...Introduction Global operations involves the linking and relating of four primary functions; marketing, finance and accounting, suppliers, and human resources to create a competitive advantage in global markets (Russell & Taylor, 2011). The business environment has become increasingly competitive over the past decade, due to the global economic crisis, environmental challenges, technological innovations, as well as, consumer lifestyle changes. As a result of the changes, many multi-national corporations (MNC), in an effort, to remain competitive and sustainable are responding by creating global strategic management plans to address the competitive trends occurring in the market (Kim, Bak, & Bae, 2010). In fact, the aforementioned factors created a rich environment for firms to access new technologies, materials, customer bases, as well as, the ability to form business partnerships, globally (Russell & Taylor, 2011; Nembhard, Shi, & Park, 2000). Consequently, there has been a shift in the way business operations are performed and managed. Procter and Gamble Company (P&G), is an excellent example of an iconic firm maintaining a competitive advantage in global markets through the effective implementation of global operations strategies and management. In fact, P&G is the leading consumer goods firm, generating annually $84 billion in sales, operating in 180+ countries, spanning the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Asia. In terms of manufacturing...
Words: 2561 - Pages: 11
...Demand driven supply chain Over the passage of time, the concept of supply chain and planning has gained considerable need on the retail brand in the society today. It is because the two are interred twined based on the end product and the needs of the consumer. As such, most of the companies have noticed the gap that exists between supply chain and the final product given to the consumer (Mendes, 2011). Retrospectively, they have invested a great deal of manpower and resources into planning solutions to respond to the need and remain competitive in the market. The primary focus of such a move is to gain an actual picture of the visibility related to material costs across the supply chain division. To respond to this need, many service providers have come up such as Oracle and SAP. Balancing demand It is evident that even though most of the companies have developed such unique planning solutions. However, the primary question is how to balance between the demand points and to control the variability related to customer demand. At this point, the focal point is how to annihilate the needs of the customers through the supply chain to ensure efficient service delivery and quality goods. In recent times, supply chain service provider namely JDA organized their annual event referred to as Focus. They discussed a great deal about the new form of information technology solutions that companies can adopt to make the supply chain division efficient. At that point, the organizers...
Words: 2865 - Pages: 12
...“as traditional Ann Taylor shoppers sought more relaxed, lower-priced merchandise, particularly during the recession.” Ann Taylor would be 59 years old in 2013 and needed to make sure it wouldn’t become a victim of a midlife crisis.3 Kay Krill, ANN’s CEO, had been reflecting on these issues for some time. Krill had been appointed president of Ann Taylor Stores Corporation (ANN) in late 2004, and she succeeded to president/CEO in late 2005 when J. Patrick Spainhour retired after eight years as CEO. Even back then, there was concern among commentators and customers that the Ann Taylor look was getting “stodgy,” and the question was how to “reestablish Ann Taylor as the preeminent brand for beautiful, elegant, and sophisticated occasion dressing.”4 Krill’s challenge was based on the ANN legacy as a women’s specialty clothing retailer. Since 1954, Ann Taylor had been the wardrobe source for busy, socially upscale women, and the classic basic black dress and woman’s power suit with pearls were Ann Taylor staples. The Ann Taylor client base consisted of fashion-conscious women from age 25 to 55. The overall Ann Taylor concept was designed to appeal to professional women who had limited time to shop and who were attracted to Ann Taylor stores by their total wardrobing strategy, personalized client service, efficient store layouts, and continual flow of new merchandise. ANN had two branded divisions focused on different segments of this customer base: • Ann Taylor (AT), the company’s...
Words: 8987 - Pages: 36
... Volume 5, Issue 2 (Spring 2009) Ann Taylor: Survival in Specialty Retail Pauline Assenza Manhattanville College Alan B. Eisner Lubin School of Business, Pace University Jerome C. Kuperman Minnesota State University Moorhead In the summer of 2008, headlines announced that the declining economy was generating a “wave of retail closures” among many well-known companies, including Home Depot, Pier 1 Imports, Zales, Gap, Talbots, Lane Bryant, and Ann Taylor. The Chief Executive of J.C. Penney’s called the 2008 situation “the most unpredictable environment in his 39-year retail career”. i One industry group forecasted that nearly 6,000 retail stores would close in 2008, a 25 percent increase from the previous year. A representative from the National Retail Federation (NRF) suggested that these businesses should “look at where they’re underperforming and how can they change their operations so that they have a little bit more power in another area, or a little bit more growth potential.” ii Kay Krill, President and CEO of Ann Taylor Stores Corporation (ANN), was already considering this advice. Krill had been appointed President of ANN in late 2004, and succeeded to President/CEO in late 2005 when J. Patrick Spainhour retired after eight years as CEO. At that time, there had been concern among commentators and customers that the Ann Taylor look was getting “stodgy”, and the question was how to “reestablish Ann Taylor as the preeminent brand for beautiful, elegant...
