...Inter-firm coordination as an information problem. The case of a divisionalized company Antonio Leotta Assistant Professor of Accounting University of Catania (Italy) Department: Impresa, Culture e Società Email: antonio.leotta@unict.it ABSTRACT The extant literature on inter-organizational control distinguishes the main control problems as coordination problems and appropriation concerns. The present study focuses on coordination problems and is intended to understand the process leading to the hybrid nature of inter-firm coordination modes and the role of information in this process. In a theoretical part, after discussing the main critical assumptions underlying coordination studies, an integrative framework is proposed to conceptualize the coordination process and describe the role of information in this process. In Particular, the framework assumes inter-firm settings as a-centered and a-static, whence the relevance of an interpretive approach where coordination is viewed as a process characterized by dialectic interactions between coordinating actors. The empirical part of the study is aimed at verifying the explanatory power of the framework studying a case of outsourcing relations in a divisionalized company operating in the semi-conductor industry. The case provided useful data giving new insights that enrich the framework. Keywords: coordination; information; system;: process; inter-organizational relations. Revised version July, 5 2011 1. Introduction...
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...(1) How are the coordination and incentive problem dealt with? Answer: Every manager charged with designing the organization has three levers to tackle the coordination and incentive problems namely the architecture, routine and culture. In terms of architecture, Novartis uses compensation based on performance policies to arrest some incentive problems. Salary growth which depends on associates’ individual performance is also used to align the objectives of the associates with the interest of their shareholders and also to create sustainable value for the firm thereby eliminating some incentive problems as well. In the case of Routine, Novartis make use of the Global Reporting Initiative to make transparent reporting to all subunits. Close collaboration with partners who share a common vision and complementary strength are also a generally accepted way of doing things at Novartis which yield them many successes and solve some coordination problems. They are also known for encouraging associates to focus on achievement through collaboration and innovation. Finally, Novartis with their performance oriented culture coupled with the responsible approach with integrity based creativity, dedication and performance of it associates are some of the commonly held values and belief in the company. They also believe that equality of opportunities, mutual respect and dignity at work help bring the best out of its employees and associates. (2) Are units tightly or loosely coupled? ...
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...different departmental objectives they are based on a functional form of organization * Advantages of it: * Economies of scale * Greater specialization * Opportunities for technical development * Disadvantages of it: * Coordination problems * Slower adaptation * The departments only care about what they want to do there is no cooperation thus resulting in conflicts and also no concrete decision * Each department is stubborn not willing to corporate to find a solution together team-building activities needed 2. What is the current decision-making process? * They are in a conflict stage no one listens to one another and everyone states that it is impossible instead of jointly figuring out a solution * They have defined the problem and found a solution and are running into problems that they are slowly identifying. However, they have not found any alternatives yet since there is no corporation. * The separate functions are not coordinating with one another * Every department decides what is best for themselves * One department wants to work on other projects * Lack of motivation * No coordination * No concrete leader * No agenda * Rearrange seating plan so that they cannot engage in un-useful conversations * They haven’t talked about the positioning just taken as granted * Finance is unwilling to compromise...
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...1. The whole of government challenge Chapter findings The report has defined 'whole of government' in the Australian Public Service (APS) as: Whole of government denotes public service agencies working across portfolio boundaries to achieve a shared goal and an integrated government response to particular issues. Approaches can be formal and informal. They can focus on policy development, program management and service delivery. APS agencies should review their work in light of this definition to assess the potential impact of this report on their work. There are many imperatives which make being successful at whole of government work increasingly important. These include pressures on the APS to offer sophisticated whole of government policy advice which comprehends a range of stakeholders' views, and to respond to complex policy challenges such as environmental or rural issues. There are pressures to join up program management, including security threats and intractable social issues such as drug dependence. There are rising community expectations for easier access to government by integrating service delivery. Agencies should review the impact of these imperatives on their work, including taking a long-term view of possible scenarios. Whole of government approaches to Australian government work are a relative strength for Australia and are not new. The increasing pressures on the APS demands that its history in whole of government work is understood to ensure it...
