BST720 Leadership, Work and Organization Assignment Sample

Question

You will provide a critical evaluation of organisational culture in Uber; identify the problems and provide a set of recommendations for consideration by the Senior Executive Team (SET).

Overall Comments On The Written Part:

This part of the assignment provides you with the opportunity to interpret organisational culture in a number of ways but try not to be too broad in your discussion.

You may wish to consider some of the following in relation to Uber:

Leadership and consequences as well as impact/influence on organisation culture

• The relationship between leadership and followership in organisations in perpetuating organisation culture. You may also want to critically consider the different ways in which these roles are recognised, rewarded and developed in organisations

• You may decide to look at gender diversity as well as organisational practice to ensure the answer is grounded in terms of a critical organisational analysis

• The role of HR in leadership, organisation culture and change

Important to any discussion would be a clear structure and ‘line of logic/analysis’ which leads you to some recommendations that will be practical to the organisation. It must be noted that this is an academic paper with a practical application. 

Solution

Introduction

Work culture and organizational behaviour is something which is one of the most important concerns that is needed to be in any organization. Leadership is one of the crucial jobs of HR practice upon which the whole organizational culture depends. This assignment is an essay on work, leadership and organization of Uber. This essay will critically analyze this service based company on the basis of an case study named “Uber: #WhatDoYouDo”. Susan Fowler, a former Uber employee had posted a blog in 2017 revealing sexual discrimination, sexism and sexual harassment within that organization. This essay will critically discuss the role of leadership, HR practice, and organizational culture with consideration of this incident.

Company background: Uber is a globally renowned cab service company which was founded by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick in 2009. The company has its headquarters in San Francisco, California, and runs its operations in more than 900 metropolitan areas throughout the world. This company was formerly started up to offer cab services but now it provides services like rentals, couriers, food delivery, bike or scooter riding, package delivery and many more like these. Uber only offers riding services, they do not own any car, they only share a 25% commission from every ride or booking. This company had managed to earn approximately 14.1 billion USD in 2019 from rides and food delivery services (statista, 2022). They have been able to raise their profit from food delivery services to 3.9 billion USD during the lockdown period last year. Uber technologies run its functional operations with more than 22800 employees globally.

Critical Discussion

Organisational Leadership

Leadership has a tremendous impact on organizational culture as leaders act like the pillars in a workforce of any organization. Leaders not only guide a team, but also they conduct the actual functional operation in any business. Leaders are the ones who manage their whole team and make an organization perpetuate. Efficient leaders need to display a positive vibe in them so that other team members can follow them. It is found that employees in an organization are very much influenced by their leaders in terms of motivation to perform well. A good leader makes his subordinate employees feel themselves as important parts of an organization, which leads those employees to try harder in terms of good performance. Leaders are those ones who help their team members to understand their job roles clearly and achieve success in short goals (Hauff et al. 2018). These short goals in various tasks lead to the overall progress of a business. Managers or team leaders help a team to prioritize among several activities which not only saves time but also saves energy as well as resources. In this modern and digital era, international companies such as Uber can implement a contemporary leadership style instead of an autocratic one. Leaders as well as management need to make decisions on applying different strategies according to requirements of different situations.

There are several negative impacts of improper leadership as an inefficient leader can lead to a mess in the whole functional operation in a business. A manager or team leader needs to maintain adequate communication with other team members. Strong words or rude attitude of a leader can demotivate their subordinate employees and it can break their confidence as well. Managers or team leaders have to play a vital role in an organization as only they can control a healthy atmosphere inside an office or any kind of workplace. Proper communication only can help employees to understand the instructions given by their manager or supervisor. A leader needs to convey messages or instructions in clear as well as firm language, otherwise the team members can be misguided (Hauff et al. 2018). In this case, Susan had received an unethical indication from her boss which is strictly against effective leadership. Unprofessional as well as emotional words need to be avoided by a leader while giving instructions; otherwise a misunderstanding can take place, which can disrupt a healthy atmosphere in a workplace.

Organisational Culture and HRM Roles

Members of a HRM team always try to retain their most efficient workforce as much as possible as it lies under their job roles on behalf of a business firm or organization. This is a quite common tendency of HR professionals but this incident reveals something else that is more like ignoring a serious complaint coming from a newcomer is not at all acceptable at any cost. Susan was also a part of the workforce in this business and there was a huge probability of getting her as another star to the workforce in Uber technologies. Moreover, HR professionals are there to solve any kinds of issues raised from their employees for the sake of a good and healthy work culture in an organization (Yang et al. 2021). They can at least create an investigating team to verify complaints if there are any, coming from their employees. This tendency of the HR management team can be considered as not only an issue of negligence but also a case of biases towards older employees. Any of the employees, whether he or she is one of the most committed or efficient towards a job, should not be allowed to conduct any sort of unethical behavior to other employees within an office. These kinds of behavior are huge barriers for creating an efficient organizational culture.

Employees remain motivated towards their work when they get appreciation as well as positive reinforcements from their team leaders. As per Susan’s blog, she did not get the desired transfer even after proving herself in several jobs and scoring perfect in terms of performance. Rather than she got a negative review from her manager for personal issues. No manager is supposed to target any employee and rate her negatively without any documented reason (Van Mierlo et al. 2018). This is strictly against an efficient leadership practice in an organization. A potential employee can expect appreciation instead of wrong as well as illegal indications from her colleagues or managers. A healthy atmosphere and competent work culture should not support or entertain these kinds of incidents in their office.

Equality and Gender Diversity in Organisational Culture

According to her blog, Uber technologies was full of sexism as well as sexual discrimination, as female engineers were accounted only 6 among 150 engineers of the workforce in this company. She had mentioned in her post that female engineers even after scoring well in terms of performance did not get leather jackets that were given to all male engineers as the company was getting a huge discount for a bulk order of male jackets. They were not ready to buy jackets with fewer discounts for only six women at the office. This is clear racism! Employees regardless of their gender are supposed to be treated equally and deserve to be rewarded according to their performance. Female employees, in a good organizational culture, deserve to get equal appraisal or consideration from the supervisors as men.

According to Forbes report, there is at least a 7% of discrimination in the payment process between male and female employees in this company, that is male engineers are paid 7% more than female ones for equivalent designation (Forbes, 2022). Even it is clear from their report that chances of getting a promotion is totally ‘gender blind’ here! This tendency among any workforce is strictly against the work policy of the HR professionals. HR management members are supposed to display a behaviour of complete equality irrespective of gender, skin colour, or cultural as well as religious belief. The management of Uber technologies is to be terribly criticized. Uber management claims to pose fourteen moral values and meritocracy are one of them, but this tendency of them is completely contradictory to their claimed values (uber, 2022). It is clear that they do not always support meritocracy in reality and let people get what they actually deserve according to their merit and performance. Another significant value that this cab service company claims to pose is toe-stepping or sharing ideas regardless of their post or seniority during a meeting. The fact is, employees as well as senior managers in this organization use this idiom for being rude and behave badly to others inside their office. Often newcomers have to face this kind of behaviour from their seniors. Job roles of the HRM is not only creating business strategies and executing action plans, but also they are supposed to show respect to every employee as a human and consider the moral values and ethics of each of them.

Role of HR in Leadership, Organisation Culture and Change

Leaders have the power to control or defuse any scopes of gossiping inside an office. In addition to that, leaders or managers are the one who can deal with any complaints coming from one of their employee bases. Fowler met other female engineers in her office and got to know their stories of getting the same indications from that very same person. She decided to escalate this to the higher authority, but was not entertained again. She was even threatened for talking to other girls or gossiping at office premises. Here, the HR professional is quite right as defusing or at least discouraging gossip inside office premises are duly expected from management, but in this case, they could have listened to her as her problem was more serious than gossiping.

It has been also found out that a nasty booze culture was common in the Friday night party arranged at Uber office premises. These parties were full of sex, drugs, Marijuana and many like this and they call it “Bro culture”. This is not an example of a healthy office culture as not all employees are supposed to be comfortable with these kinds of party culture, and if they do not, their decision should be respected by other employees. Fowler could not fit herself into this culture and decided to change her job though she was not the only one who wanted to quit job at Uber. This company had at least 25% of female engineers by 2015 and the number had reduced to only 3% by 2017 (susanjfowler, 2022). However, Uber management claims to have now somehow changed their policies and work culture and has been able to raise their female employee number to 40% by the year 2021. A rich organisational culture not only maintains stability in the workplace but also increase the employee retention that also helps to minimise the overhead cost. Hence HRM plays an important role in organisational culture. The culture is not a healthy culture in Uber and there should be limitations. Such cultures also degrade the goodwill of the company as well. Uber HR must consider such aspects and try to maintain a healthier approach towards organisational cultural aspects. Human resource leaders are vital to corporate growth. They help achieve strategic goals and objectives by providing complex and innovative leadership strategies. HR leaders mediate between senior management and employees and defend matters on behalf of employees. They promote awareness and guide all levels of the organization through change and transformation. They train both managers and employees on company culture and best practices for living and working together (Zhao et al., 2020). In addition, HR leaders develop metrics and other performance indicators and continually make changes based on overall performance. When an organization has at least one person overseeing these activities, it ensures that the strategies remain effective and bring return on investment (ROI) for change. Personal empathy reinforces leadership qualities in HR activities because it helps HR professionals assist employees with personal problems. These problems can occur when an employee is facing a death in their family or is in a difficult work environment like Uber where bad culture impacted the organisational growth aspect.

Whether change is needed, needed, right or all three, respect is an important part of it. And human resources have an important role to play in ensuring that change is defined, developed and implemented respectfully. The behavioural skills required by HR professionals allow employees to participate in necessary change in their own hands through things like relationship management, critical evaluation, and leadership mentoring and roaming. Change is important for HR as human resource work will keep on changing along with it and in this case, Uber desperately in need of cultural change. Changes in HR are long-term structural changes. Therefore, although many HR principles are still the same, the way HR is run will and will continue to change. These changes will require organizational leadership, but for change to occur, change must occur from the bottom to up. Therefore, for it to be truly successful, the focus must be on change in human resources at all levels (Cohen, 2016). Importantly, the human resources department of Uber should be encouraged to seek potential contributors to convert and encourage other employees to join the program. Since there are people in the human resources department with organizational and personal competencies, getting their help to sustain change is an important factor in the change management process.

Recommendations

These kinds of incidents are harmful for the reputation of an organization and can impact on their sales rate as well. Chances of these kinds of events can be reduced or avoided through proper actions taken by the governing bodies and managing directors in an organization. Managers of this company can be given training on leadership practice as some of them are found to misuse the power of a leader. They need to understand the concept of an efficient leadership so that they can implicate that knowledge in their daily activities for the sake of this organization. All employees including team leaders and managers need to participate in gender equality awareness programs arranged within the office premises. Employees can be given activity tasks such as role playing activities that can make them feel things from a woman’s perspective. Strong HR policies can be created as well as activated in the work culture as soon as possible and tough penalties can be declared in case of violation of those policies. More female employees can be hired in the HR management team so that they can deal with these matters with empathy. ‘Green HRM’ practice can be introduced within the work culture of this company so that a healthy work atmosphere can be retained and an efficient organizational behavior can be ensured (Peng et al. 2020). Safety and security of female employees can be ensured thus more female candidates can be encouraged to join this company.

Conclusion

Leadership and work culture are inevitable parts of an organization for which an efficient leadership practice and a healthy work culture is necessary for a good reputation of a company. This essay has discussed critical evaluation of the case study of Susan Fowler who worked as an engineer in Uber technologies. This essay has critically discussed the role of leadership, HR practice, and organizational culture with consideration of this incident. It has analyzed and criticized this cab service provider company on the basis of a blog posted by Susan in 2017. This essay has also recommended some potential strategies that can be suitable for this organization to regain their reputation.
 

Reference List

PROJ6012 Managing Information Systems/Technology Projects Assignment Sample

Question

Consider the organization where you are currently working or an organisation with which you are familiar with and select a project. Alternatively, you may choose a project case study from the existing published literature for your analysis. For the considered case study you will be required to understand the background of the project and the business value that it is providing to the organisation. The project selected should be such that you can do a deep analysis by considering different aspects of project management discipline. A project manager needs to balance the three competing goals of the project, namely, scope, time and cost. These are commonly known as the triple constraints in project management. You will be required to analyse different methods and tools used to manage the scope, time and cost of the project and present the project management artefacts used to balance these constraints.

Please consider some general instructions for preparing your assignments provided in this document.

For completing your Assessment 1 you need to consider the following

1. Analysis of the selected project case and its organisational context (size, budget, problem statement, project objectives)

2. An evaluation of the current state of the organisation’s IS/IT technology and its dependence on it.

3. Evaluate the impact that the selected project has on the society and the organization’s success (may consider SWOT analysis). You may provide some reasoning for selecting the project as a case study.

4. Analyse the process (es) and methods used to select that particular IS/IT project.

5. Provide justification for the methodology (predictive or agile) selected for project execution. Give reasoning, if you think a better methodology could have been used.

6. Enquire and evaluate the tools (i.e., graphical representations) or software applications the organisation utilises in the system development processes. If you cannot find that information, suggest which ones you would utilise.

7. Critically analyse how the selected project is aligned to the strategic goals of the organization. Suggest opportunities for improvement in the management of IS/IT strategies and approaches.

8. Examine the scope of the project, major features, project limitations and issues related to scope changes. You may present the relevant artefacts like scope statement, requirements analysis document or project charter for clarification. If the project is using Agile method, you provide artefacts which define scope like a set of user stories and acceptance tests.

9. Investigate the method used for creating the schedule of the project and the methods used by the project manager (or team) to control the project schedule. You may present the schedule plan like Gantt chart or other relevant document.

10. Analyse the methods used by the project manager to keep the project within the allocated budget. You may present the budget documents, cost estimate, cost baseline for the project.

11. If it is a failed or challenged project you may provide justification for its poor performance. Provide your suggestions which could have prevented project failure.

12. All your claims and recommendations must be supported by relevant literature. Hence, a significant amount of academic references must be included in the report.

Answer

Introduction

As per current market trends ensuring effective document management are crucial for better market competitive advantages; it helps the organizations in providing better services to their customers which is essential to gain better market positioning. Here, in this study better document management process implementation requirements for the Torrens University will be discussed in this study (Field, 2019). In order to do that this study will propose development of their existing record management system which is TRIM along with that it will also discuss implementation of a new system for effective document management purposes. In that consideration as per new market trends cloud computing is very effective and efficient for that purposes which is the reason here implication of cloud computing for the institution for its future scope development will be ensured in this project.

Project Case Analysis and Organizational Context

Based on that given case scenario related to Torrens University, Australia, it has mainly been found that within its key field of Document as well as Record Management System, existing TRIM Context has not delivered adequate opportunities and advantages. As stated by Guggilla et al. (2017), there must also be a need for a better system which supports both records and document management with a diverse range of positive outcomes and benefits altogether.

Now, in the sense of Size, it has been expected that this project must determine a positive scope with a great extent. In detail, this project must help to ensure a positive infrastructure of managing existing systems with the help derived from effective and efficient project management practices with better applications (Brewer, Jeffrey & Kevin 2018). That specifically means, through successful delivery of expert opinions along with Gartner’s Consulting report regarding appropriate suitability and applicability of TU’s document and record management system, all kinds of future and current requirements of this university have been fulfilled as well.
On the other hand, in the case of Budget, there must be a need for adequate monetary resources with extra funding facilities. Additionally, through feasibility, it has been assumed to arrange a funding worth around $1,500 at the start.

Now, in the sense of Problem Statement, it has been identified that TU’s existing TRIM Context system is not suitable for its document management system. However, the existing system has stood at version 3.x, whereas the current system has supported only its upgraded version of 7.x. Moreover, it has also been found that such TRIM infrastructure might be useful for record management but not fully for document management at all (Altinay, 2017).

Henceforth, in the case of Project Objectives, it has aimed ‘to implement a better management system replacing or upgrading existing TRIM Context with Cloud Computing and other requirements likely’.

IT/IS Technology with Dependency

In this modern era of globalization, it has mainly been observed that there are numerous kinds of different IT/IS technology, which are also extensively utilized in various organizations seamlessly. Those technologies have consisted of communication, construction, product, medical, architectural, business, educational, information and many more. As mentioned by Paquette & Frankl (2016), all of these advanced and modern technology and innovation aspects have played pivotal roles towards an organization’s further growth, success and development accordingly.

Now, based on that given case scenario, it has mainly been found that within its existing record and document management infrastructure, there have been utilized TRIM Context management systems for the past several years. In addition to this, such a multi-faceted venture has also tried a lot to ensure a seamless experience in those segments of record and document management with its key version of 3.x, which now can also be upgraded towards 7.x.

From another point of view, in the case of this specific management software’s dependency, it has been stated that various records as well as some sensitive documents of this university have been handled properly (Sva?rd Proscovia, 2017). Additionally, employees’ shared knowledge along with adequate skills have also supported this whole situation with a diverse range of positive results after all.

Project Impact on Success

In this specific segment of study, as per that case study, overall project impact on organizational and societal success has been demonstrated. In this way, here might also be considered to conduct a SWOT analysis as follows:

Table 1: SWOT Analysis of Project
(Source: Created by Author)

Now, as observed from that upper clear depiction, it has mainly been realized that through successful incorporation of this project in TU, it has been able to reform as well as develop its existing record and document management platform with new possibilities. In addition to this, as this new project of implementing Cloud Computing by replacing or upgrading its existing TRIM context, better approaches have been availed thereafter. As reported by Beynon-Davies (2020), as this project has also helped to ensure enhanced data safety and security of some relevant and important data with sensitive documents properly, it must protect societal rights with a reasonable choice as well as proper justification thereafter.

Analysis of Project Methods

In order to ensure effective document management in Torrens University as suggested in this organization, implementation of cloud computing is crucial. That is because with cloud computing a better accessibilities to the document can be ensured as well as it will also help in optimization of the whole process as in the organization as well, that is because then the information will be there for everyone who is related to the system. That will help in understanding their roles in the organizational management process (Altinay, Dagli & Alt?nay 2017). In that aspect as for effective project development better communication within the project team is also crucial as well, that will help them in understanding the project needs and their responsibilities in that regards which will help them in ensuring better effectiveness in the project. As well as during the project development ensuring effective communication and collaborations with different teams is essential because it will help in ensuring efficiency in the project development process. In that aspect ensuring Agile methodologies for the development of the software project can be very effective. That is because Agile is a collaborative and evolving way to self organize a project implication across various teams within the project which ensures effective collaboration among the team as well as helps them in understanding their importance’s in the project at the same time which is essential for more effective project development. Along with that Agile is adaptive to the project development plans, evolutionary, and always open to include changes as per the market trends, for that reason selection of Agile for the document system development project management for Torrens University is very effective. According to Field (2019), other methodologies like Waterfall are not that flexible to ensure changes in an organization with time which can create generation gaps in the organization, for that reason also implementation of agile method for this project is also effective as well.

Justification for Project Methodology

For the project development process in Torrens University agile project development methodology is considered, one of the main reason for that agile methodologies work the best when the project developers does not have an estimating of the needed time for the project as well as does not have an better understanding about the full scope of the project. For the document system development in Torrens it can be seen that requirements needed for the project are not clarified among the project members. For that reason mapping out the business needs is very complicated, and only can be achieved through the process of trial and error, which can be measured through the agile project development methodology (Stark & hoopla digital 2017). For that reason selection of agile is very effective for this project. With agile project methodology the members of the project can eventually map out the requirements of the organization and implement the document management system effectively. Along with that as this is a continuous development process as per the needs and changes of the market, where the project members do not need to deliver a fully functional system at once, rather than they can make changes in the system with time to ensure the scalability of the system. That also ensures better effectiveness and efficiencies for the system which is also one of the main reasons for selecting the project development methodology Agile (Janson, 2019). As the organization does not need to complete the whole system for deployment, the customers can get value sooner with this project methodology. Moreover, with agile resources waste is also fewer as the project members only need to update the tasks, instead of implementing new tasks in the system. Further more agile project methodology also ensures faster fix of any issues as well as it also detects issues fathers as well. Based on these considerations it can be suggested implementation of agile project methodology is very effective for the selected project.

Enquiry and Evaluation of Project Tools/Software Applications in System Development

In order to ensure effective agile project management process for the Torrens university’s document management system implementation there are various tools needed, which will be discussed below:

Tools for enterprise integration: In the issues related to data integration process and supporting integration deployment these tools are very crucial. Along with that these tools also help in paving the way for adhering IT control and governance in an organization like Torrens University. As indicated by Wysocki (2019), these tools are also essential for ensuring analogous situations as well, which helps the system in having a governing body to integrate different parts of location in an area with the system. As the organization has more than one campus it will help them in ensuring effective management of the document in Torrens university’s branches. Some examples of these tools can be Informatica cloud, AtomSphere by Dell, and cloudHub by MuleSoft.

Figure 1: Enterprise integration needs and tools
(Source: Influence by Wysocki 2019)

Enterprise monitoring and management tools: Ensuring scalability of a system and effective management of a system is crucial for assuring its effectiveness. In that consideration, for the project enterprise monitoring and management tools are crucial at the time of ensuring agile methodologies for the development of the document management system in the organization (Harvard Business Review Press, 2020). For that various effective enterprise monitoring systems are Amazon cloudwatch, Nagios and others. In order to ensure effective enterprise management, examples of various tools can be Puppet, Enstratius by Dell and others.

Figure 2: Example of enterprise monitoring and management tools interface
(Source: Influence by Wells, Kathryn & Timothy 2018)

Critical Analysis of Project

In this section of the study, there has been critical analysis of this project aligning with strategic goals of TU in Australia. In this way, here have been presented some strategic goals of TU as follows:

? To engage quality-standard professionals in the fields of strategic thinking, planning as well as action properly

? To improve overall business, organizational along with individual success, growth and development

? To deliver quality strategy-oriented events as well as contents altogether

In this way, it can also be said that through successful implementation of this project regarding Cloud Computing installation replacing TRIM context, a better record and document management platform has been built. Additionally, all kinds of relevant data along with sensitive documents have also been able to be protected with enhanced safety and security measures thereafter. As contrasted by Wells, Kathryn & Timothy (2018), in contrast to this, sometimes, mainly due to high level of change constraints and lack of knowledge and skills might hamper this whole situation apparently.

On the other hand, in the case of opportunities for improvement in IT/IS managerial approaches, it becomes possible to implement some valued and positive aspects altogether. For example, through better time, communication and cooperation management, it has been able to acquire the key opportunity of improving record and document management in a hassle-free manner.

Project Scope, Features, Limitations and Issues

Project scope: The implementation of a new document management system will help the organization in providing a better service to its customers, which is crucial to gain better market share development. It will help the organization in having a better portfolio image in the market as well as will also ensure the scalability of the organization with the changes in the market (Wysocki, 2019). That is also essential for ensuring better market positioning for Torrens University. Main consideration of this project is ensuring generation gaps in the organization as well as improving its services providing process and decision making process for better future development.

Major features: With cloud computing various major features can be ensured in this organization, such as better flexibility in ensuring information across its branches and stakeholders, which also ensures transparency for the organization. Along with that cloud computing also helps the organization in better decision making as well as it also ensures optimization of different processes in the organization (Guggilla, 2017). As in this project agile methodology will be implemented for developing the project, that will help the organization in incorporation with the changes in the market as well. These are crucial features for the company to gain a better future development process.

Project limitation and issues: Some of the main limitation of this project is change resistance among the stakeholders as they were already used to the existing system implementation of new system is a problem for those stakeholders. As well as coping with the new changes in the market also can be problematic if a better tool for analyzing the changes in the market is not there in Torrens University. For that implementation of effective decision making porches is also crucial (Wysocki, 2019). Along with that limited skills of the employees and operational management of the system by those employees also will be crucial problems in this project development process. However with better awareness and training programs that can be managed by the institution. Here project artifacts for using agile methods are provided below:

Figure 4: Agile scrum artifacts
(Source: Influence by Guggilla, 2017)

User story

In the Torrens University as a newcomer John was very confused and worried as he lost his registration details in his first year. In order to gain back detailed information regarding his registration in the organization, there was only one path left which is sorting the registration of that year by section and streams. However, it was informed to him by his friends but he does not think that is possible without making a legal approach to this situation. However, he still thought that it would be better if he considered the suggestion provided to him by his classmates. After asking for that to the administrator of the organization he is able to know that it can be gained from the college authorities if he comes back on another day after lunch period. There, he came to know that as the organization has installed a new relational database system, the organization is able to collect all information provided to him by their students. It helped John in greater manner in his life.

Project Scheduling

Project scheduling is a crucial aspect for effectively developing the project, in order to effectively schedule for the project usages of Gantt chart is very effective. That is because from the Gantt chart project members are able to have a better understanding about the scope of their task as well as time ensured for those tasks can be achieved (Harvard Business Review Press, 2020). Moreover, within project scheduling all activities, deliverables, milestones of project with start and finish date have been highly determined. That helps in ensuring project effectiveness and efficiencies for the project. Here, a depiction of the Gnatt chart and its implication is provided below.

Table 2: Gantt chart
(Source: Created by author)

For effectively managing the developed schedule the project managers need to ensure that they have a better understanding about time management in a project. In that regard, ensuring Eisenhower time management tools is very crucial. That is because with the help of this matrix the project managers will have a better understanding of the importance of different tasks and implementation needs at the same time. It will help in optimization of project schedule in amore collective manner.

Figure 3: Time management matrix of Eisenhower
(Source: Stark & hoopla digital, 2017
 

Project Budget

In this specific segment of this project, here have been evaluated some important aspects including budgeting process, cost estimation and baseline along with relevant budgeting documents by the project manager. Now, that whole budget process with methods has been depicted below:

? Firstly, the project manager should have to break down project activities into several tasks and milestones. Additionally, it must also help to fulfill project scope further

? As per every project item towards project needs should be needed to include in the task list with enhanced level of optimization

? Finally, all budget estimations should be gathered. In this way, through successful utilization of spreadsheets, in different columns consisting tasks and costs altogether (Janson, 2019).

? Furthermore, there must also be a need for developing a feasible contingency plan with expert opinions along with final approval towards successful conduction of that project.

Now, in the field of Budgeting Documents, following things must be needed to prepare:

? In-detailed Project Charter
? Work Statement
? Contracts and Requirements
? Stakeholder Register
? Change Control Register with Activity Logs
? Quality Metrics
? Risk Register
? Issue Logs and many others.

Here has been depicted an in-detailed Cost Estimation of this project below:

Table 3: Cost Estimation
(Source: Created by author)

Finally, it must also be denoted that in the case of Cost Baseline, approved time-based plan has been highlighted at the most. In this way, after successful development of detailed budget and approval, the project manager should have to publish a specific deadline with actual performance progress (Janson, 2019). Finally, this budgeting tool has also been utilized for measuring project changes that also affects project schedule and overall budget thereafter.

Justification and Suggestions against Project Failure

From the above discussion it can be suggested that the proposed project will help the organization in ensuring a better future scope development process. For that reason it can be suggested that the proposed project for the organization to ensure their document management system, is very effective and not a failure by any means. However, as opined by Wells et al. (2018), various problems in the project development process can be seen throughout the deployment time of this project. One of the main problems can be change resistance, for effectively handling that ensuring awareness programs and training programs can be considered in this organization. Along with that limited skills among the employees to effectively implement the project also can create various problems but training and development can effectively handle those problems in this project as well along with outsourcing of talents can be considered in that regards as well.

Recommendations

In this segment of current study, several recommended ways have been demonstrated against this project as follows:

Assurance for Cloud Users

In this segment, it has been recommended to implement the best security standard practices with the core purpose of mitigating possible risks among customers and providers. In addition to this, possible risks in cloud service provider offerings with enhanced physical security and policy issues.

Legal Aspects

In this segment, it has mainly been recommended to implement traditional internet services as per maintaining standard contract clauses should have been needed to review first (Stark & hoopla digital. 2017). In detail, within the field of legal recommendations under the category of European Commission, certain issues regarding Data Prevention directive, cloud provider’s obligations, liability exemptions with intermediaries as well as minimum data protection levels should be adopted at the very first.

Completion of Relevant Stages

In this specific context, it has mainly been opined to follow all kinds of relevant aspects along with stages of better record and document management seamlessly. In detail, some stages including better planning, directing, organizing, controlling, classification, indexing and other types of managerial activities must be needed to handle properly.

Finally, it has also been suggested to incur the better approaches of reviewing documents with proper retention schedules. Besides, it should be kept in mind that such an accurate retention schedule must help to establish a successful record management infrastructure further (Stark & hoopla digital. 2017). In addition to this, some other activities consisting of disposition of expired files, reduced clutters for regaining spaces must be prioritized to monitor that whole record management program without any trace of further disruptions at all.

Conclusion

From that upper in-detailed discussion, it can be concluded that within a business organization, successful management of information systems or infrastructure has played a pivotal role. Concerning this fact, as that given case study is all about successful implementation of better record and document management systems replacing TRIM context with cloud computing, there must be a need for productive requirements thereafter. In this way, with the help of proper recommendations, feasible cost estimation, better software and hardware requirements, it has been able to establish a safe as well as secured data management system with a diverse range of positive outcomes and benefits.
 

References

Altinay, F., Dagli, G., & Altinay, Z. (2017). Role of technology and management in tolerance and reconciliation education. Quality and Quantity, 51(6), 2725–2736. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-016-0419-x

Beynon-Davies, P. (2020). Business information systems (Third). Macmillan Education

Brewer, J. L., & Dittman, K. C. (2018). Methods of project management (Third, Ser. Book collections on project muse). Purdue University Press

Field, A. (2019). Implementing an integrated management system (ims) : the strategic approach. IT Governance.

Guggilla, Ajaykumar. (2017). Servicenow It Operations Management : Demystifying It Operations Management. Birmingham, UK: Packt Publishing.

Harvard Business Review Press. (2020). Agile (Ser. Insights you need from harvard business review)

Janson, S. (Ed.). (2019). Be creative on the job : implement ideas, creativity techniques & innovation, agile project management & communication, solve problems, shape change successfully, overcome your fears (1st ed.). Best of HR - Berufebilder.de.

Paquette, P., & Frankl, M. (2016). Agile project management for business transformation success (First, Ser. Portfolio and project management collection). Business Expert Press

Stark, E., & hoopla digital. (2017). Agile project management quickstart guide : a simplified beginners guide to agile project management (Second). ClydeBank Media LLC.

Sva?rd Proscovia. (2017). Enterprise content management, records management and information culture amidst e-government development. Elsevier Science. https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=4843142.

Wells, K., & Kloppenborg, T. J. (2015). Project management essentials (Ser. Portfolio and project management collection). Business Expert Press

Wysocki, R. K. (2019). Effective project management : traditional, agile, extreme (8th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=5747804.

PROJ6005 Program and Portfolio Management Assignment Sample

Governance and Stakeholder Management

Assignment Brief

Learning Outcomes addressed:

Evaluate the governance process within an existing contemporary project

Aim

Application of program management processes via a case study – Governance and Stakeholder
Management

1. Western Australian Auditor General (OAG). 2018. WA Schools Public Private Partnership Project.
Perth, West Australia: OAG.
Link: https://audit.wa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/report2018_11-PPP.pdf
o or see the reading list in BB for Assignment 2 

Resources

The following resources are needed in order to complete this assessment, these are available via your Leganto

Reading List in Blackboard:

Bourne, Lynda and Derek H.T Walker. 2005. “Visualizing and mapping stakeholder influence.”
Management Decision 43 (5): 649-60.

Governance and Stakeholder Management

This assignment is based on answering questions in regard to the Case Study assignment help from Assessment 2 (. In answering the assignment, make any necessary but reasonable assumptions.

1. Summarise the Governance problems and suggest solutions (30 marks)

2. Using Borne and Walker’s article, draw a Stakeholder Circle to show the influence and power of all
Stakeholders in this project. Remember to include a legend to clarify each stakeholder. (30 marks)

3. Using your Stakeholder Circle, Identify TWO key stakeholders, analyse their interests, influence and
distance, and suggest and justify how they should be managed. (40 marks)

Format

The assignment must be typed in A4 format in single space typing. Students should use the template provided in the assignment folder. All papers should be numbered. All assignments should be thoroughly checked for typing, spelling and grammatical errors before being submitted.

Word length should be approximately (1000-1500 words)

Points to note:

Submit your assessment via the Turnitin link under the Assessments tab in Blackboard (not through email or in person) by the due date.

Late submissions will be penalised as per the Curtin Late Assessment Policy in the Unit Outline.

All assessments should be referenced correctly (see unit outline for more details) and in accordance Curtin University policy.

All source material MUST be acknowledged and any form of plagiarism will result in the appropriate measures being taken. Do not copy other student’s work or assist by showing your work to others.

Solution

Introduction

The success of a project depends upon numerous factors. Project governance and stakeholder management are two such factors that can lead to the successful project outcomes if properly managed.

The report covers governance and stakeholder management aspects for WA Schools Public Private Partnership (PPP) project. WA Government signed a contract with EduWest in 2015 to design, build, and maintain eight schools. The completion time for the project is in 2047. It is a large-scale project will several stakeholders associated with it (WA, 2018).

Governance Problems and Solutions

It has been two and a half years since the contract between the two parties has been signed. The program is found to be on track. EduWest has been successful in the opening of four primary and first stage of a secondary school. The rest of the project activities are also on track. There are also a few issues identified in the project. The transition to the school operations in 2017 had a few complexities due to the underestimation of the resources by the Department of Education, DoE and EduWest. The lack of effective communication and training is another factors identified with the model. Such issues may further result in conflicts and disputes in the advanced project stages (Muller et al., 2016).

The project includes adequate high-level governance. Also, the work relationship between EduWest and DoE is also up to the mark. However, DoE does not have a well-defined contract management plan. DoE also lacks in the effective audit program to keep a track of the contract and the associated performance.

DoE has also not made it a point to implement adequate tools and processes for contract management. Since, the project is a long-term and large-scale project, constant auditing and performance checks are essential to determine and fill the gaps.

For effective governance, it is recommended for DoE to define a contract management plan. It shall focus on the terms and conditions, audit program and schedule, performance monitoring, and management. DoE must have a detailed audit schedule and it shall then be used to perform the audits to determine the existing gaps and areas of improvement. Training is one of the aspects that must be focussed upon.

Stakeholder Circle

There are several stakeholders involved in the PPP project. Each of the stakeholders involved has varied interest and level of influence in the project. For example, the WA Government and DoE are the stakeholders with high levels of interest, influence, and power to kill a project. The same goes for EduWest.

The Steering Committee and Senior Leadership also has major influence in the project as the decision-making authorities are provided to these stakeholders. The potential customers, such as the students and their parents have limited influence but they have the power to kill the project. The project is a long-term and large-scale project with several vendors and suppliers associated with it. These stakeholders may be from WA or the other remote regions with significant influence. This is because the delay in the supplies can have major impact on the project (Fontana, 2017).

Project team is also a significant project stakeholder with considerable influence in the project as a group.

Key Stakeholders

Department of Education (DoE)

DoE is one of the key stakeholders in the project with high levels of interest, influence, and power on the project. PPP project has provided a novel approach to deliver the school facilities and services. The shift from the existing methods to the new approach has been challenging. The initial project activities have gone well with the design and build of the schools as per the expectations and requirements. The challenges are observed in the transition and maintenance processes. DoE is the stakeholder responsible for the overall handling and management of the project. The stakeholder is accountable for the outcomes of the project and for any of the issues in the project.

DoE has acknowledged that there were gaps in initial management of the project activities, operations, and training. The stakeholder has the responsibility of carrying out effective governance so that the project goals and objectives are attained. DoE is the governing body of the WA Government with high interest in the project due to the positive impacts the project can have on the quality of education in the region. Also, the project involves massive costs and DoE has the responsibility to ensure effective distribution and usage of these costs. The level of influence is also high as DoE can make decisions for the project in terms of approvals, changes, audits, etc. It is directly in contact with EduWest to ascertain effective progress and performance of the project (Holloway, 2017).

DoE has identified the need to develop and implement contract management, performance management, and audit management plans. With these plans and programs, the stakeholder will be able to effectively guide the project teams and also make sure that the risks are prevented or managed well.

EduWest

The contract for the eight schools has been provided by the WA Government to EduWest. The contract between WA Government and EduWest has been signed for $631 Million.

