Business research week 3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business research week 3 - Assignment Example paper would confirm that the organizational innovation that would favor the development of technological innovation capabilities that both of the services including the technological and organizational capabilities meant for the processes and products can lead to some superior performance of a firm (Camisà ³n & Villar-Là ³pez, 2014). The research was financially supported by the research funding especially from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. It also gained some funding from the Conselleria de Education in the coast of Generalitat Valenciana. The paper aimed at progressive examination of the firm in question based on the information technology employed within the firm. The two channels of the innovation help in the application of the major themes and try to explain the interrelationship between the two major factors used in the firm. The paper utilized a case study that had multiple methods and then ended up studying the activities related to the innovation process in the firm. It is quite apparent that different aspects of the IT capability to indeed affect an organization’s ability to influence and innovate several processes in the firm (Camisà ³n & Villar-Là ³pez, 2014). It has done this by identifying the exact areas to be studied and offering further recommendation to be carried out in the whole process. This article seeks to underscore the issues linked to the significance of IT in the business setup. IT is the enabler of innovation in most organizations or firms. Most leaders in the innovation sector tend to offer very distinct and separate perspectives employed in the overall use of technology and communication in the final end. Most of the leaders have been battling with the IT organizations in their fixation and the automating services in the entire system of the firm. IT can be seen as the anathema to the act of creativity and the barrier to some form of innovation in the firm (Atashi & Abdolpour, 2012). The paper mainly aims at the

Management, Personal Relationship and Decision Making Essay Example for Free

Management, Personal Relationship and Decision Making Essay The concept of interpersonal relationships and management involves ideas, taught, and beliefs that are related with social association and affiliations which are employed as approached to marketing, operations, training, management and executive decision (Giddens, 2001). These taught and perceptions constitute different philosophies used by various organizations that create a harmonious place for members and personnel. These beliefs allow the organization’s business to improve. Business improves since personnel performances are able to maximize their potential because people are working perfectly as a team. It is no secret that in order for business to be successful, management plays a very important role (Virine, 2007). Thus, for business to prosper, philosophy in management should be carefully taken into consideration (Virine, 2007).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     In order to successfully manage an activity or personnel it is important that a manager is strong-willed, determined and possessed the â€Å"drive† needed to achieve the desired goal.   It is significant that a person should do a specific thing really well. In order to achieve this, a fine plan should be accomplished and when the plan is executed it is necessary that the plan is strictly followed. It is also important that the existing plan can adapt to changes that when problems are encountered, it can easily be resolved. Also in managing, it will be fitting to add that it is not enough that a person would know how to do things correctly, but it would be a welcome addition to recognize that a person knows how to things better.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A person should understand and put into his mind that there are occasions when great just isn’t good enough. He should not settle for less instead strive and work harder to deliver and perform things way beyond what people have expected. He should not be satisfied by saying â€Å"this will already do† and â€Å"this is alright†. He should always work to be the best. Being the best should not be the endpoint that will mark the conclusion of a venture, but it should be a starting point of something that is great. Through sheer innovation one should take something that works, it could be ideas, or various products such as electric appliances, glassware or simple things like papers and plastics, then transform them and improve them to something that is really unexpected. A person should always try to work to achieve excellence.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, in order to properly manage things there are other factors that should be taken into account. One major factor is inter-personal relationship. Relationship with others influences the way we manage things our everyday life (Kahneman, 2000). It is because of our relationship to our love ones that we strive to make things better. It is because of these people who are close to us and we hold dearly in our hearts that we struggle in order to create a better living condition. Because of them we â€Å"shoot for the stars† and aim for the best. Furthermore, our relationship in our workplace with fellow personnel and with the manager dictates the success or the failure of an activity. As mentioned before, it is important to achieve a working area that is surrounded by people which are friendly and are always prepared in lending help. Somehow, they can be your family that during the most challenging times in the work one would have somebody to lean on (Lauria, 1964). They would provide you support and the much needed boost during office hours. With someone to call on, personnel can fully utilize their skills and maximize their talents. Workers do not need to be worry of accidents that may happen, since a sense of security and protection is given to them, as a result they become more focused. Also, in return workers and personnel would work doubly harder to showcase their affection to the people who have helped them in work and their gratitude to the organization and their bosses. Another essential issue that arises from the proper managing of things is decision making. Making a sound decision is hard and when at one point an organization has arrived to a decision, it is always certain that not everyone would be pleased, there would always be contentions. Generally, there