society or the hegemonic institutions in society, disseminate messages implanted or ‘encoded’ (Hall 2001, p.167) with meaning ‘through the operation of codes within the syntagmatic chain of a discourse’ (Hall 2001, p.166). Hall’s model examines the processes in which television texts are constructed with dominant codes or ‘preferred readings’ (Hall 2011, p.172), whilst signifying theoretical strategies from which audiences can deconstruct and consume such readings existing within texts in correspondence to cultural and social conditions. Hall’s model laid the foundations for much ethnographic research; it is upon this premise and its comprehensive influence, that in this essay the advantages and limitations of his model will be evaluated with focus on how effectively it functions within the indicated parameters of specific texts and discourses. Hall’s model which is fundamentally a mode of communication and audience reception theory, stems from early models of which proposed to analyse how audiences interpreted texts through the visual and aural discourse of television...
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...motivation to continue education. African Americans tend to be the largest minority in professional work settings (both school and work). Student are unable to identify with faculty and role models, students due to the lack of minorities in graduate school. Students experience a lack of support from faculty and often feel as outcasts in the classroom amongst peers. Students that are disqualified from graduate school because of poor academics. A contributing factor to the shortage in African American psychologists, are due to low test scores on standardized tests (Truscott, 2014, p. 367-368). There is a lack of motivation and desire to pursue graduate degrees among the minorities, due to lack of interest and disengagement. The school environment,...
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...11:43 am Page 133 133 EUROPEAN BUSINESS JOURNAL The modern roots of strategic management Susan Segal-Horn The term ‘strategy’ is one of the most over-used, and poorly understood, terms in modern business and organisational life. The purpose of this article is to help practising managers understand better what strategy is about, how it has developed in the second half of the twentieth century from much earlier influences and the key contributions made by business schools, academics and consultants to the modern managerial practice of strategy. Strategic management has moved from a rational top-down planning approach, to strategic decision-making as a wider process involving all internal organisational stakeholders to ensure strategies are likely to be effectively implemented in practice. The recent rise of the resource-based approach to strategy helps us understand how two organisations with similar resources may nevertheless develop quite different levels of capability and performance. This article should help managers appreciate why no source of competitive advantage is likely to be sustainable over the longer-term. Introduction Susan Segal-Horn, Professor of International Strategy, Open University Business School This article is based on a revised version of the Introduction to S. Segal-Horn (ed.) The Strategy Reader (2004) 2nd edition, published by Blackwell Publishers, Oxford. Address for correspondence: Professor Susan Segal-Horn, Open ...
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...porter, Alfred Chandler and Henry Mintzeberg as the one of the main contributors in the development of the field of strategic management . During the 1950s, after the Second World War, academicians, researchers and practitioners basically paid very little attention to the practical concepts of strategy developed and embraced during the war. After normalcy and stability was achieved most business persons and investors started focusing and laying more emphasis on efficient and effective production in order to restore what was lost during the war. Consequently, production firms and organizations moved and shifted from an emphasis on operations, budgeting and controlling areas to more emphasis on planning aspects (Freeman, 2010). This arose as result of the dynamic environment that businesses were operating in and the urgent need for solutions which eventually demanded future planning taken at a larger perspective and view. This led to many businesses requiring the urgent need of having a corporate policy. With these, the seminar work of Chandler of 1962 placed and positioned the concept of strategy as a unique business function from marketing, sales, finance and production. In this case strategy was defined to comprise and involve planning on the long term goals of an organization (Freeman, 2010). It can be noted that during the 1960s, two authors made great and significant contributions towards the development of strategic management. They include Igor Ansoff and Chandler. Ansoff argued...
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...operations had little influence outside their regional realm. Eventually, American capitalism evolved from a proprietary-competitive stage to a corporate-administered stage as a result of numerous factors. Economies of scale became more applicable with innovations in transportation, communication, production, management, distribution, and marketing. As a result, America transformed into a global economic power. From 1870 to 1913, the United States’ distribution of the world’s industrial production rose from 23 percent to 36 percent (Chandler, 4). Comparing this substantial growth to other industrious countries of the time exemplifies America’s dominance. In the same time span Great Britain fell from 32 percent to 14 percent, Germany rose from 13 percent to 16 percent, France dropped from 10 percent to 6 percent, Russia rose from 4 percent to 6 percent, Japan rose from 0 percent to 1 percent, and the rest of the world rose from 17 percent to 21 percent (Chandler, 4). Capital intensive, mass production industries that rose during the 2nd half of the 19th century distinguished American business from economic institutions in other cultures and set the foundations of what is now known as the American corporation. Standard Oil An industry that was a pioneer in changing the early business landscape was the petroleum sector. In 1859, the first successful commercial drilling of oil occurred at what is known as Drake’s Well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The drilling of this well is known as...
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...ability to use their vast amount of resources to exploit market opportunities and neutralize threats, as well as take advantage of the economies of scale and scope. Subsequently, this report touches upon the large scope effects of the Big Box Format; as well as addresses certain strategies that small businesses could apply and if they are realistic. Big Box Firms are organizations that undermine local business as well as entrepreneurialism and innovation. They are composed of Firms that occupy a minimum of 50,000 square feet of land containing a wide variety products available for sale (Investopedia, 2013), therefore many consumers consider Big Box Firms as one stop shop. Subsequently, the Big Box Firms apply predatory marketing strategies, in which they highlight their ability to offer cost savings as well as convenience. FINDINGS Modern Concept, Classic View Although the Big Box format of conducting business can be considered somewhat of a modern business concept, the Big Box format contains certain elements that relate back to classic business theories. The way that these Big Box firms conduct business, contain certain characteristics that can be linked back to the classic articles of Chandler and Barney. These firms have been able take advantage of the cost saving benefits of the economies of scale and scope, as well as have gained a competitive advantage over their competitors, as Barney would see it. Big box firms have adopted a derivative of Chandler’s theory...
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...1. The average return on sales (ROS) in the US wheelchair industry is between 1-2% in 1993. What are the most important structural conditions that make the industry unattractive? Evaluating the industry based on Porter’s Five Forces framework, the following stand out as the most import conditions making the industry unattractive: Bargaining Power of Customers: About seventy-five percent of wheelchair sales in the US were covered by insurance. Medicare was the primary insurance program, and other insurers often followed Medicare’s lead. Medicare limited reimbursements, which kept a lid on the price of standard and lightweight standard chairs. More expensive chairs were not fully covered, which could dampen demand for those products. Rivalry among Existing Competitors: The American market for wheelchairs was dominated by three firms Sunrise Medical, Invacare, and Everest & Jennings. With perhaps the exception of some hi-tech power models, wheelchairs are essentially commodity products, so there is little room for differentiation. And since manufacturers set prices to conform to Medicare standards, it doesn’t cost relatively more to switch from one manufacturer’s brand to another's. This being true, sales and sales growth were more dependent on how competitors got their products through the channel, and profitability was a slave to cost structure. In Sunrise’s case, its competitor Invacare had gained significant market share in every category other than ultralight (case...
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