EduWest has major interest in the project due to financial and non-financial returns attached with the project. EduWest will receive the recognition with successful delivery and completion of the project. Also, the returns and revenues generated as part of the project will be high.

The level of influence of EduWest on the project is also significant. This is because EduWest is the primary contractor for the project. The design and construction decisions along with the procurement, internal management, development, and maintenance are taken by the stakeholder group (Greenwood & Mir, 2018).
It is in direct contact with the DoE to discuss the individual schools’ requirements and the changes to be made in the designs or layout. Based on these discussions, the stakeholder group then implements the requirements and the identified changes.

Stakeholder Management Techniques

It is important to effective manage the stakeholders identified for the project.

Communication is one of the key aspects in the project and shall be used to manage DoE, EduWest, and all the other stakeholders associated with the WA PPP project.

The project shall include daily and weekly reporting of the project status to keep a track of the project progress and gaps. This will keep the stakeholders involved with the project and will also make sure that the stakeholders come up with the ideas on the changes and improvements. For example, the transition from the existing model has been a major cause of concern for DoE. The impacts of such issues are relevant on the other project stakeholders. With discussions and brainstorming sessions, it would be possible to identify the plans and strategies to implement.

EduWest must have an internal procedure of daily reporting and the compiled report shall be shared with the DoE. DoE shall then compile the reports and shall share the project status with the steering committee and WA Government (Eskerod et al., 2015).

Training and development is identified as one of the techniques to manage EduWest. EduWest has been successful in completing four primary schools and the first stage of a secondary school. There is a lot of work that is still required to be completed to meet the project goals. DoE shall perform performance and project audits on the work accomplished so far to identify the training needs for EduWest members. The organization and completion of training activities will improve the stakeholder engagement and it will also lead to the positive impacts on the quality of the project activities.

Every stakeholder has a varied interest and influence in the project. For example, the level of interest and influence of DoE is not the same as the project team or the suppliers. Similarly, the area of interest of each of the stakeholders identified is also different from the other. DoE is primarily interested in the compliance rate, project performance, variance, and quality. EduWest, on the other hand is interested in the project costs, requirements, implementation, design, and likewise. It is important to identify the level of interest and influence of the stakeholders along with the area of interest for each of these stakeholders. The power-interest grid will provide an understanding of the management aspects to follow. For example, both DoE and EduWest have high interest and high influence in the project. It is important that the stakeholders are regularly communicated about the project status, changes, and conflicts.

Conclusion

Stakeholder management is one of the key aspects in the project lifecycle. In the WA PPP project, numerous stakeholders are involved and are identified. DoE and EduWest are the two key stakeholders with high levels of interest and influence in the project. It is necessary that the stakeholders are managed with effective communication, reporting, engagement, and training processes. The use of governance and control by the DoE will also assist in the identification of the gaps and areas of improvement. It will be useful in stakeholder and the overall management of the project.
 

References

Eskerod, P., Huemann, M., & Ringhofer, C. (2015). Stakeholder Inclusiveness: Enriching Project Management with General Stakeholder Theory1. Project Management Journal, 46(6), 42–53. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21546

Fontana, E. (2017). Corporate Social Responsibility as Stakeholder Engagement: Firm-NGO Collaboration in Sweden. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25(4), 327–338. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1463

Greenwood, M., & Mir, R. (2018). Critical Management Studies and Stakeholder Theory: Possibilities for a Critical Stakeholder Theory. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3234947
Holloway, G. (2017). Stakeholder Management. Xlibris Corp.

Muller, R., Zhai, L., Wang, A., & Shao, J. (2016). A framework for governance of projects: Governmentality, governance structure and projectification. International Journal of Project Management, 34(6), 957–969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.05.002

WA. (2018). WA Schools Public Private Partnership Project. https://audit.wa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/report2018_11-PPP.pdf

MGT607 Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship Assignment Sample

Assignment Brief

Individual/Group - Individual

Length - 1000 words

Learning Outcomes:

a) Critically evaluate, synthesize and apply the fundamentals theories of creative entrepreneurship.

b) Critically evaluate and justify the perspective of the user and the unique value proposition aimed at them in the development of the enterprise.

Submission - By 11:55pm AEST/AEDT Friday of Module 2.2 (Week 4)
Weighting - 15%
Total Marks - 15 marks

Context

Innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship can come in many different forms and be successful for many reasons. As such, being able to recognize these will broaden your understanding and appreciation for the important role of entrepreneurship and innovation in society today.

This assessment requires students to critically analyze a case study utilizing the theory learnt in Module 1 and Module 2. It is important you draw on the concepts of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship and link them to the case study to support your discussion and any recommendations you may have. 

Instructions:

For assignment help, you must select ONE of the following three case studies below for your assessment. These case studies provide different examples of entrepreneurship and innovation.

1. Majora Carter: 3 stories of local eco-entrepreneurship
https://www.ted.com/talks/majora_carter_3_stories_of_local_ecoactivism#t-186688

2. Krista Donaldson: The $80 prosthetic knee that’s changing lives
https://www.ted.com/talks/krista_donaldson_the_80_prosthetic_knee_that_s_changing_liv
es#t-434865

3. Navi Radjou: Creative problem solving in the face of extreme limits
https://www.ted.com/talks/navi_radjou_creative_problem_solving_in_the_face_of_extrem
e_limits#t-500868

You will be required to watch the video and prepare a business style report. You must ensure that you incorporate the theories, which you learn in Module 1 and Module 2 to support your discussion.

Specifically, some of the questions you should be considering are:

• How does the case specifically demonstrate an entrepreneurial mindset?
• How does the case adopt theories of creativity to solve the specific problem?
• How does the case show an innovative approach to meeting a customer need?
 

Whilst the format may vary for your report, below is suggested format for you to follow:

• Cover page

• Background [approximately 150 words] This will provide an introduction to your case study.

• Main Discussion / Opportunity [500-600 words]
This section should use the questions above as the basis for your discussion.

• Recommendations / Conclusion [200-300 words]

Is there anything you think could have been done differently?

What are your key learnings, which you have taken away from the case study?

• Appendices where applicable

• Your case study will be assessed based on the Rubric below and is limited to a word count of 1000 words excluding the cover page.

Referencing:

You must recognize all sources of information; including images that you include in your work. Reference your work according to the APA 6th edition guidelines. Please see more information on referencing here http://library.laureate.net.au/research_skills/referencing

Submission Instructions:

Submit your Case Study in the Assessment 1 Case Study submission link in the Assessment section found in the main navigation menu of the subject Blackboard site. A rubric will be attached to the assessment. The Learning Facilitator will provide feedback via the Grade Centre in the LMS portal. Feedback can be viewed in My Grades.

Please note the following additional information

• You should adhere to the correct use of academic writing, presentation and grammar.

• It is important to check your similarity in turnitin. All sentences highlighted must be either paraphrased in your own words or put in quotes and referenced accordingly. You should be aiming for as low a similarity score as you can. Similarity highlighted in a contents page, reference list or appendices are nothing to be concerned about.

• It is important to adopt the appropriate use of the APA 6th edition style when citing and referencing research. Please comply with all academic standards of legibility, referencing and bibliographical details (including reference list).

• You are advised to include a minimum of four (4) academic references, which should be textbooks or academic journals. Appropriate websites may be used in addition to these.

Solution

Introduction

Globalisation and technological innovation have brought revolutionary changes within the modern-day world as it allows demonstrating public-centric entrepreneurship spirit and innovation-seeking creativity in resolving contemporary social challenges. As poverty, social inequalities, resources inaccessibility and supply chain disruptions continue to impose comprehensive limitations to mitigate social challenges, creative entrepreneurs must consider techno-centric visionaries, social causes and problem-solving abilities to improve livelihoods. The second case study involving Krista Donaldson’s discussion on ted talks regarding the development of a prosthetic knee has been taken into account for evaluation within this study (ted.com, 2013).

As lifetime healthcare costs for people with limb loss is $509275 and more than 1 million annual limb amputations are required globally, the development of re-motion knee is a revolutionary innovation to mitigate disabilities for underprivileged people. Krista Donaldson perfectly aligned creativity and imagination into re-motion knee development programs and distribution channels to maximize its usability, accessibility and sustainability while considering amputees as a prominent social challenge. This exploratory study is intended to demonstrate entrepreneurial spirit and its implications on users while considering creativity theories and holistic innovation approaches.

Discussion

Technology has changed the world and brought enormous positive changes within a modernised contemporary society by bringing social entrepreneurship spirit and innovation-seeking creativity into product-based design and manufacturing principles to optimize structural transformation towards sustainability and continual improvement (Crum & Hines, 2019, p.8). Through the re-motion knee development program, social entrepreneur Krista Donaldson has leveraged economic factors, sustainability-conscious development policies and problem-solving entrepreneurship skills to articulate permissible visionaries and usability of the fibre-infused prosthetic knee for people in need. She creatively crafted workmanship in prosthetic knee development and engaged with multiple agencies and establishments to provide cutting-edge solutions for people with amputees and walk disabilities. In essence, she considered the core principles and competencies of altruistic entrepreneurship and combined commerce and distinct social issues to improve the lives of millions of people connected to the cause. Inevitably, she put affordability and reliability as the core foundation of the product and confined an earned income business model to reach out to poor and underprivileged people worldwide. She also predominantly focused on the value-creating processes while recognising and resourcefully pursuing ample opportunities to create social values and a centralised notion of change. During participating in the development process of re-motion knees, she demonstrated an innovation-seeking entrepreneurship spirit and a result-focused business model to maximize organizational competencies and adaptability properties to ensure productive livelihoods and infrastructure for people with limb amputation. However, as accessibility, acceptability and supply chain issues have created significant bottlenecks to establish strong brand awareness, she perfectly demonstrated distinct characteristics of social entrepreneurship including decisiveness, confidence, accountability, resilience and humility to stay focused and centred and leverage service-oriented activities and continuous improvement plans to move forward with innovative products and customization policies.

Creativity and imagination capabilities are directly related to the practical implications of fact-driven resource utilisation schemes and competency-based brainstorming ideas into reality to resolve generic consumer needs and maintain supply-demand dynamics (Engel, 2018, p.41). The source of creativity lies in strategic planning and fact-driven decision-making processes alongside individualistic mindsets and external factors including social issues, mega-trends and mainstream transformation need to sustainability and continual improvement. In the current scenario, Krista Donaldson significantly attempted to ensure usability and scalability of the adoption of the prosthetic knee at affordable cost and reliability to showcase her creative insights and abilities to bring revolutionary changes for people with limb amputation requirements. As creativity and innovation are such diverse and dynamic concepts, adequate alignment of theoretical perspectives of creativity is significantly important to understand core competencies and insights of a distinctive product.

As Krista Donaldson extensively focuses on the all-around development and implementation process of business, Guilford's structure of intellect model and model for creativity is a relevant perspective to define her creative insights. According to the theory, each mental task is made up of three dimensions: an operation, a content and a product (Sternberg, 2020, p.230). According to the Theory, Krista Donaldson elaborated her divergent thinking capabilities and considered a divergent production model to demonstrate the relevance and importance of technology in resolving distinct social issues. The author explained that individualistic craftsmanship, aesthetic values and personal experience are the foundation of creativity. In contrast, Krista Donaldson has experienced difficulties and gained first-hand experience from her duties in Iraq and encompassed different types of fluency including ideational fluency, associational fluency, expressional fluency alongside spontaneous flexibility and adaptive flexibility to deliver the product. She also demonstrated the two core factors of the Unpacking creativity model such as problem type and motivation.

According to the unpacking creativity model, she considered expected creativity, contributory and proactive factors of creativity to resolve limb amputation issues. Moreover, as a holistic innovation approach, she focused on for-profit business operations with minimal profit margins and ROI standards. Additionally, a systematic and organized supply chain network was also considered to leverage customer-centric visionaries, improved market value propositions and sustainability-consciousness to secure productive growth and economic development through creating job opportunities for regional areas (Schramm, 2017, p.17). As she intends to reach globally, such high robustness of innovation and technology-driven approaches have assisted her to reach an enormous scale of people ranging from Asian territories to African countries.

Recommendations/Conclusion

Creativity and imagination capabilities are significantly important to understand and counteract social problems with problem-solving attributes and goal-oriented entrepreneurial spirit. In the current study, social entrepreneur Krista Donaldson has created a prosthetic knee for improving millions of lives worldwide who are suffering from amputees at affordable prices and top-notch quality assurance. She has effectively demonstrated social entrepreneurship skills and practices to minimise the psychological and physiological effects of limb amputation. The study also found that, rather than focusing on government subsidy schemes and free distribution of prosthetic knees, organisations must consider a proactive research framework and streamlined R&D pipelines and supply chain networks to aid greater flexibility and market value of distinct products. However, affordability, eco-friendly credentials and aesthetic values of such products should be demonstrated by leveraging techno-capitalism perspectives and empathic entrepreneurship spirit.

Entrepreneurs are directly responsible for economic development, job creation, innovation and philanthropic activities which attempt to make the world a better place. She explained business as a prominent arena and social issues as a prominent source of motivation and inspiration for creating value-adding products with top-notch quality assurance and security measures. She perfectly demonstrated that creating a centralised manufacturing practice and production-distribution framework is distinctive to reach out to people with disabilities globally which can trigger creativity and imaginations. Based on the study findings, the researcher found that the company can implement cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence, IoT, automation and robotics to improve quality and forecast demands and consider merger and acquisition policies to emphasize global expansion and growth opportunities.

Reference List

Crum, J., & Hines, S. S. (Eds.). (2019). Supporting entrepreneurship and innovation. ProQuest EBook Central. Retrieved on 20th June 2021 from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.torrens.idm.oclc.org/lib/think/reader.action?docID=5751485

Engel, A. (2018). Practical creativity and innovation in systems engineering. ProQuest EBook Central. Retrieved on 20th June 2021 from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.torrens.idm.oclc.org/lib/think/reader.action?docID=5478990

Schramm, L. (2017). Technological innovation: An introduction. ProQuest EBook Central Retrieved on 20th June 2021 from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.torrens.idm.oclc.org/lib/think/reader.action?docID=5157324

Sternberg, R. J. (2020). Creativity from Start to Finish: A “Straight?A” Model of Creative Process and Its Relation to Intelligence. Journal of Creative Behavior, 54(2), 229–241. Retrieved on 20th June 2021 from https://doi-org.torrens.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/jocb.223

Ted.com, (2013) The $80 prosthetic knee that’s changing lives Retrieved on 20th June 2021 from https://www.ted.com/talks/krista_donaldson_the_80_prosthetic_knee_that_s_changing_lives#t-434865

MBA5006 Managing Organisational Behaviour Assignment Sample

Assignment Brief

Case Study – individual level (30%). Approximately 1,500 (-/+10%) words aimed at testing student’s understanding at this level and their ability to critically reflect on organizational behaviour.
You must write a Case Study Report, discussing the organizational behavior characteristics of an organisation. This should draw on learning from modules A & B of this subject. Specifically, you should include at least two of the following: attributes, motivation, empowerment, learning and development. Furthermore, key terms and concepts should be defined wherever possible. Be analytical within your report and examine key terms and theoretical relationships in depth.

The Case Study Report should be written in appropriate business language so that your analysis and discussion have an objective tone. Your writing should be clear and concise and be in your own words. Use headings to guide the reader and include tables or diagrams that make the case clearer.

Examples:
• http://www.academia.edu/8516165/Organisational_Behaviour_A_case_study_of_Coca-Cola_Company
• https://www.scribd.com/doc/138053993/Organization- al-Behavior-A-Case-Analysis-of-Google

In a Case Study Report, include the following:

> Introduces the case, including the background and the scenario.

> Describes the purpose and the background of the study and the specific questions you are addressing.

> Describe what you found through your investigations, e.g. the main themes that came out in interviews, responses to questionnaires, significant observations.

> Explain the significance of the study and what can be learnt from it.

> Note that a case study is a study of a situation so you can’t generalize the results to all other situations. That means your report should focus on what can be learnt about that situation and the individuals involved.

> Recommendations provides proposals for future action to solve the problem or improve the situation.

How to present a high-quality scenario case study?

> Analyse the problem
> Provide solutions
> Reveal real business difficulties
> Include specific, quantifiable results
> Build suspense, have a satisfying conclusion
> Solve a business problem

Please take take note for your assignment:
a. Structure the written report: Background information is relevant, Issues are logically ordered, Recommendations clearly relate to the issues.

b. Identify main issues: Prioritise choices, justify and prioritise issues chosen rovide solution.

c. Analyse the issues: Each issue is discussed using relevant concepts and principles. Insight is shown in analyzing the information.

d. Discuss alternatives: Consider all viable short term and long-term alternatives to solve each issue. Examine the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative.

e. Explain resources: Individuals from the case, time frame and monitoring processes required for the recommendations to be put into practice build suspense, have a satisfying conclusion.
f. Write clearly and concisely: Arguments are explicit and succinct, appropriate headings are used, grammar and spelling are accurate.

Submission formatting style guide:

For all major assignments, both formative and summative, the preferred layout is in 12-point Calibri, with 1.5-line spacing, 2.5 centimeters left-hand margins and bold headings.

All assignments must be submitted with a completed and signed cover sheet. Whenever you use the ideas and arguments of other writers, you must make reference to the writers and their work. By acknowledging the work of others, you avoid plagiarism. The Harvard style requires a reference list at the end of your assignment. It is arranged in alphabetical order by author surname.

Solution

Introduction

Organizational behavior is related to the understanding, prediction, and controlling of human behavior associated with a particular organization. It can be considered as a study where it takes place among the groups and individuals in order to measure the activity and performance level within the organization. The study is concentric on the organizational behavior of Amazon Plc., and associated issues that have been identified in the process. It has been seen that organizational behavior depends upon two different characteristics and those are the nature of the individual and the nature of the organization. In this study, the main focus will concentrate on the identification of the issues that the organization faced and probable alternatives that can be used as an overcoming agent.

Background

Amazon Inc. is an American Multinational Technology Company that generally deals with e-commerce and cloud computing facilities. From the survey among the employees of Amazon and interviewing some of the experienced high-level staff, it has been seen that the company has faced some of the issues in the field of motivation and empowerment despite one of the leading brands across the globe (Hara et al., 2018). The main purpose of the study is to identify the organizational behavior of Amazon along with the characteristics that have created those challenges in the workplace. It has been witnessed from the responses that the company mainly faced issues due to the lack of motivation and ill-practice of empowerment. According to Mr. Ross man, the employees of Amazon in the United States have faced difficulties with the organization's behavior. From the testimony of the former and current employees, it has been seen that the intention of improved production has created the harsh condition for the employees diminishing the motivational levels. The study has based on some of the questions and those are the formative approach for the study. The questions are

- Which organizational characteristics are responsible for the organizational issues?

- What are the issues that the employees of Amazon have been faced?

- What are the attributes that are responsible for the issues?

- What are the probable alternatives that are essential for overcoming the issues?

Investigation

The researcher has constructed a survey among the current employees so that the present organizational scenario can be identified. Moreover, the interview process has also taken place among the former employees who have left amazon for a sudden reason (Cheung, Burns, Sinclair and Sliter, 2016). These approaches are made for the identification of the current issues and existing challenges related to organizational behavior. From the analysis of the results, it has been seen that the major problem areas are motivation and empowerment. From the information of the former employees, it has been seen that they have left due to the lack of motivation in the workplace, and on the other hand, the current employees mainly highlighted the issues regarding the empowerment crisis.

From the survey among the current employees, it has been seen that the company has lacking practice regarding empowerment and current leadership has restricted to allow employees to make their own decisions.

Table 1: Empowerment Issues in Amazon

Moreover, the information from the former employees has stated that the company workplace is full of de-motivational factors, and in most cases, employees do not feel motivated inside the company.
 

Table 2: Motivational Issues in Amazon

Significance

Identification of ongoing issues has a tremendous significance in understanding organizational behavior. From the analysis of the statements, it has been understood that the company is facing issues regarding empowerment and motivational factors. In the case of empowerment, it has been seen that the lack of ideal leadership has encouraged the scenario. The great man theory can be considered as an alternative process where it has stated that the ideal leaders are born and they cannot be created. In this case, the scenario is similar but has responded negatively. It has the advantage of dealing with the issues in a natural manner but Mr. Bezos has created the problematic options himself. On the other hand, Prentice, Jayawickreme and Fleeson, (2018) has stated that The Trait Theory can put the light on the crisis and works as a proper alternative for the scenario. It has stated that leaders must be adaptive in nature and should be innovative with time so that the workplace can gather harmony. It is helpful in sharpening the leadership role and it will helpful for the employees to find the right path. As the organization is considering high standards, the employees must be well trained and developed similar kinds of solutions so that results can be identical for similar issues. The entire process is wholly dependent upon the development of the leadership capability according to the environment (Matthews, 2017).

On the contrary, the workplace also faced motivational issues as the unhealthy competition and intensive management is the fueling agent behind it. In this case, the behavioral theory has indicated the path. According to the theory, leaders are developed with time and experience. Mr. Bezos has identified that workers must be hard, long, and smart working in nature. However, he has to understand that it is not possible to do all the aspects at the same time in the long run. Moreover, Herzberg's motivational theory of needs suggests that the workplace can remain motivated when the organization has taken care of the requirements of the employees (Mehrad, 2020). It can be done with the observation of the working pattern and identification of the comfortability of the situation for the employees. Although these practices can be lengthy and do not provide the immediate effect it is one of the most impactful strategies for the long run.

Recommendations

In order to make the solutions into practice, the organization has to put a positive involvement in reconstructing the traditional practices.

? It has been seen that the major problem is based on the leadership style as it is bureaucratic in nature. According to the Trait theory, the organization has to focus on developing the leadership style as the organization is concentric on high performance. It is essential to provide efficient training to the employees rather than instructing the works only. Leadership management is required in this case as it may take a long timeframe.

? The behavior of the employees is essential for the development and the organization should encourage the employee to take the decision of their own so that they can develop the problem-solving personality.

? Motivational factor is another big thing in organizational behavior. In order to develop a motivating workplace, the leaders must be co-operative and understanding in nature. Irrespective of putting pressure on the employees, leaders must identify the scenario and responses of the environment first and lead the employees according to their capabilities. It also a long time process and it can be expected that the result can get in the long run with positivity.

? On the other hand, the leaders must take a good step in fulfilling the needs of the employees so that they can be loyal to the organization by feeling safe with the career.

Conclusion

From the entire study and reports of interviews and surveys, it can be concluded that Amazon has faced issues in organizational behavior and the core reason for that is the improper leadership style. It has been seen that bureaucracy has created challenges in the workplace resulting lack of motivation and a less-empowered workplace. With the help of Trait theory and Herzberg's hierarchy of needs theory, the organization can produce amendments in the leadership style which can produce harmony in the workplace. As it is applicable in management, it is expected that it can be effective in the long run.

Reference List

Cheung, J., Burns, D., Sinclair, R. and Sliter, M., 2016. Amazon Mechanical Turk in Organizational Psychology: An Evaluation and Practical Recommendations. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(4), pp.347-361.

Gagné, M., 2018. From Strategy to Action: Transforming Organizational Goals into Organizational Behavior. International Journal of Management Reviews, 20, pp.S83-S104.

Graham, K., Resick, C., Margolis, J., Shao, P., Hargis, M. and Kiker, J., 2019. Egoistic norms, organizational identification, and the perceived ethicality of unethical pro-organizational behavior: A moral maturation perspective. Human Relations, 73(9), pp.1249-1277.

Hara, K., Adams, A., Milland, K., Savage, S., Callison-Burch, C. and Bigham, J., 2018. A Data-Driven Analysis of Workers' Earnings on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems,.

Matthews, G., 2017. Cognitive-Adaptive Trait Theory: A Shift in Perspective on Personality. Journal of Personality, 86(1), pp.69-82.

Mehrad, A., 2020. Evaluation of Academic Staff Job Satisfaction at Malaysian Universities in the Context of Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory. JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH, 15, pp.157-166.

Prentice, M., Jayawickreme, E. and Fleeson, W., 2018. Integrating whole trait theory and self-determination theory. Journal of Personality, 87(1), pp.56-69.

Root, G., 2021. Challenges of Employee Empowerment. [online] Small Business - Chron.com. Available at: <https://smallbusiness.chron.com/challenges-employee-empowerment-705.html> [Accessed 23 March 2021].

MBA402 Corporate Governance, Sustainability and Ethics Assignment Sample

Word Count: 2,000 Words (+/-10%)
Weighting: 40 %
Total Marks: 40
Submission: Via Turnitin on MyKBS
Due Date: Monday of Week 13

Your Task

You are required to write a case study report to a corporate board summarizing your views on corporate governance, sustainability and risk management practices.

Assessment Description

• On Monday of Week 10 at 9 am, you will get access to a case study on MyKBS under the assessments tab. This document will have all the necessary case facts and the specific questions which you are required to answer for this assessment which is due to be submitted in week 13.

Assessment Instructions

• You are required to prepare a report and submit it via Turnitin via MyKBS.

• You should adhere to KBS’s referencing and Academic integrity requirements.

• Please refer to the assessment marking guide to assist you in completing all the assessment criteria.

Word Limits for Written Assessments

Submissions that exceed the word limit by more than 10% will cease to be marked from the point at which that limit is exceeded.

Study Assistance for assignment help

Students may seek study assistance from their local Academic Learning Advisor or refer to the resources on the MyKBS Academic Success Centre page. Click here for this information.

MBA402 – Assessment 3 Case Study

Focus Logistics Pty Ltd (Focus) has engaged you as an independent consultant, and they are seeking your advice on several corporate governances, sustainability and risk management issues. You have just returned from a board meeting with Jennifer White (company’s founder and the current Chair), Geena Rose (CEO), Jacob Rose (COO) and David Rose (CFO). You have gathered the following information about this company:

History

Mrs. White Established Focus Logistics in 1965 in Horsham, Victoria, providing state-widem logistics services to local businesses. The community supported Focus because of Mrs. hite’s slogan “Go Local”. The company grew steadily for the next 30 years and expanded its operations into VIC, NSW, and TAS.

Mrs. White retired from day-to-day operations in 1997 and assumed the role of board’s Chair. Mrs. White’s daughter Geena took on the company reins and, since then, has completely transformed the business. Focus now has 19% of the total market share and is Australia’s fifth-largest private logistics company. Focus has grown from 28 customers in 1970 to 650 customers in 1997 to more than 11,000 customers today (including a few ASX listed companies).

Current plans: expansion

Now, Focus needs additional capital to fund its expansion plans, and Mrs. Rose has met with several potential investors and private equity groups over the last six months. The senior management team has prepared a very impressive prospectus highlighting all of Focus’s recent achievements and a business forecast for the next ten years. However, these investors are concerned that Focus doesn’t have the proper operation and governance structure to justify the additional funding and expansion plans.

Investor concerns:

They have criticized that even though Focus is a large company, the business is still run like a family-owned business with limited oversight over management and a lack of operational controls and reporting. In addition, the various management positions, especially the executive positions, are held by family members and close friends. Therefore, there seems to be a lack of appropriate performance reviews and necessary succession planning. The investors also highlighted that Focus doesn’t have any board committees.

The board unanimously agrees that since they own most of the company, there is no need to spend any money on non-value adding reporting like a sustainability report. The board acknowledges that the company might benefit from some regular reporting and performance reviews. Still, it is concerned about its impact on the family members – after all, trust and patience are the most important traits of a family-run business. Plus, it is the boards view that there is a reason why such reporting is optional and not mandatory at all. Mrs. Rose has already notified these investors that Mrs. White will soon retire from the board, and Mrs. Rose will nominate herself as the next Chair. She believes that the board will benefit immensely if the Chair and the CEO is the same person – that’s because this person will have a lot of knowledge about the company’s operations and, therefore, will be able to question and oversee the management more meticulously.

The potential investors are also apprehensive about the lack of sustainability reporting by this company. Focus’s carbon footprint is enormous – their B-Double trucks alone consume almost a million litters of diesel a year. It is anyone’s guess how much fuel the company consumes in total because, along with its own fleet of trucks, the company also has hundreds of sub-contractors. Mrs. Rose is aware that all national banks oppose supporting a business that does not have a sustainability plan and target.

The last primary concern of these investors is the lack of risk management initiatives at Focus. Recently, Focus has taken on a lot of debt (by using their Victorian fleet as security), and therefore the board must constantly monitor Focus’s exposure to financial risk. The investors acknowledge that even though Focus’s operations were not affected by COVID-19 (because the business is classified as an essential service), Focus needs to prioritise operational risk management and urgently draft a business continuity plan.

Board/Management opinions

Mrs. White completely dismissed the investor’s views on operational risk. She stated, “Trucks are the backbone of Australia and will continue to work round-the-clock – as they have done for the last 55 years. I cannot think of a simpler business – buy a truck, get someone to drive it, and a few days later – the customer settles the account. Involving lawyers and consultants in expensive suits will make matters unnecessarily complicated”.

The company’s COO, Jacob Rose (Mrs. Rose’s 26-year old son), is genuinely concerned about what these potential investors are demanding. He stated, “Corporate governance always slows down the board’s decision-making process and makes running a company unnecessarily complicated, hindering innovation and creativity.

For example, I want to add autonomous vehicles to our fleet, and I am confident that a formal governance structure will delay such adaptation. As long as we aren’t in trouble with the tax office and the corporate watchdog, the board’s only priority should always be on maximizing shareholder returns. Therefore, we shouldn’t be worried about the compliance issues, which are unlikely to get audited. And even if we do get audited, it is better to pay a small fine instead of investing thousands, possibly millions, of dollars in meaningless and endless compliance and “tick-the-box” exercises.

A family-run business should always focus on performance and not so much on conformance. We have to stop this madness”. Jacob is confident that Focus’s legal counsel, Melissa Wright (Jacob’s childhood friend and a current law student), will concur with his views. Unfortunately, Melissa was unable to attend the meeting because she is on extended personal leave.

The company’s CFO, David Rose (Mrs. Rose’s other son), has a different view. He said, “For what’s it’s worth, I can understand where the investors are coming from. However, we are no longer a “local” business. A lot has changed since Nan started this business on her kitchen table, and Uncle Sam was the only truck driver. Today, we have operations across Australia, employ more than 2,000 people – and I am not even counting the 3,000+ contractors we have on our books.

I believe there was a recent ruling whereby businesses like ours have a lot more responsibility of looking after our employees, especially our sub-contractors. When Melissa is back, I’m sure she will be able to shed some light on this. Plus, we should endeavor to go beyond the mandatory requirements. Wouldn’t it be great if our peers recognize us as the pioneers in corporate governance and sustainability practices? After all, we consume a crazy amount of fuel every year, and with climate change being a pressing political topic –
the last thing we want is to be boycotted.

These investors will own 12% of our company and probably get a seat at the board table. So, we have to be careful about making any throwaway comments. We might be a private company, but the business media and journalists are very well aware of our operations and ownership structure. It is impossible to hide when you are this big. In the world of social media and Twitter, information travels much faster than we can imagine”.

Mrs. White concurs with David’s views. She said,

“I want to continue looking after our loyal customers and faithful employees who have supported us all these years. We already do a lot for the community, and it would be great to consolidate all the information about our various programs in one easily accessible location. But I am not sure about preparing these fancy reports which no one is ever going to read. Surely, we can put our money to better use?”.

Towards the end of your meeting, Geena said,

“Honestly, we are just testing the waters with these private investors. We want an accurate company valuation and want to see what’s it like to work with a private equity group. Even though we will go ahead with this equity sale, Focus’s ultimate goal is to be an ASX listed company by the end of next year”.

REQUIREMENTS

You are required to write a report to Focus’s board summarizing your views on corporate governance, sustainability and risk management practices.

In your report, you must address the following three areas:

1. Discuss at least four good corporate governance practices and the importance of good governance for a large private company such as Focus Logistics that wants to transition into an ASX listed entity. (15 marks) (1,000 to 1,100 words)

2. Summarise the significance, benefits and challenges of producing a sustainability report for Focus Logistics, especially for a business within the logistics industry. (10 marks) (600 – 660 words)

3. Summarise the benefits and challenges of sound risk management practices for Focus Logistics.
(7 marks) (400 – 440 words)

Within the answers to the above three questions, you should refer to:

1. The views of the four people you have recently met (Mrs. White, Mrs. Rose, David and Jacob).
2. Recent news releases relating to best practice corporate governance, sustainability and risk management practices.

Solution

Four good corporate governance practices and the importance of good governance for a large private company such as Focus Logistics that wants to transition into an ASX listed entity-

In the given case study lack of proper corporate governance structure is been stated by the investors of the Focus Logistics. For the purpose of improving this structure the company must prioritize good corporate governance practices in order to get listed in the ASX entities by the end of the current year. In essence the board of governance or the corporate governance are the providers of standard rules and regulations for the organizational practices that ensures serving the interest of their investors, stakeholders, customers, employees and rest of the management team responsibly as well as effectively (Wardhana, 2018). Hence it is very important for the company to form an appropriate corporate governance structure. It entails by taking look on the board members, way of approaching governance in organization and who are they as the people. For the best practices board work is incorporated with various aspects and governance could incorporate many different practices. In order to assist the organization or a company to follow good corporate practices some of the suggestions are discussed such as-

Building a Competent Board-

It states that the board must be consist of diversified and independent board members as per the current new focuses. The reason for such is that board have to deal with a lot issue which are complex in nature and sometimes the technical issues are to be faced. Many opinions and suggestion results in quality of decision making around the board table (Crisóstomo, & Girão, 2019). Also, the board consist of majority of independent directors is favoured by the governance experts. The composition of board must be in such a way that it incorporates required skills and abilities to make a sound decision for the company. Further the trust must be implicit among the board directors in order to make productive decisions and strong opinions through the long debates and wrought. In addition to this the board committee, its members and the directors must also practice self- evaluation to identify their weaknesses and strengths. Hence this would help the Focus Logistics to build a competent and effective board committee to serve its investors as well as customers.

Aligning Strategies with Goals

Another important corporate governance practice to be followed by the board is aligning their strategies with the goals of company. Primarily the board must use all its resources to identify the possibilities of risk in the near future. The collective work from the bard will help the company to enhance its profile and risk tolerance capacity. This way the Focus logistics too could enhance its risk management practices and have an eye on the debt taken already. In addition to this the company must also have proper framework as well the control in order to mitigate risk or monitor such risks (Báez-Roa, Puentes-Montañez, & Sosa, 2021). It is one the best practice of corporate governance that board must apply to look at its strategy and risk management for long and short durations.

Being Accountable

There are many scandals that highlights the importance of accountability as the good corporate governance practice to acquire the strong position in the market. There is need for the development of strong board strong and regular checking on them. Further the other important part of such practice toa accurately and transparently report its reporting’s to the investors with adequate checks and balance system. This way the issue of unsatisfied investors for the Focus Logistics regarding the unappropriated corporate governance by board could be minimized. Additionally, the practice for accountability includes decision regarding selection of appropriate board member and offer the compensation adequate to his job without raising any conflict of interest (Arslan, & Alqatan, 2020). It is basically most important to overview the compensation of the board committee.

Having a High Level of Ethics and Integrity

High level of ethics, integrity and honesty must be reflected in the work, speech, relationship within the corporation with peoples by the board nominees. As it is their fiduciary duty to consider all these while presenting the company in front of public or whenever they speak bout or for the organization. The board is the voice of the corporation hence it must take all these ethics and integrity int consideration.
The board must also have a clear-cut policy regarding the conflict of interest and refrain such conflicts through voting system on specific matters of conflict.

These are the practices of corporate governance that must be followed by the board to make its corporate system sounder (Muda, et al 2018). The goals of practicing a good corporate governance or importance of such for the large companies like Focus Logistics and the other companies within the logistics industry must be to protect the interest of management, members and the investors. Also, it ensures the proper recording of company’s books and transactions. Further the other importance’s of the good corporate governance practices are-

• Ensuring the equal treatment among all the shareholders.

• Ensures ethical as well integrate behaviour in the corporate

• Ensures disclosure of each report including financial information to all of its stakeholders transparently.

• Additionally, it ensures the availability of adequate talent and skills among the board to challenge the competitiveness of the management and review their performance and actions.

• Balancing and considering all the obligation of the corporation toward the legal, social, contractual market. Also balancing the interest of shareholders as well as non- shareholders including investors, customers, local community, policy makers, creditors and others.