are no rules that would make a person a good decision –maker (Plous, 1993). There are always risks that are involved and often times these risks impose immense problems that lead to the downfall of what seems a fair decision at the beginning. There are, however things that can help a person in making decision. Information should first be gathered and accumulated about the issue at hand. Careful study and precautions must be done to properly weigh things. In making a decision it is important to first ask who will be affected once the decision is handed out. Then, we should also understand who will benefit and to whom the decision is detrimental. In making a decision, one should decide for the good of majority and sacrifice his own self interest. To be a good decision maker one needs to be self-less. It is a noble act, a supreme sacrifice. A situation that recently took place in my office is the grudge that happens between two of my colleagues. The conflict occurs because of a misunderstanding for the division of labor in the office. Due to the misunderstanding, a part of the job was left undone. When the deadline arrives and portion of their proposal was still incomplete, pressure started to build up and emotions run high. As a result, a dispute between them existed. For a period of one month or so they started not to talk with each other after their proposal was dumped. Since, both are my friends and I am the one who is being caught from their fight I decided to talk to them and invite them to be part of a project that was assigned to me. Although they were hesitant to work with each other, I convinced them telling they are the most trusted person I knew that could help me and the only person which fitted the job. Professional as they are, they put aside their differences, and worked as a real team. With me calling the shots, and making sure everything is carefully attended and no single detail taken for granted we finished an astonishing job with lots of time to spare. We can infer that by setting aside their argument and their pride for a better cause, and giving each other another chance to work a fine output is achieved. They decided to be selfless and put the organization on top of their priority. References Giddens, A. (2001). Sociology. Cambridge: Polity. Kahneman, D. (2000). Choice, Values, Frames. Cambridge: The Unviersity Press. Lauria, A. (1964). Respeto, Relajo and Inter-Personal Relations in Puerto Rico Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 3 (No. 2). Plous, S. (1993). The Psychology of Judgement and Decision Making New York: McGraw-Hill. Virine, L. (2007). Management Concepts: Vienna.

The uk housing sector

The uk housing sector Introduction The UK housing sector has been under the shadow of ‘Credit Crunch since June 2007, which initiated from United States and began to cover the globe. Not only the construction industry, but all the other industries including textiles etc. were affected due to this. The housing sector was flourishing day by day as more projects where introduced and the log books were filled till next couple of month, until June 2007, the credit crunch began to expand its feathers, after which the whole streamlines began to draw down. The unwanted result for UK housing sector appeared in the form of; 20 30 % of house prices fell from its maximum level, from 2007 onwards Mortgages are not approved as frequently as it was done before and only 50% are approved and new home are not built as frequently as were done before 2007. Goodhart and Hofmann (2008) explain that the mortgage rates are directly dependant on the banks which has a strong impact on the price of the houses. Due to Financial Recession an alarming situation arose resulting in change of different policies within an organization in order to survive. The Large House Builder, plc is a large UK national house builder which has taken necessary steps to counteract the ‘Credit Crunch by maintaining a balance between its cost and its expenditure. This it has done by cutting down its costs, selling the portion of land which it purchased so that it could be sold at a reason able price when required and by repositioning itself into social housing sector. Appleyard (2006) states that the UKs housing sector is going through a change. The current recession has enabled the housing sector to change. This change is usually in the form of merging one firm into another so that both benefit from each others experience and expertise. The company board of Large House Builders, plc has therefore decided to attain the services of Small Firm Ltd which is a small, regional housing developer in the South East of England. This report will address the key change management issues which would take place when there is mergence of Small Housing Builders Ltd into Large Housing Builders plc in regard to its organizational structure and culture. The second part will be the further analysis of this mergence in the form of preparation of a change management plan for the first two years. LARGE HOUSE BUILDER plc The UK national house builder or the Large Housing Builder (LHB) plc has major contribution in UK for the last decade (Appleyard, 2006). The company has a regional structure with offices throughout different locations of the country. This regional structure is managed by a regional manager who is responsible to answer to the central management board concerning his tasks which mainly include the profit /loss, purchasing of land and all the procedures involved in achieving it and the development and marketing of the site. A recent research done by The Future Shape of the Sector Commission (2006) indicates that in 2006, Large House Builders were successful to build 25,000 houses. But due to the recession in 2007, this figure is said to decrease drastically. The research further suggests that to safeguard the market from adverse effects of credit crunch, Large firms started to merge with Small firms in order to benefit itself along with the other firm. The Large House builder plc, being a big organization has the capability to stabilize it in a number of ways. The current Recession has limited the space for the large housing builders to expand further. The only way suggested is by mergence, which can be done by having strong internal and external relationships within and outside the company. This will result in maximum output and the number one priority to satisfy the customer is hence achieved (The Future Shape of the Sector Commission, 2006) ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE Greenberg (1996) emphasizes that