Words: 11348 - Pages: 46
...Journal of Business and Management Editors Cristina M. Giannantonio, Ph.D. Amy E. Hurley-Hanson, Ph.D. Published by Chapman University’s Argyros School of Business and Economics Sponsored by the Western Decision Sciences Institute WDSI WDSI WESTERN DECISION SCIENCES INSTITUTE The Western Decision Sciences Institute is a regional division of the Decision Sciences Institute. WDSI serves its interdisciplinary academic and business members primarily through the organization of an annual conference and the publication of the Journal of Business and Management. The conference and journal allow academicians and business professionals from all over the world to share information and research with respect to all aspects of education, business, and organizational decisions. PRESIDENT Mahyar Amouzegar California State University, Long Beach PRESIDENT-ELECT Nafisseh Heiat Montana State University-Billings PROGRAM CHAIR/VICE PRESIDENT FOR PROGRAMS/PROCEEDINGS EDITOR John Davies Victoria University of Wellington VICE PRESIDENT FOR PROGRAMS-ELECT Sheldon R. Smith Utah Valley State College VICE PRESIDENT FOR MEMBER SERVICES David Yen Miami University of Ohio SECRETARY/TREASURER Richard L. Jenson Utah State University DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS Abbas Heiat Montana State University - Billings IMMEDIATE PAST-PRESIDENT G. Keong Leong University of Nevada, Las Vegas REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT Vijay Kannan Utah State University Journal of Business and Management – Vol. 17, No. 1,...
Words: 52229 - Pages: 209
...ARTICLES A Kind Word for Theory X: Or Why So Many Newfangled Management Techniques Quickly Fail Michael P. Bobic Emmanuel College William Eric Davis Community College Southern Nevada ABSTRACT Forty-three years ago, Douglas McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise offered managers a new assumption of management (Theory Y), which would be more effective than what he considered then-current management assumptions (Theory X). While McGregor’s Theory Y model has been widely adopted in management literature as the preferred model, Theory X management still persists in practice. Moreover, many efforts to introduce management initiatives based on Theory Y have failed to reform the workplace or worker attitudes. While most explanations of these failures focus on training, implementation, or sabotage, this article proposes several defects in Theory Y that have contributed to these failures. Theory Y is based upon an incomplete theory of human motivation that erroneously assumes that all people are creative (and want to be creative) in the same way. Important research by Michael Kirton presents a different model of creativity that explains the failure of Theory Y and justifies Theory X as an important managerial theory and strategy. Theory X persists not because of circumstances or the nature of particular jobs, but because different people have personalities that respond to Theory X management better than to Theory Y management. But if the times and circumstances change, [a leader]...
Words: 14544 - Pages: 59
...Business Research Assignment Please remember that Service Canada requires that EI recipients be available and actively looking for work. © Douglas College Self Employment Program January 2005 Page 2 What IS Business Research? $ $ $ $ The act of finding out who your customers are and determining how to get their attention Going out and getting information to determine if you have a viable business idea Gathering information to build your Business Plan A tool to provide clarity, focus and confidence in your business concept What is the purpose of Business Research? $ $ $ $ $ To minimize risks To save time and money during start-up To learn where and how to sell the product and/or service To learn where and how to produce and distribute the product and/or service To determine what it will cost to run the business and how you will cover your costs © Douglas College Self Employment Program Page 3 Types of Business Research Primary Research Primary Research is the actions you can take to gather information related to your business idea directly from the source. It generates specific information in response to your specific inquiries. Some examples of Primary Research are: $ $ $ $ Questionnaires/Surveys Observations Focus Groups Information Interview Information Interview Technique Introduction Information interviews are meetings. The most effective interviews are face to face. If necessary they can be conducted over the telephone or via the internet...