The benefits from the good corporate practice are boundless and also have potential impact on the board performance. Further it improves the performance of overall corporation, promotes trust factor among both stakeholders as well as shareholders (Chatchawanchanchanakij, Arpornpisal, & Jermsittiparsert, 2019). The corporations which apply and follow such practices move forward in the long run towards the sustainability of the organization. In such way the conflict among the investors of the Focus Logistics could also be solved by building the sound system of governance in the organizations.

The significance, benefits and challenges of producing a sustainability report for Focus Logistics, especially for a business within the logistics industry.

Significances

Reduce energy related cost

Under the sustainable reporting the energy and the water cost would be reduced which are the main concern for the manufacturers in the logistics industry. This could also reduce the expenses of the corporation by annual savings, cost reduction for short term plans. Switching to the energy efficient procedures the electrical cost could be reduced on long term basis. Sustainability could further improve the bottom line of the corporation.

Attract new customers as well investors.

Sustainable practices can make the company more marketable in the industry. In current scenario the consumers are environment conscious, and making improvement in your practices to improve environment will attract them (Tsalis, et al 2020). Also, there are some investment banks that invest in only those company that are working under sustainable practices. Such problem is also faced by the Focus Logistics in the case study, which caused difficulty in raising their funds for expansion purpose. Further highlighting your such practices to the suppliers and the consumers will enhance the customer base for company and result in increased sales. The technology and social medio have made easier for the public to criticize the companies that lack in following the sustainable practices, which could distort the company reputation. Hence practicing such sustainability will maintain the portion and the reputation of the company. Further its world help in expansion of business.

Tax benefits

Tax rebates and variety of tax credits are granted to the company who follow such practices by the government. The practical implementation of sustainable development at both federal and state level are benefited from the taxes (Loh, Thomas, & Wang, 2017).

Encourages innovation and boost morale of workforce

Sustainable development requires collective effort of the human resource of organization. When these resources work together the culture of the organization gets promotes and fosters the team work spirits within them. Also, employees work harder when they feel sense of pride for their company. In short it brings the positivity in environment and boost the morale of the employees and encourage them to think creatively. Innovation could be encouraged by the challenges faced by the engineers of such organization such as reducing scraps, recycling etc.

Societal impact

Apart from increasing profitability it also has impact on the reducing of carbon foot prints of the organization in the atmosphere. This would be helpful for the future generation due to availability of fresh air, water and other resources from the environment (Shad, et al, 2019).

The Focus Logistics has enormous carbon foot prints into atmosphere which makes them unattractable from the environment conscious public and investors point of view.

Challenges

Apart from various benefits from the sustainability practices there are some of the drawbacks of its, which enables the company to perform such practices.

Multiple reporting frameworks

Proper and adequate framework plays essential role by the sustainable development in enhancing decision making and quality of performance. But the multiple frameworks by the sustainable development could appear as conflicting and confusing. Especially when each framework is given with different priorities and different metrics and definitions, they tend to become complicated. Hence practitioners struggle in efficient reporting process.

Volume of ratings and rankings

This further possess difficulty in sustainable reporting as-
• Responding on request which are of no use to company.
• Time consuming
• Credibility is challenged

Multiple target audiences

Report of sustainability is catered among various target audience. It comes as challenge for the practitioners to provide the report in diverse set to its stakeholders (Beira, & Heras-Saizarbitoria, 2020). Disclosing information related to the companies sustainable working among the multiple targeted audience comes as challenge to the company.

The benefits and challenges of sound risk management practices for Focus Logistics.

Risk management enables the company to achieve the desired goals and objectives by putting at place the tool which could direct them towards the success. Evaluation of risks and implementing policies for such within the business plans made for execution makes an effective risk management. This would further be useful for the Focus Logistics to mitigate the risk in the path of their expansion process (El Baz, & Ruel, 2021). There are some benefits as well as challenges of risk management discussed below-

Benefits-

Knowledge of a contingency budget

Risk management enables managers to explore each area of the plan and mitigate the area which over budget the project. They could also identify the amount required for the project to make it occur. Further managers could go through each area of project to see the impact of cost and mange it effectively.

Determining pre-determined responses to problems

Everything is uncertain, maybe the project not goes as per the plans, anything could happen in the middle of the project (Manab, & Aziz, 2019). Hence managers could develop plans for such unfavourable events in the mis of project through effective risk management.

Increase return on investment

Managers can also increase their return on the investment made in project by projecting the unforeseen risks and planning accurately to mitigate such risks. Also, it provided the advantage to the company to reinvest the money or funds that were not being included in the exemplary planning.

Challenges

Identifying risk

Identifying risks is not an easy task it might serve as challenging. It is next to impossible that the company can get aware of all the future risks. However, the full-on risk analysis by the company may result in time consuming and a complicated process. Hence all the actions associated with the risk identification process may prove to be overwhelming for the project managers as well as the company.

A lack of buy-in

The lack of value for such risk management by the buy in can affect the efficiency of the process. Other may not understand its importance as the top management and co -workers, but the project manager needs the involvement of another buy in in the project (Vincent, N E, Higgs, & Pinsker, 2019).

Cannot precisely predict the future

The process of prediction has no way to occur correctly as predicted, hence no matter how precisely the risk management practice was done there will remain some points or areas of uncertainty within the management. Regarding the future perspective, one could only guess not identify correctly each circumstance.

References

Wardhana, D Y, 2018, ‘Good Corporate Governance Practices in Family Business: A Case Study in Indonesia’ Petra International Journal of Business Studies, vol 1 no (1), pp.35-44. http://ijbs.petra.ac.id/index.php/ijbs/article/download/6/6

Crisóstomo, V L & Girão, A M C, 2019, ‘Analysis of the compliance of Brazilian firms with good corporate governance practices’ REVISTA AMBIENTE CONTÁBIL-Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte-ISSN 2176-9036, vol 11 no (2). https://periodicos.ufrn.br/ambiente/article/view/18167

Báez-Roa, M D P, Puentes-Montañez, G A & Sosa, V C, 2021, ‘Good corporate governance practices in family businesses in the coach building sector of Duitama, Colombia’ Revista de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación, vol 11 no (2), pp.261-272. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bse.2509

Arslan, M & Alqatan, A, 2020, ‘Role of institutions in shaping corporate governance system: evidence from emerging economy’ Heliyon, vol 6 no (3), p.e03520. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844020303650

Muda, I, Maulana, W, Sakti Siregar, H & Indra, N, 2018, ‘The analysis of effects of good corporate governance on earnings management in Indonesia with panel data approach’ Iranian Economic Review, vol 22 no (2), pp.599-625. https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_66169.html

Chatchawanchanchanakij, P, Arpornpisal, C & Jermsittiparsert, K, 2019, ‘The role of corporate governance in creating a capable supply chain: A case of Indonesian Tin industry’ International Journal of Supply Chain Management, vol 8 no (3), pp.854-864. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kittisak-Jermsittiparsert/publication/334001423_The_Role_of_Corporate_Governance_in_Creating_a_Capable_Supply_Chain_A_Case_of_Indonesian_Tin_Industry/links/5d1269aa92851cf4404c1f8a/The-Role-of-Corporate-Governance-in-Creating-a-Capable-Supply-Chain-A-Case-of-Indonesian-Tin-Industry.pdf

Tsalis, T A, Malamateniou, K E, Koulouriotis, D & Nikolaou, I E, 2020, ‘New challenges for corporate sustainability reporting: United Nations' 2030 Agenda for sustainable development and the sustainable development goals’ Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, vol 27 no (4), pp.1617-1629. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/csr.1910

Loh, L, Thomas, T &Wang, Y, 2017, ‘Sustainability reporting and firm value: Evidence from Singapore-listed companies. Sustainability, vol 9 no (11), p.2112. https://www.mdpi.com/238542

Shad, M K, Lai, F W, Fatt, C L, Klemeš, J J & Bokhari, A, 2019, ‘Integrating sustainability reporting into enterprise risk management and its relationship with business performance: A conceptual framework’ Journal of Cleaner production, vol 208, pp.415-425. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652618331366

Boiral, O & Heras-Saizarbitoria, I, 2020, ‘Sustainability reporting assurance: Creating stakeholder accountability through hyperreality? Journal of Cleaner Production, vol 243, p.118596. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652619334663
El Baz, J & Ruel, S, 2021, ‘Can supply chain risk management practices mitigate the disruption impacts on supply chains’ resilience and robustness? Evidence from an empirical survey in a COVID-19 outbreak era’ International Journal of Production Economics, vol 233, p.107972. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527320303224

Manab, N & Aziz, N, 2019, ‘Integrating knowledge management in sustainability risk management practices for company survival’ Management Science Letters, vol 9 no (4), pp.585-594. http://m.growingscience.com/beta/msl/3073-integrating-knowledge-management-in-sustainability-risk-management-practices-for-company-survival.html

Vincent, N E, Higgs, J L & Pinsker, R E, 2019, ‘Board and management-level factors affecting the maturity of IT risk management practices’ Journal of information systems, vol 33 no (3), pp.117-135. https://meridian.allenpress.com/jis/article-abstract/33/3/117/10582

MBA5005 Managing Human Capital Assignment Sample

Assignment 2 guide

Report format with Harvard style referencing
Word count: 3000 words

Font and font size: Calibri, size 12 as per assessment guide

Task: you have to choose an organisation (Australian based organisation or based in any other country), as long as you have access to vital information from the organisation and you have to write about three key issues relating to that organisation. Furthermore within your work you have to have evidence of research too (as this is a vital area of academia too).

Recommended structure (this is just a guide).

Title page:

Have a title page with your name, student number and title of assignment too.

Table of contents:

Have a clear table of contents

Executive Summary

Executive Summary includes the scope and the main findings of the report that is generally written in past tense. Ensure in the executive summary you give an overview of what the report is about and give summary of all the main points. Please try and have the executive summary at about 300 words. Please kindly ensure that this part here is concise and specific.

Introduction

Introduce the role of Human Resource Management, its importance and the challenges facing operations in today’s business environment. Ensure you clearly state the topics examined and provide background information about the organisation and outline the structure of the report. Please dedicate about 200-300 words to the introduction. Please ensure that in your work, you are concise and clear in terms of what you want to say. Remember to have short and clear sentences too.

Body

Critically discuss the three topics using the questions to direct your discussion. From a human resource management perspective discuss how these concepts are used/managed within an organisation. (Try and have about 800 words per section)

Section 1: Introducing performance management and linking it back to the organisation. Please ensure you provide evidence of academic research within your work too.

Section 2: Handling economic shock in your organisation (so link it here back to the organisation again. Please ensure that you provide evidence of research within your work also.

Section 3: Crisis management planning and link it back to the organisation (please again make sure that you provide evidence of research)

Please kindly keep in mind the following for assignment help

1. give examples to back up your discussion in each of the sections

2. Each paragraph has to be about 10-12 lines of writing with clear arguments, evidence of linking to examples and use of in text referencing also.

3. introduce relevant theory (support your statements with academic/ industry references) and 3. link to practice. Remember to reference the examples you have taken from literature within the main body of your report

4. Please ensure that you try not to directly quote other peoples work. So for this assignment please try and ensure that you have about 2 or 3 direct quotes maximum within your work (please listen to the session we had on the 04th March with our librarian Jenny, where she chats about APA referencing).

5. Please have about approximately 25-30 references (so have a mixture of company reports and academic references within your work). Please kindly remember to use the VIT library for further advice. Please ensure that for every paragraph you try and have about 2 to 3 in text references within your work too. Please also have a look at the APA referencing guide that has been uploaded onto LMS.

Conclusion:

A full conclusion should draw together all the key points discussed. Thisdoes not bring in any new information, but summarises discussions that have already taken place within the main body of your essay (200-300 words).

References:

Have a reference list here and please ensure that adheres to havard style referencing too. Remember to have your reference list in alphabetical order
Appendix (optional)

This is completely optional. If you want to include any extra information here, ie a table from your company or a graph please kindly include it in here

Solution

Introduction

Human resource management plays an important role in the development of an organisation. The role played by the human resource management for an organisation includes that of recruiting, developing policies, training employees, compensating the employees as well as ensuring that grievances are addressed. The importance of human resource management is that it helps bridge any gap between the employers and the employees and manage the performance of the employees while signifying the strategic objectives associated with the organisation. Human resource management also helps ensure that the employees find a comfortable working environment while addressing any form of issues from motivation to grievances. At the same time, as stated by DeNisi and Murphy (2017), challenges in attracting top talents, managing the multi-generational workforce, and managing diversity are faced by human resource management in the modern world.

The report provides an account of human resource management's perspective while trying to cope with the concepts of performance management, economic shock, and crisis management planning. For this, a case study organisation is undertaken to understand the application of these aspects. Wesfarmers is selected as the case study organisation to highlight the perspective of human resource management. Wesfarmers is a retail organisation that is considered among the top 10 organisations in the country with a high market share. The company dominates the Australian market and has its base in New Zealand, making it a major retail conglomerate(Wesfarmers.com.au 2021).

The report tries to highlight how performance management can be linked with the activities undertaken by the employees at Wesfarmers. At the same time, an account of the way economic shock is handled is provided. Furthermore, crisis management planning methods undertaken by Wesfarmers are also provided to identify the strategies undertaken.
Body

Section 1: Performance management

Performancemanagement can be considered a process that ensures certain activities and outputs are met to achieve the organisational goal. Usually,as Schleicheret al. (2018) pointed out, performance management is considered as focusing on the performances undertaken by an employee. However, it is not so as the term can be related to the performances achieved by an organisation and the departments. In the words of Franco?Santos and Otley (2018), it involves the development of an employee, coaching, and taking corrective actions so that mistakes are not repeated. It also involves goal setting, monitoring as well as providing feedback on the performances undertaken.

The problem that Wesfarmers faces with performance management can be directed at the employees. As of 2020, Wesfarmers have 107,000 employees working across Australia and New Zealand(Wesfarmers.com.au 2021). With the recent COVID case, organisations aim to reduce the number of employees. For Wesfarmers, such an action needs to be based on the employees' performances during the crisis while maintaining the protocols(Wesfarmers.com.au 2021). As such, performance management guidelines and assessment needed to be made based on the employees' responses during the pandemic.

In this case, the solution is to ensure thatWesfarmers identify those employees who were hard-working and aware of the situation during the pandemic. It is evidenced that during the pandemic, it had been suggested that Wesfarmers are to work with limited staff. For example, the Wesfarmers branch in Victoria had worked with 3000 employees in the branches across the state to ensure safety protocol(Wesfarmers.com.au 2021). Hence, in this case, the solution to manage the performance is directed at the number of employees who had only been enrolled for work. In this case, a goal-setting theory can be applied to manage the performance undertaken by the employees.

The goal-setting theory defines that conscience goals define the actions undertaken by an employee. In Wesfarmers' case, the goals set for the employees had been to maintain the safety protocols while providing a prompt response to the customers in lockdown. According to Schleicheret al.(2019), one of the theory's characteristics is that the performance at the individual level and the organisational level is analysed. Hence, it is important that Wesfarmers set up the goals achievable by the employees in the challenge faced in the business environment.

The real business difficulties that Wesfarmers can face is that of managing the presence of the employees. Wesfarmers had issued a 14-day quarantine break for any employee suffering from the virus(Wesfarmers.com.au 2021). Therefore, in this case, the company will need to maintain the gaps between works done so that performance management can be judged fairly. As observed by Richardset al.(2019), this can hinder the flow of performance management and identify the faults that the employees had undergone during the pandemic. Hence, a fair performance evaluation of the employees cannot be gained due to such policies as well as the application of the goal-setting theory.

From the analysis conducted, results that can be obtained include the difficulty during which Wesfarmers can find itself in the evaluation of the employees' performance. As stated by Tseng and Levy (2019), the short-term and long-term alternative action that can be considered for the issue is that Wesfarmers identify those employees that have worked well in the past and take lay-off decisions based on it.The advantage of the alternative is that it can allow Wesfarmers to maintain the ethical dilemmas in laying-off employees. However, the disadvantage is that experienced employees might have to be laid off.

As such, a conclusion can be made, which can point to the fact that Wesfarmers had taken effective decisions in maintaining the safety protocols during the pandemic. The employees had provided with the benefit to remain quarantine which provides evidence that the company tends to focus on the interest and the problems faced by the employees. However, owing to the budget cut and employ lay-off that is prevalent in the business market, Wesfarmers might need to undertake decisions on such matters. Application of performance management might provide the company with unsatisfactory results due to the uncertainty and lack of fair evidence about the work.

In general, a business problem can be associated with ethics. Raffoniet al.(2018) are of the opinion that on the one hand, owing to the financial depression in the country as well as in the organisation, Wesfarmers might be involved in employee lay-off; on the other hand, the company cannot find a proper explanation for such an action. With a lack of evidence to judge the performance of each employee despite limiting the number of employee appearances, Wesfarmers need to apply ethical consideration while trying to deal with the situation at hand.

Section 2: Economic Shock

The pandemic had brought about a downfall in the economic balance as well as the GDP in every country. According to Sheth (2020), industries being under lockdown for more than six months as well as having a stopgap working hour had hindered the smooth growth of the economy.The analysis made by Bakeret al.(2020) stated that in the case of Australia, the pandemic had lowered the economy drastically. Records indicate that since March 2020, the economy of Australia had plunged down by 7%, the largest fall in 1959.Compared with the 2019 fall, the GDP had dropped 5.1% more.

The problem with the organisations due to this is that strategic changes in the approaches needed to be made. According to Morkunas, Paschen and Boon (2019), job losses are certain, and the income level of the employees are also expected to fall. As such, for a company like Wesfarmers, the response to the economic shock needed to be made by identifying the ways by which job seekers can be kept at bay, and the existing employees be lay-off without causing any ethical violation(Wesfarmers.com.au 2021). Although the CEO, Rob Scott, urged the employees to deal with the crisis as a constant in the country, solutions related to the fall of the economy need to be made to handle the situation perfectly.

As such, the solution in this case for Wesfarmers is to apply a normalcy approach in the undertaking business. As observed by Grizane and Jurgelane (2017), due to the economic crisis, Wesfarmers need to address some of the economic, intellectual operations that are undertaken in business. For example, any form of highly equipped technology that can monitor employee progress or make delivery easy need to be laid-off so that the cost of upgrading such technologies can be saved. In the words of Burkaltsevaet al.(2017), it is necessary that the economic shock be addressed by digging the roots of the company and downsizing its operations to meet the times during which technology had not been of a stable and dominant position in the market.

As such, the Neoclassical economic theory associated with economics can be applied to address the situation of the company. According to Morkunas, Paschen and Boon (2019), the application of the Neoclassical economic theory can allow for managing the supply and demand of the products. For Wesfarmers, the economic crisis not only has to deal with the number of sales made but also with the operations of the company. Hence, factors of production need to be identified in a way that does not indulge excessive requirement of finance.

The real business difficulties, in this case, are to manage the quality of the products as well as ensure that the operations do not account for the excessive financial drain. At the same time, another problem that can be faced is that of the constant economic fluctuation. As evidenced by the analysis earlier, about the economic situation, before the pandemic, the economy of Australia had fallen by 6.1%. Hence, stability in the economy is rare in the country and can have a negative impact on the overall growth of an organisation(Burkaltsevaet al., 2017). In the case of Wesfarmers, it can be evidenced that the difficulties can stretch to a cautious approach in the overall running of its business.

The results that can be gained from this is that Wesfarmers need to manage not only the quality of its products but also ensure that it maintains an overall successful approach for its operations. Hence, as stated by Abbas and Hassan (2017) alternative way in terms of cutting down technology and going back to its roots is necessary for Wesfarmers. This can be both short-term as well as long-term given the fact that it is needed for the company to sustain the fluctuation in the economy. The advantage of this is that Wesfarmers can maintain its heavy financial drain while the disadvantage is that latest technology cannot be used justly.

As such, a conclusion can be made which can justify the exact nature of the changes that Wesfarmers need to make while commencing with the strategic involvement of the economic crisis. It is, in fact, necessary that the company tend to manage the rapid decline in the economy by contributing towards the economic growth with CSR activities. However, it is also necessary that the company maintain the reputation in terms of customer satisfaction and for ensuring that the working conditions of the employees remain stable.

In general, the business problem with economic depression can be related to the loss of sales. With the pandemic already lowering the sales, the further decline can lead a successful company like Wesfarmers into a huge loss. As such, not just lower-level employees, higher employees need to be laid off along with changes in the operations and departments that need to be made by Wesfarmers.

Section 3: Crisis Management Planning

Crisis management involves the process which an organisation undertakes to deal with the disruptive changes that can threaten an organisation or a stakeholder.According to Bundyet al.(2017), crisis management involves three phrases which include the pre-crisis, response to the crisis and the post-crisis phase. As stated by Jankelováet al.(2018), crisis management planning is a document that helps in underlining the plans that are required to be followed so that an effective response to the crisis can be provided. It usually helps in planning infrastructure so that the crisis can be respondent to well and clearly. In the modern world, the coronavirus pandemic is the main crisis that every organisation needs to address.

The problem associated with crisis management and its planning is that it is necessary to understand the basic issue concerning the crisis. In the case of Wesfarmers, the problem with the crisis management planning is that the company need to point to the exact issue which can hinder the growth of the company. According to Reuter, Hughes and Kaufhold (2018), the financial crisis for Wesfarmers had been reported due to the advent of the coronavirus, and as such, it is necessary that the company try to manage the financial condition of the business. Hence, the planning needs to be directed at the increase in budget for the company.

The solution to this can be to fulfil the specific requirements and demands of the customers as well as that of the employees. In the words of Williamset al.(2017), the maximisation of returns can be one of the solutions that Wesfarmers can adopt so that it can manage the crisis. As stated by Tokakis, Polychroniou and Boustras (2019), the planning, however, need to be directed at the overall management of the organisation, which includes preparing a budget for operations, employees, as well as the input of materials. This can allow Wesfarmers to understand the returns it can gain and, at the same time, make future plan keeping in mind the three stages of crisis management.

As such, the theories associated with crisis management that Wesfarmers can adopt is that of the five-stage crisis management theory of Mitroff. As identified by Uitdewilligen and Waller (2018) in this theory, the crisis signal is detected initially and based on the detection; prevention steps are measured. For example, with Wesfarmers, the financial crisis due to the pandemic needs to be mitigated by the possibility of employee lay-off as well as a reduction in operations of the company. At the same time, Bowers, Hall and Srinivasan (2017) are of the opinion that containment of the crisis can be managed by monitoring the movement of the finances and recovery of the finances can be done by identifying the returns that exist in the market. Finally, the crisis managed can serve as a learning experience for Wesfarmers to manage the same in the future.

The real business difficulties that can be associated with the solution is that it is not always possible to understand the financial crisis and predict whether the finance lost can be gained in a quick time. Hence as stated by Williamset al.(2017), the uncertainty of the plan is always a possibility, and despite the risk management techniques, financial planning cannot be considered to have a positive impact on the overall strategic planning of the organisation.

The results that can be predicted in this case for Wesfarmers can be based on the evidence that with the uncertainty of the financial management, the crisis management planning needs to be directed at understanding the areas which can have a positive impact on Wesfarmers. For example, as a short-term as well as long-term alternative customer satisfaction can be considered as a form of crisis management activity that Wesfarmers need to implement so that losses incurred can be curbed. The advantage is that Wesfarmers can be directly associated with the customers while the disadvantage is that it might divertWesfarmers from focusing on its financial crisis from its internal affairs.

Hence, the conclusion can be provided in this case that crisis management can have a satisfying impact on Wesfarmers and can lead to an overall understanding of the business situation. With the advent of the pandemic, various companies had to undergo financial changes, and the crisis management planning had been directed at such changes keeping in mind the ongoing pandemic and its impact. For Wesfarmers, such crisis management can lead the company to understand the various possibilities of financial implications in the business market.

In general, the problem identified can have a negative impact on the growth and reputation of Wesfarmers. This is mainly because Wesfarmers might not be able to manage the financial dents that the pandemic had brought about and thus can lose its position as a top 10 market share holder in Australia. As stated by Uitdewilligen and Waller (2018), this can also hinder the opportunities of the company to maintain a stable business and dominate the market of the country by gaining trust form its stakeholders.

Conclusion

From the overall analysis of the scenarios and the condition in Wesfarmers, it can be concluded that in terms of performance management, Wesfarmers might not be able to make a fair judgement about the actions of the employees. With a vast number of employees reducedfor safety protocol, Wesfarmers would want a different approach that can help the company to maintain its ethical approach in the business.The performance management does not provide an overall proper response for the problems of Wesfarmers and thus can be considered to not have a positive impact on the solution related to employee lay-off post-pandemic.
In terms of the handing of the economic shock, it can be concluded that Wesfarmers has managed well in identifying the crisis and ensuring that the crisis is made part of the organisation for the future. Although a huge loss isexpectedin the sales of the company, Wesfarmers also need to make changes in the overall operations so that any form of excessive financial strain can be eliminated. This can provide the company with some stability, although it cannot guarantee success for the changes it might bring about in the operations of the company.

The analysis of the crisis management provides a conclusion that Wesfarmers hold a strong position in the business market and, as such, can be considered to have a positive impact on the overall scenario of the business. The financial crisis had brought about problems in the operations of the company, although the crisis management planning might not be able to bring about a stable scenario for the overall operations of the business. Thus, it can be stated that for Wesfarmers, each of the three situations can be handled well by human resource management only if a specific identification of the problem can be made. 

Bibliography

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BUSM4738 Strategy Assignment Sample

Word Limit – 2250
Due date – Sunday of week 5
Weighting – 30%

Overview

This case study assessment task is designed to expose you to a strategic perspective on issues that concern the organisation. You will be required to understand the strategy problems and opportunities for the organisation at the network, corporate, business and functional levels. You will develop a strategy for the organisation in the case study.

Case study analysis solution development is a classic strategy course assessment task in business schools. Case study assessment allows students to gain insight by understanding and experiencing a variety of businesses across industries in a range of countries.

Assessment criteria and weighting

• Overall impact of your executive summary, writing quality and referencing(15%)

• External environment analysis, industry analysis and critical success factor identification and prioritization (20%)

• Company analysis (20%)

• SWOT analysis (15%)

• Recommendations on how you will take this forward into the short, medium and long term(30%)

Learning Outcomes for Assignment Help

After completion of this assessment you should be able to:

Apply business concepts to construct a strategic plan for a business (CLO1)

Create a sustainable competitive strategy for an ongoing business entity (CLO2)

Develop strategies alternatives using design thinking to facilitate organisational decision-making and problem solving (CLO3)

Demonstrate an understanding of legal, ethical social, economic and environmental implications of business processes (CLO4).

Solution

External environment, Industry analysis and critical success factors

Strategic management is all about increasing the performance of any organization in the country. According to Tafti et al. (2017), a company that adopts strategic management as a process of a company can provide a better performance instead of others. It is the approach that is used to specify the objectives of the company, develop the policies and help the company to implement all of these. In other words, strategic management is a process that is made by the completion of strategy creation, implementation and evaluation. But the strategic management can be affected by many external and internal factors of the company which is discussed below.

1. External environment analysis

External environment factors are dependent upon the many factors of the strategic management like- political, economic and social, competitors, customers etc. These all factors are uncontrollable that can affect the performance and the operations of the organisation. There is an alignment between the structure of the company and the external environment. According to Shtal et al. (2018), the external environment is changing day by day that can affect the strategies of the company and may create a problem. Therefore, the strategy of any company should be like that it can be performed in any situation. Adani Group created a very effective strategy to handle the external environment factor in the COVID-19 situation all over the world.

The company uses the PESTEL analysis technique to identifying the problem areas in the External environment which are as follows-

PESTEL ANALYSIS

? POLITICAL(P): the government of any country has been changed after an interval of time. In this way, the policies of the company or any organization can change according to the new government.

? ECONOMICAL(E): As stated by Matovic (2020, p.96), the company can suffer from the Financial problems which can be caused by the inflation rate, market growth and recession of the country. In this pandemic situation the economy of Adani Group also affected but after that they resolved the problem.

? SOCIAL: Increment in the working employees and the latest fashion of the environment may create a problem in the social environment of the company. The social effect of the Adani group plays the same role in pandemic too because they are always aware about the latest trends.

? TECHNOLOGICAL: The older version of the technology of the company can go down in front of rapidly changing technologies.

? LEGAL: The different new rules and regulations of the government can affect the working of the company. The new regulations like the lockdowns in the pandemic affected many areas of the Adani group too.

? ENVIRONMENTAL: Increment in the population and global warming can affect the production of the company.

2. Industry Analysis

Industry analysis is increasing the development of the company’s strategy to compete with the other external forces and the competitions which can affect the business of the company. As stated by Chase et al. (2018, p.13), the company can highlight the strengths and the weaknesses of the company to understand the development of the competitive forces industry analysis uses a tool named Porter’s Five Force analysis which is used to make the business strategies of the company. This tool is used to analyze the profit margins between the different companies, which can be evaluated by the structure of the company. As stated by Bruijl(2018), in the pandemic situation of Covid -19, there were very high competition in the current market. But Adani group created the effective strategy with the help of Porter’s Five Force Analysis and able to give a high competition to its competitors.

Porter’s Five Force Analysis:

There are the following five forces that are used to analyze the competitive forces.

? Rivalry in the Industry [low]-: As stated by Adani.com (2021), it is used to define the competition among the existing firms and also decreases the profit potential of the different countries.

? Substitution Threat [low]-: The substitute of any product of the company can reduce the sale of the particular product.

? Buyer’s Bargain[low] -: The powerful buyer has the power or the potential to purchase the item at a low price.

? Supplier’s Bargain[low]-: The suppliers can ask for premium prices which can also decrease the profit of the company.

? New Competition [low] If there are new competitors entered in the market that it can also decrease the sale of the company.

3. Critical success factor identification and prioritisation

Sometimes, it is very difficult to identify the real matter of the team which creates problems in the team, therefore the Critical Success Factor is used to identify the real problem and also provides the solution to the particular problem. According to Moeyuf et al. (2020, p.1384), the critical success factor is created by the strategic mission and the goals of the company. There are six steps to identity and develop the critical success factor which are-

? Create the strategies and set the goals of the organization.
? In each strategy, find out the areas which can help to achieve the goal
? Create a list of the persons who are able to achieve that goal.
? Spend time in monitoring and measurement of the Critical Success Factors.
? Communicate continuously with those persons who are appointed for work.
? Take monitoring in each work of Critical Success Factor and take surety that everything is on track.

Section 3: Company analysis

1. Explain case study organisation strategy, businesses, key stakeholders and their values

Strategy

According to Cappa, Cetrini&Oriani (2020, p.379), corporate-level strategy is the way through which a firm can add value with proper configuration and organizing multi-market activities. This consists of three aspects such as the addition of values, configuration and organization. Value addition is helpful in generating superior financial performance from multi-market activities further creating competitive advantage.

On further company analysis, it has been discovered that Adani Group took the help of Porter’s Generic strategy for defining its strategies. The cost leadership strategy of the Adani group involves integration. With the help of this strategy, the concerned organization successfully synchronized information technology and cultures and objectives of the business. As a result, integration led to greater efficiency, reduction of costs and a better environment to work (Adani.com, 2021). Adani group believes in high capital-intensive projects and this is involved in the product differentiation strategy. This strategy of Adani Group in Australia has resulted in delivering the products efficiently within the specified parameters like cost, quality and time as this utilizes more capital, technology and skilled manpower. Taking the help of such a strategy, it is possible for the company to reduce human error, increasing efficiency and there is no problem with the shortage of labour. Lastly, the company focuses (Focus) on developing infrastructure (Mungai &Ogot, 2017, p.148).

Businesses

Adani Group involves diverse businesses consisting of resources, energy, logistics, agribusiness, real estate, defence, aerospace and financial services. The annual revenue of the concerned company is over US$13 billion as it is operating at 70 locations in 50 different nations (Adani.com, 2021). In a country like Australia, this group has resorted to self-financing of rail haulage works for the Queensland rail project and Carmichael coal mine with the port units.

Key stakeholders and values

Table 1: Stakeholder register
(Source: Influenced by Gornitzka&Krick, 2018, p.51)

2. Prepare an analysis into the functions of the business

Adani Group has functional organizational structure. Here, the COO (Chief Operating Officer) is responsible for making major decisions. The COO is then delegating the job to EO, then, EO assigns the job to different departments such as marketing, HR, finance and so on.

Figure 4: Organizational structure of Adani Group
(Source: Adani.com, 2021)

Marketing department of Adani Group has AGM and Sr. Officer. AGM is responsible for coordinating, planning and making decisions for the business operations, and then asks the Sr, Officer to carry out further tasks. Sr. Officer ensures that all the tasks are done properly and hence manages the marketing team.

Figure 5: Marketing Department
(Source: Adani.com, 2021)

Then, comes the finance department which is responsible for managing the cash flow of Adani Group and hence makes sure that enough funds are available for meeting daily requirements and payments. Thus, the Finance department is mainly run by Finance manager assisted by Assistant manager, Accounts and Clerk and Peon.

Figure 6: Finance Department
(Source: Adani.com, 2021)

The HR department at Adani is continuously working to manage the life cycle of employees efficiently by hiring, recruiting, training, onboarding and also firing the employees. It can be observed that this department at Adani is decomposed functionally. HR is decomposed into HR operations, IR & Compensation operations and T&D employee engagement. HR operations are mainly carried out by the manager, IR by Senior manager and T&D by Deputy manager (Joseph & Gaba, 2020, p.267). So, it can be inferred from the company’s situation that each of these departments are working collaboratively to meet the organizational goals.

Figure 7: HRM Department
(Source: Adani.com, 2021)
Section 4: SWOT analysis

Table 2: SWOT Analysis of Adani Group
(Source: Marketing91.com, 2021)

Presence of this company into diverse core industries has resulted in strong presence in major areas of industrial development. Ethical issues are the major one due to which the company also faced charges under the law court. Moreover, the shareholders are also not satisfied and this is evident by the fact that the group lost 14 to 24% of wealth in this pandemic situation. Moreover, risky investments in the mines of Australia are also a weakness. The government has provided lots of impetus to renewable and sustainable energy so the company has opportunity in this area. Due to Covid 19, massive disruptions to the flow of foreign investments have been observed. The rate of trading with other countries gradually slowed down due to such a threat.

Section 5: Recommendation

1. Recommendations for shareholder and stakeholder value added overall

The shareholder value is just a financial term which is used to describe the owner of the company about the shares owned by the company. The shareholder value can be increased when the company gets the earning of return on the invested capital of the company. The company should increase the sales price of their product and the services after an interval of time. According to Chase et al. (2018, p.18), a business can increase the revenue with the combination of high volume and high price in the products of the company.

2. Impact of individual recommendations on shareholder and/or stakeholder value

The impact of the individual recommendations on shareholders and the value of the stakeholders are very high. The individuals are recommended in many ways and the strategies which are used to generate the value of the stakeholders. They also work for creating the values for the multiple groups of stakeholders. There is impact of each recommendations which are as follows-

Recommendation 1: High Revenue growth

References

Adani.com 2021 Company Overview, Adani Group, viewed 8th April 2021, <https://www.adani.com/>
Cappa, F., Cetrini, G. &Oriani, R., 2020. The impact of corporate strategy on capital structure: evidence from Italian listed firms. The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 76, pp.379-385.

Chase, L.C., Stewart, M., Schilling, B., Smith, B. and Walk, M., 2018. Agritourism: Toward a conceptual framework for industry analysis. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 8(1), pp.13-19.

Gornitzka, Å. &Krick, E., 2018. The expertisation of stakeholder involvement in EU policymaking. Expertisation and democracy in Europe, pp.51-70.

Joseph, J. & Gaba, V., 2020. Organizational structure, information processing, and decision-making: a retrospective and road map for research. Academy of Management Annals, 14(1), pp.267-302.
Linkedin.com 2021 About Us. LinkedIn, viewed 8th April 2021, <https://au.linkedin.com/company/adani-australia>

Marketing91.com, 2021 SWOT ANALYSIS. Marketing, viewed 8th April 2021, <https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-adani-group/>
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BST904 Creativity, Innovation and Enterprise Assignment Sample

Responsible Innovation Advice for a Growing SME

Individual task (50% of overall module grade)

Submission Details

Submit a copy via the Learning Central module link. The deadline for submission is 11.00 (UK time) time) on 23/03/2022. Your report should be 2000 words [+/- 10%] in length.

Suggested Format and Style

I would suggest writing the report in the style of an independent consultant providing outside advice to the company. The structure below is a suggested guide to your report, rather than a strict rule.