organization structure should be such that it should clearly elaborate the arrangement between the single and assembly of people corresponding to the assigned duties, abilities and power with a certain organization. Although it is not possible to see the organizational structure physically but it can be presented in the form of a chart known as â€Å"organization chart† which elaborates the layout of the parties involved in the organization. Such organization chart can be seen for Large House Builders (Appendix B). The organization structure of Large Housing Builders is a complex one as many parties are involved in this firm. In fact there are as many as 20 sub-parties working at a time for a single project. They can be from designing team to finished project, transportation and logistics of construction materials to finance department, from IT department to Estimation works etc. From this fact it can be seen that it is quite difficult to structure the organization on one single page. In order to define the goals, the relevant part of the organization is magnified yet there is a deep inter-relation between different parties of the company which hurdles the way. As stated earlier, the firm is making its best for the survival in the current Credit Crunch. Although the top management is giving more importance to work hard in order to achieve prosperity which it has seen in the form of positive development yet the entire struggle is ending in vain as the current financial crisis is not permitting to prosper. The management of the firm feels like climbing a huge mountain when it comes to paying the salaries to the staff in the current credit crunch. According to Lu (2009, CL) the structure of the company is the correct usage of the potential facilities and the capacity that a company has. There can be three ways in which the project can be integrated into the firm: Functional Structure In this type of structure, much emphasize is given to functional part. Projects are located in functional units such as human resources, finance and marketing where as the projects located in function which has dominant role with relevant staff being seconded from other functions for duration of the project. The disadvantage is this structure is that all groups are more focused towards functional manager. Matrix Structure The Matrix structure is the one which has both the functional manager as well as the project manager. The members of the project have to report to both the functional as well as the project managers. There are three types of matrix structures according to their strengths; a. Functional Matrix Structure In this the functional managers are more dominant than the project managers. This type of matrix system is also called â€Å"Weak Matrix† system and is mostly suitable for large Firms. b. Balanced Matrix Structure In this type the project managers and the functional managers share equal power amongst them. This type of matrix structure is also called a â€Å"Perfect Matrix†. c. Project Matrix Structure In this type of structure, project managers are more dominant over the functional managers. This type of matrix structure is also called â€Å"Strong Matrix† and is mostly suitable for small firms. Project Structure In this type, the projects are self-contained structural units with each unit having its own staff members and resources. From the above mentioned type of matrix structures, the Large House Builders is having the â€Å"Functional Matrix Structure†(Fig.1). The firm was having a boom in construction as it produced about 25,000 houses in 2006. With the initiation of Recession Period in 2007, the firm started to stabilize its self by cutting down its costs. The firms performance was good when considering each project separately but on a broader perspective, there was less or poor coordination between different projects as the structure of the firm was based on some prototype or typical functions. Thus this structure permitted Large House Builders to enhance their accuracy level by keeping themselves gentle and adjustable with the members of the different projects. In the functional matrix structure, the staff members report to the functional manager as well as the project manager as stated by Lu (2009, CL). This sometimes took a shape of minor clashes between different parties and thus halting and making delay in the project. By analyzing the firm, it was seen that the structure of the company changes as the project progresses. These changes were not massive in nature; in fact some minor changes were taking place. When the bidding phase starts, the firm was showing a firm functional type of structure. As the project initiated, the Functional Structure branched out into two parts. When talking about individual project, Project Structure was mostly dominant and the overall structure of the firm was found to be Matrix rather than Functional. Finally at the completion of the project, Matrix Structure was found which influenced both the Projects as well as the firm itself. As stated earlier, that the company has regional managers which are controlled by the management board thus indicate that it is a â€Å"divisionalized organization† as whole of the structure of company is well organized. The characteristics of divisionalized organization are stated below; The management board directs the divisional members who further authorize the regional members to take control of the profit/loss, land acquisition and marketing. This type of arrange corresponds to the â€Å"middle line† part of the organization. This can be considered as the backbone of an organization where key decisions are taken Lu (2009). The firm has â€Å"limited vertical decentralization† of authority as regional managers are in charge of their region and the company is very much dependant on them. The regional managers are in focus of their jobs perspective and have only one goal of â€Å"Standardization of outputs† and thus producing quality houses in favor of the customers. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE According to Schein (2004) culture is an in-depth knowledge of assumptions, faiths and values that the members of the organization take as granted. However, it is difficult to describe it and can simply be regarded as the charm or the identity of the organization. Organizational culture has got both the formal as well as the informal components (Lu, 2009cl). Formal elements like aims and objectives were apparent as all the necessary steps were taken to strengthen the firm not only in its own field but other forms of construction as well. Whereas the informal components such as racism, religious symbolism etc. some what were not in line with the latest policies of the company. The board management took a notice of these moral values which were creating problem and hindrance in the achievement of the firms goals. According to Handy (1993) there can be four types of cultures as stated below; Power Culture In power culture, whole of the control is concentrated to very few individuals. This usually have a family type culture and is suitable for small to medium sized firms where the reaction to the current market trend is very instant. Role Culture In role culture the roles are assigned on the basis of functions. These functions are allocated to different member to do the job. Such a setup is usually in large firms. Achievement Culture Achievement culture is very much based on results and outcomes. Examples can be such firms in with much research and development activities take place. Support Culture In this type of culture, much importance is given to an individual person within the organization. Example can be such as within a design team only importance given to Architect. From the above discuss, Large House Builders plc were found to have â€Å"ROLE† culture because each member fully focused on the role given by the top management. The staff members with not encouraged to do such task which was not stated in their role statement. As all the managerial bodies were assigned their role statements, the junior managers tried to prove their mettle by giving more in the current credit crunch whereas the senior management was try to stabilize the firm in its own way which resulted in some unsettlement between the organization. ORGANIZATIONAL STRETEGY Hersey et.al (1969) defines a strategy as the setting and arrangement of the tasks which an organization wants to achieve. There is a long debate as to whether the strategy is set first or the structure of the organization is set first. But for a successful completion of the desired aim, strategy and structure are always in line with each other Lu (2009,Cl). The high standard of the firm was due to the fact that the management board was quite aware of the strength and weaknesses of their company. Every step taken was towards the stabilization of the business. The management board of Large House Builders was seeing the current credit crunch but was unaware that this could give a real tough time to them. So a meeting was called in which certain points were drawn down, the main theme was that the Banks were unable to give the money to the clients which in return resulted in a complete stop to construction of some time. According to Lu and Sexton (2006) the firm in the phase of innovation can be either explorative or exploitative which counts on the Structure capital, Human capital and relationship capital When seeing Large House Builder plc under the generic company level strategies illustrated by Miles and Snow (1978), the company was found to be â€Å"ANALYZERS†. The company was doing well and was very stable before the credit crunch in 2007. This can be judged by the performance of the company in 2006 as the company produced 25,000 houses indicating that it has very well organized structure and they are very bothered about their efficiency, performance and reputation. Thus they were having good expertise in their field of work with good amount of resources available for their expansion and establishment. Being analyzers, the company will expand their business in the same field i.e. construction of houses which may be on a larger or smaller scale but the basic aim will be stabilization, reputation and good performance. SMALL HOUSE BUILDERS: The Small Firm Ltd is a regional housing developer was has its operations in the South East of England. The firm is a family owned organization in which all the top management is from the same family indicating that the culture of the firm will be a family culture. The key members will have strong belief and good understanding between them. The Small Firm Ltd is completely customer oriented. High priority given to customers is very essential to thrust forward in business. Customer satisfaction is the key to success for the firm. The Small Firm Ltd produced 1,000 social housing units in 2006 which is the clear indication of well established link with public and private authorities. The close link between different authorities is very beneficial as such types of strategies are helpful when there is a limited space and time to stabilize. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE The Small Firm Ltd has highly motivated and trustworthy top management whose total emphasize is on customer satisfaction. The firm has produced 1,000 housing units in 2006 for different housing associations and local authorities. This indicates that the firm has strong ties with its customers and all of them have good understanding amongst them. As previously stated, the organizational structures can be Functional, matrix or project structures Lu (2009). From them above discussion it is quite obvious that the firm has â€Å"Project Matrix Structure† which is also called strong matrix due to the reason that in this matrix type, Project Manager has the authority to influence its staff and workers. The workers have to answer to the Project Manager for their work which is the case in Small Firm Ltd due to the strong tie between the Project Manager and the workers. The role of the Functional Manager in firm is independent to the Project Manager as the Functional manager focuses more on the technical side and the resources allocation. The resources and cost allocation is quite tough job when it comes to a complex project. According to Lu (2009), there may be a conflict developed between the Project Manager and the Functional Manager due to the resource allocation. The firm posses a â€Å"machine organization† due to the following reasons as indicated by Lu (2009): The firm is much focused on technostructureso that it competes the market and its competent. The firm shows limited horizontal decentralization as the members of the board share more ideas with the project manager and less with functional managers although both manager types are important for its success. The labor of the firm is hard working and always motivated to do the tasks which contribute to the betterment of the country and the firm. There is a strong communication and co-ordination grip between the labor and the project manager and thus show standardization of work process. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Deal and Kennedy (1982) explained that to check whether an organization is successful or not, study its culture. The Small Firm Ltd has a family culture which means that level of trust and motivation is very high. From the types of cultures explained by Handy (1993), the Small Firm Ltd is having a â€Å"POWER† culture (fig. 4), the reason of power that the total concentration of the power and authority will be on a single person who will be the leader. Small firm ltd is having an informal type of structure which indicated the strong influence of the leader (family member) the staff members including managers. The firm can easily cope with any external discrepancies that may arise during a tenure time of any project. Thus making it self stabilize creates less problems and such firm can easily cope with financial crunch. ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY Structure and Strategy should always be inline with each other (Lu, 2009). Thus this type of strategy can be found in Small Firm Ltd as the firm can easily cope with financial crisis. From the types of strategies stated by Miles Snow (1978) the Small Firm Ltd was found to have â€Å"DEFENDER† type of strategy. The Small Firm ltd is very market based firm, close study of market and new trends in market is very beneficial for the company as it helps to change the short comings and thus increase the profit. The strong relation between the top management and the departmental management is in strong observation between the leader which is very beneficial to enhance the chances of survival in the time of difficulty. CURRENT SITUATION The management board of Large House Builder plc has decided to merge with Small Firm Ltd in order to stabilize itself in the ongoing credit crunch period (Appendix 1). This is not the only aim; in fact other things are also taken into consideration like Large House Builder plc is trying to adopt the expertise of social housing as well so that if there is a slump in the construction of large houses, the company can mingle with the social housing sector. So there is a need of change between two companies which can easily be brought into practice by implementing a change management plan. CHANGE MANAGEMENT According to Lu (2009, LP2) change is an important fact of life and the key success is to manage it successfully. A successful manager is the one who doesnt allow change to happen on its own, in fact he make proper plans and strategies to implement change. Change doesnt take place at once rather it can take place many months and even years for the different parties involved in change to settle down and know each other. Such a situation of change management has risen up between the Large House Builders plc and the Small Firm plc. Both the companies are opposite to each other in the since that both have different organizational structures, cultures and strategies but the common thing between them is that the both are in the construction business and especially in house building. Both companies will have the following Organizational issues; Structural issues The large house builders have functional matrix structure and the small firm ltd has a project matrix structure. The small firm will have to work really hard to come with the structure of the large house builders. The large house builders have a very well organized formal structure where as the small firm has an informal structure. Cultural issues The Large house builder has a Role culture in which every manager has a certain role assigned on which he is only answerable for his work to the top management whereas the small firm has power culture in which whole power is concentrated on the leader or single person. Such issues may produce a clash between two parties. Strategic issues The Large House Builders have adopted the analyzers strategy where they are keen to expand their company according to given marketing conditions and respond to market changes. On the other hand, Small firm adopts defenders strategy in which they do the job in their own field of expertise saving themselves fro outside threats because of having family culture. Such issues may cause a hurdle towards success between the two companies. To cope up with such difficulties a two year change management plan will be setup so that the process of integrating two companies of different culture, structure and strategy can run smoothly. TWO YEARS CHANGE MANAGEMENT PLAN To bring about change in the organization, necessary two change management plan is to be setup for the proper implication of roles and jobs of the two different teams i.e. the Large House Builder plc and the Small Firm ltd. Lewins (1947) three stage change management plan for the individuals of the organization can be setup as: Unfreeze Change Re-freeze Kottars (1996) eight stages change management plan will be used to implement a successful change in the organization. The eight stage plan is: Establishing a sense of urgency Creating the guiding coalition Developing a vision and strategy Communication the change vision Empowering broad-based action Generating short-term wins Consolidation gains and producing more change Anchoring new approaches in the culture The two change management approaches will be integrated in such a way that a proper setup over a period of two years will be established which will enhance the companys performance. FIRST YEAR The first year of the mergence of Small Firm ltd into the Large House Builders plc will be very crucial as many objections and discrepancies are likely to be encountered. Though the anticipated outcomes of the mergence is likely to generate a lot of benefit to both the companies yet the initial few months are regarded as very sensitive for the Small Firm Ltd. The change management plan is broken down in Quarters of a year and possible planned workout is analyzed as follows: FIRST QUARTER (Q1): During the first quarter of the first year the Small Firm Ltd will be in the learning stage and would be considering ways to overcome the barriers which would resist their way towards the change. According to Greenberg (1996), an organization can encounter with two different types of barriers in change. Organizational Barriers to Change Individual Barriers to Change 1. ORGANIZATIONAL BARRIERS TO CHANGE Sometimes terms and conditions are such set in an organization which barriers a change to take place (Katz and Kahn, 1978). Following are the organizational barriers to change in the view of Greenberg (1996): a) Structural inertia The Small Firm Ltd and the Large House Builders plc significantly differ with respect to the organization