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...• Basis of coordination Motivation is the basis of coordination among all members of the organization. Motivated employees develop a better understanding between them. They appreciate their mutual problems and resolve differences through mutual consent. The main reason for differences in approach among workers is lack of coordination. However, motivation helps maintain coordination among workers. Maintaining coordination helps to develop team spirit and group effort to achieve common goals. • Stability of workforce It is well known that a stable and motivated workforce is the potential of the organization. Motivation directly or indirectly facilitates the stability of the workforce. Generally, frustrated and disgruntled employees may think...
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...• The Facilities are available on a “first-come, first-served” basis, up to three months in advance. To check on availability, please call the Marketing Center at 713-407-8760 or e-mail mktgcenter@fouroaks.com • Once availability is been confirmed, a courtesy hold will be granted, if requested in writing, but it is not confirmed until the completed attached Meeting Checklist is provided. • The Meeting Checklist must be received at least 3 days/36 hours prior to your event/meeting, otherwise, the Facility will be released without notice. • The Facilities are to be used by Four Oaks Place Tenants for their company business related functions only. • Tenants are expected to provide their own phone for conference calls. The phone must be an analog phone. Digital phones will not work. Please check your equipment in the room you have scheduled prior to your event. • Extension cords, phones, projectors, computer cables or accessories are not provided. Please bring your own. • The Facilities will be available during normal business hours, at no charge, from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. For events after hours or on a weekend, air conditioning will be provided, upon request, at the customary charge. After-hours usage is also subject to cleaning charges and prior approval. • Tenants are expected to exercise care when using the Facilities. If Tenant’s use results in the need for extraordinary cleaning or unexpected repair, Tenant may be subject...
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...Dom (case study) By: Dian Herron ota/s Diagnosis • Dom has a CVA • He has a history of hypertension • Dom also had a coronary bypass • His CVA has affected his left side Demographics • Dom is 56yrs old • He lives with his wife of 30yrs in a first floor condominum on Miami beach. • Dom's primary residence is in NY, but lives in FL during the winter months. • He is on disability from the NY fire department due to cardiac problems and a CVA 3yrs ago. Etiology • Stroke can affect many aspects of vision, and visual losses after stroke decrease safety. • As in Dom's case he has a left visual field cut and left side inattention. Tactile deficits in touch, pain, pressure, temperature, and proprioception are common after a stroke. Body awareness deficits affects knowledge of body construction, spatial relationships, awareness of body parts in relation to one another and right and left discrimination. • Dom's sensation in his left upper extremities are mildly impaired for light touch, superficial pain, and stereognosis. • Dom suffered a CVA during surgery for a coronary bypass. A stroke occurs when the blood supply to your brain is interrupted or reduced. This deprives your brain of oxygen and nutrients, which can cause your brain cells to die. Medications, medical management, surgical intervention Dom's case makes no mention of any medications in the past or currently that he is taking. For scenario process a doctor may probably...
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...The Hexadecimal Company ________________________________________ Name 1. Problems A. Macro Lack of appropriate leadership skills. Also, there was lack cooperation among the members of the OD group. The training activities lacked integration and coordination. ________________________________________ B. Micro The members of the OD group were divided in ideas i.e. had division of thoughts. Members of the OD group had little respect of the president Zoltan. ________________________________________ II. Causes Zoltan caused problems among the OD group. When Bill and Peter wanted to explain to him about their ideas on the program, he was unavailable. He didn’t portray the appropriate leadership skills. He didn’t take the OD program seriously because when Kay and Indar wanted to speak to him he would be available but on matters concerning the OD program, he was not available. Lack of cooperation among the members of the OD group was a great problem. It was caused by having different ideas. Kay and Indar wanted an approach that is gradual while the rest wanted an aggressive approach. Lack of integration and coordination problem was caused by lack of a leader among the group members. Lack of respect for Zoltan by the OD group members was a great problem. The members started to see less of him. The cause of this problem was because Zoltan didn’t take the training activities seriously. Therefore, OD group members started to belittle him (McLean, 2005). ________________________________________ ...