• Cover Page [Not included in word count]. This should include a title of the report, your student number (but not your name), the module code and title, and the total number of words.

• Executive Summary [Not included in word count]. A very short summary of the report.

• Introduction. What is your report about? Why are you writing it? Aims? How will you achieve this aim? Structure of report?

• Main Body. This should be the most substantive section of the report, and should address the assignment brief here. You may split this section into your own subsections, but suggested areas to cover are as below:

• Conclusion. This usually provides a summary of the main findings of the report and revisits any aims you set out in the introduction.

• Reference list [not included in word count]. The literature should be correctly referenced using the Cardiff-Harvard style

Your Assignment

Read through the Case Study Brief accompanying this document. In response to the case situation, provide a report to the new senior team with an evaluation of how a responsible innovation approach could be adopted and embedded in the growing organisation

BST904 MBA CASE STUDY DOCUMENT FOR THE INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

A new responsible innovation agenda

IDCo is a small to medium sized company in Cardiff, employing approximately 150 people. The company have grown based on their main area of activity, creating digital identity solutions. Such solutions allow online users to prove who they are. The main company product is an app that uses a combination of personal details, biometric information, formal identity numbers and documents. This helps individuals to prove their identity and details with their smartphone.

Founded in 2012, they have grown quickly over the last decade, and are now looking to expand across the UK and Europe. The company started out via their website, and quickly moved into app development as smartphones became widespread. The core product allows users to verify their details (such as age, identity) via signatures and authentication. The company has a strong technical development capability and has worked hard to understand the regulatory and legal implication of its products. It has been successful at integrating new emerging technologies (e.g. face recognition) into its offering, and making updates and minor upgrades to its core provision.

The founder was heavily involved in the original idea, concept and development, having a technical background prior to founding the company. Recently, a new senior management team was formed after the original owner moved on, and the business expands. The company has experienced some ‘growing pains’ as it expands and recruits new members, and forms new teams. The new management team are reflecting on a refresh for the strategy and priorities.

They are intensely aware of the challenges of working with personal data. Issues of data privacy, consumer rights, security, possible illegal activity and risk of criminal misuse are pertinent. The new senior management team have noted increasing interest in notions of ‘responsible innovation’, and the positive benefits, and potential for more responsible ways of working that this could bring. They would like to have a positive impact on society, and understand the importance of gaining trust.

Despite the success of the core product, the new management team consider that the world is changing so rapidly that the company needs to think in a more structured way about new products and services, and the management of its pipeline of innovations. It is also worried about larger tech companies competing in its markets.

Building on its core expertise, the company is considering how it may offer more specific provision and customised offerings for organisations and corporate clients, which may involve customised solutions in different industry sectors. However, the new team are also concerned that there is no structured path to breakthrough or next generation solutions, as well as approaches to ensure research and development is responsible and responsive to social needs. New technologies are also emerging, for example in the area of face recognition, but such approaches need careful management.

Following the above changes and situation, the team would like to appoint an independent consultant to help facilitate the discussion and provide fresh thinking and insight around its approach to responsible innovation and new product development.

Solution

Introduction

In today’s technological and digital era companies are highly focusing on implementing advance technology within firm. They are emphasizing on innovation and R&D to develop new products and services (Cardoso de Sousa and Monteiro, 2012). There are various types of innovation which can be done. But it requires an approach to adopt within company. If approach is not adopted, then it impacts on operations and on growth. The use of approach depends on type of innovation for assignment help.

These reports will emphasis on how innovation approach can be adopted by IDCo. The aim of report is to evaluate various innovation approaches that can be applied. The aim will be achieved by analysing case study and explaining how approach is executed. The structure consists of introduction, main body and conclusion.

Main body

It has been analysed from case study that IDCo is SME that was founded in 2012 in Cardiff. It provides digital identity services. There are total 150 staff working. They want to expand to UK and Europe. The company have developed an App which verifies people Id, signature, age.

The adoption of innovation approach also depends on capabilities of company. It is because if there is no proper process, structure within firm then it highly effect on innovation. This may lead to disruption as well. But it depends on IDCo that which innovation they adopt (Cook, 2016). In case study it is analysed that firm is growing rapidly. The management is now focusing on developing new product or service. They want to do customization in products. It is because of emergence of new technology. Now with new technology they are trying to develop new services. However, there is no systematic approach through which innovation can be done. Thus, it is a challenge for them to develop new product in systematic way. So, without relevant approach it is difficult to apply innovation.

Innovation and R&D are core competencies for an organisation. It is because it enables in developing new products and services. Also, with help of it they are able to grow and develop. Moreover, innovation brings in drastic changes in various areas within an organisation. It can be either in structure, process, operations, culture and other areas. But there is need to apply an innovation approach in order to implement innovation. This is because approach provides an overview of what steps needs to be taken, how innovation is to be adopted, what strategy or plan to be used and several other things (Fadaee and Abd Alzahrh, 2014).

Responsible research innovation (RRI)- In order to adopt innovation there is need of a relevant framework by firm. Thus, the solution for this is that company can adopt responsible research innovation. RRI refers to engage people in research process to integrate goals of research with society needs. This is important because it helps in solving challenges which occurs in society. RRI is continuous process where research is done to generate social value. Therefore, company can work with various factors such as government, society, policy makers, to do research and then adopt innovation. It will be useful for them to align process as well as outcomes. There will be institutional change occur as well (Stojcic and Orlic, 2018). By that it will be easy to adopt RRI within firm. Generally, small firms use RRI to improve science and society. Hence, this innovation will help in fulfilling society needs. Also, they can make changes in App to integrate technology like facial recognition, voice senses, fingerprint. There is also a framework which can be used in RRI. It is mentioned as below :

AREA- It is framework which focuses on 4 elements to ensure that innovation is adopted in effective way. Also, there is continuous research which is done to integrate process with society needs.

Anticipate- This means to identify society needs and then make changes in process for innovation.

Reflect – There is reflection done on society needs by to ensure that innovation of product or service will help to fulfil it.

Engage – In this innovation is being engaged with people and in process. It is done to solve challenge which occurs in society.

Act – It means to act on innovation which is done and generate value from it.

The best practice that can be followed in RRI is increase value and reduce waste. In this research can be done on how to adopt new technology with high security. The RRI process requirement’s such as openness, transparency, diversity can be adopted as well.

So, continuous innovation can be done to adopt RRI. In addition to it, if there occurs any challenge of security or privacy of info in society then IDCo can make change in App (Dimnwobi and Mgbemena, 2016). It will help in generating value and storing of info and authentication of it. With of RRI the trends in society can be eliminated. The organisation can align process of innovation with app authentication. In this way society needs are fulfilled. Thus, IDCo can use RRI to adopt innovation.

Therefore, IDCo can adopt the approach of RRI. In that they make changes in their App. Alongside, the entire business process will change. Besides that, all other technologies can be integrated into it. company can work with various factors such as government, society, policy makers, to do research and then adopt innovation. It will be useful for them to align process as well as outcomes. Besides that, RRI will result in change in process, procedure. Thus, a complete new plan is developed in which innovation is implemented in systematic way. Also, this approach will act as framework for innovation (Hughes and et al. 2018). The best practices that can be followed in RRI is increase value and reduce waste.

But it is argued that this approach is not suitable for IDCo. It is because change in business model can result in various disruptions within firm operations. They might have to modify process of business. The shift to cloud computing may lead to privacy or security issues. There can also be technical issues arising in it. Nonetheless, this approach is used by large firms. They change their business model to adopt innovation. So, as this firm is SME the approach is not suitable for them. In this they may have to change concept of App working. The core provision of app can be changed. So, making any upgrade in business model will directly effect on app process. The management could not be able to take effective decisions (Forgeard and Kaufman, 2016).

On other hand, it is found from case study that there are many challenges in adoption of innovation in technology. They are privacy issue, security, legal implication, misuse of personal data. Hence, use of business model approach can result in rise of these issues. It will impact on growth of business. Also, solutions which are customized might not be useful for clients or corporates. However, if this approach can be applied for now and innovation is executed in effective way. But in future there can arise certain issues like legal implications, business model failure and other.

Ethical issues - Also, IDCo can face certain ethical issues as well with upgrade. They are as below:

Privacy issue- This is most common issue which can be faced by company. In this there might be leakage of info and confidential data of people. This issue can occur due to technical error or hacking of database.

Misuse of data- it is also an issue that can occur in technology update. The data and info of people can be misused by third party or any other person. The misuse of data may result in illegal or unethical activities. Apart from it, firm might not be able to handle or manage data in effective way due to which it can get misused.
Security issue- it is also an issue which can be faced by organization. Due to technology upgrade the data might not be secured properly. Thus, it can lead to data leakage. In addition, this issue can result in misuse of data as well.

The technology can affect society in negative way. There be fake personal data created that can be used in negative way. Also, people confidential data can be copied easily. Along with it, data authentication error can result in misuse of data. The people can use it for illegal activity. Hence, it can result in rise in crimes. Besides that, it will effect in negative way as anyone will be able to access data easily. In this way technology will affect in negative way.

It is expected that new technologies will emerge in the future. It is critiqued that innovation has to be embedded in effective way in firm. This is because the growth entirely depends on how well new product or service is being developed. However, the challenges of innovation have to be identified. In technology innovation is quick (Kwan and et al. 2018). This is because advance technologies are useful in increasing efficiency. Hence, in this way overall business model can shift to cloud computing.

Along with approach, it is required for organisation to form and execute an innovation strategy as well. It is a plan which describes to create new value. Thus, customers also wish to pay for that new value in product or service. There are different types of strategies available that are active, proactive, passive and reactive. Also, 4 types of innovations are discussed as below :

Incremental – It is type of innovation in which company uses its current technology, resources to innovate new product or service. This is done to increase product value in current market. It allows firms to engage in various process by which they are able to add value in service.

Disruptive innovation- In this innovation there is new technology or process executed within company and in same industry. The new technology can be costly or cheap. But it has more features and specifications, design. In this example of Apple can be taken. The company have developed Iphone that is touch screen. It is disruptive innovation (Khalili, 2016).

Architectural innovation- The innovation in which new technology or skills are applied in different market or industry. It is highly beneficial in attracting new customers easily. Moreover, in this risk is relatively low as compared to all other types of innovation. For example- Use of AI in producing electric cars in automobile sector.

Radical innovation- The innovation in which new industries are emerged. This enables in bringing out new product or services in market. For example- airplane industry was a radical innovation.

So, there are few recommendations which can be used by IDCo to select approach and embed innovation. They are as below:

• They can do analysis of each approach and find best one which fit into business. So, criteria and standards can be used for that.

• The company can monitor progress of innovation by which it is easy for them to embed in effective way. Also, monitoring will allow in making changes accordingly (Edwards-Schachter and et al. 2015).

• The top management should take help of experts and stakeholders in embedding of approach. It will enable in taking effective decision and adopting innovation in proper way.

• The innovation can be embedded in step by step way. For that a proper framework should be developed and then proceeded.

Conclusion

From report it has been concluded that IDCo is a small firm that offers digital identity services. The management want to embed innovation to develop new product or service. So, it requires approach to be used. There are different types of innovation approaches such as continuous process improvement, improving product design, upgrade business model. IDCo can adopt the approach of upgrade business model and shift towards cloud computing. But this is not suitable for IDCo as change in business model can result in various disruptions within firm operations. The 4 types of innovations are incremental, disruptive innovation, architectural innovation and radical innovation.

References

OPM400 Production and Operations Management Assignment Sample

Eastern Insurance Processing Centre - OPM400

Eastern Insurance Company has a main processing Centre in Calgary, Alberta that is responsible for all Canadian claims. On average they process over a thousand claims per month. Claims are for a range of services including dental, medical, and professional services. Recently it has been brought to the Managements attention that errors are becoming an increasing problem. The company does not have a Quality Control Department, but the Operations performance does fall under the responsibility of Marco Rossi, Operations Manager. Although he has no formal training in quality, he has taken a measure of implementing a Quality improvement project.

In a four week period in January 2022, each day, a group of claims were removed from the system and given a thorough evaluation. Results are recorded in the chart below.

In February, extra training took place for all employees. All associates in the Claims department attended either a six hour session, or two four-hour sessions depending on factors such as their position, length of service, and their area of responsibility. Eastern spent over $75,000 to complete this training, convinced that the reduction in number of errors would save the company money in the long run.
Approximately 20% of the employees in the Claims Department have been working for Eastern for less than one year, so this seemed like a good time to refresh the training that was given. Also, in the past year there have been two new major customers for Eastern which resulted in new forms/ documents and processes, as well as a much higher workload.

In March 2019, Marco Rossi felt it was important to determine whether the training that he implemented resulted in a reduction in the number of errors in customer claims. Once again, the same number of randomly selected claim forms was removed from the system. Each form was carefully evaluated to look for errors.

The information below is from the January (original data) and from March (after the training). As a new hire from the Business Program at Seneca College, you have been asked to do an evaluation of the data and to put together a report on the success of the training program at Canadian Insurance Company, and to recommend next steps.

Assignment:

Compile a report that includes the following

1. Cover page and Table of Contents. Ensure each section has a proper title and that each graph is properly labelled. Double space all pages. Compile the report in the order of the numbers given below. Ensure that your Table of Contents is compiled using the Microsoft WORD tool.

2. Executive Summary. You should write this part after you have covered all the issues of this assignment, but it should appear at the beginning of your report. In that way it will allow Marco Rossi to have immediate, short and clear understanding of the main findings and conclusions of the report. Give your specific results here, including the per cent improvement in errors. (1-2 paragraphs)

3. Summarize for Mr Rossi the four costs of quality, giving examples of each from Eastern Insurance. (Maximum two paragraphs)

4. a Fish-Bone (Cause and Effect) chart, which indicates some possible reasons for the defects listed in the case.

5. Use EXCEL and perform a Pareto Analysis for the original data. (Pre-training) Comment on the performance in the Claims Department. Include the Table with your data as well as the Pareto chart.

6. Using the original data, draw a Run Chart (Line Chart) for each of the top 2 errors indicated on your Pareto Chart. Can any conclusions be drawn from this line chart?

7. Perform a Pareto Analysis on the data obtained after the training took place (post training). Discuss the improvements and next steps. Was the training successful? ( 1 paragraph)

8. It has been discussed that there is some pressure in this industry to obtain ISO Certification. Is this something you would recommend, and why, or why not? ( 1 paragraph)

9. From the information you have discovered, suggest two recommendations for Eastern Insurance Processing Centre to improve their performance going forward. Use information learned in our unit on Quality. (Maximum 2 paragraphs)
The charts and graphs must be computer generated. Each Pareto Analysis must include the Pareto table and the Pareto chart. Ensure that you import your EXCEL document into WORD so that your formulas are visible. Use Paste Special.

You must ensure that your charts appear as you want them to be seen in your WORD document. If they cannot be seen in WORD, they cannot be marked.

No part of this report should be hand written or written in the first person. Do not use I, we, you, me, my etc. Ensure that the rubric is the final page of your assignment.

Please remember to identify your charts/graphs- Main Titles, X-Axis and Y-Axis Titles and Scale, other names of data. Be sure to cite any external references. All submissions must be submitted through Safe Assign in order to be graded. Submit only ONE WORD document.

January Data (Original Data)

March Data (After Improvement)

If the version you submit is different than the one given to you in Blackboard, it will not be graded. Be sure that you do not share your document with anyone.

Late Policy: Late assignments will be deducted 10% per day up to a maximum of three days late.
Name your Document: yourfirstname.lastnameAss2

Solution

1. Introduction

This report provides information on cost quality and develops a fishbone diagram to identify the cause and effect of claim department performance. Also prepared a Pareto chart before and after training to analyse the data error. A run chart is prepared to identify errors over time.

2. Cost of Quality

Four costs of quality include prevention cost, appraisal cost, internal failure and external failure. Prevention cost refers to inefficient quality management systems and documentation of quality planning which are found in the given case study. For example, Eastern Insurance company do not have any quality control department, and also management does not plan for the data entry operation. Employees do not become aware of the systems because of training lack. Appraisal cost includes tests and performance checks to determine whether the company achieve particular requirements (Guliani et al. 2021). This includes the purchase of equipment for the test and inspection. For example, the company incurred $75000 for training purposes.

Internal failure cost refers to the rectification of error before transformation to the final recipient. Internal failure costs include failure analysis costs. For example, Eastern Insurance company spends on training to reduce the number of errors in the claim department (Almomani et al. 2019). External failure cost refers to the rectification of error after transformation to the final recipient. This cost includes servicing costs and repair costs for assignment help. For example, Eastern Insurance company reduce customer claim errors after providing service.

3. Fish Bone Diagram

This diagram is prepared to represent the cause of customers' claim errors found in the Eastern Insurance company. The two main causes are employee training lack and inefficient quality control management. Therefore two causes are the effect of the customer claim.

Diagram 1: Fish Bone

4. Pareto Analysis

Diagram 2: Pareto chart

The Pareto chart is prepared on the basis of the data given in the case study. In this chart, X-axis represents the cause of the data error and Y axis represents the cumulative percentage of causes. In this chart, four cause contributes 91% of data error. The company need to provide more focus on the four causes and take appropriate action to mitigate this error. The four causes are the vital view of this chart where the company need to work appropriately to reduce customer claim error. By analysing the above chart, it is concluded that the performance of the claim department is very poor because the department collects 85 incomplete customer information.

Table 1: Performance of the Claim department

5. Run Chart Analysis

Diagram 3: Run Chart

In the run, the chart X-axis represents the date of the present data and Y axis represents the data error of two segments. Rung charts are prepared to spot data over the time period. In other words, the performance of the claim department represents, and medians are calculated for every data error to set a benchmark for the data error. The chart provides a great view rather than only summarising data. This run chart is also called a time series chart which represents the top two data errors over time. Information incomplete data errors reduce on the 4th of January and take a peak on the 11th of January. The company can reduce these errors through a proper testing process.

6. Pareto chart after training

Diagram 4: Pareto chart after training

After providing training, data errors reduce in every segment. Incomplete information error reduces to 27, and authorisation reduces to 9 from 28. Before training, four segments contribute 91% of data error, but after training, these four segments contribute 85%. But the company have to improve that data error. The company have to focus more on the first data error; if the company finds that 20 of the effort resulting 80 per cent data error improvement, then the company do not need to focus more on the remaining data error. It is because the reaming data error will improve automatically if the company develops proper quality management. The company can improve charts using the six sigma framework after analysing the data represented in the chart. The training is successful because incomplete information data errors are decreased by 11 per cent.

7. ISO certification

The Eastern insurance company should be required to obtain ISO certificates because it ensures the creditability and quality of the company. Different types of ISO certificates are available depending on the types of services and products the company is providing to their customers. Every small and big company is required to obtain ISO certificates because it is an asset of the company. ISO certificates help the company to improve service quality by maintaining standard quality protocols (Demir et al. 2021). Iso certificates indicate all key processes of the company. Customer satisfaction is the ultimate objective of all organisations. Some customers establish business relationships with only ISO-certified companies. Easter Insurance company can satisfy their customers through ISO certification because it establishes a professional approach and trustworthiness (Ikram et al. 2021).

One of the key operational management includes decision-making. Organisations make decisions by analysing their past and present information. ISO certification ensures the right decision-making by providing a structural quality management framework. ISO certification helps the Insurance company to establish creditability (Demir et al. 2021). If the company wants to gain a competitive advantage, then the company is required to be credible. ISO certificates are the renowned and well-known credible marks of the company. ISO certificate help to build customer trust and add credibility to advertisement and marketing strategies (Ikram et al. 2021).

Therefore it is concluded that if the Estate insurance company wants to get benefits, gain a competitive advantage in the market and develop as credible, then ISo certificates are important for the company.

8. Recommendation

The company can improve data errors by double check the work and process standardisation. Double check is considered the standard operating procedure. In this process, the quality control department will check the work done by an employee. This process will reduce data entry errors, and organisations can mitigate data entry errors during the process. Data entry is a time-consuming process which increases human error. If the company wants to maintain accuracy in the data entry process, then the company have to standardise their data collection and data entry process. The standardised process helps the claim department to follow a protocol during data collection and data entry.

9. Conclusion

This report discusses four costs of quality, including prevention cost, appraisal cost, internal failure and external failure, and also provides cast study examples of the related costs of quality. A fishbone diagram is created to identify the different causes of data entry errors. Also, a Pareto chart is prepared to identify the cumulative percentage of data error. After training data Pareto chart is prepared to determine how much training provides effect with the data error. The run chart is prepared by taking 2 top data entry errors and calculating the median of each section to identify the up and down of data error over time. And also provide recommendations to improve data quality.  

Reference

BSBLDR801 Lead Personal and Strategic Transformation Assignment Sample

Case Study:

As part of the latest workplace agreement, an organisation is about to introduce multiskilling for all employees. The goal is to enhance efficiency, flexibility and job satisfaction and help the organisation become an employer of choice.

Tom, the Section Manager is responsible for developing and implementing learning plans for the employees in their sections. These are put in place to ensure that all the employees can benefit from equal opportunity and health, safety and welfare professional development and that a net 3% gain in productivity six months after the training is completed. Measures of each section’s success also include attendance rate, labour retention rates, number of grievances registered and output to costs ratios. Tom can see many apparent benefits for the employees. A great variety of tasks and increased skills will provide better job satisfaction, and flexibility resulting from multiskilling taking place. Employees will have the opportunity to undertake complete projects and take on more responsibility and decision making in their roles. Tom can see plenty of other benefits to the organisation apart from those stated in the workplace agreement: multi-skilled staff, improved occupational health and safety, improved and easier recruitment and retention due to increased level of job satisfaction, more effective use of technology, improved staff morale, it sounds too good to be true.

Read the case study carefully and answer the questions in the spreadsheet below for assignment help -

Q1: Give examples of how Tom can communicate the new organisational direction and values to the staff. (150 – 200 words)

Q2: What impact will Tom’s role as a leader have during this organisational change? What strategies can he use? (100-150 words).

Q3: Explain how Tom should analyse and confirm the capacity and competence of relevant team members to find out how they can contribute to the change process and implementation plans. (100 – 150 words).

Q4: What strategies can Tom use to develop a learning and communication solutions to address any problems and risks arising for individuals during organisational change. (100-150 words)

Q5: If you were Tom, how would you develop, plan and introduce this change? (100-150 words)

Q6: What leadership style and approaches should Tom use to best respond to the impact of change on people and processes (50-100 words)

Q7: How you would deal with the resistance to change? (50-100 words)

Q8: What relevant legislation, information and intelligence sources does Tom need to analyse and keep in mind during the change process? (50 – 100 words)

Solution

Ans 1)

? Talk about the core values and their implications: Tom needs to first describe the core values and how they are beneficial for the company. He needs to explain how the following values will help in increasing the flexibility, job satisfaction and efficiency of the organisation (Mitrevski et al.,nd).

? Use eye-catching and attention-grabbing methods of conveying the message: Just showing people a ppt of why one needs to become more efficient and how that will help in a boring presentation, one must make it interesting. If Tom goes up and talks about what he feels and what he wants to convey and then follows to show a video on how the whole thing would work, it will grab the attention of the people listening (Mitrevski et al., nd).

? Tom should make sure he takes everyone’s opinions in a way that they feel included in the meeting and by the end let them know about what the changes are and why they are vital. Without proper reasoning, it could be a very hard value to build but having solid reasoning with proper examples helps build a tight agreement with the staff and the leader

Keeping these basic elements in their mind it would be easy for Tom to get his words through to his staff.

Ans 2)

To bring in changes in this organisation, it is important for Tom to follow the correct strategy as his path of leading would carry a lot of responsibility. If he succeeds in passing down the values to the staff, it will benefit the organisation positively and help it achieve flexibility, efficiency and job satisfaction of the company (Kwiatkowski, 2019). However, if Tom fails, it will not only affect the team members, staff and his job but the organisation as a whole.

Tom can take the help of values-based leadership:

Values-based leadership determines the strategy of the business by establishing clear implications that serve as a guide for employees. This type of leadership provides direction and significance to workers, supervisors, stakeholders, and the organisation as a whole. It helps employees take to evaluate the objective of the organization in every decision they make. Firms established responsive cultures based on appropriate values, which increased the overall ultimate sense of stakeholders of the company. The organizations depend on the cooperation of its consumers and clients to attain its goals. Values-based leading benefits individuals since it engages in the learning and collaboration of all partners (Kwiatkowski, 2019). It also enables staff by developing leaders and inspiring other leaders to do the same.

Ans 3)

As a team leader, it is given that Tom is required to analyse and confirm the team’s competence and capacity.
To get successful results Tom himself has to become a good leader who is able to lead his team to success. If Tom learns the basics of how to make sure you work for and along with the team and not make the teamwork for you, along with other points. Given that Tom is extremely fast-paced and leads the teams efficiently, he also needs to keep a check on whether everyone on his team is working up to their full potential or not (Errida and Lotfi, 2021).

Doing that would require him to keep an eye on every single one of them. If Tom goes up to each member and strikes up a conversation related to work which later moves into something casual, it would form a bond between them which would help them improve their relationship and make them feel closer as a whole team. Once close enough they would all try their level best to work up as a team altogether and work towards success as a team (Errida and Lotfi, 2021).

Ans 4)

Tom should introduce 5 basic strategies of effortless communication in times of problems-

? Verbal Communication: Whenever we converse with people and engage in verbal communication, It could be face-to-face, over the telephone, via Skype or video chat, or indeed any means. Some verbal contacts are informal, also including chatting with a co-worker over espresso or in the office kitchen, and few are more formal, other than a planned meeting. (Nwabueze And Mileski, 2018).

? Non-verbal Communication: Everything Most often, everything we do while communicating conveys over and above what we say. communication involves facial expressions, position, human touch, hand gestures, and sensation.

? Written Communication: Whether it's a contract memo whether it's a Facebook post, research, an email, a Twitter tweet, or just about anything else, every written language seems to have the same purpose which is to communicate a message in a concise and brief manner - a goal that is usually not accomplished. In actuality, poor writing skills usually lead to misinterpretation and embarrassment, but also significant legal consequences. (Nwabueze And Mileski, 2018).

? Listening: Hearing is not commonly considered in many kinds of communication. Listening skills are the most significant characteristics of contact since if we don't attend to the person next to each other, they will not be capable of engaging with them.

? Visual Communication: Our civilization is built around images. Bear this in mind: screens are all on 24 hours per day every day, Fb has visual jokes, videos, images, and so forth, Instagram is a photographic platform, and marketers use imagery to promote ideas and products.

Ans 5) If I was Tom I would introduce this change step by step.

I would begin with getting every team member together. I would then present my ideas and the topic for discussion. After taking everybody’s thoughts on it, I would proceed to give my reasoning and backups for the statements I would make and the changes I would want to implement. By the end of the meeting, I would have given them a brief about how the process of change would take place. I would make sure the process is subtle and not sudden as sudden changes are hard to adapt to. I would also be open to any suggestions related to improving the implications of the said change.

Ans 6)

To bring about major changes in a big organization Tom should take the help of a transformational leader. Given that the change is about implementing new values, it would help to try and create stronger bonds with the teams and work together towards successfully becoming multiskilled, leading o efficiency in the workforce (Oreg and Berson, 2019).

Ans 7)

Given that changes are not easy to adapt to, it could very well be possible that the people towards whom change Is targeted refuses to adapt. In situations like those, I would approach each of them personally and listen to their side of the thoughts. After rationalising them and logically explaining why they are wrong I would persuade them to adapt to change or have to let go of them.

Ans 8)

During the tough change process of the working of the organization, Tom needs to analyse how their teammates and staff are performing. Tom should be carrying out tasks as per the regulations or legislation of Occupational Safety and Health. When an organization is undergoing change it is extremely important to ensure that besides the physical resources the confidential data are also protected. Thus Tom should also comply by the Data Protection Act and ensure there is no breach of organisational data (Abdow, 2019).It would be an intelligent for Tom to consider the Corporate Governance regulations, as the process of change management includes legal as well as security regulations thus to ensure safe practices these should be considered.

References

TBUS610 E–Business Strategies Assignment Sample

For 125 years, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has been a venerated newspaper with a focus on business and a welI educated, discerning readership. It consistently ranks as one of the top publications world¬ wide in terms of number of sub¬ scribers (currently approximately 2.8 million). Despite its pedigree as one of the most recognizable and respected newspapers in the world, WSJ has also made an effort to stay on the cutting edge in an industry that has seen significant disruption in the past decade. It was a pioneer in developing a pay wall for its digital content in 1997, Which met with skepticism and even ridicule at first, but is now increasingly common among online newspapers? WSJ was also one of the first news organizations with its own app for the iPad, released in 2010.

From 2010 to 2015, however, WSJ began to lag behind other newspapers and web¬ sites as devices became smaller, more streamlined, and more specialized. Although it was a first mover into the mobile space, other papers like the Financial Times and USA Today made sweeping changes to their websites and mobile offerings during this time period that better suited mobile browsing. WSJ had not redesigned its website since 2008. To make matters worse, in 2015, Google updated its search algorithms to prioritize sites that are optimized for mobile devices, which caused WSJ's search results to suffer. The company wasn't alone in that regard, with nearly half of the websites belonging to Fortune 500 companies failing to achieve "mobile-friendliness," according to Google, including a surprising 29% of retail sites, where mobile search is critical to maintaining revenue growth. However, with many publishing companies already struggling to adjust to the new online world, WSJ decided it had no more time to waste.

In 2015, WSJ undertook a complete redesign of its website and mobile apps across multiple platforms. It released new I Pad and Android apps with a variety of new features to improve user experience, and followed those up with the release of apps for the Apple Watch and for the Windows 10 operating system. It also added its first mobile-only product, an app that features a curated digest of 10 stories that is refreshed during the day, patterned after the what’s News column that appears on the front page of the print version. WSJ also launched a London-specific app called WSJ City that provides frequent updates on the most significant business news in London. In 2016, WSJ announced plans to launch more apps with specific functions akin to what’s News and WSJ City. The paper also launched the WSJ.D niche site, which focuses on technology news, analysis, commentary, and product reviews. The overhaul was more than just cosmetic. Organizationally, it also integrated the team that works on new technology products and design elements into the news room, so that the editors themselves can have direct input into shaping the technological future of WSJ. This move has helped WSJ keep pace with other top newspapers, including the Washington Post, which has almost 50 engineers working in its newsroom. In 2016, WSJ also announced continued changes to the organizational structure of its newsroom to improve its digital efforts further.

One of the most critical objectives of the overhaul was to ensure that the user experi¬ence was consistent across all of the different devices that readers use today and in the future. Being able to save an article on the i Pad and open the app on your i Phone or log in to the website and see the same article with your progress saved was a top priority for WSJ. The number of options for navigating articles was reduced for simplicity and ease of use, with the number of exposed navigation options dropping by nearly half on many pages. In the past, options were different on different devices and appeared in different places on the screen, confusing readers attempting to move from one device to another. Using an iOS feature called Handoff, WSJ allows users to save stories across all of their devices and to carry over the "graying out" of article headlines that have been read across those devices as well. It also allows users to access its Watch list stock portfolio service across all I devices.

In addition to making the user experience more consistent across devices, WSJ hoped to improve it. The app versions of WSJ are more responsive and more visually appealing. Graphical elements are more prominent and even interactive. The app loads faster, which had been an area where it trailed its competitors in the past. WSJ wanted the reading experience to feel natural on any device, which required it to optimize its apps for the screen size of the latest generation of Apple and Android phones. As devices continue to evolve in size, so too will the WSJ app experience. On a desktop, users can mouse over and click precise areas, but on a mobile device, users can swipe and tilt the device. In general, WSJ seeks to minimize interactions requiring precise taps on mobile as well as to reduce the amount of the screen that is fixed from page to page. Making interactive maps suitable for mobile can be particularly difficult, but WSJ is fine-tuning its approach.

Most of the feedback on the design changes has been positive. Elements that many readers had requested were added, including a II Market Data Center" featured prominently on the new website home page with essential information on the status of the stock markets that day. The iOS app also includes a Journal widget that places top stories of the day alongside other daily notifications, such as appointments and weather alerts. Users can swipe directly from their widget menu to move straight to the story within the WSJ app. From a user perspective, the new site and apps provide a large number of content choices, while also offering a variety of advertising opportunities, which is beneficial from WSJ's perspective.

As traffic continues to shift to the mobile platform, providing these advertising opportunities will become increasingly important to WSJ's continued success. In 2008, 10% of WSJ's traffic came via mobile devices. That figure sits at 55% in 2016 and continues to grow quickly. WSJ has about 900,000 digital-only subscribers, trailing the New York Times (1 million) and coming in ahead of the Financial Times (over 520,000), but most of its 1.5 million print edition subscribers also have all-access subscriptions. Although measuring subscription numbers has become more complicated as the number of digital devices and reading platforms has grown, the trend away from print and towards digital has long been clear throughout the industry. But despite the proliferation of the mobile platform, two-thirds of WSJ's subscribers visit the website home page each month. Realizing this, WSJ included the website as a key component of its redesign. As it turns out, readers use whatever device is convenient at the time-desktop in the office and mobile devices when moving about.

Another effect of the wider array of options for WSJ subscribers is that different trends and reading patterns emerge on each platform. To capture this new data, WSJ is upgrading its analytics capabilities, with the goal of using them in the newsroom and in its larger business strategy. One example of this approach already delivering results is the breakdown of device usage by WSJ readers. Tablet usage of the WSJ app is growing at approximately 10% per year, but smartphone usage is growing by 30% to 40%, sug¬ gesting that the smartphone app experience should be WSJ's major focus going forward. Additionally, WSJ has found that app users are more active and engaged than web browser users, spending more time in the app and reading more articles than other types of users. App users are also likelier to maintain their subscriptions than any other type of user. WSJ also dropped its Linkedln share button in 2016 because its analytics indicated that it siphoned off more traffic than it returned.

Many of the features that WSJ engineers are working on are tailored specifically for the app experience. One goal is to provide live video coverage via mobile devices. Another is to improve push alerts to make them more relevant to users. By analyzing reader data to understand what types of stories are most appealing to individual users or different demographics of users, WSJ can provide custom push alerts that are likeliest to motivate readers to swipe and move to the app. Another feature in development is a" Read-it-later" button that allows users to tag stories on any platform and view them later within their app. WSJ will also continue to optimize its Apple Watch app, which allows users to tilt the watch while looking at a headline to make that story available on the i Phone app.

Going forward, WSJ hopes to begin work on other features that will help in the future as early as possible. This means the paper will be continuously redesigning itself on a rolling basis. By integrating its engineering and product teams into the newsroom, it is much better positioned to achieve this level of development. For example, WSJ is one of the first organizations experimenting with virtual reality technology to improve its reporting. To that end, it updated its apps with built-in 360-degree video and virtual reality capability. With its sweeping redesign across all platforms, WSJ has once again solidified its status as an industry leader, even in this brave new world of news media.

Questions need to be answer for online case study assignment help -

Q1. What were Wall Street Journal’s objectives in redesigning its e-business presence?
Q2. What considerations unique to the newspaper business were involved?
Q3. What are the revenue models newspapers are using to go online?
Q4. What did Wall Street Journal do to meet the needs of mobile device users?
Q5. What advantages do pure digital news sites have over print newspapers? What
advantages traditional newspapers have over pure digital news sites?

Solution

Question 1

It is evident from the case study in Wall Street Journal that this Publishing House had not redesigned its website since 2008. As a result, the company faced huge challenges in attracting readers and gaining maximum profit in the competitive business world. This problem became more intense when in 2015; Google refurbished its algorithms regarding the search sites and gave enhanced priority to those sites which were optimised more on mobile gadgets. Furthermore, facing huge losses after this incident, Walsall Street Journal soon redesigned its website in 2015. The major motive behind redesigning its website was to attract more readers and engage them in reading newspapers so that the market revenue of the company could be increased. Another intention behind refurbishing this company's website is to provide users with better experiences. Hence, the organisation has also developed mobile applications across various social media channels. Significantly, it is also observed that the company has also developed iPad and Android applications, which can help fascinate more readers and achieve maximum financial gain. In the competitive business world, a sense of trust and better satisfaction to consumers is important as it helps in building consumer loyalty and bringing profit maximisation for the company. Hence, the companies need to develop a proper website as it is considered the liaison that helps bring loyalty and satisfaction to consumers from the seller's end (Wijaya et al., 2021). It can also be noted that in the digital era, companies must have an official website containing information about their products and services. This helps support the company's services and better communication with consumers and other stakeholders (Azizan, Munti & Adeswastoto, 2022). Another objective behind this overhaul was to provide better experiences through advanced technologies in different mobile gadgets readers intend to use in the present and future scenarios.

