Sunday, January 26, 2020

The Essence Of Mbo Business Essay

The Essence Of Mbo Business Essay The use of management objectives was first widely advocated in the 1950s by the noted management theorist Peter Drucker. It can be defined as a process whereby the employees and the superiors come together to identify common goals, the employees set their goals to be achieved, the standards to be taken as the criteria for measurement of their performance and contribution and deciding the course of action to be followed. The essence of MBO is participative goal setting, choosing course of actions and decision making. An important part of the MBO is the measurement and the comparison of the employees actual performance with the standards set Ideally, when employees themselves have been involved with the goal setting and the choosing the course of action to be followed by them, they are more likely to fulfill their responsibilities. THE PROCESS OF MBO: Management by objectives (MBO) involves setting specific measurable goals with each employee and then periodically discussing his/her progress toward these goals. The term MBO almost always refers to a comprehensive organization-wide goal setting and appraisal program that consist of six main steps: Set the organizations goals. Establish organization-wide plan for next year and set goals. Set departmental goals. Here department heads and their superiors jointly set goals for their departments Discuss and allocate department goals. Department heads discuss the departments goals with all subordinates in the department (often at a department-wide meeting) and ask them to develop their own individual goals; in other words, how can each employee contribute to the departments attaining its goals. Define expected results (set individual goals). Here, department heads and their subordinates set short-term performance targets. Performance review and measure the results. Department heads compare actual performance for each employee with expected results. Provide feedback. Department heads hold periodic performance review meetings with subordinates to discuss and evaluate progress in achieving expected results. MBO appraisals are suitable for measuring quantitative and qualitative output of high-level employees. High-level employees such as managers generally report to directors, according to hierarchy and the chain of authority present in many organizations. Therefore, managers and the directors or executives they report to often work together to establish MBO goals for this type of appraisal. Performance Appraisal : A Look Employers use performance appraisals to measure both the quantity and quality of production. Performance appraisals typically are conducted annually, and employers often base decisions about salary raises, wage increases and year-end bonuses on employee performance. An MBO appraisal is just one method among several types of performance measurement tools. Others include: Graphic Ratings Scales, Narrative Evaluations, 360-Degree Appraisals, Peer Evaluations, Forced Ranking Or Differentiation Appraisals. One well-regarded and widely used approach to performance appraisal is called MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES (MBO). By definition, under this method, you evaluate your employees on the basis of results. MBO is more than performance appraisal its a construct for managing the entire organization. Its breadth includes the organizations vision, values, strategies, goals, and performance measurement. MBO (management by objectives) methods of performance appraisal are results-oriented. That is, they seek to measure employee performance by examining the extent to which predetermined work objectives have been met. MBO begins with managers at the top of the company setting goals. Then managers and employees at each successively lower level develop their own goals. Employees goals are designed to support the goals of their own managers. In this way, the entire organization is linked together in the pursuit of objectives. The focus is on outcomes that are clear, specific, measurable, and supported by action plans, benchmark dates, and deadlines. All aspects of the goal-setting process also apply to the employees personal and developmental goals, such as building their skills or knowledge base. Once an objective is agreed, the employee is usually expected to self-audit; that is, to identify the skills needed to achieve the objective. Typically they do not rely on others to locate and specify their strengths and weaknesses. They are expected to monitor their own development and progress. After employees meet with their managers to establish their goals and action plans, the employees return to work newly energized and focused on specific short-term and longer-term targets. Simultaneously, their managers monitor the employees performance, provide coaching and support, remove barriers or help employees overcome them, and make adjustments and course corrections as necessary. The employees performance and progress are clear, measured, documented, and transparent every step of the way. Employees are highly motivated through MBO because theyve been able to actively participate in the process of setting goals, instead of simply having the goals dumped on them. Their involvement in this type of decision-making helps meet many of their higher-level needs for accomplishment, achievement, recognition, and self-worth. MBO brings a wide range of advantages to the appraisal process: It helps build relationships between managers and employees. MBO includes a great deal of contact and communication between managers and their employees, which builds camaraderie, communication, and trust all key elements in strengthening teamwork. It fosters a comfortable climate in the workplace. MBO helps build an atmosphere of respect and trust within a given department and beyond. Because managers work directly with employees to identify and solve problems, MBO improves the quality of decision-making and problem solving. Its fair. Employees are evaluated on the basis of their performance and attainment of goals, which is regarded as fair and energizing. Its quick and easy. Performance evaluation forms associated with MBO are a breeze to complete. Typically, they spell out each objective as established at the beginning of the cycle, and then provide a space for the manager to summarize the results. Some MBO forms also include a scale that asks for a numerical assessment of the employees success in meeting their goals. These scales guide the managers in the rating process by including specific descriptions of excellent, good, fair, and poor levels of goal attainment. Management by Objectives and performance appraisal: The MBO approach overcomes some of the problems that arise as a result of assuming that the employee traits needed for job success can be reliably identified and measured. Instead of assuming traits, the MBO method concentrates on actual outcomes. If the employee meets or exceeds the set objectives, then he or she has demonstrated an acceptable level of job performance. Employees are judged according to real outcomes, and not on their potential for success, or on someones subjective opinion of their abilities. The guiding principle of the MBO approach is that direct results can be observed, whereas the traits and attributes of employees (which may or may not contribute to performance) must be guessed at or inferred. The MBO method recognizes the fact that it is difficult to neatly dissect all the complex and varied elements that go to make up employee performance. MBO advocates claim that the performance of employees cannot be broken up into so many constituent parts as one might take apart an engine to study it. But put all the parts together and the performance may be directly observed and measured. CONCLUSION: Although OD emphasizes the macro aspects of the organization, the individual is not ignored. In fact, individual developmental aspirations are identified and integrated with management development; managerial needs are translated into personal development objectives and action plans. Management by Objectives, the widely acclaimed and applied approach to management, has undergone considerable change over the years. In its early development, MBO was primarily an appraisal tool. Next, it integrated individual needs with organizational objectives. MBO was then expanded to include long range, strategic planning. But to remain a viable and effective managerial system, MBO must continue to evolve. New knowledge, where appropriate, must be merged with MBO. The inputs to the organization are transformed through the MBO process to produce the outputs. To be sure, this new MBO model is complex, but so is management. MBO must continue its evolutionary path and continue to aid, not add to, the work of the manager.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Philips and Matsushita Essay