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...it results in scale formation and in soap wastage (Sample Lab, Fiu). If one ever has gone to a place where ground water is abundant and is used for drinking and cooking, one can see that the pots have a white mark done to the long exposure to the metals that these water contains, or the shampoo doesn’t produce bubbles. Chelation process is usually the one used most frequently to measure water hardness. The metal ions in this water may have electrons that can be shared in pairs with a donor to form a coordination bond. If a molecule or ion has more than one "free" electron pair which can be shared with a metal ion or similar species, it is called a chelating agent. The complex is termed a chelate. The chelating reagent that we will be using in this lab is EDTA (ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetic acid ). This reagent is the most commonly used for this purpose. As the name inplies, EDTA is a an acid, a tetraprotic one. In the completely deprotonated form, EDTA can form coordination bonds at six sites, and the resulting metal complexes are very stable. If the deprotonation of EDTA is not complete, these chelates are not as stable. In the determination of hardness with EDTA, several competing equilibria are involved. The sample solution is buffered at a pH 10 as a compromise between chelate stability, as EDTA chelate stability increases with increasing pH, and the need...
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...Electron transfer reactions in coordination metal complexes. Structure-reactivity relationships Sebastitio J. Formosinho Departamento de Qui'mica, Universidade de Coimbra, 3049 Coimbra, Portugal Abstract - The current approach of Marcus theory to interpret electron transfer is questioned. Another approach based on an expansion of configuration of the transition states is presented, and the rates are estimated in terms of the following parameters: reaction energy, force constants, equilibrium bond lengths, transition state bond order and capacity to store energy. The model can interpret several anomalous features of these reactions, namely electron-exchanges where the Marcus theory estimates rates several orders of magnitude slower and faster than experiment, "cross-relations", solvent effects, the inverted region and the asymmetry of the Tafel plots of metal-aquo ions, and can assess the nonadiabatic character of some outer-sphere processes. Electron transfer reactions play an essential role in many physical, chemical and biological processes. The investigation of the mechanisms of these reactions rests essentially on the systematic investigation of structure-reactivity relationships that results from the geometric rearrangements which accompany the change in oxidation states of the coordination compounds. Although many theories have been proposed, it is no surprise that the more simpler ones such as Marcus theory are the most popular.1 In spite of the great success of the theory...
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...Explain how the "Volkswagen as Top Employer" strategy involves Architecture, Routines or Culture in solving coordination and incentive problems. ANSWER: Volkswagen Group pursues the goal of solving coordination and incentive problems through its "Volkswagen as Top Employer" strategy. As regards coordination issues, in relation to firm architecture, is it possible to notice two aspects: compensation and rewards. Concerning the reward's problem Volkswagen Group faces the problem with a "remuneration in line with performance" for employers. The Volkswagen Group's response to the problem of compensation is, instead, to vouch for a "Job security". Reading the text emerges that at Volkswagen Group the best way to provide the compensation, regarding incentive problems in connection to architecture, is to offer to employers a "good working climate". On the other hand "personal development opportunities" is the way to resolve reward's aspect. In my opinion this is the strategy of the Volkswagen Group, which affects relations between the subunit and the formal and informal mechanisms that link them. The routines allow to Volkswagen to develop better formal and informal procedures and habits for their activities. About routines in relation to behaviors, the Volkswagen Group solves the coordination’s issue in providing to their employers "attractive working conditions". For incentive problem in relations to behavior, Volkswagen Group handles the question of fluctuations in employment...