Question 2

Certain considerations of the Wall Street Journal have made the company unique compared to its competitive rivals. This company has decided to offer a better user experience. Due to this, it has overhauled its data analytics, intending to use these analytics in the newsrooms to gain maximum profit margin. Moreover, this company's engineers are developing some unique attributes that help the users receive the best experiences of using the mobile applications of WSJ. It is one of the first firms among the other rival companies that have initiated the usage of virtual reality technologies that helps the company improve its reporting system (GlobeNewswire, 2015). Notably, this company is the first to launch 360-degree video and virtual reality technologies. With refurbished technologies and overhauled website of the company across all the social media platforms, it is significant to note that WSJ has tried to retain its status in the industry in which it operates.

Furthermore, the company has developed an iOS application that comprises several widgets of journals and it also helps in placing the best stories of the day, including the top news (Wang, 2016). WSJ has 900,000 online subscribers, whereas, on the other hand, its competitive rivals, like Financial Times, have 520,000 subscribers. It is due to the fact that Tablet usage of WSJ applications is increasing rapidly by 10% and the usage of mobile phones is rapidly increasing by approximately 30%-40% as the company is providing unique features in its user-friendly mobile applications. Moreover, the company is trying to analyse the facts and data of users. Another feature named "Read It Later" helps users tag the stories on a single channel and view them later by utilising the mobile application of WSJ (Lichterman et al., 2015).

Question 3

It is significant to note that there are certain revenue models that newspapers use for going online. One such model is the transaction-based model, a traditional model that helps newspapers go online and earn money. Through this model, newspaper companies are trying to put all the important news on social media platforms to help readers get easy access. In addition, some newspapers put subscription fees with the help of which the newspapers can gain more money and success in the business market. Revenue models are used in assessing the legitimacy of the consumers as the security and privacy concerns differ from one revenue model to the other. (vanAngeren et al., 2022). Affiliate revenue is another revenue model that helps gain maximum financial profits by showing the advertisements of other brands on the official website of the companies. Newspapers on their online website show different promotional advertisements of other companies and earn huge amounts of money. It uses revenue and affiliate models to help gain huge income (Mathur, Narayanan & Chetty, 2018). In addition, this revenue model is highly used in replacing CPC practices in which the advertiser has high powers of negotiation. However, it is also evident that the publisher's power deals with receiving overall revenue from the affiliates. Accession to readers for online research is another model in which the site owner tries to generate more income standards. It helps show the practices that help assess the various effective pages on the companies' websites for more revenue. This also helps affiliate marketers for making more money by commissioning the consumers clicking through the third parties of the retail sites (Kemppainen et al., 2018)

Question 4

Wall Street Journal has adopted many strategies to cope with mobile gadget users' needs. One such strategy it implemented was the refurbishment of the online website, which it revamped in 2015, containing all the important facts and information regarding the news and other information of the company. It is also observed that to make mobile users happy, Wall Street Journal has developed certain mobile applications that help users use and access the company's online portal across various platforms. To cope with the requirements of online users, the company has also brought iPad and other Android applications that possess manifold characteristics in ameliorating the users' experiences (GlobeNewswire, 2015). It has also released appropriate and easy-to-access applications through Apple Phones and watches and another application with characteristics that aid in curetting the top 10 stories during the day (Doctor et al., 2015).

Moreover, it has also developed the Wall Street’s New Column that appears on the front page of the online news portal. WSJ had launched a particular application for the users of London named WSJ City in which frequent overhauls of the fundamental news regarding business and other news can be accessed. It is significant to note that the newspaper has also inaugurated a niche site that puts more stress on the technological news, commentary and review of products. Moreover, a consumer who wants to buy products can review the products-review section and get an idea about the item before purchasing. The WSJ applications' versions are quite appealing regarding their videos and responsiveness (Southern, 2016). These applications can be loaded efficiently, giving the company a competitive advantage compared to its rivals. Due to a similar reason, the company has 500,000 subscribers online, whereas other companies failed to gain such huge subscribers.

Question 5

There are several advantages that print media have over online news portals. One of the biggest advantages of print news media is that it is considered more credible than online news media. Research invariably emphasises the fact that the credibility of print media stems from a suitable impression developed by the true nature and atmosphere of the word printed and on the "halo effect". Consumers also view print media as the most appropriate form of news media in providing news. In print media, the recall value is higher than the online media as it is easy for print media to recall an enhanced number of advertisements and readers intend to react to them. Print media does not face interruption in the process of marketing. Some people postulate that print media is more reliable than online media and hence is considered the traditional form of providing accurate news to people across the globe (Saragih & Harahap, 2020).

On the other hand, online news portals can also be considered better in the digital age, where people are busy and have no time to view news on television. Hence, they use online media newspapers to gain more facts in a shorter period of time. Another advantage of online news media is that it is cost-efficient and people can save money as these newspapers do not require access (Saragih & Harahap, 2020). However, some newspaper portals require subscription fees which are not huge. In the current circumstances, environmental challenges are becoming adverse. Print media requires cutting trees to obtain papers, posing threats to the environment (Gutierrez, Martinez & Myrick, 2020).

Moreover, online portals it does not require chemical inks and papers and hence pose low threats to the environment. Another advantage of online newspapers is that it helps in allowing the readers to interact with the paper and is also able to give feedback and reviews. Online news portals help in giving facts regarding the happenings. The traditional print media do the same process by collecting and printing and distributing the facts, requiring much time. On the other hand, online news portals are time and cost-efficient.

Reference list

MBA5007 Managing Strategy and Innovation Assignment Sample

Assessment Task:

You must write a Case Study Report about a production based company discussing the strategic plan of an organisation. This should draw on learning from Modules C and E (Chapter 5, 6, 9, 10) of this subject. Furthermore, key terms and concepts should be defined wherever possible. Be analytical within your report and examine key terms and theoretical relationships in depth.

The Case Study report should be written in appropriate business language so that your analysis and discussion have an objective tone. Your writing should be clear and concise and be in your own words. Use headings to guide the reader and include tables or diagrams that make the case clearer.

Aim: To present a case study based on the selected organisation’s current business strategy and the recommended strategy. The Case Study report must be in the range of 1,500-2,500 words in length excluding references. The referencing style must follow the APA referencing style.

In a case study report, include following:

1. Introduce the case study, including the background.

2. Describe the purpose and the background of the study and the specific questions you are addressing.

3. Discuss the possible competitive strategy options focusing on the strategic planning activity of the chosen enterprise.

4. Understand and be able to research the impact that strategic planning has on organisations and the consequent changes that have occurred to the role of business managers.

5. Explain the significance of the study and what can be learnt from it.

6. Note that a case study is a study of a situation, so you must not generalise the results to all other situations. That means your report should focus on what can be learnt about that particular situation and the individuals involved.

7. Recommendations that provide proposals for future action to solve the problem or improve the situation.

Each company typically seeks to enhance its performance and build competitive advantage via its own custom tailored competitive strategy based on more attractive pricing, greater advertising, a wider selection of models, more appealing performance/quality, longer warranties, a better image/reputation, and so on.

You must demonstrate what type of competitive strategy options the selected organisation has decided to employ, e.g. low-cost leadership, differentiation, best-cost provider, focused low-cost, and focused differentiation to pursue competitive advantage and good company performance.

You will be assessed as follows:

A. Structure of the written report: Background information is relevant, issues are logically ordered, recommendations clearly relate to the issues.

B. Identify main issues: Prioritise choices, justify and prioritise issues chosen.

C. Analyse the issues: Each issue is discussed using relevant concepts and principles, insight is shown in analysing the information.

D. Discuss alternatives: Consider all viable short-term and long-term alternatives to potentially solve each issue, examine the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative.

E. Explain resources: Identify individuals from the case study, enumerate the time frame and monitoring processes required for the recommendations to be put into practice.

F. Write clearly and concisely: Arguments are explicit and succinct, appropriate headings are used, grammar and spelling are accurate.

Solution

1. Introduction

Online grocery shopping is beneficial for customers. Online grocery or fresh food services companies have achieved popularity in recent days. Several companies can flourish their business growth with the help of online grocery shopping. Therefore, the venture AmazonFresh by Amazon inc. is trying to provide the home delivery of grocery due to recent pandemic situations amidst Covid-19 situations, people need to maintain distance. By this, they can easily bring or collect their essential grocery items online. This will help to save their time and money. Online grocery shopping will help customers to prevent impulsive shopping. They can easily buy their products online which will help customers to track the exact amount which they spend on grocery items. With a couple of clicks, the customer easily grabs all the essential products on their doorsteps. This report will be discussed about the online grocery services of the well-known company Amazon. Amazon has expanded its area of the network in grocery and included perishable items in it (Polacco& Backes, 2018). For this change, Amazon has revised and added significant changes in its distribution and warehousing model.

Background of the study

Amazon launched its online grocery services in the year 2007. The name of this online grocery service is AmazonFresh. AmazonFresh got success on a national scale in a short period. AmazonFresh has to face numerous challenges to get success. Before AmazonFresh started their business there were countless competitors available in the market. Grocery refers to the largest retail sector with a 2010 revenue of $600 billion (Cdn.fbsbx.com, 2021). Consumers shopped for grocery items online 2.2 times per week. AmazonFresh develops partnerships with local merchants to get fresh items for their customers. They serve several delivery options for their customers. AmazonFresh also created its tagline 'ConvenienceDelivered' to promote convenience over price to draw the attention of the customers in the year 2009 (Cdn.fbsbx.com, 2021). In the process of selling their grocery items to the customers, they face several problems which have to be mitigated to better the business growth of the company. Amazon has expanded its area of the network in grocery and included perishable items in it. For this change, Amazon has revised and added significant changes in its distribution and warehousing model. There are numerous competitors available such as Safeway, Wal-Mart, and Stop & Shop which will be a great threat for AmazonFresh.

2. Purpose and Research question

Purpose of this project to identify the competitive strategies of the company named AmazonFresh. This project will be discussed about the impact of the strategic plan of the company. The other purpose of the research question is to understand the challenges of the company to mitigate all the issues to better the growth of the company. Amazon has expanded its area of the network in grocery and included perishable items in it. For this change, Amazon has revised and added significant changes in its distribution and warehousing model.

Research Question

What are the competitive strategies of the company AmazonFresh?
What is the impact of the strategic plan of the company AmazonFresh?
What is the significance of the case study?
What are the learning outcomes of the company?
What are the recommendations for the company to mitigate all the problems?

3. Competitive strategy

Amazon, which is a well-known or famous retail company worldwide, was launched to sell books. But in the year 2007, the company introduced their new online grocery services named AmazonFresh. There are numerous competitors of AmazonFresh such as Safeway, Wal-Mart, and Stop & Shop which will be a great threat for AmazonFresh. Amazon becomes a common name carrying major significance in the online retail business. However, Amazon has overcome all of its market entry barriers through drawing strategic plans. The first barrier to the business was the freshness of the products. Here the AmazonFresh company uses 'Focus Strategy’ to sustain itself in this competitive and globalised world (Etumnu&Widmar, 2020). The other retail company faces several problems regarding their products and delivering the products in a short period. By this, the AmazonFresh company uses Focus Strategy. Focus strategy will help to match market attributes with the company's competitive advantages. As evaluated by Galea & Walton (2017), quality is important to sustain in the competitive and globalized world. This strategy helps the company to focus on its products, revenue, and profit. By this, the company focuses on giving fresh products to the customers (Phillips-Connolly & Connolly, 2017). Customers prefer good quality products in a short time. By this, the company serves high-quality fresh grocery and perishable items to their customers. AmazonFresh gives its products to their customers on their doorsteps. This helps the company to grab the attention of the customers. Customer service is highly focused by the retail online companies. With a couple of clicks, the customer easily grabs all the essential products on their doorsteps. AmazonFresh provides a unique facility to its customers (Easter & Dave, 2017). The customers can select the timing for delivering their products to them at their doorsteps. This will enhance the competitive strategy of the company. Customers are the most important key to sustain in the competitive and globalised world. The AmazonFresh company took care of the customer satisfaction segment by creating a feedback section. The customers easily share their reviews with the company which will enhance customer satisfaction for assignment help.

4. Impact of the strategic plan

Amazon started its career as a business by selling books. Gradually, it further moved to grocery sales. Today Amazon becomes a common name carrying the major significance of online retail business. However, Amazon has overcome all of its market entry barriers by drawing a strategic plan. As assessed by Robischon (2017), the first barrier to the business was the freshness of the products. Earlier, E-commerce businesses have majorly relied on FedEx and other delivery options to ensure the freshness of grocery and other food items. Webvan, a grocery selling online platform, has collapsed in the US market in the beginning for not having a proper business model (Galea & Walton, 2017). Different experts in this field also have voiced their opinion about the business model because many companies failed just because of not having it. Amazon has expanded its area of the network in grocery and included perishable items in it. For this change, Amazon has revised and added significant changes in its distribution and warehousing model. On the other hand, Amazon before launching “AmazonFresh” had conducted the beta test with the help of Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, to monitor customers' experience in the website. A dedicated website and “bucket” have been proposed as a technical change in the business apart from supply chain management.

The focus of AmazonFresh was to deliver the items as quickly as possible to bypass the competitiveness of the industry. As reviewed by Kang et al. (2016), to promote goodwill, Amazon has distributed free samples along with delivery initially. To provide fresh items, Amazon is also agreeing with local businessmen and merchants. For instance, fresh fish from the neighbouring Pike Place Market is distributed across Seattle within a few hours (Polacco& Backes, 2018). This has also increased the reliability of customers and added more competitive advantages to the company. Delivery options were increased as the customer can order any items at any time without any complication. As assessed by Lamas & Liang (2016), the company has planned its "Tight Sleep” service for the late orders where groceries are getting delivered at midnight. This wide range of delivery options has fetched nearly USD 5.2 billion in profit to Amazon during the peak time of the Covid-19 pandemic (Geekwire.com, 2021). The company modified the warehouse plan as it has seen many businesses in the industry have failed for not maintaining the warehouse properly. Amazon strategically re-built the distribution channels and created ample space for perishable items. The scheduling system has also been modernised and reliance on the third-party provider has been minimised gradually. The strategic plan has helped the company to establish its feet in the industry efficiently.

5. Significance of the case study

The case study of AmazonFresh has provided a significant journey from selling books to becoming one of the world's largest E-commerce. The case study has shown different aspects of Amazon from different perspectives. For instance, the company was facing a challenge for extending its sphere in the grocery market. However, later on, the leadership in Amazon has curbed the issue by adopting a strategic plan for the business establishment. The significance of the case study can be analysed from different perspectives. In the supply chain system, Amazon has started selling perishable items since 2007 and it has been widely adopted by the customers as well because the company delivers only fresh and quality items (Lingyu, Lauren &Zhijie, 2019). Initially, the company rented cars and refrigerators from third-party businesses. Later on, it has purchased the essential equipment to avoid delays in supply. The company is one of the earliest companies that introduced one-day delivery.

In the delivery of items, Amazon only delivers fresh items from the local market by not degrading the quality at all. Added to that, Amazon offers several options for delivery of packages including "pick and drop" services. Most interestingly, the company also launched an initiative namely "tight sleep" for those customers who need fresh groceries early in the morning. Thus, it can be said that the company has adopted very unique and different strategies to make itself successful in this e-commerce business. In technology, the company has dedicated a separate website for AmazonFreshand tracked its traffic rate regularly (Etumnu&Widmar, 2020). It was recognised that the new website lacks reviews related to products and thus the leadership of AmazonFresh has decided to include this aspect quickly in the platform. In leadership, the company has performed great because of its leadership only. The company majorly focused on digital technology for growth.

Thus, this case study has almost detailed each aspect of a business in a broad framework. From the case study, the aspects of supply chain management, delivery, leadership, digital technology and other aspects also.

6. Learning outcomes

The online grocery selling market of the United States is quite big and AmazonFresh has successfully occupied its place in it through its elaborated strategic plan. The growth rate of AmazonFresh in the United Kingdom stood nearly 76.2 per cent in the year 2020 (Theguardian.com, 2021). The company has fetched positive growth amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The company has started from scratch where it has seen the major failure of Webvan, an online retailer, and learned a different perspective from this lesson. The company majorly focuses on competitive strategies and introduced an extensive digital platform as per the customers' convenience. Amazon has taken a focus strategy to improve the quality of its products and introduced new benefits for the customers through this strategy. The company has increased its minimum size of order and offered "prime membership" on the other to waive the additional charges (Bongard, 2017). This has proved a success factor to the company because it flows regular profit to the company.

Comparison between AmazonFresh and their rivals

1. How does the mean wholesale cost of AmazonFresh for retailers contrast with the estimated spending per industry for wholesalers?

- The mean wholesale cost of AmazonFresh for retailers can be determined as the success of Amazon Fresh could rest in the counting of its operations. Brick and mortar food businesses consist mostly of fixed expenses, however, AmazonFresh is trying to provide promotional offers in order to gain the market share. The aim is to achieve a little increase in the narrow gross sales margins to profitability, considerably more than operating expenses (rentals, utilities, shop workers). The cost is largely changeable in comparison with online foodstuffs. Therefore more purchases, the more pickup, packaging, transportation and shipping the firm must pay. Hence, profitability has few possibilities (Lingyu, Lauren &Zhijie, 2019).

2. How does every quality of the product contrast broad effectiveness/excellence to the sector?

- On the other hand, though, there are more — preferably more — items to load the shipment. Hence, Amazon Fresh begins to seem smart here. The firm has a distinct supply chain set up than its competitors such as Big Basket and Grofers. Additional participants often transfer orders to shops that choose either in conjunction with and even as business segments of supermarket local companies delivering from the supermarket shelves directly on customers doors. Amazon Fresh employs rehabilitation centres outside city centres. This offers Amazon offering approximately 500,000 non-consumable products for shipping with AmazonFresh to enhance the standard offer assortment (Etumnu&Widmar, 2020).

3. How does AmazonFresh's weekly sales effort count towards the local average amount of weekly incentives for each province?

- Calling for sales is not what they have been formerly for AmazonFresh before the Pandemic situation. Firstly, because of the accessibility of online and in-person platforms, sales employees deal with clients who are equipped with masses of previous studies. Contemporary salespeople meet more individuals and are supposed to market new sorts of complicated digital items. They must influence consumer groups. The typical purchasing cycle is therefore lengthier, such that consumer demand is tougher to foresee and used for objectives (The Guardian, 2021).

4. How can we assess the extent of each AmazonFresh's retail reductions to the average residual discounted throughout advertising campaigns?

- Many organisations have undertaken key modifications, such as the development of a new online platform, Similar steps were taken by the venture of AmazonFresh.
Hence, the inclusion of specialist jobs and the implementation of team sales to develop in this changed and competitive market climate. However, it is nevertheless important to disregard this shift. Taking the current difficulties fully into account requires developing new, deliberate models of remuneration that clearly motivate
a sales staff to keep selling efficiently. Salesmen need not be taught what to perform; they ought to be convinced of conducts that complement the marketing approach of a corporation (Robischon, 2017).

5. How do the annual spending of individual companies relate to the area average spending on marketing?

- The combination of incentives, quotas, wages and business unit incentives may be a driving factor for growth. Intelligent modifications of pay models showed a 50% larger sales effectiveness than adjustments in advertising spending. The perception of the company through various engagements and several conversations with the marketing professionals demonstrate that the functional requirements are necessary to redesign sales pay models and to assist sales organisations in responding effectively to some of the most important concerns presently (The Guardian, 2021).

7. Recommendation

The company AmazonFresh faces several problems as they launched their online services in a competitive market. By this, the company has to know the exact knowledge about market growth. Without knowing about the market growth the company cannot improve its quality of work. The company should know about their competitors' market policies and market growth to better sustain in this competitive and globalised world. The company has to make a good relationship with other companies to know their strategic plan.

On other hand, it is discussed that the Amazon company was not good at all in their technology. They create another website for AmazonFresh which creates a problematic and complicated situation for the customers. The company has dedicated a separate website for AmazonFresh and tracked its traffic rate regularly. It was recognised that the new website lacks reviews related to products and thus the leadership of AmazonFresh has decided to include this aspect quickly in the platform. The company has performed great because of its leadership only. The company majorly focused on digital technology for growth. By this, the company has to take good care of their technological error. They also have to create a single website for them. By this, the customer easily shops their essential items through the main website.

8. Conclusion

The case study report highlights the business of AmazonFresh and discusses it elaborately. In the report, the sections are allotted to explain the key insight about the company and its business extensively. Amazon has successfully operated in the field of e-commerce from the beginning because of its wide competitive strategies. Thus, the element of competitive strategy that the company has gained through its journey is elaborated in this report. The learning outcome of this case study is also attached in the bottom section of the report. Finally, the report ends with some suitable recommendations that the company may follow for its future ventures. 

References

BUS500 Business and Management Assignment Sample

Assignment Brief

3,000 words

Based on FedEx – HR practices Case Study

Description

A case study will be provided related to a management issue. Students are to use case study analysis method to answer five (5) questions related to the case, providing analysis and recommendations for the case.

When

The report is due to be submitted by Sunday 2nd October, 11:59pm. This is to be submitted via the Turnitin similarity checking link.

Format

Provide a case study analysis of the case FedEx – HR practices publicly available. Answer the five (5) questions provided that relate to the case. Each answer to the question is between 550 to 650 words each. You may use additional external references to support your answer. Use in-text referencing and a reference list. Use theories and concepts from the textbook, to support each of your answers.

1) What is the corporate philosophy of FedEx? How does this vision and purpose engage and motivate employees?

2) How does FedEx use rewards and recognition to motivate their employees?

3) How does FedEx continuously receive feedback from their employees for continuous improvement of their human resource management?

4) How does FedEx leadership program develop leaders that are aligned to the corporate philosophy?

5) Diversity management is a key component of FedEx’s human resource management. Analyse these initiatives against diversity management good practice, as outlined in the textbook and other references.

Solution

Answer 1:

To impart the kind of quality and service essential to become the leading player in the air cargo transport industry and remain there for good, FedEx has adopted the people-first corporate philosophy to develop an intimate relationship with all its employees (Qing et al. 2020). The CEO and founder of FedEx, Frederick Smith, decided to not only include employees in the process of decision-making but also make them an integral part of the same. This was on account of his belief that when people are given the highest priority, they will impart the best service possible, and profits will follow naturally (Courelas, 2020). Based on this very principle and resulting from it is the corporate philosophy of FedEx- People-Service-Profit for best assignment help. All business deals and decisions made by the company are based on the trinity of these three corporate goals (Yuan & Chen, 2022).

The emphasis on prioritising people is an acknowledgement of the significance of employee empowerment and satisfaction for the creation of an atmosphere in which employees feel safe and secure and are motivated enough to take risks and engage in innovation in the pursuit of service, quality, and customer satisfaction (Qing et al. 2020).

The term service is with reference to the service quality aim of 100 per cent, which has been a clearly stated and consistent goal for the company at all times. If the goals of service and people are achieved, corporate profit should be the natural outcome (Qing et al. 2020).

To ensure that the people-service-profit philosophy becomes a reality and a way of life for all employees, FedEx has put various programs and processes in place. These processes and programs highlight the strength of the commitment made by the company to the people-first philosophy (Courelas, 2020). The company organises an employee satisfaction survey every year, which is based on the survey-feedback-action principle. The survey requires employees to rate the performance of the company’s management, which subsequently becomes the basis for bringing about improvements and changes. The company also adopts a policy of promotions from within, which means that in the case of filling vacancies, the promotion of existing employees is given priority (Courelas, 2020). The company also has a system of online computer job posting in place for employees who work on an hourly basis. There is also a program dedicated to the recognition of hard work by employees as well as a program for rewarding the same. This goes a long way in motivating employees and encouraging them to work harder and better. The company has a separate program for the evaluation of leadership skills (Yuan & Chen, 2022). This is a program known as the Leadership Evaluation and Awareness Process that must be completed if employees wish to progress to the level of management. The company makes sure that there is regular communication between the management and other employees through both print as well as broadcast programming (Yuan & Chen, 2022). Employees are paid for their performance on the basis of project-by-objective and management-by-objective processes of goal-setting.

The company also has an Open Door program. This program involves a detailed process which seeks to deal with all the questions as well as complaints that the employees of the company may have regarding the various policies of the company (Yuan & Chen, 2022). This program helps employees give their feedback regarding company policies and is one of the great ways to redress their concerns. In fact, the company also has a separate process for employees to make appeals so that their complaints and issues are heard by the management of the company (Courelas, 2020). This process is better known as the Guaranteed Fair Treatment Procedure.
All these processes reinforce the corporate philosophy of people-service-profit, which FedEx believes in and help improve employee motivation and engagement.

Answer 2:

FedEx has a robust program for employee recognition and rewards. The bonus program of FedEx is based on the sharing of goals. The program motivates employees to attain strategic goals by setting individual bonus levels on the basis of business unit goals, comprising up to 10 per cent of the total compensation of the employee (Madhani, 2021). The formula adopted by FedEx for the calculation of bonuses comprises various corporate variables such as net sales, corporate ROE, operating margin, shipped kilometres, customer returns, and total unit cost.

FedEx acknowledges and rewards its employees in accordance with its people-first policy (Madhani, 2019). The workers who work on an hourly basis are compensated on the basis of their performance. Apart from this incentive, there is also the ‘Best Practice Pays’ incentive that is given on the basis of team performance.
FedEx uses various reward programs to keep its employees motivated (Venkatesh et al. 2021). The recognition is given both locally and throughout the world to employees who perform well in their respective branches as well as to those employees whose positive contributions are felt all across the organisation (Madhani, 2021). The motivation received by employees as a result of these reward programs demonstrates the culture of innovation within the company. Two instances of the reward program of

FedEx are as follows:

The Five Star

This reward is for those team members who have improved profitability and service apart from working to promote a robust team environment (Madhani, 2021). The reward is given annually and is considered a huge honour within the community of FedEx employees. FedEx continues to emphasise team effort and cooperation by rewarding the same through this reward (Madhani, 2021). Teams which have cooperative environments, do not have issues with the sharing of information and do not make poor and rushed decisions are considered for this reward. The reward enables FedEx to keep its workers motivated and happy and encourages them to give the best output possible (Venkatesh et al. 2021). Although the concept of employee reward and recognition is nothing new, FedEx gives it a fresh makeover. All employees are expected to engage in innovation as part of their everyday jobs. Innovation is a challenging task, especially when it is on a regular basis (Venkatesh et al. 2021). FedEx is able to motivate its employees to do the same by means of such rewards.

Bravo Zulu

This literally means well done and is an award given to individuals who have performed remarkably well, exceeding regular professional expectations. These awards, which are given along with rewards, are usually small, and managers give them out on the spot (Venkatesh et al. 2021). The rewards typically include dinner gift vouchers, cash bonuses, and tickets to the theatre. Despite the fact that the rewards have gradually been diminished in view of the degradation in the economy, the awards are still given out by FedEx (Madhani, 2019). Managers now send personalised letters known as Bravo Zulu letters to the winners of the award in the presence of their teams. This award defines the organisational culture of FedEx, which involves two aspects- catching workers doing the right thing and articulation of praise (Madhani, 2019). Many managers keep themselves from praising their employees because they feel it will make employees take things for granted. However, in the case of FedEx, it is different- praising employees is encouraged all across the organisation (Madhani, 2019). This small award, although not as prestigious as the Five Star award, goes a long way in helping the company carry on its operations in a smooth and successful manner (Venkatesh et al. 2021).

Although recognition and rewards are not innovative in themselves, the way, FedEx approaches the same definitely is. The company recognises both individuals as well as group efforts. The awards given by the company are not based solely on job performance but may also be based on other activities which contribute to the brand image and reputation of the company (Venkatesh et al. 2021).

Answer 3

FedEx has a robust employee feedback system. One example is the FedEx Survey Feedback Action or the SFA program. This program involves a survey conducted anonymously that enables employees to express what they feel about the organisation and their managers and also about the pay, service, and benefits (Tilahun, 2022). The managers then make use of the results of the survey to design plans for the improvement of workgroup commitment and engagement.

There are three stages in Survey Feedback Action. First of all, the survey involves an anonymous standard questionnaire given to employees every year (Dixit, 2021). The questions are framed in such a way that it helps provide information regarding what hinders and helps employees in their professional environment (Rony et al. 2020). The questions seek answers to such issues as whether an employee can share what they think with their managers or if managers are clear about what is expected of employees.

The results of the workgroup survey are gathered and sent to the manager anonymously. The second stage of the SFA program involves a feedback mechanism which takes place between the managers and their respective workgroups (Tilahun, 2022). The main aim of this stage is to identify problems and specific pain points, investigate the causes that lead to these problems, and design plans of action to address the problems and rectify them. After the feedback stage comes the third stage of the SFA program, known as the action plan stage (Tilahun, 2022). The action plan stage yields a series of actions that are to be performed by the managers to solve the problems faced by the employees and improve results. The actions are devised based on what the concern is, the analysis of the concern, the cause of the concern, and an evaluation of what should be done to mitigate it (Rony et al. 2020).

Apart from the SFA program, FedEx has a grievance redressal process known as the Guaranteed Fair Treatment Process (GFTP). An appeal made through this process reaches up to the top management of FedEx (Rony et al. 2020). This ensures that the complaints do not get accumulated and that all managers are discouraged from acting in an unfair manner. Matters such as disciplinary actions, ambiguous performance reviews, and terminations are dealt with by the GFTP, which is available to all employees of FedEx (Rony et al. 2020).

Guaranteed Fair Treatment Process packets, made available by the HR department, are made use of by employees to lodge complaints through GFTP. These packets include tracking sheets for the names of the various complaints, the name of the complainant, their work history, a mechanism for tracking the resolution of the complaint, the rationale of the management, space for necessary documents, witness statements, etc. (Dixit, 2021). The employee filing the appeal through GFTP must first try to resolve the issue with their immediate supervisor.

There are three stages in GFTP. The first stage is known as Management Review, wherein the employee gives a written complaint to a senior manager within a period of seven days from the date of occurrence of the related incident (Dixit, 2021). The manager then scrutinises the relevant information, gets in touch with the complainant through a meeting or telephone call, makes a decision and communicates the same to the employee in writing (Dixit, 2021).
The second stage is called Officer Complaint. If turned down in the previous stage, the employee submits the complaint in writing to a senior officer within seven days of the decision made in the first stage (Dixit, 2021).

In the final stage, known as the Executive Appeals Review, the complainant submits the complaint in writing to the employee relations department if necessary. The final decision is made by the appeals board consisting of senior executives of the company, wherein necessary action is suggested to redress the grievance (Dixit, 2021). The decision of the board is final.

Answer 4

Senior managers at FedEx Services and FedEx TechConnect may participate in the nine-month Purple Pipeline (PPL) director development programme. Participants' capacity for strategic thinking and innovative problem-solving will be honed via a sequential learning curriculum incorporating various teaching methods. Workshops, interactions with subject matter experts, field visits, real-world application activities (like director shadowing and job rotations), executive mentoring, and required reading all play a role in the curriculum. In addition, a battery of leadership tests will be administered, and the results will be discussed in detail with the participants (Chehab et al. nd.). Within FedEx Services, there is a need for highly promising managers/sr. Managers to get the training and education necessary to advance to director positions. Hence PPL was established to meet this need. After completing the programme, graduates should be qualified for director-level positions in Services and TechConnect (Hanscom, 2022).

Five workshops make up the content: Self-awareness, an upbeat demeanour, and a willingness to face challenges head-on are hallmarks of personal leadership. Participants will be asked to complete a battery of mental tests in addition to various physical activities, such as a high-ropes course, over the length of the programme. As a thought leader, one must be able to synthesise data from many sources to assess possibilities and make sound judgments (Chehab et al. nd.). This course requires participants to complete an innovation workshop with some other Fortune 500 organisation. Fiscal literacy, career development, and creative problem-solving classes are offered. Working as a unit, inspiring enthusiasm in others, and making it crystal obvious how each member of the team fits into the bigger picture are all hallmarks of effective people leadership. The Memphis Grizzlies, an NBA franchise, and Crucial Conversations are both part of the course requirements (Hanscom, 2022). Leadership focused on achieving results entails making good choices that help achieve objectives and seizing chances to provide value. Activities like visiting the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and participating in a Harvard Business School simulation are part of the programme. Leadership that gets results in the real world, or "living leadership." The final event is a simulated job interview with a panel of executives, in which students demonstrate their abilities as a director (Chehab et al. nd.).

The programme's main benefit is that it gives participants the chance to develop their skills and advance their careers to the level of director at FedEx. Education-wise, the examinations, seminars, and reading will provide each participant with the information they need for their future position. At the end of the programme, each graduate gets a detailed report on how they have improved, which they may use to impress future employers and further their professional growth (Hanscom, 2022). If one thinks about the program's reach, it consists of managers from around the company. It allows each member to make connections throughout the whole company.

Moreover, each participant is assigned a vice president-level or higher executive coach from inside the organisation. During the programme, each participant receives guidance and observes the work of at least four (4) established directors. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in conversation with Olympic athletes, the Memphis Grizzlies, and published writers during the programme (Chehab et al. nd.). As a capstone, participants connect with another Fortune 500 company's Leadership Development programme to learn from their strategies and practices.

Answer 5

The founders of FedEx had faith in the power of inclusion and diversity. The management of the company is dedicated to the promotion of safe, respectful, and inclusive work environments, celebrating the contribution of each employee (Ury & Jammaers, n.d.). With the continued determination and focus of the leadership, the company invests in programs and policies throughout its workforce, marketplace, culture, and communities, acknowledging the unique needs, experiences, and backgrounds of people (Lee et al. 2020). There are various initiatives taken by the company in line with its commitment to be a part of the process that brings systematic racism in the community to an end.

Workforce

The company is proactive in investing in the recruitment and maintenance of diversity in the workforce that reflects the communities served by it (Ohunakin et al. 2019). Diversity is one of the strengths of FedEx. The ability of the company to engage in innovation and provide leadership with a diverse team serves its mission to resourcefully and responsibly connect the whole world (Ury & Jammaers, n.d.). In the year 2019, 29 per cent of the workforce of FedEx comprised African Americans and Blacks, while Hispanic or Latin comprised 16 per cent. Thirty-seven per cent of the management of FedEx in the USA was composed of people of colour. The Board of Directors in FedEx includes thirteen directors, including four women, of whom three belong to ethnically diverse backgrounds (Lee et al. 2020).

Diverse Young Talent

The internship program at the FedEx Services College Connections intends to fill nearly 170 intern positions each year during the summer. The recruitments are targeted to reach out to Black students with the help of events at 16 HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and career fairs at the National Black MBA Conference and the Thurgood Marshall Leadership Conference (Lee et al. 2020). The company also makes recruiting Latinos at universities and colleges a priority, which is accomplished through events in association with Hispanic organisations such as the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute, Hispanic Scholarship Fund and UnidosUS. FedEx Freight (Lee et al. 2020). FedEx, in association with these organisations, has opened the doors for Hispanic, Black and other minority students for careers at FedEx. This is a part of the organisation’s efforts to introduce diversity in entry-level and internship talent.

Culture

The people-first philosophy forms the foundation of FedEx, and respect for all has been an inherent part of the culture of the organisation (Ohunakin et al. 2019). The company believes that a culturally inclusive and competent workplace enables all members of the team to get their authentic and real selves to work. The employees of the organisation are encouraged to engage in open dialogue leading to action (Ohunakin et al. 2019).

Platform for Executive Leadership

The top leadership of the company is engaged in executive steering committees related to inclusion and diversity. The leaders belong to a range of functional areas, including engineering, Human Resources, finance, and air ops (Ohunakin et al. 2019). These leaders set their goals, visions, and expectations to incorporate diversity, hold one another responsible for progress, and share best practices.

Black Female Leaders

There is a professional program for the development of Black female employees known as My Sister's Keeper. The program incorporates relationship-building and mentoring activities and workshops led by directors and officers who are female and Black (Ohunakin et al. 2019). The rationale behind the program is to lift Black women up and help them climb up the corporate ladder through the use of knowledge, experience, and established influence (Ohunakin et al. 2019). 