1. Which factors account for differences in strategies and structures of Philips and Matsushita? What are their distinctive competencies and incompetencies? 2. What are the key organizational challenges that each company is facing at the end of the case? What recommendations would you give to the respective CEOs? 1.The two companies, each from different regions of the world, have an extensive history that have caused for different cultures, strategies and structures to be implemented (Bartlett & Beamish, 2010: 301). Philips, as an European company with the â€Å"old boys network† originally had a structure that Bartlett and Beamish (2010) classify as the Decentralized Federation. It was a structure that was based on internal relationships. The National Organizations (NO) that were in place had informal power over their product divisions. However this structure led to great distance between the corporate management and its subsidiaries with information and knowledge not spreading fluently from one NO to the next. This fragmentation, which Bartlett and Beamish (2010) state as a limitation of this form of structure, increased costs and promotes inefficiency. The learning capacity of the organization was harmed. Philips therefore tried to stay afloat by making drastic cuts, reorganizing an d implementing a Matrix structure, a popular phenomenon is the 1980s (Bartlett & Beamish, 2010: 300). However this lead to adjustment only in structure and not in culture, making it fail. When this was realized the company began to alter its structure again towards a Transnational Structure (Bartlett & Beamish, 2010) with a more integrated structure and where a vision that appeared to be lost was clearly reinforced, communicated and lived throughout the organization. Matsushita had a different heritage which lead them â€Å"to adopt very different strategic and organizational models.†(Bartlett & Beamish, 2010: 301) This Japanese company was set up with a non-typically Japanese divisional structure which would comply more to Bartlett and Beamish’s (2010) Coordinated Federation structure. It had an international mindset to achieve worldwide presence whether this was in the form of own image or by producing products for competitors and did this by providing divisions with development, production and marketing abilities whilst providing centralized parent technology all thr oughout the organization. In the 1960s the company was pushed abroad by pressure imposed on them by increasing manufacturing costs and national governments. The expansion led for the company to localize more intensely and aimed to move towards a more decentralized structure with less dependency on the center. When the domestic market collapsed end 1980s the company began to focus more on R&D as they lacked behind in technology advances. This was a result of the inability for knowledge to spread and the inefficiency of the development not being centralized. The company tried to move away from the imitator image they carried and aimed to do this by removing internal competition that was stimulated by the divisional structure and promoting a customer based innovative culture. Because of their different structures and strategies the companies both experience different (in)competencies. Competencies exist when resources are put to good use so that they create a competitive advantage for the business opposed to its competitors (Volberda et al., 2011). Both competencies and incompetencies are portrayed in the table below. From looking at this table one can see that some competencies of one company is the incompetency of the other as a result of the different implemented strategies. Where Philips, that is more centralized, is innovative, Matsushita lacks innovation. However, Matsushita experiences a rich company culture with a clear vision which is exactly what Philips lacks. | Philips| Matsushita| Competencies| * Innovative, strong R&D department * Can respond to local differences due to set up of NOs * The delegation of responsibility causes for strategic freedom| * Cheap production as a result of economies of scale. * Fast response to market * Rich culture and clear vision integrated throughout company by the implementation of Seven Spirits| Incompetencies| * Inefficiency in global aspect * Unclear responsibilities due to decentralization * Too much informal power granted to NOs * Fragmentation and restructuring leads to unclear vision and values throughout the company| * Lack of innovation at the level of the subsidiaries * Too much reliance of the subsidiaries on the domestic country * Centralized parent company lacks understanding and knowledge of market needs and production realities| 2. Because of their different strategies and competencies, both companies face different challenges. However, both face a phase of restructuring. Philips is currently going towards a Transnational organization where their approach of marketing is changing, being different in each country, and where they aim to outsource more. Also, they try to communicate a shared vision. According to Bartlett & Beamish (2010) they should focus on communicating a clear (simple, relevant, and reinforced) continuous and consistent vision. This will allow for; managers to look further than their scope of responsibilities and for the company to work more functionally as a whole. Matsushita is experiencing a recent restructuring in which they decentralize further, communicate a new culture of innovation and R&D and try to remove internal competition. Matsushita should be aware of the threat of strategic isolation, where each subsidiary is too focused on their own operations and it is therefore advisory for Matsushita to refocus their executive attention to get the most out of their subsidiary components. Bartlett & Beamish (2010) give various ways to do this; by â€Å"creat[ing] channels for attention, seek[ing] out the hidden gems and give them a platform, measure[ing] returns on executive attention and giv[ing] subsidiaries a chance to contribute.† An advice to both companies is to properly manage the process of change by following â€Å"the emerging change process† starting at changing individual attitudes and mentalities and then the interpersonal relationships and processes before changing the formal structure. Philip’s experience proves that doing this in reverse order won’t work, only this way can the organizational psychology be adapted. References: Bartlett, C. A., & Beamish, P. W. (2010). Transnational management. New York: McGraw-Hill. (Bartlett & Beamish, 2010). Volberda, H. W., Morgan, R.E., Reinmoeller, P., Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D., & Hoskisson, R.E. (2011). Strategic Management. Hampshire: Cengage Learning EMEA.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Ideas, Formulas and Shortcuts for Compare and Contrast Essay Examples and Samples