structure they have worked in before. The Small firm ltd will learn to adopt the divisional structure of the large house builders by mixing their manager with the divisional managers of large house builders. b) Work group inertia The large house builders and the small firm have their own ways to complete the assigned task. A task is not just completed as it a part of the job in fact, it is because the person learn from his social values to complete a certain task as assigned Greenberg (1996). So to tackle the pressure of completion of task at both ends is different which needs to be considered when assigning tasks. c) Threats to existing balance of power This issue is very important when it comes to change within two organizations as the managing power of both firms is entirely different from each other. For example the Large builders have a management board and a CEO who is in charge of making key decisions whereas in Small firm there is a single power or a leader who takes key decisions. After mergence, a conflict would be raised up during the designation and allotment of powers within the organization. d) Previously unsuccessful change efforts. Both the firms are quite familiar with the fact that change management theories recently adopted by firms havent proved to be successful yet both are willing to stabilize themselves with firm motivation and hard work. 2. INDIVIDUAL BARRIERS TO CHANGE The Small firm being in the initial stage of mergence will be facing great difficulty to cope with the individual barriers to change. According to a research done by Nadler (1987), there are many factors that hurdle the way of people towards a change. These factors are: a) Economic insecurity A very important point which comes into ones mind during a change at any level of work is that whether my job is secured? Am I getting the right salary? Such issues when taken into consideration during a change in such a time of Credit crunch may alter the minds of the employees of not only the Large builders but in fact the small firm ltd also. The reason being that both the firms are going to re-locate and re-assign the tasks to the individuals which my interrupt the desired performance of members. b) Fear of unknown While following the same routine of work as followed by the staff for quite a long time, the staff felt secured that they had a good level of understanding developed between other staff members and managers. Merging with someone you havent worked with before will set up a fear of unknown and everyone will be in a state that something can go wrong any time Greenberg (1996). c) Threats to social relationship Due to a change the members of the firm feel un-relaxed and insecure as they had good relation ships with the members they were previously working with. Due to this a lack of communication would be developed which would resist the fluency of work. d) Habit By doing a similar kind of work for past many years develops a natural phenomenon for an individual and the person becomes habitual to it. Any alteration in form of a change/new job, can result in mental dissatisfaction resulting is low performance. e) Failure to recognize need for change In situations where the individuals of the organization are unable to understand the necessity of change can result in a complete disaster. To overcome this, necessary steps such as awareness campaigns are run to establish a level of understanding among the workers so that they are well aware of the advantages of change. During the First Quarter (Q1) of the first year, the Small firm Ltd will be coping up with the initial difficulties of settlement in the organization. With the further enhancement of the Two year change management plan, there would not be any discrepancy left within both the organizations after mergence.

Application for Finance Position Essay -- Entry Level Finance Cover Le

Tell us about your F&C experiences: At Citigroup, I had to develop a new model to forecast revenues from partnerships, using return on investment ratio as proxy for profitability of the partnership and at Nestlà ©, when setting price and communication strategies, I had to be fully aware and have an understanding about management accounting and the implications of the strategies for the income statement. I feel very comfortable with numbers and I enjoy the challenges associated with financial analysis, which are two of the reasons I am specializing in Corporate Finance. I am convinced that I have achieved the level of financial knowledge required for this position and, as my transcripts will show, my grades - not only, but especially in finance-related courses - are on the top of the class. During my master’s degree, I have: - Conducted several financial analysis using value creation models, NPV and profitability ratios such as ROI, ROE, ROCE and income statement ratios, which also included risk profiling through beta measurements, operational risk and financial risk; - Build financial business models, including accounting statements (Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows and Income Statement) and forecasts; - Valuated companies using DCF, transaction multiples and peer groups methods. Additionally, I have an excellent command of the Microsoft Excel program, including notions of VBA, which you might find valuable for this position. Please indicate your salary expectations (Total package yearly) My research shows me that an adequate salary for this position in Switzerland would be somewhere between CHF70,000 and CHF90,000. However, there are many things to consider: my salary would depend on the responsibilities and d... ...mance, and broadened my understanding of the food-industry sector. Commitment: I have a true desire to improve myself and to transform my ambition, determination and commitment into high performance standards and excellence to every assignment. I have worked for Nestlà © before and I am convinced that it is the perfect employer for me. What is your role will you have to get in 5 years? Most importantly, I want to contribute as much as I can to Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s operations around the world. I want to learn the necessary skills to assume more management responsibilities and new challenges, and to increase the impact I can deliver to Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s customers and projects. I am not looking for a specific future position, but I believe that this position will develop me personally, professionally and technically, allowing me to engage in strategy development and implementation.