Words: 3485 - Pages: 14
...significantly higher than in most U.S. plants (although differences vary by company and U.S. firms have made improvements in recent years).1 Japanese auto producers have also demonstrated rates of inventory turnover (sales divided by work-in-process and finished goods, or the cost of goods sold divided by work-in-process) several times those of U.S. firms.2 (Inventory turnover is a useful measure of efficiency, since it reflects how well firms manufacture to meet market needs rather than production schedules. It also reflects how effectively they reduce the number of parts and semifinished goods; these add to operating costs and often cover up inefficient practices or process errors.) High productivity and other aspects of process efficiency, such as rapid inventory turnover, help solve a problem as old as mass production itself: that the conventional factory tends to produce huge lots of standardized components, while consumer markets demand a variety of products at low prices. Looking for the reasons Japanese companies have managed this problem so well, many authors cite the contributions of Japanese workers and Japanese culture. However, the performance of Japanese firms in auto production depends not on the employment of Japanese workers but on Japanese innovations in technology and management. Perhaps the most important innovations challenged fundamental assumptions about mass production. These consisted of revisions in American and European equipment, production techniques, and...
Words: 6065 - Pages: 25
...Rajendran, Downey & Stough :Assessing Emotional Intelligence in the Indian workplace: a preliminary reliability study. 55 Assessing Emotional Intelligence in the Indian workplace: a preliminary reliability study Diana Rajendran (drajendran@swin.edu.au) Department of Management Swinburne University, PO Box 218, Lilydale, Victoria, 3140, Luke A. Downey: (ldowney@swin.edu.au) Brain Sciences Institute Swinburne University, PO Box 218 (H99), Hawthorn Vic 3122, Australia. Professor Con Stough (cstough@swin.edu.au) Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience, Director, Brain Sciences Institute. Swinburne University, PO Box 218 (H99), Hawthorn Vic 3122, Australia. Abstract The concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) has recently attracted a great amount of interest from HR practitioners and academics alike. Whilst the majority of research in this area has been conducted in Western countries, recent studies have begun to assess the generalisability and validity of the EI concept in cross-cultural settings. The purpose of this paper was to assess the reliability of the Workplace version of the Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Test (Workplace SUEIT) in an Indian population. The Workplace SUEIT demonstrated adequate reliability in the sample of 110 participants in India, although the mean scores for the sub-scales were significantly lower than in the Australian normative population. The results are discussed in the context that EI tests need to undergo...
Words: 3608 - Pages: 15
...‘An Action Plan – Implementing a Lean Transformation’ LEAN Final Project Alex Scholfield February 29, 2012 Summary Lean manufacturing can add significantly value to an organization by streamlining processes through the identification and elimination of muda or waste. Introduced by Toyota, Lean is more than just a tool, but a philosophy that needs to be adopted and incorporated into the culture of the organization. It is very important that the organization can see that leadership have bought in to the approach and are willing to support Lean. Numerous examples exist that demonstrate failed attempts at implementing Lean. It is important that organizations appreciate that they cannot simply wake up one day and choose to introduce Lean. It took Toyota many years to develop their culture into one of continuous improvement. For organizations that are new to Lean, the effort required will be significant in order to realize the true value associated with Lean principles. Poor planning will almost certainly result in disappointment and leave a strong negative association with any future Lean attempts along with a big investment with little to no return. With a focus on continuous improvement and continuous flow, manufacturing based on pull rather than push demand will assist organizations in becoming Lean. While Lean is a long journey, it can be one that returns significant value to an organization. What follows is a view of the history of Lean, some of the tools...
Words: 6409 - Pages: 26
...Journal of Management, Vol. 16, 175–194 (2005) DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2005.00453.x Revisiting Fayol: Anticipating Contemporary Management Lee D. Parker* and Philip A. Ritson *Corresponding author: Lee D. Parker, School of Commerce, Security House, North Terrace, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005 Australia Email: lee.parker@adelaide.edu.au This study argues that in classifying Fayol as a founding father of the Classical Management School, we have to some extent misrepresented this still important management theorist. The received Fayol portrayed in contemporary texts invariably emerges as a caricature of a much more insightful, complex, visionary and rounded management thinker. This study re-examines Fayol’s personal and career history, as well as the arguments presented in his original work, General and Industrial Management. It finds that he was a much more complex and multidimensional figure than his conventional stereotype today, and that his management theories embraced a wider spectrum of approaches and concepts than traditionally identified with the classical management school of thought. In marked contrast to his traditional portrayal, this study uncovers traces of ideas and concepts that anticipated aspects of the human relations movement, systems-based contingency theory, the movement towards greater employee involvement in decision-making and elements of knowledge management. Henri Fayol, the French industrialist and management thinker of...