References

MCR003 Management Attributes and Skills Assignment Sample

Please read the Case Study “Sun Spot”

You are required to submit meaningful responses to the three questions that appear underneath the case study
Please use a minimum of five academic references not older that 2015.

Use Harvard Referencing to include appropriate in–text citations

Sun Spots

SunDax CEO Dax Hollandsworth turns his leather desk chair from the blinding sunlight stream- ing through the large office window and leans back, facing Mark Roberts, the company CFO.

"You know, Mark, on the surface this seems impossible. We look at the numbers, we look at energy trends, we look at tax breaks and the grants and loans poured into this effort, and..." his voice trails off as he raises his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"I dread the quarterly meeting and video teed," Mark says. "Everyone has been working really hard and they've come to expect the year-end bonus. Hell, they plan for it, their families budget for it."

"I realize this will come as a huge disappointment, but I really don't think it will come as a big shock to them. Do you want some of these?" Dax asks, taking a handful of jelly beans and extending the jar to Mark who takes a few. "They're working their tails off, but I've detected a decline in overall morale. Everyone here keeps a close eye on the industry and on the mood and efforts at the federal level. They deal every day with the competition from the Chinese, and they see this big trend toward mergers and acquisitions. They may not want to admit it any more than we want to say it, but I think they know the bonus pool is empty and they wonder what the future holds."

The question hanging over the offices throughout the U.S. solar industry echoes that of California-based SunDax, "how could this happen?"

To the outsider, things appear great for solar power. The numbers are staggering, with an overall increase in usage of more than 60 percent over the previous year. And American home and commercial construction shows the rising popularity of solar energy as a viable power alternative. Like the electric automobile, it is the wave of the future. But the public sees only the sun; industry insiders are looking at the sunspots.

Private investments in the early years followed by federal tax credits and Energy Depart- ment loan guarantees enabled solar companies such as SunDax to refine their products, increase inventory, and expand sales worldwide. Boom time brought U.S. Treasury grants to the industry of several hundred million dollars, and as sales increased so did employee bonuses. Many bonuses equaled up to a third of an employee's salary-money for a child's college tuition, down payments on homes, trips, and other luxuries.

Now, amid shaky global economic conditions, SunDax and others see a decline in U.S. and European solar energy incentives while Chinese competitors undercut costs, providing an inventory glut for many U.S. producers. In this climate, there is reluctance on the part of Congress to renew mini-grants or to extend tax credits. The stimulus packages upon which so many companies depended to jump-start market expansion are a thing of the past.

"I'm afraid that employees will believe we are bending to public pressure in withholding their bonuses or they will think we are holding onto financial assets in order to look stronger for a potential merger or acquisition," Dax tells Mark.

"Mergers and acquisitions are the trend right now, and some big names have given in. It we are acquired, they can share in the gains."
"We're not there yet," Dax says. "Our challenge is to shore up faith in our future among employees while dealing with the realities of the market. But if you say 'look at all of these challenges" and, "oh, by the way, don't expect a year-end bonus,' what can we offer to shore up that faith and restore enthusiasm?"

QUESTIONS

1. What options can you think of for Dax and Mark to mitigate the damage from untul- filled expectations for the annual bonus?

2. What specific steps would you take it you were a senior manager in this situation? Explain why for each step.

3. Do you consider it motivational and equitable when a substantial part of an employee's pay is a bonus based on company results in a highly uncertain environment?

Why?

Solution

(1) Options to mitigate the damage from unfulfilled expectations for bonuses

The case study shows how Dax and Mark have a casual approach towards the employees and their failure as a leader. More and more employees desire transparency and accountability from their leaders in the organisation. They want to know the specifications of the packages that they are offered. The year-end bonusesact as a way of encouragement to the innovation, hard work, and loyalty implying the accomplishments achieved on a personal level especially the one connected with the employees' annual performance appraisal (Sanyal and Hisam, 2018). However, it can happen that the bonuses do not materialise because of factors like lower profits than what was anticipated or may be due to a sudden financial distress. Breaking the news about lower bonuses to the workers after they have put so much effort right from setting goals to meeting the deadline in anticipation of some monetary incentive—can never be an easy task to doc Almost 65% of the companies listed in the Indonesian Stock Exchange are expected to inform prospective employees that the company offers a bonus(Miftah and Murwaningsari, 2018). However, some companies qualify their policies by stating that bonuses are not guaranteed; it is discretionary. Before breaking any news, the company may also consider delivering bonus regardless of the actual earned profits. Firstly, SunDax must ensure the salaries are commensurate with the market base pay. The company must ensure that the workers feel that they are being paid a good wage. The company should also articulate, if it feels possible, their plans of improvement in the company's performance and let the workers understand what they should do to improve for a bonus in the future. Dax and Mark who arethe employers can put up and share all the reasons why it is essential to support the circumstances and indeed explain the future anticipations of better business. However, they must be open to their employees. They could have told the actual situation and the impact of the current market scenarios on the benefits given to the employees. The company might decide to allocate ESOPs to the top performers of the company which might help them to keep motivated. In addition to the employers might provide bonuses in kind such as paid vacation or other benefits for management assignment help.

(2) Steps to be taken as a senior manager

As a senior manager, one needs to reassess how SunDax came into the current situation of dilemma. Even though the numbers of solar powers are showing growth to the outsider, but to the insiders, the downward trend is not a surprise. Therefore, careful examination of the reasons for the current predicament is necessary. Therefore, the steps to be taken as a senior manager to address the situation have been discussed below:

Step 1: Investigation: As a senior manager it is very important the factors that are pushing the company to become less profitable must be investigated. This allows the company to remove or counter the problems and thereby, avoid repetition of the situation.

Step 2: Communication: The workers must communicate the actual situation promptly. Finally, their representation will give them a sense of belongingness to the organisation. Delaying the process of breaking news that is not satisfactory will make the company delay opportunities to improve.

Step 3: Inclusiveness: The employees must be included in the decisions related to the bonus pay out. They must be given a clear picture of the company's financial situation and prospects.

Step 4: Transparency: Being transparent with the employees fosters trust and makes the employees feel cared for and valued. Openness is about embracing changes and new experiences in the organisation. At the workplace, it cannot follow an approach of one size fits all. Different solutions for different companies are required depending on the culture and relationships.

Step 5: Applying the principles of servant leadership and stewardship: Servant leadership is a style of management that puts the growth of the team and their wellbeing first over the companies or the leader's ambitions (Eva et al., 2019). The principles of servant leadership that can be applied includes listening, healing, being empathetic, persuasive, stewardship, and many more.

(3) Commenting on bonus based on firm’s result on highly uncertain situation

It can never be justified to link a bonus with a company's performance in a volatile environment. However, one of the popular types of bonuses is the bonus based on profit. The purpose of bonuses related to profit sharing is to make the workers aware of how their efforts are directly connected with the business's overall performance and increase the company's profitability. At the same time, it may seem evident that employees are motivated to work harder because of bonuses. But the recent studies find that employees are driven more by engagement than by financial rewards. Furthermore, the company's performance-based payments are applicable only for specific organisations and not all organisations.

The decisions related to bonuses are made by the people who do not regularly work with the employees in a closed room.A business is not just about financial performance but also values and ethics. A key to connect organisational strategy and employees is compensation(Sarkar, 2018). It can attract as well as retain employees and even impacts optimal performance. The equity theory of Adams is of the view that after an individual has decided to choose an action that is expected the needs, he further moves to assess the fairness or equity of the outcome(The World of Work Project, 2022).

Issues with inequality and entitlement

The employees may lose productivity over time if the novelty of the mechanism wears off. In addition, there may be problems with the perception that unequal and unjust treatment exists. Forinstance,a hard-working employee may be dissatisfied if he or she feels that others work less and receive higher profit share.A significant problem in the profit-sharing bonus plans is that an individual worker enjoys the higher productivity(Albert et al., 2019). However, they do not realise the impact of their performance on the profitability performance of the company. Thus, they may not find ways of improvement. However, in an unstable environment, a team member may feel demotivated to work hard as there is no certainty of receiving an incentive for their efforts to increase the company's profitability. The main reason is an insignificant relationship between individual performance and profitability of the company in an unstable environment.

References

MGT600 Management, People and Teams Case Study Sample

Context:

Though challenging, group assignments are designed to reflect the reality of the workplace. In this instance, people coming together to contribute knowledge, experience and skills to Produce a desired outcome.

This assessment encourages students to develop their knowledge in relation to the key topics of attracting, developing and retaining employees, teamwork, performance management, team development and change management.

Students will be allocated into groups by the learning facilitator. The group will work together to analyse the given company and provide recommendations to improve on attracting, developing and retaining employees, teamwork, performance management and team development.

Instructions:

Your group is from a well-regarded consultancy firm and has been engaged by your client, ComSyst Technologies (CST) to provide advice on addressing a variety of challenges. CST is a multi-national communications software and systems developer serving the defence and emergency services industries. CST has offices in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Philippines, India and South Korea.

CST has recently lost three major tenders to competitors and their market share has declined substantially in the last two years. This has been attributed to some significant people related issues including poor employee performance, low employee engagement, a decline in staff retention and resignations of some key specialists. Technological advancements elsewhere have highlighted a gap in CST’s technical skills and capabilities.

Your brief from the client is to prepare a report with recommendations to achieve the following objectives over the next two years:

1. Ensure CST is well positioned for the future by attracting and retaining the best talent possible
2. Create a team based high performance culture
3. Build employee capability and performance

To address these objectives your consulting team will need to draw on content from modules two, three and four. Some consideration may need to be given to other module content if deemed relevant. It is also expected that groups conduct research beyond the resources provided on the subject site For each of the objectives mentioned above, you must include at least one real world example / case study from the literature of how other organisations have successfully achieved the same or similar.

Your group must prepare a business style report for the Chief Executive and Board of ComSyst Technologies. Whilst the format may vary, it must include the following:

• Cover page
• Executive Summary
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Background
• Main Discussion
• Recommendations
• Conclusion
• Appendices

You may make any necessary assumptions; however, any significant assumptions should be detailed in your report. Groups will be assessed against the learning rubric below.

Teamwork and group participation will constitute 20% of the mark for the assignment for each member of the group. Group participation will be determined as follows:

• Each participant in the team will evaluate the other member’s contribution using a participation score matrix (see Appendix 1 Team Participation ScoreMatrix)

• Each participant is to assess their peers according to the Peer Evaluation Grading Scheme (see Appendix 2)

• Each participant is also required to complete a self-review using the score/rate found in the Team Participation Score matrix.

• The score matrix will be individually submitted to the Facilitator at the same time as the group (collective) report submission.

• The Facilitator will take into consideration the average “team participation score” for each member to determine the weighted ‘Teamwork’ criterion rows in the final marking rubric for this assessment (see below).

• All peer evaluations are confidential and individual rankings will not be released to other members of the group.

• Failure to submit a self-review and peer review correctly, or at all, will result is zero grading for this assessment criteria.

• Groups should refer to the marking rubric to ensure all the assessment criteria are addressed.

Solution

A: Discussion

1: Ensuring the good positioning of CST for retaining and attracting the best talents

Attracting and retaining the best talents for an organization requires a lot of effort from the end of the company's higher officials and their HRM team. Efficient employees are well aware of their work culture and are also familiar with the approach through which the company’s success can be attained. As per the case scenario, CST has currently lost three significant tenders to their rivalries and the market share of CST has declined considerably in the past two years. Moreover, the employees of CST also show a major skill gap in the technical field and capacity. In this note, the organization needs to ensure its good positioning criteria for the coming days by retaining and motivating the best talents. For Assignment Help On-campus recruitments can be a beneficial approach to hire skilled employees for the organization. Besides, their efficiency in technical skills would be thoroughly checked by the in-house trainers of CST. Providing internship opportunities would be mutually beneficial for both the organization and the job seekers looking for a well-established IT-based company. For instance, the process adopted by Australian Internships has proven to be beneficial for selecting skilled job seekers. However, CST needs to make certain modifications in this approach. Collaborating with the interns for a short term at a low wage rate can also let the hiring team of the company screen the skills of the company (Karaoulanis, 2020). This would help them to decide whether the intern would be approached for long-term collaboration and thereby strengthening the position of the company in the operating market. Besides attracting a skilled workforce requires the arrangement of monthly skill-based training.

2: Creating a team-based high-performance culture

Given the condition of the company, the management team of ComSyst Technology needs to work on the improvement of work culture for increased motivation and empowerment of the company. The main issue, as discussed in the case scenario includes the low e employee engagement, poor performance of the employee, resignation of key specialists, and reduced employee retention. In this regard, it is integral to create a high-performing team culture. The key responsibility lies in the hand of the company’s leaders where they have to communicate values and clarify the same, encourage open communication, reinforce positive behavior, collect feedback, and empower employees (Kaushik, 2018). For the next two years, the leader should ensure that the new joining employees are well aware of the objectives and work process of CST. On the other hand, the high officials are also required to focus on the aspects like employee wellness, support, collaboration, agility, innovation, responsibility, friendly work environment, performance focus, responsibility, and the alignment of the company’s values and mission. For instance, a similar approach is practiced by Wesfarmers since they believe caring and showing concern for the employees can help in improving work culture and performance. Besides, a monthly employee survey is necessary to assess what the employees are feeling about the team culture and also the information regarding its improvement (Wolke, 2017). Feedback regarding the work operations and organizational demand would be given to every employee. This would not only help employees stay informed about the organizational needs but also assist in resting a motivated and skilled team.

3: Building employee performance and capability

CST should focus on employee performance to improve the productivity of the employees and contribute towards organizational growth. Improving employee performance would enable the organization to expand its operations. CST can implement the following strategies to build employee performance and motivation in the following manner:

I) Clear communication of expectations

It is important for the organization to clearly outline its goals and vision to the employees so that they are aware of their responsibilities. It would help them in understanding their duties and they would be able to contribute towards the growth of the organization far more effectively (Wasieleski& Weber, 2017). The appropriate allocation of responsibilities and duties would also help in the proper division of work burden among the employees leading to better output.

II) Training employees and providing regular feedback assessment

The training of employees is an essential aspect which is crucial for the all-round development. The employees should be imparted training in both formal as well as informal aspects. In light of this, it is important to understand how this concept can also help in the overall development of the employees (Kaushik, 2018). This should be followed by the allocation of small tasks and responsibilities which should be duly monitored to evaluate the level of consistent performance. For instance, the HRM department of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia always promotes internal work culture and uses the best technology to provide training to employees and make way for improving employee’s capability. Similarly, training and feedback may also be provided by the HRM team of CST to improve the performance of the employees

B: Recommendations

It is important to understand how the organization can improve its talent management process and contribute towards growth. It is recommended that the CST creates a proper work environment as it may enable the employees to work with greater satisfaction which in turn may increase their level of productivity. Since the matter of talent management is crucial in the scenario, the application of motivational theories such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is beneficial for the company (Stewart, Nodoushani&Stumpf, 2018). Consideration of five-factor of Maslow’s hierarchy within the work culture of the organization is suggestive to target the performance of CST’s employees by providing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

It is also recommended that the individuals should also emphasize factors such as the proper exercise of control as it would help in keeping the actions of the workers in check and would help in enforcing a greater degree of discipline.  

References

BIS3004 IS Security and Risk Management Assignment Sample

Assessment Details:

Today’s Internet has its roots all the way back in the late 1960s, but it was only used by researchers and the military for almost a quarter of a century. The Internet has opened the door for threat actors to reach around the world invisibly and instantaneously to launch attacks on any device connected to it.

Read the case study titled: “Protecting against Cyber Threats to Managed Service Providers and their Customers” at:

https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/advisories/protecting-against-cyber-threats-managed-service-providers-and-their-customers

Answer the following questions related to the case study:

1. Identify and examine all types of the cyber threats identified by ACSC and summarize them in a table.

2. Identification and categories 10 assets, including all elements of an organization’s system (people, procedures, data and information, software, hardware, and networking)

3. Create a table to identifying and prioritizing threats against each type of asset identified in item (2). You have to demonstrate the way you follow to prioritizing threats with justification.

4. In general, the security defences should be based on five fundamental security principles: layering, limiting, diversity, obscurity, and simplicity. The ACSC proposed recommendations to limit cyber security incidents. Analyse these principles with the recommendations by the ACSC. In your analysis, you have to clearly demonstrate how the ACSC recommendations are related to fundamental security principle with justification.
Create a report to answer the above questions, your report must include introduction and report summarisation in addition to a cover page that includes your details.

Solution

Introduction

Security concerns are mounting as the internet becomes more widely used throughout the world. Malicious actions are a significant danger to the digital world, especially in this age of pandemics when the majority of people use internet connections to work remotely. Spam, phishing, hoaxes, and impersonation are just a few examples of the types of bad behaviour that have been reported. Phishing operations and frauds with a COVI-19 subject are being generated by attackers, as reported by ACSC, to acquire access to classified information that is both private and governmental. As the tendency continues to rise, any firm must take significant steps to safeguard its systems and data. The ACSC warns that phishing based on COVID-19 may appear in a variety of ways for individuals to steal personal as well as financial details. Hackers are employing a variety of tactics to deceive users into disclosing sensitive data they shouldn't have (Chadwick 2020). ACSC has offered various examples of phishing tactics used by attackers to get sensitive information from their targets. Attackers are sending malicious website links by SMS and posing as well-known brands to get victims to click on the links in the links they provide them. Taking advantage of this COVID-19 issue, attackers are requesting crucial information using fake official government links as well as financial firm email accounts. As a result, any company must be aware of the many forms of hostile activity, as well as the associated dangers and countermeasures.

Types of the cyber threats identified by ACSC and summarize them in table

The ACSC has recognised the following categories of cybercriminal activities:

Identification and categories 10 assets

As stated by Kure et al. (2018), assets are those things inside an organization that have a high value because they are tied to sensitive data. Laptops, desktops, and even individual pieces of data are all candidates. Both components and devices are examples of what we mean by the term "asset" (Kure et al. 2018). When formulating plans to safeguard the company's infrastructure, assets play a key role. Security measures for susceptible assets must begin with the identification and classification of assets. In addition, identifying and categorizing assets with care might help future risks be dealt with. The future safety of the company might be compromised if a key asset is not identified.

A company's most valuable property when this comes to maintaining privacy is its information or data Assets. The primary goal of the vast majority of hackers is to get access to the company's data by exploiting this weakness. Inside a company, a variety of information and data assets may be recognised. These include data stored inside a database; students' educational documents; worker records; client records; video and picture records; banking information and other financial details; training materials; accounting records; emails; and tax-related documents for assignment help.

In the same way, people are indeed a valuable resource for any business since they help to keep the organization safe and secure all information flow inside it (Nikander et al. 2020). Computer programmers, IT analyst’s system, network engineers, legal advisors as well as executives are all examples of personal resources or assets that may be recognised in the business. Every employee who has access to confidential data about the company should be viewed as a vital resource.

When it comes to a firm, hardware assets refer to the actual physical items required to carry out a certain task. To protect the firm's information from cyber-attacks, the firm's hardware assets include notebooks, routers, servers, switches, desktops, firewall systems, and information storage devices that have a vital role.
The tools that are used inside an organization to manage and preserve its data are referred to as its "software assets." Development and design software tools, attendance monitoring software, Microsoft Office applications, payroll software, Operating systems, and in-house software are all examples of integrated software assets that may be cited as belonging to the company (OReardon and Rendar 2020).

The procedure's method refers to the documentation about how software and hardware in the company should be utilized or how data flow should indeed be controlled inside the company. It may also include information regarding the legal activity and procedure responsible for dealing with the resources. Consequently, asset regulations, software licenses, software deals, and agreements with other parties are all examples of assets that fit this description.

Identifying and prioritizing threats against each type of asset

Identifying and prioritizing threats to a firm's records is an essential first step in ensuring its safety. Risk to the resource, Risk to the data, the price for the recovery, and Price to prevent are listed factors that are important for this study.

Threats are prioritized depending on these factors

Analysing the five fundamental security principles with the security recommendations proposed by the ACSC

A company needs to plan, develop, and deploy security to protect its digital systems against cyberattacks and harmful activity. Five key security concepts must be adhered to create such a safe system (Gunduz and Das 2020). These principles are known as “layering, limiting or hindering, diversity, obscurity, and simplicity”.The concept of layering refers to the sort of security concepts that include securing systems by constructing numerous levels. A hacker can get into one single-layered security system by just cutting into one of the layers of defense. This poses a significant risk and enables it to be less difficult for malicious actors to penetrate the device and steal data. However, the company may reduce the risk of criminal actions and cyber-attacks by constructing numerous security layers. When one protection layer is breached, it is improbable that other levels would be breached as well, ensuring that the device remains secure.Another sort of security approach that helps reduce potential risks is called limiting and does so through controlling who may access certain files and data. One should only be given access to the data that is strictly necessary for them, and nothing more. Two sorts of restricting mechanisms exist those based on technology and procedures. People may only access data and files via using technological techniques like verification or permissions, whilst employees are banned from transporting the papers and data outside of the business. In addition to these other key security concepts, diversity is one of them (Braun et al. 2018). An essential protective mechanism, but one that may be undermined if all their levels are identical, is layered protection. There is a good possibility that the hackers will be able to break via all of the levels if they successfully breach one layer utilizing a technique. Each layer of protection must thus be unique and diversified in character. According to researchers, utilizing items from many providers may help create variety. It is also possible to create diversity by using a range of authentication procedures and data security at various levels. In addition, obscurity is characterized by a lack of clarity and challenge comprehension. There are indications inside the ACSC study that a few of the harmful assaults are based on surveys supplied through applications and phone calls (Mohammed 2019). A key security concept for keeping the system free of such dangers is the idea of anonymity. To avoid the attack, several researchers advise against using the manufacturer-supplied default credentials or SSIDs. In a similar vein, when this comes to creating passwords or exchanging data, staff should be strongly pushed to avoid repeating the same patterns. To avoid hostile assaults and cyber threats, concealing or making data difficult for hackers to access is an essential function of obscurity. It’s crucial to remember that simplicity is a significant factor in protecting a system against dangers. Devices should be constructed such that authorized users may use them easily, but that unauthorized individuals will have great difficulty interfering in any manner (Li et al. 2021). The system can quickly and efficiently provide access and rights to legitimate users while simultaneously blocking access to undesired and unauthorized individuals.

Application control, configuring Microsoft-office macro options, restricting administrator access, using two-factor authentication, making daily data backups, updating operating systems, and updating programmes are among the seven techniques advised by the ACSC research for reducing malware delivery and cyber security threats. The first suggestion for preventing unwanted apps from running is the Application control method. This layering concept of protection is reflected in this mitigation method. To safeguard a device, this layering concept suggests adding more and more levels. As a result, the development of the layer of a system to restrict the operation of undesired programmes is made possible via the management of network software. Similarly, the ACSC recommends changing Microsoft-Office macro options to avoid malware execution. Using macros to automate operations inside Microsoft-Office is a common practice (Zwilling et al. 2022). The layering concept and also the diversity theory apply to this method provided by ACSC. Through establishing macro options as well as managing the application's operation, ACSC has offered numerous levels of security. To make matters more complicated, the software used to manage the defensive layer as well as set up macros is a varied range of tools. One approach for breaching one layer of protection will not work for the other since they are so distinct. As a further point of reference, the ACSC's recommendation to reduce administrative rights is based on the notion of limiting protection. For example, according to ACSC's recommendations, businesses should limit access to apps based on a person's role and what individuals require. Malicious behaviours may be avoided by limiting the access of susceptible personnel to critical information systems that the hackers are looking to get. The ACSC also recommends the use of multi-factor verification as a means of reducing the likelihood of cyber security breaches (Ghafir et al. 2018). Using this method, you may apply the stacking and restricting principles to the project. An additional layer of protection for the network and apps of the company will be provided by multi-factor verification. Hackers will have a far more difficult time getting past the additional levels of protection provided by multi-factor verification. The ACSC recommends regular backup as a technique for recovering data and applications in the event of threats and assaults. As per the ACSC, fixing apps that are much more vulnerable to assaults may help avoid harmful cyber assaults. To avoid the assault, the ASCS recommends that users encrypt their applications to prohibit all advertisements and needless downloads. Lastly, the ACSC advised updating the operating system (OS) on every device to prevent this device from being hacked. A few items are more susceptible than others ranging from PCs to routers and firewalls. As a result, the company needs to make certain that the OS of all of these machines is brought up-to-date and upgraded to protect them from being targeted by an attacker.

As a result, the ACSC's recommendations for mitigating harmful assaults and bolstering cyber security are based on the five aforementioned security principles (Colicchia et al. 2018). These tactics concentrated on erecting a multi-layered defence with a diverse assortment of components in each tier. The ACSC has advocated several various levels of security, including multi-factor verification, application control, and updating operating systems and software regularly. In addition to this, it adheres to the limiting approach by putting restrictions on administrative rights. In a similar vein, changing macro settings, routinely upgrading the software, and making daily backups are all connected with this obscurity concept since they tend to modify the default configuration inside the device and bring about systemic changes.

Summary

As a result, ACSC covered a wide range of harmful acts in the study. Finally, the study recognised and classified all of a firm's assets to protect them from a variety of risks that may arise in future. Four separate kinds of risks were prioritized: impact on the assets, data, and expense of preventing and mitigating the danger. Lastly, the paper highlighted how the recommended security countermeasures by ACSC linked to these five essential security concepts, which are "layering, limiting, obscurity, simplicity, and diversity”. These concepts were covered in detail throughout the research.

References

MIS608 Agile Project Management Report

Task Summary

In this group project, you will need to form a team of 5-6 students.

Your team will be required to produce a 2500 word report for your case organisation.

Your team are Agile domain specialists and you are required to produce a report for the company to help them undertake an Agile transformation within an area of their business. You will need to cover the following knowledge areas in accordance with the requirements of the case study to demonstrate that you are able to apply your theoretical understanding of the concepts to an authentic case study. The concepts are listed in no order, and it is up to the team to decide which order they should be addressed in the report to best convey the required response to your client:

1. Product Vison and Roadmap
2. Release planning and cadence
3. Agile requirements
4. Lean Startup tools used in Agile
5. Agile estimating and planning
6. Agile ceremonies
7. Agile velocity
8. Scaling agile

As part of the project the group will select to either use Kanban/Scrum as an Agile project management practice and are required to attach a snapshot of either their Scrum boards or Kanban each week at the conclusion of each weekly Sprint in the appendices of the report, making clear which practice was a selected and why.

Please refer to the Task Instructions for details on how to complete this task.

Context

Agile teams and agile ways of working are becoming more prevalent in workplaces and it is likely that you will be a part of an agile team in your career. However, agile is very different from the more traditional ‘waterfall project management practice. This assessment will ensure that you are well-versed in the philosophies and practice associated with Agile so that you have sufficient knowledge to join and agile team or implement agile practices in your future career.

Solution

Introduction

Frederick's is a reputed grocer that is interested in endeavouring into the digital space. The company has created a team that will solely be responsible for technical innovations and has partnered up with Pear Platforms to provide the company with required online applications, ai resources, and other technological solutions. The company is also interested in seeking consultancy regarding how to implement agile methodologies to make sure that the company's digital platforms will be able to hold their own in a highly competitive online marketplace. This report will attempt to provide consultancy to Frederick's regarding how to implement agility in such a way so that rampant online fraud activities can be combated. For Assignment help Agile methodology is a widely used and celebrated project management approach that practices adaptability and flexibility, which can combat rapidly evolving challenges. These specific methodologies provide development teams with the ability to respond quickly and change their approach regarding certain needs of the clients. Agile methods will be useful in providing consultancy regarding how to reduce potential frauds in the company's digital applications. Agile methodology is utmost crucial in order to achieve a better result concerning a project (Layton, 2017). It is significantly more useful in comparison to the traditional waterfall model. The body of the report will include an accurate road map, discussions regarding cadence, necessities, necessary tools, planning techniques, ceremonies, the optimised velocity of the project, and how to scale the agile product.

Important Elements of the Agile Product

A product vision and roadmap

It has been argued that creating a good in-house team and providing customer solutions for companies can help in increasing the chances of success regarding agile management of certain products. In this case, the product development team will focus on creating an algorithm that is based on machine learning to make sure that the fraudulent requests that will be targeted toward the digital applications of Frederick's are properly identified and recognised. The algorithm will be capable of handling sophisticated and rudimentary fraudulent requests, which will be beneficial in reducing the amount of digital fraud and cybercrimes that will target the newly created applications of Frederick's. Fraudulent activities such as credit card fraud are extremely prevalent worldwide (Dornadula & Geetha, 2019). This section will provide a road map as to how the product development team will achieve this vision. At first, the team members that are operating from the in-house team will make sure that all the requirements of the client, which in this case is Frederick's, are noted down. A proper analysis of this requirement list will be conducted next. The team will properly rearrange the necessities based on the priority levels of those demands; after that, the company will be creating epics based on the priority list. The epics will be broken down into flexible user stories that will be worked on by separate micro teams consisting of team managers and developers. By optimising the number of sprints that are needed for the process and reducing unnecessary backlogs, the in-house team will be able to develop the product by using agile approaches efficiently.

Release Planning and Cadence

Preparing a proper release planning is important as it can help the product development team make sure that the product is progressing according to plans and will be following the gradual deliverance plan of the product. Release Planning becomes increasingly complex as user stories go up. However, as this product development team has to deal with small user stories, the planning is rather straightforward. Release planning is essential for projects such as the algorithm development project taken up by the product development team. It ensures that the product will continue to be released in small stages. Each stage will be containing separate versions of the product, which will make it easier to detect any problems with the release and the version of the product. This is beneficial as it lets the clients of the product provide their feedbacks regarding how the client is operating. This feedback can be taken into account for the next release session. Every stage of release will be segmented into several sprints, which will increase the efficiency of the development process. This will also let the employees operating the algorithm be accustomed to using the algorithm slowly. Cadence is the factor that determines how many work hours, weeks, or days will each sprint need. The cadence of a product development project is decided by how difficult it is to achieve the objective is its importance, and other factors such as the nature of the product. A cadence of three weeks will be appropriate for developing this specific product.

Agile Requirements

Agile requirements are defined as activities that must be executed to satisfy clients' demands. The necessities of the clients are the most important thing in taking up an agile project. Prioritising certain requirements based on their importance and the average time spent to complete them is incredibly important in developing a product in an agile manner. Various elements altogether form the requirements of a certain agile project. Some of them will be discussed in detail in this section.

Epics- Epic is defined as a relatively bigger agile requirement that can be segmented into smaller parts handled in a sprint. Epic is essential for creating a proper way to sort the work that is needed to be done and to prioritise work requirements that are relatively more important. Usually, in the product development process, each epic is segmented into several separate user stories handled by separate teams. The conversion of Epics into User Stories has garnered academic attention. Epics are known for being complicated and taking a significant amount of time to be complicated which is why user stories can be beneficial in agile product development. Creating Epics that will reflect the necessities of Frederick's properly is important, and the in-house development team will be committed to it.

User stories- As discussed above, user stories are segments of an epic that can be worked on by teams that are smaller in size. User stories are created by taking into account the preferences of the client. User stories are generally worked on in a single, separated sprint and are relatively easier to handle than large epics. These are essential in conserving user requirements.

Backlogs- A product backlog in agile management refers to the catalogue of requirements that are organised based on the priority level of each requirement. A product backlog is a tool that can be used to plan, review, and structure sprints in such a way that the most important tasks are delivered first. Backlogs are process-centric constructs. Project backlog can be improved by using Scrum and Kanban method (Rossberg, 2019).

Prioritisation- Prioritisation is a tool that can help the product development team to find out which deliverables are the most important and must be delivered faster. Prioritisation is done generally by the client, which in this case is Frederick's. Prioritisation is important as it can be beneficial in many steps of product development, such as planning and operation.

Lean Startup Tools used in Agile

As the technological industry prospers even more, there has been an abundance of tools that can help product development teams to execute the development of a product by using agile and lean tools. The product development team will create a machine learning algorithm that will hopefully help Frederick's reduce the number of digital frauds and scams. The development team will use such lean and agile tools that are cost-effective and can also get the job done rather efficiently. Usage of the software that can enable the product team to use agile procedures will be adopted by the development team. Zepel is one of those tools that will be utilised. Zepel provides the team with a digital interface that can easily create subsections that will help the team manage user stories, procedures, tasks, and certain procedures that are best executed through online platforms. The use of Zepel can be beneficial for the product team as it can provide certain tools and digital solutions for problems related to organising, prioritising, and allocating tasks and team members. Another tool that will be used in the lean procedure is GitHub project management. GitHub is a site that is used by the development team for the development of the algorithm. The popularity of GitHub is rapidly increasing. The project management software will help the platform become more accessible and provide certain functionalities that are beneficial to the execution of the project. Other than that, the analytical and managerial tools and services provided by Google, such as the g suite and google analytics, will also be used for the project.

Agile Estimating and Planning

Agile planning and estimation are extremely important to the success of the product development as it helps the product development team with knowledge regarding the potential risks that can pop up in the execution of the product development. It can also help to provide an outline of interesting and important elements of the project development procedure. A proper estimation can help ensure that the project will abide by the time and cost-related restraints, which will, in turn, ensure that the project is completed in due time. In this case, the algorithm developed by the project development team will be completed through a complicated procedure. A proper estimation will help in making sure that the algorithm will be developed within the required time limit and it will be affordable by the client, which in this case is Frederick's. Proper planning will help the project development team to make sure that the entirety of the humongous task is properly broken down into smaller segments that can be achieved in singular sprints. This will severely turn down the complexity of the project and will streamline the procedures that will be required. It will also help the project team members not to become confused and focus on a singular task at a time. Planning poker and affinity mapping are some of the estimation techniques which will be taken up by the company. Planning poker is widely used as a preferred estimation technique.

Agile Ceremonies

Agile ceremonies are defined as activities that are taken up by the project development team members in order to make sure that all the team members are on the same page regarding the development of a certain product. Agile Ceremonies are extremely beneficial. Every agile methodology necessitates the need of creating proper agile ceremonies as these ceremonies can be beneficial in making sure that all stakeholders of the development project agree to the procedures that will be taken up in each sprint, enhance their capabilities and update the scope of the product development process by taking the client's feedback into account, along with making sure that the project is completed properly. Four major agile ceremonies can be observed in any agile methodology. The product development team will take up every four of these agile ceremonies to make sure that communication and collaboration between team members are at their highest.

Sprint planning will be taken up to help the company gain perspective regarding user stories, backlogs, and future tasks. It is critical to the success of any agile project. The scrum master, individuals that represent Frederick’s, and the team that will be in charge of developing the algorithm will be a part of this ceremony.
The daily stand-up is a ceremony that requires the participation of the team members and the scrum masters. It is a widely adopted communication technique. The daily stand-up of the project development team will consist of 15 minutes. It will include discussions regarding sprint management and certain difficulties that have come up since the previous stand-up. A stand-up will be useful in making sure that the team individuals are collaborating and contributing to each other's success which is beneficial for the overall success of the product development.

Sprint review, as its name suggests, consists of in-depth discussion regarding the sprint. It is organised at the termination of every sprint. Sprint review is necessary for gauging the progress of the development team and also to make sure that the project development is progressing as expected. It involves the product owner, the development team, and the scrum master.

Sprint retrospect is the final agile ceremony where all stakeholders of the project do the review of the procedures taken up in the previous sprints. This ceremony is important as problems that have popped up in previous prints are solved here by the contribution of each stakeholder. It is incredibly useful in continually enhancing the procedures.

Agile Velocity

Agile velocity refers to a measurement method that can gauge the rate of product development. Measuring agile velocity is simple enough and is done by measuring work done divided by total sprints (Le, 2018). Generally, agile velocity is calculated by measuring the average time for the development team to complete one Sprint. The total number of story points that have been completed divided by the number of sprints will be used as the formula to measure agile velocity for the product. This data will then be used to estimate the total velocity of the completion of the project. It is beneficial in making sure that the development process is efficient.

Scaling Agile

If the algorithm successfully combats potential frauds and safeguards Frederick's digital applications, more people will be interested in using said applications. This is when upscaling will be needed to satisfy the demands of the increasing customer base. Several scaling frameworks such as nexus, large enterprise scaled scrum, scrum of scrums, and others can be taken up to improve the functionality of the product and to scale its purpose. Agile scaling tries to provide reasonable and sustainable scaling solutions (Appelo, 2019).