Australopithecus

The fossilized remains of this 3 year-old early human child are often referred to as belonging to ‘Lucy’s baby' since she was found only a few miles south from where Lucy was found Lucy over two decades earlier, even though the child's fossil is actually 100,000 years older than famous Lucy. She is nicknamed ‘Selam’ after the Amharic (Ethiopia’s official language) word for ‘peace,’ and is the most complete early human child known up until Neanderthal times. Prior to Selam’s discovery, researchers knew very little about early human growth patterns as the early human fossil record consists of few children. Because Selam’s baby teeth erupted in a pattern similar to a three-year-old chimpanzee’s, researchers now know A. afarensis children shared a chimpanzee’s fast growth rate. But her brain size indicates that a human growth rate was evolving. CT-scans of her skull show small canine teeth forming in the skull, telling us she was female. Her partial skeleton is made up of a nearly complete skull and torso, and several limb bones—her legs indicate she could walk upright, but other skeletal features showed she could also climb trees. The hyoid bone beneath her neck looks ape-like, and her gorilla-like collarbone and long, curved fingers show significant tree-climbing. Image Credit: Zeresenay Alemseged

Modern World: Things Fall Apart

â€Å" We cannot leave the matter in his hands because he doesn’t not understand our customs, just as we do not understand his. We say he is foolish because he does not know our ways, and perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his. Let him go away† (*1). This quote shows the major theme of the book which is change vs tradition. The quote shows the theme perfectly; basically it shows the ignorance of most of the Umuofia clan and their fear of the white peoples culture taking over theirs. They are dealing with the question of whether change should be privileged over tradition.The people of Umuofia want a little change but at the same time they have fear of completely losing their way of life, the people are divided on the subject at hand at what the right and wrong thing to do is, and how much is to much change. When the first white men was seen there was controversy already. The man was seen in Abame, the elders immediately went to see their oracle out of fear. The oracle told the elders that â€Å" the strange man would break their clan and spread destruction among them† (*2). So the people killed the white men immediately out of fear.Then a few weeks later out of revenge three white men went to the Abame market and shot everyone except the people that weren't there. The Abame people were foolish they should have known â€Å" Never kill a man who says nothing† ( * 3). But regardless of why the shooting happened at the Abame market the gossip had started and the fear had set in for the white men. After the Abame incident, other white people began to show. The white missionaries went to Umuofia and had begun building churches there and began getting converts.Not everyone was fond of the new religion though, but the leaders of the clan were not scarred because they believed that the weird faith would not last. Missionaries also arrived in the village of Mbanta. The missionaries begun telling the people of the villages abo ut the new religion â€Å" We have been sent by this great God to ask you to leave your wicked ways and false gods and turn to Him so that you may be saved when you die† (*4). The missionaries started to have the people of the villages question their religion and culture, and to make them think am I just worshiping false gods of wood and stone?Is all the rituals and killing and destroying innocent children actually right? Many questions began to stir. One person in particular who was captivated by the new religion was Nwoye, Okonkwo’s son. Nwoye became one of the first converts, but because of this change with his life that meant that he was no longer part of Okonkwo’s life or ever be considered his son. Even though this hurt Nwoye, he felt a relief in his life, so he thought that he could find other people within his new religion that would love him more then his father ever had.As the missionaries kept on spreading the word of their new religion and changing p eoples life’s, they decided to ask for some land to build their church. So the clan decided to give them as much land somewhere as they wanted. The missionaries were very happy that they were getting the land, but what they didn’t know was the land they were getting was called the â€Å"evil forest† because it was alive with sinister forces and was evil. The â€Å" evil forest† was where the clan had buried everyone that died from evil diseases.There was a so called curse that was set on the forest, so the people of Mbanta expected the missionaries to all be dead within four days. Not knowing of the curse the missionaries begun immediately clearing out the forest and building their church, and as each day went by and no one was dying the people of Mbanta were questioned about why the curse wasn't working on the white men. The church in Mbanta kept getting stronger and stronger as each day passed and was getting more converts. Okonkwo remained angered at t he new changes in Mbanto, â€Å" until the abominable gang was chased out of the village with whips there would be no peace† (*5).Although some did not mind the changes â€Å" It is not our custom to fight for our gods, let us not presume to do so now† (*6). Although everyone had their own opinions of the matter at hand, the assembly out of fear decided to exclude the christians from the privileges and life of the clan. Even though the new faith had only a few converts at first, the christians quickly grew and had became a small community and they were not going to be easily shut down. After the seven years of Okonkwo living in Mbanta, he was finally able to go back to Umuofia after being exiled.Although things had been changing in Mbanta, Okonkwo was unaware that Umuofia had also been changing. He still expected to just go back and have everything still be the same, even though that was the total opposite. The new church was not the only thing that had changed since h e was gone in Umuofia; the white men also brought a new government to the village. The men of power were no longer the high titled men, chief priests, and the elders, the men of power were now the District of Commissioner, and the court messengers.The