Words: 13494 - Pages: 54
...Chapter two The Evolution of Management Theory Learning Objectives 1. Describe how the need to increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness has guided the evolution of management theory. 2. Explain the principle of job specialization and division of labour, and tell why the study of person–task relationships is central to the pursuit of increased efficiency. 3. Identify the principles of administration and organization that underlie effective organizations. 4. Trace the changes that have occurred in theories about how managers should behave in order to motivate and control employees. 5. Explain the contributions of management science to the efficient use of organizational resources. 6. Explain why the study of the external environment and its impact on an organization has become a central issue in management thought. A Case in Contrast Changing Ways of Making Cars Car production has changed dramatically over the years as managers have applied different views or philosophies of management to organize and control work activities. Prior to 1900, workers worked in small groups, cooperating to hand-build cars with parts that often had to be altered and modified to fit together. This system, a type of small-batch production, was very expensive; assembling just one car took considerable time and effort; and workers could produce only a few cars in a day. To reduce costs and sell more cars, managers of early car companies needed better techniques to increase efficiency. Henry...
Words: 14749 - Pages: 59
...Management Process and Organization Behavior Assignment Set- 1 (60 Marks) NAME JANU SAJEEV SEM FIRST ADM NO MBA Q.1 Explain controlling and also discuss different types of control Definition of Controlling Controlling is a management function that involves comparing actual performance with planned performance and taking corrective action if needed, to ensure the objectives are achieved. Controlling involves ensuring that performance does not deviate from standards. The management functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are widely considered to be the best means of describing the manager’s job. Three Phases of Controlling: 1. Anticipating the things that could go wrong and taking preventive measures to see that they don’t. 2. Monitoring or measuring performance in some way in order to compare what is actually happening with what i supposed to be happening. 3. Correcting performance problems that occur. This is the therapeutic aspect of control Control’s Close Link to Planning ...
Words: 6670 - Pages: 27
...Schools of Management Thought SCHOOLS OF MANAGEMENT THOUGHT Structure 4.0 Objectives 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Historical Perspective 4.3 Theory in Management 4.4 Classification of Management Theories 4.5 Classical Management Theory 4.5.1 Scientific Management 4.5.2 Administrative Management 4.5.3 Bureaucratic Organization 4.5.4 Criticisms on Classical Management Theory 4.6 Neo-Classical Theory 4.6.1 Human-Relations School 4.6.2 Behavioural Schools 4.7 Modem Management Theory 4.7.1 Systems Theory 4.1.2 Contingency Theory 4.7.3 Organizational Humanism 4.7.4 Management Science 4.8 Other Schools of Thoughts, Styles and Approaches 4.9 Problems and Conflicts in Management Theories 4.10 Summary 4.11 Key Words 4.12 References and Further Reading 4.0 OBJECTIVES After reading this Unit, you will be able to • know the historical development of schools of management thought; • explain what a theory in management is; • outline the classification of management theories; • describe important schools of management, their contributions and limitations; • elaborate problems and conflicting issues in management theory; and 4.1 INTRODUCTION In the preceding three units of this block you have learnt various scientific principles of management, management functions and what constitutes managerial quality and leadership as propounded by management experts. In this Unit you will have a historical perspective of management approaches or thoughts. The block in toto will set...
Words: 9513 - Pages: 39
...Global Journal of Human Resource Management Vol.3, No.3, pp.58-73, May 2015 Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org) HISTORY, EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: A CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE Kipkemboi Jacob Rotich1, Moi University, School of Human Resource Development, Department of Development Studies, P.o Box 3900-30100, Eldoret, Kenya. ABSTRACT: Various attempts have been made towards tracing the historical development of the discipline of Human Resource Management (HRM). However, these initiatives have largely been concentrated on certain specific periods of time and experiences of specific countries and regions such as Australia, the USA, the UK and Asia (Nankervis et.al, 2011; Kelly, 2003; Ogier, 2003). This paper attempts to document the entire history of the discipline of Human Resource Management from a holistic perspective. The evolution and development of HRM will be traced right from the pre-historic times through to the postmodern world. Major characteristics in the evolution and development of HRM will also be examined and documented. KEYWORDS: Human Resource Management (HRM), evolution, history INTRODUCTION Defining Human Resource Management (HRM) According to Armstrong (2006) Human Resource Management (HRM) is defined as a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively...
Words: 6796 - Pages: 28