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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Beware these Dangerous E-Z Pass Scams

Want to jump on the fast lane to becoming an identity theft victim? Simple! Just fall for the dangerous and tricky E-Z Pass email phishing scam. The E-Z Pass system  automatic toll collection system  allows subscribers to avoid having to stop at crowded highway toll plazas. Once the driver has set up an E-Z Pass prepaid account, they receive a small electronic transponder that attaches to the inside of the windshield of their vehicle. When they travel thru a toll facility where E-Z Pass is accepted, an antenna at the toll plaza reads their transponder and automatically debits their account the appropriate amount for the toll. E-Z Pass is currently available in 17 states, with over 35 million E‑Z Pass devices in circulation.   According to the Federal Trade Commission, potential victims targeted by this scam get an email appearing to be from their state E-Z Pass toll road agency. The email will have a realistic E-Z Pass logo and will use pretty threatening language to informing you that you owe money for driving on a toll road without paying or using E-Z Pass. The email also contains the â€Å"hook† in the form of a link to a website where you can view your supposed invoice and take care of your supposed fine without fear of further legal action against you. The scam email is not from the real E-Z Pass Group, an association of toll agencies in 17 states that manages the popular E-Z Pass program. While the E-Z Pass system  operates in only 17  states, and your state may not even have any toll roads, you may still be targeted by the E-Z Pass scam, because  the scam emails are being sent to consumers nationwide. The Worst That Can Happen If you click on the link given in the email, the scumbags running the scam will try to put malware on your computer. And if you give the fake E-Z Pass website any of your personal information, they will almost certainly use it to steal your identity. Goodbye money, credit rating, and personal security. How to Protect Yourself from the Scam The FTC recommends that if you get the E-Z Pass email, do not click on any links in the message or try to reply to it. If you think the email may really be from E-Z Pass or if you think you might actually owe a toll road payment, contact E-Z Pass customer service to confirm that it is really from them. The E-Z Pass email is only one of a seemingly endless list of similar phishing scams, in which scammers pose as legitimate businesses in an attempt to steal consumers’ personal information. To help stay safe from these dangerous scams, the FTC advises: Never click on any links in emails unless you are certain you know or do business with the sender.Never reply to any emails that ask for personal or financial information. Even if the sender is legitimate, email is not a secure way to send such information. In fact, it is never a good idea to include things like your Social Security number or bank account information in any email message, including those you send.Always keep your computer security software current and active. How to Turn the Scammers In If you think you might have gotten a phishing scam email or be a victim of one, you can: Forward the suspect email to spamuce.gov and to the company impersonated in the email.File an official complaint with the Federal Trade Commission’s online FTC Complain Assistant. The E-Z Pass Transponder Theft Scam Another dangerous E-Z Pass scam has nothing to do with email. In this simple act of costly mayhem, thieves find cars and trucks that have been left unlocked so they do not have to break in. Once inside the vehicle, the thief simply steals the victim’s E-Z Pass device and replaces it with a non-operating fake one. In a matter of seconds, the crime that can cost the victim for months, or at least until they figure it out. In 2016, one stolen EZ Pass transponder in Pennsylvania racked up more than $11,000 in fraudulent charges before its real owner discovered the crime. As police advise, avoiding the E-Z Pass transponder theft scam is simple: Lock your car or truck.