Conclusion

The retailing and grocery industries have seen a lot of recent disruption because of the technical revolution taking place for the last years. Technology has ensured that the world wide web is a tool that can be used to achieve further convenience for customers in their day-to-day operations. Recent years have seen the domination of Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and other online retailing companies that have taken strides to ensure that their services are available and convenient for people to access through sophisticated digital solutions. The benefits of having an online platform can be noted and is a point of significant concern for traditional retailers and grocers. To compete with the e-commerce companies, these traditional companies need to implement technological solutions and novel online interfaces properly, or they will not be able to hold onto their grounds. Frederick's is one of such companies recently attempting to expand their facilities to the digital space. The company is collaborating with digital solution providers to develop proper digital applications that will further their goals. The company has sought consultancy regarding how to reduce potential fraud in its digital platforms. Agile methodology has taken the world by storm by proving that for certain projects, it is the most efficient and reliable project management approach. This consultation report Provides detailed information regarding how the in-house product development team will adopt an agile methodology to create the required product to combat potential frauds and scams. The proper description of each element of Agile methodology is provided in this report to educate the company officials and other interested stakeholders regarding how the project development team will work.

References

MGT610 Organisational Best Practice Sample

Context

Strategy, benchmarking, best practice, and continuous improvement are constant concerns for any organisation. In an ever-changing business environment, this means that every initiative, successful or not, must be measured, reviewed, and reflected upon so that future threats and opportunities can be identified and analysed against a deep knowledge of previous efforts.

This assessment requires students to critically reflect on their earlier efforts to analyse a potential strategic weakness and design a set of benchmarks to help future-proof the chosen organisation. It asks you to compare your early assessment recommendations against the theories and examples covered in the subject modules, and against the growth in understanding you experienced through the unit. Such reflection should form that foundation of a student’s professional body of understanding and practice.

Instructions

You will write a reflective essay focused on the relevance of what you have learnt through this subject. This essay should include your personal reflections upon how you view the importance of strategy, benchmarking, best practice, and continuous improvement for long- term business sustainability and how you believe the tools and methods available may be best utilised as a business analyst and understood by executive management. In writing this reflective journal you should draw on the learning resources provided during the subject, further readings you have undertaken as part of your own research, your previous assessments, the formative exercises conducted in class and/or online, and your personal experiences and opinions formed in relation to this topic. The reflective journal should critically review the topic at the highest level, which means reflecting upon the importance of strategy, benchmarking, best practice, and continuous improvement to business sustainability rather than upon the effectiveness of any particular approach or tool. You should also reflect upon their relevance to a range of business types, including corporate, B-Corporation, not-for-profit, and public sector enterprises. 

Solution

Introduction

This assessment is aiming to reflect upon different frameworks or tools being used in any business report for assessing the macro and microenvironment, where the organisation operates. This report will also include the role of Benchmarking and the importance of Best Practices in measuring the organisational strategy. For this section, the project work, being done on the case scenario of “Bega” has to be

For Assignment help Lastly, this assessment will include my own experiences, and knowledge that I have earned from the proposed project work. For this section, Gibb's reflective model will be taken into consideration, for highlighting that "what I have learned from the modules"; "what I have learned from the feedback given by my learning facilitator"; and "how I will use a benchmark for future career".

Reflection on key theory from Module I to Module 6

The role of Benchmark plays in implementing and measuring an organisational strategy

In Module 4 and 5, I came across the term “Benchmarking” and its importance in measuring the organisational strategy. In this respective module, I have come across the ideology that improving organisational performance is one of the most important goals of benchmarking. Bega Food Company, being one of the largest cheese manufacturing companies in Australia, uses this tool to measure its performance efficacy in comparison to its rival groups (Trujillo-Gallego, Sarache& Sellitto, 2020). For example, Bega Cheese Limited uses benchmarking to compare the business practices and metrics with other companies, which can help "Bega’ to get 3,3000 measures for worldwide comparison. This comparison can ultimately help the Bega to identify the area of improvement in business practice and set a precise goal for business improvement.

The role of SWOT, PESTLE and competitor analysis play in developing, changing, and monitoring an organisational strategy

In modules 1, 2, and 3, I have come across the terminologies, "SWOT", "PESTLE" and "competitor analysis".SWOT analysis has been used in the proposed project to identify the key internal and external influences, which are responsible for Bega's current position in the market. The role of SWOT analysis in developing, changing, and monitoring an organisational strategy is by identifying the key internal and external factors which can either favor or can inhibit the prospect of moving an organisation, in the environment where it operates in. By analysing the case scenario of Bega Cheese limited, I have learned that SWOT can be used as a good tool, which enables the leadership to identify the areas where the organisation needs improvement to thrive the future goal (Tsai et al., 2020). By identifying the strength, weaknesses and external threats and market opportunities, the management of Bega can align the business vision and mission with the cost and benefits of making change happen.

On other hand, PESTLE is used to analyse the impact of external factors, which used to exist in the external environment, where the business operates. PESTLE is used to demarcate the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors that exist in the Australian business environment and have a significant impact on the overall business growth and prosperity of Bega. By using PESTLE analysis, the business administration and management team of Bega Cheese Limited can understand the market and position of the organisation in respective industry in a better way, which ultimately can help the management team to make strategic plans and conduct market research on the new and existing market (Jafari& Othman Soleiman, 2020). For example, in Australia, the environmental concern, continuous climate change can help me to understand that why the organisation needs a proper waste management program and recycling process. Similarly, PESTLE analysis has helped me to understand the power structure, demographic trends, spending patterns among the population, along the National Income rate in society. This, in turn, can help me, as management of Bega to develop product line and service provision accordingly, so that it can meet the current need and preferences of the consumers in the market, where it is operating.

On other hand, in Module 2 and 3 I have learned about the use of competitor analysis as the best practice to measure the organisational performance. There are various tools or strategies, that use for competitor analysis purposes, for Example Porter's 5 force analysis. In the following module, I have come across the idea, that it is important for an organisation like Bega Cheese Limited to analysis its performance in reference to its potential competitors (Jafari& Othman Soleiman, 2020). In elaboration, I can state that, while the Bega will identify the uniqueness of other similar businesses and their business performance, then the respective company can feel the urge to innovate the business operational process, business strategies, along with the product line. For example, the quality of the Cheese can be one of the important benchmarks in the cheese manufacturing industry, which can give competitive advantages to Bega over its potential rivals in the market.

What is the value of continuous improvement to help drive Best Practices?

During the class work on modules 2 to 4, I have to focus on the "Best Practice" of a business. Use of the SWOT and PESTLE analysis, along with competitor analysis and benchmarking are the Best Practice for any organisation, while it comes to excelling in its respective business environment. Therefore, continuous improvement in business practice can boost employee performance as well as organisational productivity (Vardopoulos et al., 2021). By carrying out the project based on the case scenario of Bega, I have learned that continuous improvement in Best Practice method can help an organisation to develop more precise business aim and objectives, which by aligning with vision and mission, the organisation can ultimately achieve the success in the market.

Reflection on the Assessment and experiences

To reflect upon my own experiences and knowledge that I have learned from the project work, Gibb’s reflective model has been used.

Description: in this project, I have been asked to carry out thorough research on the business process of Bega Cheese Limited. Therefore, I carried out SWOT, PESTLE analysis, along with the competitive assessment of business strategy to understand the current business scenario of Bega in response to the Australian business market.

Feelings: previously, I have little knowledge about SWOT and PESTLE analysis, specifically the role of Benchmarking and how these tools can be used in business analysis purposes. Through thorough learning of modules, continuous interaction with educators regarding the use of these tools and techniques have helped me to develop confidence about the use of these frameworks for business research purposes (Capobianco et al., 2020).

Evaluation: the proposed business project and thorough analysis of the modules have helped me to understand that, when it comes to analyse a business, in response to a specific market, SWOT, PESTLE, and Benchmarking are important tools to be used. These modules and project work has helped me to understand that SWOT and PESTLE are the tools used to assess the impact of micro and macro environment on the respective business.On other hand. Benchmark, as the knowledge that I have gained, made me understand that this tool is one of the important frameworks to demarcate the organisational "Best Practice" in any respective business sector or industry (Adeani, Febriani& Syafryadin, 2020). On other hand, the feedback that I have gained from my educators regarding the work has helped me to understand that I have to develop my written skill, analytical, and research skills to develop a business report in a precise way.

Analysis: The project work that I have done during the classroom program is completely based on business research and analysis. This project work and the module that I have learned in the classroom program have helped me to understand that, SWOT, PESTLE, and Benchmark are the important factors that can help anyone to understand the competitive edge of a business in any specific market (Adeani, Febriani& Syafryadin, 2020). The feedback that I have gained from the educator helped me to understand that proper research and analytical skills are important while it comes to research about a business and the market where it operates in

Action plan:

1. To develop my written skill
2. To develop my research and analytical skill

Conclusion

To conclude this research work, it can be stated that SWOT, PESTLE, Benchmarking are being taught to us through modules 1 to 6. These tools are being used by me to identify the market position of Bega Cheese limited in the current market. Additionally, in this work, Gibb’s reflective model has also been used by me to reflect upon the knowledge and understandings that I have gained from the module and project work.

References

CGRM4000 Corporate Governance, Sustainability and Ethics Case Study Sample

Your Task

You are required to write a report to a corporate board summarising your views on corporate governance, sustainability and risk management practices.

Assessment Description

• On Monday of Week 10 at 9 am, you will get access to a case study on MyKBS under the assessments tab. This document will have all the necessary case facts and the specific questions which you are required to answer for this assessment.

• This assessment examines two learning objectives:

• LO4: Analyse the role of the board in the assessment of strategy and risk and the way in which this expertise can be better utilized.

• LO5: Analyse the sustainability initiatives practised within organisations and determine their effectiveness in meeting corporate and ethical objectives.

Assessment Instructions

• You are required to prepare a report and submit it via Turnitin via MyKBS.

• You should adhere to KBS’s referencing and Academic integrity requirements.

• Please refer to the assessment marking guide to assist you in completing all the assessment criteria.

Solution

Introduction

Corporate governance pertains to the structure of the organization that helps in defining the rules, system, as well as process through which the authority is implemented with the company. Good corporate governance ensures that the stakeholder’s interests are properly balanced and this assists in attaining the organizational objectives (Barman and White 2014). For Assignment Help, It pertains to the process that enables identification, evaluation and the control of the threats that might impact the return of the capital investment and total earnings. The current report aims to discuss the implementation of corporate governance for Focus Logistics Pty Ltd. The report discusses about the importance of good corporate governance followed by the importance of the maintenance of sustainability report. Lastly, it deals regarding the practices of sound risk management for Future Logistics.

1. Good corporate Governance practices

For a large private company such as Focus Logistics, it is imperative to have sound corporate governance as it is about to transform into a listed company and comprises of different stakeholders (Burke and Tomlinson 2016). Hence, it needs to ensure that the governance is intact which would allow better conduct and ethical practices.

The importance of good corporate governance for Focus Logistics is as follows:

Preservation of the stakeholder’s confidence – If the stakeholders lack confidence then it might distract the entire goal of the organization. As noted from the discussion, Focus needs to expand and hence looking forward to the expansion plans. The investors are concerned regarding the proper governance structure and hence are a cause of concern. Thereby, for gaining the maximum support it is important for Focus to have a sound corporate governance system to attain success (Burke and Tomlinson 2016). Once the investors find sound corporate governance, the same can provide company with social, as well as emotional support.

Foundation for high performance - The attainment of sustainable success needs input, as well as support from all sphere of the organization. The Board by way of strong corporate governance practices provides a strong framework for the process of planning, implementation and evaluation of performance without this foundation it becomes difficult for the attainment of the goals (ASX 2020). Attainment of the best performance, as well as result within the present capacity should be the sole aim of the organization. Good corporate governance should support the management and staff to the best of their ability

Ensuring organization is properly placed to change in the external environment - Business operates in a vulnerable situation and with the aid of technology there has been a major transformation. Good governance ensures that threat of safety is minimized as it leads to transparency and the stakeholders are able to get the proper information and operational structure (Fiolleau and Kaplan 2016). Hence, it frames a proper balance between the policy makers and the body that enforces it. The stakeholders can access the information on different policies and the implementation of the same.

• Four good corporate governance practises are as follows:

It is imperative for a listed company to have a strong and effective board as it will lead to better governance.
Principle 2 - Adequate Board composition

The Board should ensure a balanced number of independent non-executive directors that will challenge the management and make them accountable and even project the best interest of the listed entity and security holders in total instead of the specific security holders (ASX 2020). The board is needed to have a sufficient size because the requirement of the business can be adhered to and the changes can be managed without any hassle. Renewal of board is essential to the performance of the company (Schwartz 2016). To ensure a proper facilitation of the board, investor confidence needs to be promoted. There must be a transparent process for that will reflect transparency in terms of appointment and reappointment of the board. A separate nomination committee can bring high efficiency to the board thereby ensuring better decision making.

As seen from the case of Focus, the management position especially the executive position is occupied by the members and close friends. Hence, appropriate performance review and succession planning is missing. As the board committee is absent the investors are worried about the same. For instance, the candidates for directors must possess the relevant factor comprising of the past performance and skills.

As per the principles of good corporate governance, a separate nomination committee will be an efficient one as it will bring independence, transparency and judgment to the board thereby ensuring enhanced decision making (Stephenson 2016).

Principle 4: Safeguarding the integrity of annual reports

The main responsibility of the listed entity is to have a strong board, separate audit committee and to ensure transparency so that the corporate reporting process can be seen. The role of the audit committee is to ascertain and make recommendations to the board in tune to the entity’s reporting mechanism of the company and internal control mechanism. Investors are depending on the periodic reports so that investment decision can be undertaken (Kowaleswski 2016). This comprises of the director’s report, cash report and the integrated report. It is important for a listed entity to provide disclosure of the matter and ensure integrity of the corporate report.
In lieu to this, Focus logistics can undertake financial delegation, planning and reporting that will enable internal control and hence the integrity and accuracy of financial reporting can be maintained.

Principle 5: Timely and balanced disclosure

It is important for a listed entity to have a written policy for the compliance with the regular disclosure obligations as per the listing rule 3.1. Listing rule 3.1 needs that the listed entity should disclose to ASX regarding any event that might impact the price of the securities. Written policy ensures that proper compliance is done so that every investor must have proper and timely access to the material information regarding the entity that includes the financial position, ownership and the governance (ASX 2020).

Principle 7: Recognition and management of Risk

The main responsibility for the entity’s risk management is with the board having a proper risk committee. It is effective as well as efficient for bringing transparency, focus and judgment of independent nature to ensure that the risk management framework of the entity is intact (ASX 2020). The risk committee framework should be of proper size and independence and the members should have the desired technical knowledge for the proper understanding of the industry in which it operates so that the desired role is discharged with efficiency (Kowaleswski 2016). The main role of the risk committee is to evaluate the performance of the management against the risk management framework that comprises the risk appetite set by the board and evaluation of the material incident such a disturbance in the risk control of the entity.

2. Benefits and challenges of producing a sustainability report

Benefits

Sustainability reporting is an overview and a complete coverage of the company’s external environment that is caused by the day to day activities. This reporting enables to project the commitment of the company to a sustainable global economy. Sustainability reporting combines the financial and non-financial parameters (Atkins et al 2015). As per the case study, Focus carbon footprints are huge and the lack of sustainability reporting is a major disadvantage. Mr. Rose is aware that banks do not entertain companies that do not have a sustainability plan and target. The value of sustainability reporting is huge as it leads to consideration of the impact on sustainability issues and thereby provides greater transparency of the risk and opportunities that is faced. In this manner, the organizations are able to build trust among the stakeholders and this influences the bottom lines. Reporting sustainability ensures that the company actively supports the employees to remain healthy and the focus is on the prevention. Additionally Focus logistics can even provide individual option for the reintegration process.

Companies are able to create value through sustainability and thereby enhance the returns on capital. This indicates that the operational costs are reduced through the enhanced management of natural-resource. Furthermore, companies are able to reduce the cost by systematic management of the value chain. Additionally, companies are adding value though the improvement of the employee retention and motivation through sustainability activities by increasing the prices or through attainment of better market share. For Focus Logistics, sustainability reporting will aid in better risk management. Stakeholders correlate financial performance with the ESG and this sends a positive signal. The logistic industry provides services near to production and acts as a link between the producers. Such services increases the strength of the company.

Herein, the presence of sustainability reporting will help in attracting investors for Focus Logistics and will help in the bank loan procedure (Atkins et al 2015). Since the bank considers the sustainability plan and report, the same will enable Focus logistics to avail the loan as it will give signal of a responsible company.
However, the sustainability reporting is not free from challenges. Some of the major challenges are:

Absence of universal comparability

The GRI has provided enhanced sustainability reporting by providing the information that every firm must provide on the economic, social and environmental performance. However, such guidelines are followed by 70% of the worlds firms with certain exceptions. A firm that claims a required disclosure is not applicable then the information can be hidden or unavailable. Such exceptions are hard while comparing the sustainability performance of the firm or over a period of time for any company (Atkins et al 2015). Moreover, sustainability report are a major source for sustainability indices the exceptions even limit the indices value.

Deficiency in transparency

Another challenge that arises in sustainability reporting is transparency. Some indicators are easy. For instance, a firm can provide reporting in terms of high local community engagement by considering the operation even when not effective. The auditor can certify only the effectiveness not the programs. Standards and frameworks play a positive role in increasing the quality and decision. But, every reporting framework contains own purpose and rationale and hence, framework can appear to be confusing and conflicting (Atkins et al 2015). Practitioners fails to reconcile such fragmentation and increase the reporting efficiency. Practitioners might be having a fear that material information might be selective revealed to some investors and not to others. In this case, practitioners are challenged to evaluate the credibility and significance of the various ratings.

3. Benefits and challenges of sound risk management practices for Focus Logistics

Forecasts Probable Issues

One of the major advantages of risk management is to change the culture of the business entity. Companies that focus on the risk management concept is more proactive in comparison to the companies that are reactive. Risk management influences the companies to ensure a sharp look because of the business process and then deciding what can go wrong (Murphy 2015). Another major benefit for the Focus logistics would be that it would have lesser number of disruptions. This would helps in tackling the issue and taking care of the issue at an early stage. The proactive approach is very beneficial because it will help companies to identify the failed task at an early stage. Such continuous feedback would allow the company to decide whether investment should be done in a failed project or the money would be gone for bad.

Avoiding dangerous events

Risk management will help Focus Logistics to prepare the company for all kind of shocks. With a proper risk management the company will be able to predict and apprehend the shocks that impact the daily operations of the firm (Kaveh et al, 2014). Moreover, it also try to focus on the events that are catastrophic in nature. Such events tend to have a low occurrence probability. However, if they happen then the company have the means and the resources to deal with them. Such events are termed as black swan events. This will aid Focus logistics as it is transforming into a listed company and hence risk management would be of utmost importance.

However the risk management process is not free from challenges. If the company has a deficit in terms of decision making then the risk management might not happen appropriately. When team is not incentivized properly then it might lead to improper decision making that might hamper the risk management process. For instance at Focus, the manager might come to a different conclusion but the executive in charge might take a different decision.

Conclusion

The aim of the report was to reflect upon the practises of corporate governance at Focus Logistics. The report gives an insight into the operations of the company and the practises followed by it. There are few shortfalls of the company which the company should correct as it is about to be listed. Focus Logistics should have a sound corporate governance policy that will enable to gain the investors confidence followed by a proper suitability report. This would promote transparency and help the company in attaining the desired result. Moreover, sustainability reporting will help the company to have a positive front in the bank’s book to avail the loan. Lastly, the risk sound risk management will help in undertaking valid decision that will ensure a proper safeguard to the company.

References

MGT608 Business Law and International Contexts Case Study Sample

Context

Australian businesses may wish to expand their operations and enter new markets in other countries. Making contracts is fundamental to business practice and this assessment allows students to reflect on the types of contracts a business may enter and to consider what the law relating to contracts is in the country they seek to do business.

This assessment builds on Assessment one (1) where research was conducted on the legal system of a chosen country.

Instructions

Assume that you are the director of an Australian company that does business in a number of Overseas countries. Your company has decided that there is an opportunity to do business in the country that you researched in Assessment 1 (chosen country).

Your task is to prepare a written document appropriately referenced, that address the following matters:

1. State the nature of business your company is involved in. Be as creative as possible. For example, you may decide that you are a manufacturer who wishes to export goods to the chosen country. Alternatively, your company may provide services which can be offered in the chosen country or your company may wish to import goods and/services from the chosen country.

2. Explain in as much details as possible the business opportunity that has arisen for the company.
Making contracts is fundamental to business practice. Your company will need to make contracts in the scenario country. Please ensure you

• Identify the types of contracts that your business would need to enter in order to do business successfully in the scenario country. Explain why these contracts are necessary.

• Identify and explain the sources of contract law in the chosen country.

• Identify and explain the legal requirements for the creation of a valid contract in the chosen country.

• Explain the remedies for breach of contract in chosen country.

• Discuss whether it would be necessary to appoint an agent in the chosen country and an explanation for your decision.

• Identify whether Australia has a Free Trade Agreement with chosen country and explain the implications of this.

• Identify any specific regulations that apply in the chosen country based on the nature of your company’s business.

Solutions

Introduction

The report has been prepared about an Australian company named PharmaCare that is going to be start and expand its business to the market of UAE.Being a director of this company, all the decision taken for the expansion of the business is mentioned here. PharmaCare is a manufacturer, marketer, and also distributor of different types of medicines, specialty ingredients, and pharmaceuticals products. This is a manufacturer company basically invest in development and research, equip the facilities of product with new technologies, provides employment to microbiologist and chemist as it engages in manufacturing medicines and drugs. For Assignment Help It manufactures and sells capsules, tablets, and pharmaceuticals powder. To create a valid contract to start the business in UAE or to export the pharma product there, there is a requirement of various legal documents such as a list of packing, commercial invoice, certificate of origin, invoice of delivery, license copy, trade license, and many more. If there is a breach in the contract before the specified time period, then the party who breaches the contract has to compensate the opposite party. Yes, it is necessary to appoint an agent in both the country where the product is to be sold and to the place where the product is to be manufacture because the agent analysis the marketing condition of the country also communicates on the behalf of the seller of the good. The agent helps in selling the product by analyzing the taste of consumers the marketing coding the marketing competition and various factor which helps to expand the market. Australia has a free trade agreement with UAE that helps Australia to sell its product outside the country and to start the business there without any restriction. Free trade agreement lowers the tax while transporting or shipping the product from one place to other. UAE restrict the importation of Israel's product.

Discussion

Types of Contracts

PharmaCare is an Australian company that processes, manufactures, and deals with the production of drugs, medicines, specialty ingredients, and pharmaceuticals products. Hence, the company PharmaCare would need a drug regarding contract to sell its product to UAE in order to do business successfully. Such a contract would ensure that the product that is being sold to another country is medicines or the medium of exporting from one country to another is used to transfer illegal things. It would be needed to reconfirm the product to sell in UAE. Free Trade Agreement would be needed between both the countries for importing and exporting between them. The free trade agreement will help the Australian company by allowing it access to another country where it could sell its product and expand the area of the business. The company PharmaCare can freely sell its product to UAE without any restrictions and without high taxes. Nondisclosure agreement will also take place between other country.These types of contracts would be needed by PharmaCare to enter the market of UAE in order to do business successively(Altenhofen, 2019).

Source of Contract Law

In UAE, UAE Civil Code governed the contractual agreements. It deals with civil remedies, obligations, rights of the party that makes the contract with it. Not only the civil code, but in the case of commercial contacts, the commercial code has applications too. Apart from these codes, there are other regulations too reading land transactions, selling the ships, business law, and many more. The contract law in UAE is originally derived from Islamic law.Civil laws of Egyptian, French law, and Roman law also influence the contract law of the UAE. One of the peculiar features of the civil code in UAE is that it categorizes the term contract into two parts. The first part is the fundamental basis of the contract that is the essential element of the contract, and the second part of the contract is that lay down the details of the particular of the contract that might affect the terms and existence of the contract. Hence, the main source of contract law of UAE is Islamic law(Hamidah et al., 2017).

Legal Requirements for The Creation of a Valid Contract

Every valid contract needs to fulfill legal requirements. Before making any contract between two parties, there are so many procedures and formalities that have to be followed. All the information regarding the new business that is going to be start should be presented while creation of the contract. This includes names of the company, all information about its partners, the type of product it will manufacture and sell, registrar office of the company.While performing these formalities, there are so many legal documents needed to be cleared. A commercial invoice is one of them. There is no prescribed form for the commercial invoice but for this, but a certificate that must be certified by an approved authority is needed. The commercial invoice must show the name of the country of origin, the name of the manufacture, a complete description of the product, the total number of products, its gross and net weight. The details provided on the packing are also matched with the details given on the bill of lading. Legal documents play a very important role in making any valid contract between two parties. The legal documents that are needed while making a contract are a packing list, commercial invoice, delivery order, relevant and valid copy of license trade, and certificate of origin. Another legal requirement is a bill of lading. Bill of lading is issued by the carrier to the product shipper to detail the path and method of shipment. Bill of lading is used as the contract for moving the cargo. In the bill of lading, the tariff number is checked whether it is appropriate or not. The number must ensure the appropriate rate of freight and after the approval, it is applied to the product that is to be shipped. There must be two original copies of the bill of lading be furnished. After this, a list of packing is also required. There is no specific format provided to make the packing list. The details given to the packing list is being matched with the details mentioned in the bill of lading(Rana, 2020). Another important thing that is required while making a valid contract is a certificate of origin. The address and the name of the manufacturer must be included in the certificate of origin. The certificate of origin that will be shown during making the valid contact must be certified by the embassy of UAE. The certification of origin must contain the clause ‘we certify that the goods or product are of Australian origin’.

Remedies for Breach of Contract

Breach of contract takes place when one party fails to follow the terms and conditions that are agreed during the agreement(Moreteau, 2017).UAE offers so many remedies for the breach of contract under its law. One of the remedies for breach of contract in the UAE is that one can claim contractual damages regarding the breach of contract. If one of the parties cancel the contract then also the breach of contract takes place. The liability of loss shifted to the party that breaches the contract. The loss can be occurred due to various reasons like due to probable or due to the natural outcome of the party that breaches the contract(Goldberge, 2018). The plaintiff can have so many options using which it can file suit against whoengaged in breaching the contract. One of the monetary remedies for the breach of contract is compensatory damages. Compensatory damages remedy means the party gets the compensation who suffers from losses due to the action of another party. The party involved in the breach of contract has to pay the money to the claimant.

According to the laws of UAE, not only the culprit but also the victim the burden of losses and to fulfill the responsibilities of mitigating the loss. UAE performs the principles of mitigating laws. It means the person who claimed for the loss must not let the situation become worst. The victim should take care of the situation and let not increase the loss further. The plaintiff must take the necessary step at the appropriate time to avoid the situation of breach of contract. The damage calculation is based on the performance of both the party. Under the laws of UAE, if the victim got benefits from the breach of contract, the value of benefit would be reduced from the damage that is owned by the defendant.

Hence, the court of UAE does not shift all the burden to the party who breached the contract. If the victim has to get the compensation then it would have to prove all the reasonable steps that it took to avoid the breach of contract. If the party successfully proves the steps taken, then only it would get the compensation.

Need of Agents

Appointing an agent in UAE is necessary and beneficial for the company as the agent would provide every information regarding the position of marketing, the need of a product, the types and quality of the product they want. It will help in expanding the business. An agent can be of two types, the first is an export agent and the second is an import agent.An expert agent can be an individual or a firm that undertakes so many exporting activities. One of the best things about the exporting agent is that it never acquires the ownership of the product and in this way, the ownership of the product is always controlled by the exporter of the product. The activities that are undertaken by the exporter are doing the functions of marketing. The analyses reduce the risk of business and find a way to mitigate the occurred loss. Not only this, but an agent handles all the documentation and logistics,negotiates the deals with the consumer, also makes a contract with the buyer. All these activities are done by the agent on behalf of the product exporter(Raghutla&Chittedi, 2020). It is necessary for Australia to appoint an agent because with the help and guide of an export agent it can easily enter the export market. The role of the agent is to get the order and to get a commission for the services granted by them. Having an import agent is equally beneficial as having an export agent. Import agent also helps the business to grow in outside the country. The jobs that the imports agents perform are communicating effectively with clients and colleagues, solving the problem where the product has to be imported. An import agent knows the foreign languages so it becomes very beneficial for the PharmaCare company to talk with the client who stayed in UAE.

Free Trade Agreement

Yes, Australia has a free trade agreement with UAE. The Free trade agreement benefits the exporter company that is Probiotec, the importer that is the country UAE, investors, and the producers too. The current economic position in UAE is an economic openness and open market policies. UAE basically attempted to diversify itself from traditional commodities and crude oils to a market sector with lots of diversification. The diversified market sector would include the sustainable energy sector, education sector, beverages and food services, manufacturing sector, and many more. The free trade agreement would help UAE to get importation from different countries that would expand its market area. Having free trade agreement with the country where the company has to export its products is very beneficial. There is a great boost of economic activity after having the free trade agreement with UAE. Free trade agreement eliminates and decrease the tariffs and also helps behind the border barriers. If it is not done so, then the flow of services of goods from Australia to UAE gets disturbed. Not only this but making the investment to UAE would also be affected. Free trade agreement not only gives benefits to the company, but also to the consumers stays in UAE. They get a wide range of products and improved services and goods. The free trade agreement has benefited Australia from foreign investment too(Nken, &Yildiz, 2021). Notonly this, but the free trade agreement also makes the link stronger between business to business and people to people and in this way the bilateral relationship between Australia and its partner of free trade agreement that is UAE.

Specific Regulation

UAE implies specific regulations to the country that wanted to export to UAE such as the company should have the appropriate trade license provided from the Department of Economic Development. The federal custom authority of the UAE sets the customs policies of the country. Each emirate holds its custom authority and helps the business and individuals to perform import and export of their product. Custom offices are basically located at the exit point of the country like the land border, or at seaports, airports, and at the entrance point of the country. UAE does not allow every product to import and hence, banned some of the products like narcotic substances, any things that are used for black magic or sorcery, electronic hookah or e-cigarettes, gambling tools, betel leaves, pornographic material, reconditioned and used tires, and those goods that are manufactured in Israel. When a country wants to export goods to import, it checks some of the documentations too like a certificate of origin that must state the country of origin, all the details provided in the packing list, bill of lading, the commercial invoice issued by exporting company(Mosteanu, &Alghaddaf, 2019).UAE also checks the ingredients used to prepare the medicines, specialty ingredients, and pharmaceuticals products.

Conclusion

From the above report, all the possible ways could be easily identified using which Australian company PharmaCare can enter the market of UAE. PharmaCare is an Australian company that deals with the manufacturing of medicines and drugs. The company will need to create a contract with the UAE to enter there in order to do business successfully. It would need a drug regarding contract and also free trade agreement with UAE to export the products freely to the markets of UAE. The main source of contract law in the UAE is Islamic law. For the creation of the valid contract between two companies, it needs some of the legal documents for clearance such as a relevant and valid copy of trade license, delivery order, packing list, origin certification, a complete description about the product that includes gross weight and net weight, manufacturer name, total value, and total unit. In case the contractor fails due to the action of any party then it is called a breach of contract. UAE provides some of the remedies for the breach of contract on the basis of damage contractual to compensate the party that suffers the loss. From the discussion, it could be said that It is necessary to appoint an agent for Australia because an agent analyses every aspect of where the product is to be sold out. The agent does research by traveling abroad, prepares the plan to export the product to another place, gives so much beneficial advice to the exporter about how to adapt the principles of the marketing mix. While going through the report, it was identified that UAE has a free trade agreement with Australia. The Australian company, PharmaCare would have so many advantages because Australia is having a free trade agreement with UAE reduces and eliminates the tariff, and helps Australia to export its product and make the investment to UAE.

References

MGT602 Business Decision Making Process Case Study Sample

Your team is to consider the decision challenges facing the Japanese government and the International Olympic Commission to run the revised 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo in August 2021 in a Covid infection environment.

The team is to look at this specific business issue only that stakeholders face and critically analyse and evaluate alternatives to address that issue. Your team will need to look at the relevant decision-making models that are or may be utilised to address the issue. Your team will need to propose a list of recommendations to address the issue. You must support your research with relevant data and use appropriate visuals to enhance the report.

What do you have to do

Part A.

Group report of business decision making process up to 3,000 words;

• Risk to athletes of Covid infection
• Managing international visitors
• Controlling potential outbreaks
• Protecting the local population from infection
• Should the Games proceed or not, as a part games or full games format.?

Part C. Individual reflective Up to 200-word self-reflection

This assessment has been designed to:

• Apply decision-making systems and techniques in a group
• Interrogate and interpret a range of data analytics pertinent to a relevant contemporary organisational challenge, decision or change of strategy.
• Apply and evaluate those systems and techniques to support effective decision making in organisations.
• Engage as a team to present your findings in a visual, oral and written format that critically evaluates the decision making process in a contemporary organization.

Part A: MGT602 Assessment 2 guidelines 3000-word report.

This assessment draws on learning activities and resources from Modules 1-4. It is designed for you to analyse a corporate case study and the decision-making process using only theories and concepts from Business Decision analytics.

You should consider in researching and preparing your case study report the following:

• The problem detailed by your learning facilitator

• Background to the case

• Collection of relevant internal and external data sources that the organization may have used in the decision-making process

• Identification of the key person or persons making the decision

• Analysis and influence of individuals and group dynamics impact on the decision making

• Analysis of the decision-making process considering all theories and concepts discussed in Modules 1, 2, 3 and 4.

• Visual interpretation and presentation of relevant data / trends/ patterns 

Solution

Part A: Group report

Introduction

The entire report is based on the issue of conduction a revised Olympic in August 2021 in this Covid-19 situation. The commission of the Olympics and the Japanese government tries to resolve these crucial issues. For Assignment Help, The team members of this report try to use some typical theories with the help of which a base can be created that can help anticipate or mitigate the issue. Hence, the submission is all about finding the ways through which the issue of executing Olympic 2021 mitigated and also the health quality of people can be safeguarded typically. Some significant theories used in this report are the rational model that deals with the environment where the issue is privileged and the capability of people to resolve the issue. This rational theory deals with the step-by-step procedure to make a significant decision that can help solve a particular problem.After doing critical analysis on the issue and also after applying the relevant theories, the conclusion arises is that government bodies of Japan need to take the appropriate precautions that can help the athletes of Olympics to safeguard their life, and also the authorities need to aware of people about the execution of the plan that can help people to protect themselves from the adverse effects of Covid-19 impact. The submission is structured in different sections where the first section represents the group report, the second section represents the presentation of the analysis, and lastly, an individual reflection is included in this submission.

Analysis and evaluation

Background of the case

Covid-19 pandemic created a crisis in every sector of human lives from economy to health. The entertainment and sports sector are also hampered due to episodes of lockdown and travel restrictions imposed in different parts of the world. The nature of the novel Coronavirus and its contagious effect has created chaos and compelled to suspend sports activities. In the midst of this pandemic, a crucial decision is taken by the government of Japan and the International Olympic Commission 2021 to conduct Tokyo Olympics 2021 on revised dates of August 2021. Several challenges will be faced as it will enhance the risk of the athletes and the international visitors. The mass gathering may lead to a potential outbreak of the disease, and proper decision making is necessary to ensure the safety of local and international visitors. According to recent updates, the state has declared an emergency, and the Olympics will be held without fans. Tokyo has confirmed 896 new cases that have led to this emergency. Highly transmittable recent Coronavirus variant is the reason for imposing travel restrictions and keeping countries like Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan and Zambia on high alert. Visitors are not following safety measures and not wearing masks that create more issues (Japantimes, 2021).