District Commissioner had become the head of the government in Umuofia who judged cases ignorantly, then there were the court messengers who guarded the new prison, which was filled with citizens who would not listen to the white man’s laws. Okonkwo was very confused about what has happened to the village he once had some power over. â€Å" What is it that has happened to our people? Why have they lost the power to fight (*7)? † Okonkwo was so flabbergasted about how his once perfectly traditional south african village had changed into a government controlled christian village.So many things were changing, not only did the white men bring a new religion, and a new government, but they also brought trading to the village, which helped the village have more of a money flow and schools were beginning to be built. The clan had become barely recognizable to Okonkwo anymore, it was falling apart in his eyes. The village had not only begun to fall apart in Okonkwo’s eyes but in others soon to follow too. On the annual worship of the earth goddess day, one of the egwugwu’s masks were accidentally torn off by Enoch, which was one of the greatest crimes a man could commit.Enoch showed everyone that that the egwugwu’s were merely men impersonating spirits, therefore Enoch had basically killed an ancestral spirit. From Enoch doing that he helped the missionaries falsify the Umuofia's religion and show that it was all superstition, but he also re-sparked the conflict between the christian church and the clan. That was the last straw for the clan with dealing with the christians, â€Å" Tell him to go back to his house and leave us alone†¦ But this shrine which he built must be destroye d. We shall no longer allow it in our midst† (*8).The clan came in agreement to burns down the church; which makes Okonkwo very happy for once. The men in Umuofia finally begun to take back the village that was once theirs, so the next few days the men were armed and stayed aware. As the men were on cloud nine thinking things might end up going back to the traditional ways, they forgot to remember that their was still a government. The district commissioner was at a tour when the clan decided to burn down the church and not follow the laws. But when the District Commissioner did come back from his tour, Mr.Smith, who was the head missionary ,immediately caught the Commissioner up on what had happened while he was away. After finding out what had happened the Commissioner got his messenger to round up the leaders of Umuofia for a meeting. When all six leaders, including Okonkwo, met up at the commissioners headquarters they were asked what had happened, before they even had a c hance to explain what had happened then they were immediately arrested. â€Å" I have brought you here because you joined together to molest others, to burn people’s houses and their place of worship† (*8).The six leaders were fined with two hundred bags of cowries and were sentenced to prison and would not be released until they paid the fine, and if they choose not to they would be taken to Umuru to be hung. Thankfully each one of the leaders paid the fine, and were set free. Okonkwo was so incredible angered when he was let out of the prison. Later that night when he went back to his hut he could barley even sleep. All he could think about was revenge, and how no matter what he was not going to back out of his plan.The next morning he went to the meeting place, which was the marketplace where he was going to meet Obierika. â€Å" All our gods are weeping. Idemili is weeping, Ogwugwu is weeping, Agbala is weeping, and all the others. Our dead fathers are weeping bec ause of the shameful sacrilege they are suffering and the abomination we have all seen with our eyes† (*9). Okonkwo decided that enough was enough he was not going to stand by and watch his clan fall apart any longer. â€Å" We must root out this evil. And if our brothers take the side of evil we must root them out too.And we must do it now. We must bale this water now that it is only ankle deep†¦ † (*10). And that is exactly what Okonkwo did. He stood by his word, and he did what he felt was right. He shot and killed a messenger at the market place, where every person witnessed with their own eyes. Shortly after this the District Commissioner arrived at Okonkwo’s compound to retrieve him to be killed because of the sin he had just committed, but the commissioner along with a few other people had realized he was to late the deed had been already done.Okonkwo was found hanging dead on a tree behind his compound; he committed suicide. When Okonkwo was found de ad Obierika turned to the District Commissioner and said, â€Å" That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog† (*11). So rather then wait to be killed and humiliated, Okonkwo took matters into his own hands and killed himself. In the book Things fall apart the main character Okonkwo ended up both losing and winning at the end.He lost in the sense of the new religion, and government, and basically just the overall change ended up winning over tradition. Which was what he feared all along. But in a sense he won because the last thing he did before he died was something he completely believed was the right thing to do, so he never gave up or stopped trying, even though he knows that he did all that he could and tried. But In the end it was just unbearable for him to live any longer with all that had changed in his village, so he did what he wanted to do, which was killing the messenger, then he killed himsel f.He killed himself because he understood that since he killed the messenger he was then going to be killed for the sin he had committed. But he he didn't want to be killed by someone else and be made as an example, and he didn’t want to give the satisfaction to the District Of Commissioner by letting himself get killed by him. So in the end he just gave up and realized their was nothing else he could do about the situation at hand. â€Å"The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others† (* 11).That shows that no matter that people will always see things differently, what is good or bad or what is right or what is wrong. No matter what, the world will never be agreeing on the matter at hand, there will always be fighting and arguing as long as their is something to be argued about. So in the end through all the fighting and heartache Okonkwo’s death symbolized the tradition dyeing out and change taking over.