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... the students all took a spelling pre-test. During the spelling test several students would repeat the words after Ms. Dye said them. I think that this was the students either confirming the word or sounding it out for themselves. Either way, it was a perfect example of private speech where children verbalize their inner thoughts out loud. Private speech tends to end around age 7 and graduate to completely silent inner speech so this was also a good example of the difference in developmental levels among classmates. Many of them could process and sound out the word silently but a few still needed to say it out loud. During recess I observed high levels of fine motor coordination in many of the boys as well. There were several out on the field playing soccer and they all had fairly high coordination skills when dribbling and maneuvering the ball around other players. That is evidence of maturation of the dorsal stream which is used for spatial information that is necessary to guide action – for example, needing to dribble a soccer ball around another player that is running towards you. It is also evidence of motor cortex and parietal lobe maturation because the parietal lobe assists in processing the body’s position in space compared to others; in soccer it is necessary to be aware of other players’ position relative to yours and if they are teammates or...
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...Government always feel managing currencies as a tough job. Here the video presents how to manage the currencies, why are the countries governments want to manage the currency and how far they are succeeded in managing the currencies along with the importance of policy coordination, Institutions that helped to formulate the coordination internationally along with the benefits and negatives of policy coordination. Here this video is supported by two cases such as Strict fiscal and monetary policies of US in 1985 and the other is UK joining in European monetary system [1] Managed currency The majority of major world currencies are managed at least to some degree. This is due to the purchase and sale of these currencies by the central banks of different countries. They do this in order to stabilize the international money markets and affects their own monetary policies. Why managing currencies? a. Reduce currency fluctuations If the value of currencies fluctuate significantly this can cause problems for firms engaged in trade. * For example if a firm is exporting to the US, a rapid appreciation in sterling would make its exports uncompetitive and therefore may go out of business. * If a firm relied on imported raw materials a devaluation would increase the costs of imports and would reduce profitability. b. Stability encourages investment. The uncertainty of exchange rate fluctuations can reduce the incentive for firms to invest in export capacity. Some Japanese...
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...Introduction Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a marked impairment in the development of motor coordination, which is unrelated to any general medical condition or mental retardation [8]. The DSM-IV defines four diagnostic criteria that comprise DCD; with the first being “Performance in daily activities that require motor coordination is substantially below that expected given the person's chronological age and measured intelligence”[29]. Research has found that children with DCD experience difficulties in Activities of Daily Living (ADL’s) such as basic self-maintenance activities including dressing, personal hygiene and eating [22]. Children with DCD report concerns with daily self-care tasks and leisure activities whereas parents and teachers are concerned with specific activities and/or school behaviour for example, handwriting [9]. This essay will discuss how human learning styles could be considered to improve capabilities in ADL’s and therefore decrease DCD. Figure 1. International Classification of Function Framework [27]. Demonstrating how those with neurological disorders experience interference with their ADLs. Procedural learning Procedural learning is the knowledge of the...
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... The headlines are for the sake of classification clarity. Supply Chain Coordination Supply chain coordination issues have been of great interest to researchers for many years especially since 1990s there has been a surge in research in these topics (Burgess et al. 2006). Different perspectives has been proposed on SCC such as “the order, forecasting, procurement, and information sharing procedures among the members of the supply chain” (Therese M. Flaherty, 1996) and “SCC is concerned with managing dependencies between various supply chain members and the joint efforts of all supply chain members to achieve mutually defined goals” (Arshinder, Arunda Kapur, 2007). According to (Omkar D. Palsule-Desai 2012) a SC is perfectly coordinated when the decisions on optimal quantity to be ordered by retailer under decentralized setting equals that of centralized one and yields non-zero profit to both players. There exist two common structures for SC management: Centralized or integrated supply chain with the single decision maker and decentralized with a network consists of multiple decision makers having different information and incentives. Evidence exists that centralized structure is the ideal status of the SC when there are more than two decision makers since otherwise the profit would be less than optimal.( Tirole1990, Corbet and tang 1999,corbet et al 2004) Decentralized decision making gives rise to problems causing sub-optimality: double marginalization (Spengler...
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