Identification of key personnel in decision-making

The decision-makers involved in organising Tokyo Olympics are the government of Japan and the International Olympic Committee. The government has decided to conduct the opening ceremony without spectators, and only VIP guests will be allowed in the ceremony. Night events after 9 PM and significant venue events will be held without spectators. Guest lists have decreased in the opening ceremony from 10,000 initially due to a sudden increase in Covid-19 cases (Indiatoday, 2021a). The Japan Government is reluctant about the commencement of the sports as it could jeopardise the health and safety of local people, visitors and the participating athletes. Still, they have a contract with IOC, and only they have the right to cancel the game. Environmental protection and social responsibility have heightened the need for organisations and industries, and it has become one of the essential themes (Kannan, 2018).
Collection of data sources

The data sources regarding the decision are related to the opinion of the employees of IOC and the government of Japan. These are the internal data sources. The external data sources are relayed to newspaper articles, opinion poll according to the survey of common people and health experts across the globe. The decision-making process of the stakeholders in this situation is related to social responsibility as the Covid-19 pandemic can disrupt the health system of the country. The decision-making process is influenced by the data and information available and also prior experience of a situation. Tokyo has been significantly struggling from the new variant where more than 7000 people are daily affected, and seriously ill patients are straining to hospitals in metropolitan areas (Indiatoday, 2021b). However, recently, the emergency measures have been decided to relax as the number of cases is dropping and the situation is under control.Nevertheless, the government decision of holding the Olympics is still constantly being questioned and criticised by health experts and ordinary people. A political agenda behind this decision is considered before the elections, and that is the reason why the government is not backing out of its determination of conducting the event. Japan's vaccination rate is a little more than 8%, and it is an alarming situation as the country is going to host Olympics in recent times (NBCnews, 2021).Almost 70% of the population of Tokyo is against this game, but the government does not have the right to cancel as the responsibility solely lies with IOC officials (Illmer, 2021). Al the above data sources are relevant for the organization to end up in taking a proper decision.

It is vital for the country to increase the vaccination rate for protecting the local population from getting affected when the Olympics starts and foreign people, guests along with athletes, starts to appear in the city. Two dose vaccination of frontline workers is only 75% which indicates that they are likely to fall prey to the dangerous Covid-19 virus (Tsukimori, 2021). These statistics must influence the decision-making process of conducting the Olympics. The government must take necessary actions to increase their vaccination so that they can be ready to welcome the Olympics in 2021. It is the foremost responsibility of the government, and also other supporters and private institutions must come forward in improving the conditions in Tokyo. Machine data sources and file data sources can be used by companies with the help of which the company can make significant decisions. Also, the annual reports, financial reports can be used to make decisions that can help to address a potential issue.

Influence of group dynamics and individuals on decision making

A decision-making process regarding the Olympic games lies in the control of the IOC and the government of Japan involving the other sponsors like several sports brands. The different stages of group dynamics developed by Tuckman are forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. The first stage is the formation of the group when the individuals come together. The next stage is storming, when conflict and uncertainties appear within the team, and the people do not know each other properly in the initial stages. In the norming stage, the conflicts resolve, and the next stage is about the performance of the individuals. The adjournment phase is the final phase when the group task is completed, and the group is redeployed. In the group stage, a decision-making process is possible when the team settles and performs together. Negative behaviour in the workplace affects team performance and hampers group dynamics, and strategies must be used for mediating such effects (Ammentorp& Madden, 2018). The Tuckman theory is also applicable in decision making process of Olympics organization where after conflicting stages, the final decision of conducting the event has taken place (Olofu, Kanu &Ugochigborogu, 2020).

My teammates and I utilised the model mentioned above in order to come to a certain decision that the Olympics should proceed or not in this pandemic situation. Among the 4 members of the group, two members suggested that the Olympics should not be executed this year and the Japanese government should postponed the schedule of the event. However, the other two members stated that the Olympics should be executed with appropriate precautions. This conflict delayed our work to came to a certain result as concerning the voting two people voted for a result, and the other two people voted for another result. Therefore, we have analysed the matter to a greater extent in order to derive a solution or decision. It is found that the political agenda of the government and also the commitment of the IOC officials. A bias regarding Japanese government politics exists in this case. They are not ready for taking off the event; the people and some employees may have conflicting ideas and a struggle about power. Moreover, the final decision of IOC is considered, and the decision was to conduct the Olympics by considering all the security measures. The health condition of athletes and ordinary people must be kept in consideration during the commencement of Olympic events. People entering from several countries may be carriers of the infection, and it is essential that they are tested for the Covid-19 virus before entering the country. Vaccination papers need to be submitted by athletes and foreign travellers for safeguarding the local population. By considering all these aspects, it is finally determined that the Olympics cannot be cancelled as the economic condition is also at stake. Several sponsors and also daily work of labour forces in Japan are involved. Even after dilemmas, conflicting opinions related to safety and security, the event is finally decided to be held without spectators in the venue. Therefore, we come under a certain decision that the Olympic game should not be executed in this year as it can not only harm to the stakeholders of the event but also it can harm the local people of Japan. The Japanese government should consider this matter and postponed the schedule of the game.

Analysis of decision-making process

Decision-making is a theory that defines how a rational individual must behave under the situation of risk and uncertainty. It involves series of activities starting from problem identification, collection of information, define alternatives and select options considering the risks associated and expectations of gain. Decision-making models are divided as rational and intuitive (dual-process approach), and the latter can be further divided into the experience-based and emotional models (Kaufmann, Wagner & Carter, 2017). The different theoretical processes and model that will be discussed for decision-making are the rational model, model of bounded rationality.

The rational model- A rational model has completely informed decision making as described by neoclassical microeconomic theory. The stages or steps of decision making includes intelligence which is to find occasion for decision making, design dealing with planning and analysing the outcomes of a decision. This choice is selecting a particular course of action and review by assessing the past outcomes of the decision.

The model of bounded rationality- Rational individuals believe that all the information must be available, but it is not possible. The concept of bounded rationality is based on two concepts, the task environment and the computational capabilities of the individuals. The problem is divided into a small area so that it becomes feasible to search. The two aspects are searching and satisficing. If one of the searched alternatives satisfies the maximum criteria, it is considered satisfactory. Bounded rationality offers more clarity and circumspect assessment of factors when rational choices are limited (Battaglio et al. 2019). A bounded reality model is most effective where the information must be taken properly, and the solutions need to be considered after evaluating all the options. Olympics is a global event, and a rational decision with a bounded number of choices must be considered. As human s cannot have all the information, they utilise the available resources to make the best possible decision (Simon, 1955).

The problem-solving approach can be practical to secure the foreign as well as a local population from the covid-19 outbreak. A massive gathering due to Covid-19 is possible, which is dangerous for the whole country, and the aim of performing the Olympics is not the main criteria; the decision can be cancelling the event or taking proper measures to stop the spread of the virus and control the excessive spreading due to human interactions and allowing people to enter Tokyo city. Organisational procedures are not relevant at the time of the global pandemic, and also, precedence of cancelling Olympic events is standard during World War. So, a decision to altogether cancelling the events can be possible in this situation.

The decision-making process remains a constant battle between the two or more parties or groups. Sometimes one group wins, and sometimes the other. The difference between opinion and power games constantly continues, and the people are interested in their agendas or perspectives. Societies formed by the principles of subsidiarity can take better political decisions that are justifiably correct. In the view of Akinci & Sadler-Smith(2012) the made decision should be in-line and satisfy the demand of a certain situation.A political power play is visible as the government is not cancelling the event just before the elections. A political view can continue, and a final decision may not be achieved. A more ethical approach is necessary as human lives are concerned. It must focus on the positive outcomes of a larger population and not limited to political agenda and positive results for a limited group of people. IOC must come forward and provide their insight depending on their experiences and taking into consideration the information about present situations of Covid-19. The individual differences consider the difference of opinion and the managing style of the managers, their leadership methods, decision-making process. Every person is different, and they approach the issues differently with decision making. Individual perspectives are not applicable as a collective group decision is essential when a situation like the Olympics is concerned. It is a global event, and the decision making of individual officials is not acceptable. Considering the viewpoint of the population must also be considered when making the decision about conducting the event or altogether cancel it.

The naturalist Decision-making process can be used for addressing national and international, emerging and current societal challenges (Hoffman & Klein, 2017). The decision is taken based on the individual goal the situation can achieve. The decision-maker recognises a course of action through mental stimulation. The naturalistic approach will be more effective when the decision making has a good experience associated with it. Brainstorming and more thinking is related if the problem is not familiar and the decision needs to be taken after thinking a lot and when the decision is complete and acceptable.

The situation concerned here is about the Covid-19 pandemic situation, and much life can be at stake with the decision of the Olympics at Tokyo when some highly transmitting variants are affecting the population. The decision was taken after a bit of stability due to the vast amount of vaccination drives and natural immunity-boosting of the ordinary people and the athletes. However, the situation is again alarming, and the government has again announced that no spectators are allowed in the auditorium for track and field events. (Lootok, 2017). In the case of Research and Development projects, the intuitive model is used in the earlier phases, followed by the political decision-making model and then finally using rational decision making in the last stages of the innovation process (Kolbe, Bossink& de Man, 2020). In the case of decision making related to the Olympics, rational and intuitive decisions can be helpful by analysing the current statistics of the Covid-19 virus across the world and make a proper decision considering the health dynamics of the nation and also economic conditions.

Concerning the outcome, by applying the decision-making models, it can be stated that the Olympics need not occur this year. The various eave of Covid-19 pandemic devastated the lives of multiple people who are not encouraging the authorities of Japan and Olympic to execute the event this year. It will be better for the commission of the Olympic game to execute the event after sometimes when the pandemic situation will be controlled and no other waves of Covid-19 will arise in any nation. Various people who will take part in the game may create problems for the resident of Japan that will not result in any positive aspect for the people in Japan. However, the Japanese government and Olympic commission need to execute a meeting where they can discuss the matter and make a crucial decision that will consider the negative aspect of conducting the game.

Conclusion

As per the above discussion, it can be concluded that the government bodies of Japan need to make crucial decisions for conducting the Olympics safely in the nation. Hence, the findings of this report can be taken into account by the government bodies of Japan and the Olympic commission. The findings can help the authorities to safeguard people life appropriately. The authorities should also consider the models discussed above in order to execute their objective. The group members shared their viewpoints, due to which it is found that in this pandemic, not only the conductors but also the athletes should be taken precautions in order to play their game and achieve the goal properly. Henceforth, the theories should be taken, or the findings of the report should be taken into account with the help of which the issue can be resolved appropriately. Every group member contributes to this report correctly which helps to meet the objectives and also finish the submission on time and showcase the findings. My teammates have contributed critically to the decision-making process, and they also assist me in deriving the epitome of the study. However, we have also faced various contradictory situations that my teammates and I handled critically. We have applied the decision-making models in order to solve the problem also. Lastly, it can be suggested that the Olympics should not be proceeded by the authorities this year as it will not play a positive role for the players as well as local people in Japan.

References

MBA613 Organisational Change and Innovation Case Study Sample

Your Task

Assessment #3 is a case study analysis. The case study is fictional, but your exploration of the case is to have regard to the contemporary business landscape and the concepts explored in the MBA613 subject. The task requires selecting one question to be answered from a choice of three questions offered and using the case study as basis for your considerations. It is your choice as to the question you will answer. If you attempt to answer more than one question, only the first question attempted in your assessment submission will be the answer that will be assessed for the purpose of this assessment.

As you’ve explored in this subject, working with others to consider and analyse potential solutions to contemporary workplace problems gives a greater scope towards developing appropriate solutions. You will be given time in workshops (Week 11-12) to work on your journey towards addressing the assessment. You will undertake this in groups to help give you added perspective for your assessment.

You should focus on seeking to dimensionally understanding the various problems, not immediately consider a question and potential solution, as such may not result in an appropriate demonstration of your understanding and learning. Based on your workshop participation with your group, you will then write and submit an individual report. The research requirement is a minimum of 5 contemporary and appropriate references to support your analysis and answer.

Assessment Instructions

Carefully analyse the Case Study:

‘Implementing organisational transformation in Auzee Engineering Services (AES)’.

The case study can be found on the MBA613 subject Moodle page:

Subject Resources – Supplementary Resources – Assessment 03 Case Study

The URL link is here:

Answer only ONE of the following questions after exploring and analyzing the Case Study:

Question 3

Do managers and employees have roles when implementing organisational change, or is it just a managerial prerogative?

Discuss this question having regard to the case study and at least two theoretical perspectives to justify your answer.

Solution

Question 3

According to the views of Altamony et al., (2016, pp. 690-703), managers and employees of a business organisation play a key role in the successful implementation of the planned organisational changes. The prerogative of the change decision indeed lies in the hand of the managerial position people of a firm, but the fact that the casual level employees and people working as managers of the different department in a firm needs to get involved in the implementation of the changes cannot be denied. For Assignment Help The plans and control system concerned with organisational change management is the function and right of the managerial executives and is termed as a managerial prerogative (Storey, 2014, pp. 55). However, the fact that the changes decided need collective bargaining is not true, since the managerial prerogatives are not bound to the collective success. They can plan and implement the changes themselves with their available managerial capacity for the betterment of the business organisation. Nonetheless, the fact that collective efforts would result in the effective and speedy achievement of the desired result cannot be changed.

Connecting this fact and factors to the case study of Auzee Engineering Services (AES), it is known that the concerned business organisation has been through the disruptive level of changes over the 60 years of its lifecycle to date. The organisational changes in AES have seen a rapid movement that reflected the unpredictable as well as the dynamic business environment the business and its employees works in. As known with the help of the case study, the major factor that AES had to consider while implementing the organisational changes was to ensure that the prosperity, as well as the continued viability of the same, is not affected negatively by any means. This, in turn, required fruitful response from all the connected employees and managers of AES to adopt the large-scale level organisational changes or say the transformation of AES in the past 60 years.

AES has been observed as a global multinational business group working as a regional Australian subsidiary with its headquarters situated in the region of Europe. The company deals with the global supply of engineering technologies as well as services. The business winds changed for AES after FYE 2010 when the company was renowned as one of the largest automotive component suppliers and technology providers to the manufacturing industries of automobiles. The changes in the local and global business trends and falling off trade tariffs as well as the inclusion of newer competition in the market resulted in the need for shift and changes in the company.

AES made a significant amount of changes in its manufacturing units and production system which required the employees to be known and adaptive to the changes and the managers to help the employees understand the need for the changes and how to make the changes with the help of the required training and development programs. Consecutive to these planned changes, AES had to adopt a new business proactive model to be able to develop the changes and explore the niche marketing synergy as well as new product needs.

This further led to how the employees and managers working at AES used to think, interpret and work as well as deliver their efforts to the organisation. In order to comply with the changes and new strategies framed for organisational transformation in AES, the employees, managers and engineers had to enforce a new set of ideas as well as increase their flexibility and performance efforts to be able to adapt to the changes. This depicted that the nature of the work of the employees and the managers at AES had to change with the changes to be implemented.

It has been studied that the changes occurred in the working practices of the employees and the managers, resulted to a significant shift in the working behaviour of the same as well. The employees and engineers had to work in both the domains of application and system work. They were also exposed to the external business clients of AES and had to work within the technical area and the challenges to problem-solving with increased flexibility. The working behaviour of the employees changed to not wait for the work to be delegated to them but they initiated discussions on their own and worked with potential clients for starting new projects.

Based on the systems theory of management it is known that the employees working in a firm are the most important component and asset of the same (Scholz, 2017, pp. 10). This is because to be able to manage the planned changes, a business organisation requires multiple elements for the success of the same. Thus, the systems theory suggests that the interdependence and the relations existing between the organisation and the employees is a crucial factor for the change implementation. Also, the theory suggests that managers are essentially needed for the evaluation of the patterns of changes and events occurring in the business organisation. Both the managers and the employees altogether with the business organisation needs to collaborate for the implementation of collective changes (Slotte et al., 2004). This makes it evident that the organisational changes to be taken over has a huge part for the employees and managers to be performed and work upon the changes for the betterment of the organisation.

Furthermore, the managers were found to be open and broad-minded towards the changes occurring and ensures effective efforts for the business diversification need of AES. New business plans, strategies as well as board meetings were undertaken to be able to work with the changes appropriately. The employees were provided with the needed support and training for the ease of adopting the changes. Also, the change plan was frequently and at the right time communicated to all the connected employees of the concerned business organisation to ensure that no confusion and conflicts occur in the management of the changes and the employees are aware of every transaction and happening of the firm to be able to act upon the same whenever required.

It has also been observed that the managers at AES got involved in continuous programs of improving the working environment and culture for the comfort and feasibility of the employees. For this purpose, the managers ensure to promote a significant level of organisational agility as well as respond effectively to the operational environment needs. The company was trained to be more flexible, the risk-taking ability of the employees was increased as well as the strategic and operational plans were constantly taken care of. The employees were critically relied upon by the organisation to initiate the required changes as well as enact upon the same whenever a need arises for the same. Along with this, the employee had the duty to check up on the feedbacks and acknowledge them to be able to solve any kind of issues that would occur.

Based on the contingency theory of management no singular person working in a business firm or a technique is sufficient enough to involve in successful change management in an organisation (Ford et al., 2021, pp. 101). To be able to ensure successful implementation of planned changes, a business organisation has to employ the transformational kind of leadership wherein the viewpoints and efforts of the employees are taken into consideration for attaining fruitful and desired results. According to the contingency theory of management the human resources, the technology and ideas used as well as the style of managing and leading the firm are highly important to be able to adapt to the required changes (Shenhar et al., 2001, pp. 702). Therefore, the same becomes evident from the business actions undertaken by AES in terms of managers being supportive and open-minded and employees being focused and trained for the organisational transformation.

Concerned to the above study related to the business of AES, it is clearly depicted that the employees, as well as the managers of the same, undertook a major role in the successful implementation of the planned organisational changes. Also, that the changes to be implemented are not the whole and sole of the managerial prerogative is understood as without the efforts put in both by the employees and managers changes cannot be successfully completed in a business firm. This is because the employees and managers are the ones who frame the growth of a business with the help of completing the day-to-day activities and look after any rigorous change to be implemented.

Therefore, the entire study helps in concluding that, for a business organisation to ensure that its planned changes as per the demand of the business situation and market trend are implemented successfully have to consider the efforts of both its employees and managers. This is because without them acting upon the planned change strategies, the result will not be achieved and the activities of the organisation will come to a stop.

References

MBA633 Real-world Business Analytics and Management Case Study Sample

Your Task

Develop a real-world business analytics project plan/proposal based on the learnings from the course.

Assessment Description

This assessment seeks to simulate a real-world task that you may have to undertake. Therefore, the assignment is non-prescriptive and requires you to pose a relevant, creative and significant problem to solve that could result in benefits to the organisation of choice.

In this assessment, you need to consider an organisation in an industry of your choice and articulate the steps needed to enable data driven decision making. The organisation and industry need to be familiar (e.g., where you have worked or are working, a future start-up company), NOT an organisation such as Amazon/Boeing/Qantas etc.

Assessment Instructions

• Week 11

Identify a company and industry you are familiar with that would benefit from Data Analytics.

• Week 12

Draft a preliminary report - You are encouraged to consider the current mode of operation, highlight the possible inefficiencies, and look for available data and how this data may be used to provide efficiencies based on the concepts and techniques covered in the subject.

Your lecturer will advise on the appropriateness of your choice and proposed methodology with regard to the requirements for the assessment.

In addition to the components discussed in your draft, your final report should include the project life cycle, management of the project, ethical considerations and stakeholder management as discussed in course workshops.

Solution

Introduction

Background

The Australian company Telstra offers communication services through its telecommunication system and technology (Telstra 2021). For Assignment Help, The company provides data services to build a future where people feel connected. The report will portray the benefits of data analytics to solve Telstra's possible issues in business. The operational strategy evaluation provides effective techniques to implement modern data analytics in the company's communication system network.

Purpose

The report aims to evaluate the benefit of data analytics to the company Telstra. It will evaluate the technique to solve the issues or possible issues in Telstra's business management. The key metrics identification will help to understand how the data analytics can be used. However, the insufficiencies of the company will be demonstrated for identifying proper techniques for applying data analytics.

Problem-Identified

Telstra operates a communication network using modern technology, which can create various issues for the company's operation management. The company's effective network system is the trust of 18.8 million retail mobile services (Telstra 2021). The modern era of digitalization has led to security issues in IT services. Telstra can be a victim of cyber hacking and data breaching as the company advances itself with information technology networks. Analytical capabilities of data often lack in system infrastructure, which leads to data breaching. However, cyber risk is a vital issue for many organizations that have acquired information technology as their basis of growth (Kopp, Kaffenberger& Wilson 2017).

The company is taken into account as it holds the necessary information in accessible manner, which helps to evaluate in a convenient way. Therefore, I also found the high risk of data theft in the communication network, which the company needs to prevent through proper analytics implementation.

Ethical Consideration

Data privacy and security come under ethical consideration within every organizational structure. Ethics create appropriate policies and standards to protect the data. The company can implement the Data Protection Act for managing vital information within the communication network.

Methodology

The methodology will undertake a specific approach. The identified approach for the research is CRISP methodology. The approach provides a standard framework for the project life cycle where it increases the flexibility and usefulness of the data analytics system, which solves the business issues (Sv-Europe 2021). The analytics techniques provide effective security to software systems. The company Telstra needs to implement a data analytics process in its communication network for promoting proper security.

Figure 1: CRISP Framework
Source : (Licdn 2021)

Business Understanding: The process specifies the business need (Wyzoo 2021). The Telstra company's objective is to provide the largest mobile network and other communication services through digital networking systems (Telstra 2021). In that case, the security of the network is needed for safeguarding the data from unauthorized access.

Data Understanding: Telstra operates mobile communication networks which involve the data of the public. It may be personal information, residential address, finance-related information, or any other vital information. Also, the company provides communication networks to the retail industry through voice services which can involve the information related to organizations and clients.

Data Preparation: The process strengthens the understanding regarding data by creating a data dictionary that ensures that each piece of information should be understandable (Wyzoo 2021). Another process of data preparation is data analytics which helps to create new data points by calculating the existing entries of data. This helps in developing a predictive model for the solution.

Modelling: Proper model development for solutions is necessary to solve the cyber risk issue in Telstra company. The company can implement a machine learning process for managing the system performance, and it will also help gain an insight into the risk management strategy.

Evaluation: After the identification of a specific model, it is important to evaluate the test results. It will help the company to understand whether the data analytics tool is appropriate for the problem or not. Evaluation of results determines the success criteria (Albert, Balve& Spang2017). This process can be undertaken through specific stakeholders of the company who will evaluate the potentiality of the data analytics technique to solve the cyber risk issue.

Deployment: Through monitoring and observation of the process, a proper deployment method can be developed. It will help to understand the proper result evaluation process.

Challenges and Limitations

Facilitate a project regarding risk management through data analytics can create practical challenges. The project needs a proper budget. As the data analytical tools require a high budget for implementation, the project team can face significant challenges. However, time can be a limitation as a pre-determined framework of time for projects often limits the potential result of the project. In the approach CRISP method, there are several problems like mindless rework, lack of clarity, failure to integrate, and blind hand-offs to IT (Taylor 2017). In the case of the decision-making process for proper modelling of analytics tools or techniques to solve problems, the CRISP method can create challenges for the team.

Benefits and Consequences

Proper implementation of data analytics techniques in the communication network system of Telstra will help to analyze network traffic to detect threats. Data analytics tools or techniques will benefit the company in cybersecurity development by monitoring user behaviour and finding suspicious behaviour. Data analytics security can detect the insider threat and investigate the cloud traffic for managing the potential attack (Forcepoint 2021). Not only that, the implementation of a data analytics tool will help the company to identify the accounts which may have been compromised. This will benefit the company to increase flexibility in the communication network and create a secure and trustworthy network. Improvement in User experience will increase a company's reputation. The CRISP method will also benefit the company to implement a long-term security management strategy which will lead the project team to focus upon a specific goal for risk management.

Management of the Project

The Agile methodology will help the project to be accomplished within a limited timeframe. It will increase the speed of the project by breaking the entire task of the project into several small goals. The Agile method divides the entire task of project management into short iterations (Rasnacis&Berzisa 2017). Scrum is the agile project management method that includes small teams, which are led by the scrum master who helps to remove obstacles for getting the work done. Another method of project management is Prince 2, which controls the entire project by managing the possible risks inherent in the process (Slate 2019).
On the other hand, the PMBOK method of project management ensures the standard guidelines and best practices for managing the project. The outcomes are derived through specific stages in the PMBOK method. It is the traditional process of project management. Hence it lacks the feasibility like the modern Project management methods. For Telstra, the Agile (Scrum) project management method will be effective as it will help minimize the project workload by dividing the entire project into several small iterations.

Key Stakeholders

The owner of the company will create a specific strategy for managing the risk in the network through engaging in project planning. The investors and shareholders of the company will help the project team by providing project expenditure. However, the project team will actively engage in developing a proper data analytics technique for solving the cyber risk issue. The employees are other stakeholders who will be given enough knowledge and training to manage the new system for risk identification and management.

Budget

The project will cost approximately $120,000, and the data analytics tool implementation can approximately cost $80,000.

Schedule

The project will be completed within 45days, where the task will be divided into several sprints.

Data

The specific data will be driven from secondary resources like scholarly articles and journals. The company website will also be used to gather the data. Specific information regarding the data implementation technique will be collected from the system testing method.

Quality of Data

The data will be sourced from reliable websites like company websites and other authentic sources. The data gathered from scholarly sources will justify the quality of the data. Moreover, reliable sources like scholarly articles, journals, and books will make the data more authentic.

Data Preparation

For the process of data preparation, two methods will be selected, such as data dictionary and data analytics. The data dictionary process will help to divide the information into specific segments. It may include mailing data, purchasing data, and communication data. The second process, data analytics, will help to specify the information like mailing addresses and gender information. In this process, the data points will be created.
Data Analysis

The process of data analysis will include several perspectives of security measures. For risk management, the key risk metrics will help to measure the potentiality of risk. 47% ransomware infection gripped the system network where the loss of data was 60% (Appendix 2). The security metrics help to measure the risk for promoting proper work flexibility in the system network so that business can be improved and business objectives can be achieved (Lakshmi 2019). The security cost in leased facilities is needed to be reduced by 10%, while the guard force overtime is required to reduce 20% (Appendix 1). However, the safety hazards have decreased up to 20% from the past cycle. The rate of unsecured data needs to be minimized as it has exceeded the past cycle, and the system is prone to high risk in this case.

Visualization

Figure 2: Notable Risk Exposures Mitigated by Inspection Activities & Operational Readiness Reviews
Source : (Securityexecutivecouncil 2021a)

The rate of AMS operation ineffectiveness and the safety hazards have decreased significantly. But the export control is more insecure than in the past cycle.

Figure 3: Security Metrics for Success
Source : (Securityinfowatch 2021)

The evaluation of success metrics demonstrates that the security risk appetite performance has exceeded the determined objective. On the contrary, business ownership of security risks and controls is significantly lower than its objective.

Key Metrics

Table 1: Key Risk metrics
Source : (Developed by the author)

Design for the system

Risk management systems will be developed within the communication network of the company. A specific user interface design will be developed for system management. The users will input proper credentials into the system while taking service from the company, and they have to register within the system to become authorized users. The system will identify the credentials and data of authentic users while entering into the device. The data analytics tool will be implemented within the system, which will restrict access to unauthorized users. The tool will detect potential threats through the system.

Conclusion

The report demonstrated the risk management process in the communication network of Telstra company through implementing data analytics techniques. The methodology highlighted the CRISP approach for the project life cycle, where the project management will be done through the agile scrum method. The challenges and benefits of the project and the specified approach have been discussed for understanding the need of the stakeholders for project management. However, the data analysis and visualization have portrayed the necessity of risk management through identifying several key risk metrics. The design of the system will help the company to manage the cyber risks in the network.

Recommendations

• The company needs to implement a data analytics tool to manage the possible risks in a communication network.
• Artificial intelligence and blockchain technology are effective security providers to data.
• The company needs to analyze the cost of data analytics tool implementation.
• The stakeholders need to evaluate the key risk metrics for measuring the potentiality of risks.
• Proper system design is needed to restrict the third party's interference. 

References

MBA5007 Managing Strategy and Innovation Case Study 2 Sample

Assessment 2 - Case Study Development – Strategic Plan

Task:

You must write a Case Study Report about a production based company discussing the strategic plan of an organisation. This should draw on learning from Modules C and E (Chapter 5, 6, 9, 10) of this subject. Furthermore, key terms and concepts should be defi ned wherever possible. Be analytical within your report and examine key terms and theoretical relationships in depth.

The Case Study report should be written in appropriate business language so that your analysis and discussion have an objective tone. Your writing should be clear and concise and be in your own words. Use headings to guide the reader and include tables or diagrams that make the case clearer.

Aim:

To present a case study based on the selected organisation’s current business strategy and the recommended strategy. The Case Study report must be in the range of 1,500-2,500 words in length excluding references. The referencing style must follow the APA referencing style.

In a case study report, include following:

› 1. Introduce the case study, including the background.

› 2. Describe the purpose and the background of the study and the specific questions you are addressing.

› 3. Discuss the possible competitive strategy options focusing on the strategic planning activity of the chosen enterprise.

› 4. Understand and be able to research the impact that strategic planning has on organisations and the consequent changes that have occurred to the role of business managers.

› 5. Explain the signifi cance of the study and what can be learnt from it.

› 6. Note that a case study is a study of a situation, so you must not generalise the results to all other situations. That means your report should focus on what can be learnt about that particular situation and the individuals involved.

› 7. Recommendations that provide proposals for future action to solve the problem or improve the situation. Each company typically seeks to enhance its performance and build competitive advantage via its own custom- tailored competitive strategy based on more attractive pricing, greater advertising, a wider selection of models, You must demonstrate what type of competitive strategy options the selected organisation has decided to em- ploy, e.g. low-cost leadership, differentiation, best-cost provider, focused low-cost, and focused differentiation— to pursue competitive advantage and good company performance.

Solution

1. Introduction

Online grocery shopping is beneficial for customers. Online grocery or fresh food services companies have achieved popularity in recent days. For Assignment Help, Several companies can flourish their business growth with the help of online grocery shopping. Therefore, the venture AmazonFresh by Amazon inc. is trying to provide the home delivery of grocery due to recent pandemic situations amidst Covid-19 situations, people need to maintain distance. By this, they can easily bring or collect their essential grocery items online. This will help to save their time and money. Online grocery shopping will help customers to prevent impulsive shopping. They can easily buy their products online which will help customers to track the exact amount which they spend on grocery items. With a couple of clicks, the customer easily grabs all the essential products on their doorsteps. This report will be discussed about the online grocery services of the well-known company Amazon. Amazon has expanded its area of the network in grocery and included perishable items in it (Polacco& Backes, 2018). For this change, Amazon has revised and added significant changes in its distribution and warehousing model.

Background of The Study

Amazon launched its online grocery services in the year 2007. The name of this online grocery service is AmazonFresh. AmazonFresh got success on a national scale in a short period. AmazonFresh has to face numerous challenges to get success. Before AmazonFresh started their business there were countless competitors available in the market. Grocery refers to the largest retail sector with a 2010 revenue of $600 billion (Cdn.fbsbx.com, 2021). Consumers shopped for grocery items online 2.2 times per week. AmazonFresh develops partnerships with local merchants to get fresh items for their customers. They serve several delivery options for their customers. AmazonFresh also created its tagline 'ConvenienceDelivered' to promote convenience over price to draw the attention of the customers in the year 2009 (Cdn.fbsbx.com, 2021). In the process of selling their grocery items to the customers, they face several problems which have to be mitigated to better the business growth of the company. Amazon has expanded its area of the network in grocery and included perishable items in it. For this change, Amazon has revised and added significant changes in its distribution and warehousing model. There are numerous competitors available such as Safeway, Wal-Mart, and Stop & Shop which will be a great threat for AmazonFresh.

2. Purpose and Research question

Purpose of this project to identify the competitive strategies of the company named AmazonFresh. This project will be discussed about the impact of the strategic plan of the company. The other purpose of the research question is to understand the challenges of the company to mitigate all the issues to better the growth of the company. Amazon has expanded its area of the network in grocery and included perishable items in it. For this change, Amazon has revised and added significant changes in its distribution and warehousing model.

Research Question

What are the competitive strategies of the company AmazonFresh?
What is the impact of the strategic plan of the company AmazonFresh?
What is the significance of the case study?
What are the learning outcomes of the company?
What are the recommendations for the company to mitigate all the problems?

3. Competitive strategy

Amazon, which is a well-known or famous retail company worldwide, was launched to sell books. But in the year 2007, the company introduced their new online grocery services named AmazonFresh. There are numerous competitors of AmazonFresh such as Safeway, Wal-Mart, and Stop & Shop which will be a great threat for AmazonFresh. Amazon becomes a common name carrying major significance in the online retail business. However, Amazon has overcome all of its market entry barriers through drawing strategic plans. The first barrier to the business was the freshness of the products. Here the AmazonFresh company uses 'Focus Strategy’ to sustain itself in this competitive and globalised world (Etumnu&Widmar, 2020). The other retail company faces several problems regarding their products and delivering the products in a short period. By this, the AmazonFresh company uses Focus Strategy. Focus strategy will help to match market attributes with the company's competitive advantages. As evaluated by Galea & Walton (2017), quality is important to sustain in the competitive and globalized world. This strategy helps the company to focus on its products, revenue, and profit. By this, the company focuses on giving fresh products to the customers (Phillips-Connolly & Connolly, 2017). Customers prefer good quality products in a short time. By this, the company serves high-quality fresh grocery and perishable items to their customers. AmazonFresh gives its products to their customers on their doorsteps. This helps the company to grab the attention of the customers. Customer service is highly focused by the retail online companies. With a couple of clicks, the customer easily grabs all the essential products on their doorsteps. AmazonFresh provides a unique facility to its customers (Easter & Dave, 2017). The customers can select the timing for delivering their products to them at their doorsteps. This will enhance the competitive strategy of the company. Customers are the most important key to sustain in the competitive and globalised world. The AmazonFresh company took care of the customer satisfaction segment by creating a feedback section. The customers easily share their reviews with the company which will enhance customer satisfaction.

4. Impact of The Strategic Plan

Amazon started its career as a business by selling books. Gradually, it further moved to grocery sales. Today Amazon becomes a common name carrying the major significance of online retail business. However, Amazon has overcome all of its market entry barriers by drawing a strategic plan. As assessed by Robischon (2017), the first barrier to the business was the freshness of the products. Earlier, E-commerce businesses have majorly relied on FedEx and other delivery options to ensure the freshness of grocery and other food items. Webvan, a grocery selling online platform, has collapsed in the US market in the beginning for not having a proper business model (Galea & Walton, 2017). Different experts in this field also have voiced their opinion about the business model because many companies failed just because of not having it. Amazon has expanded its area of the network in grocery and included perishable items in it. For this change, Amazon has revised and added significant changes in its distribution and warehousing model. On the other hand, Amazon before launching “AmazonFresh” had conducted the beta test with the help of Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, to monitor customers' experience in the website. A dedicated website and “bucket” have been proposed as a technical change in the business apart from supply chain management.

The focus of AmazonFresh was to deliver the items as quickly as possible to bypass the competitiveness of the industry. As reviewed by Kang et al. (2016), to promote goodwill, Amazon has distributed free samples along with delivery initially. To provide fresh items, Amazon is also agreeing with local businessmen and merchants. For instance, fresh fish from the neighbouring Pike Place Market is distributed across Seattle within a few hours (Polacco& Backes, 2018). This has also increased the reliability of customers and added more competitive advantages to the company. Delivery options were increased as the customer can order any items at any time without any complication. As assessed by Lamas & Liang (2016), the company has planned its "Tight Sleep” service for the late orders where groceries are getting delivered at midnight. This wide range of delivery options has fetched nearly USD 5.2 billion in profit to Amazon during the peak time of the Covid-19 pandemic (Geekwire.com, 2021). The company modified the warehouse plan as it has seen many businesses in the industry have failed for not maintaining the warehouse properly. Amazon strategically re-built the distribution channels and created ample space for perishable items. The scheduling system has also been modernised and reliance on the third-party provider has been minimised gradually. The strategic plan has helped the company to establish its feet in the industry efficiently.

5. Significance of The Case Study

The case study of AmazonFresh has provided a significant journey from selling books to becoming one of the world's largest E-commerce. The case study has shown different aspects of Amazon from different perspectives. For instance, the company was facing a challenge for extending its sphere in the grocery market. However, later on, the leadership in Amazon has curbed the issue by adopting a strategic plan for the business establishment. The significance of the case study can be analysed from different perspectives. In the supply chain system, Amazon has started selling perishable items since 2007 and it has been widely adopted by the customers as well because the company delivers only fresh and quality items (Lingyu, Lauren &Zhijie, 2019). Initially, the company rented cars and refrigerators from third-party businesses. Later on, it has purchased the essential equipment to avoid delays in supply. The company is one of the earliest companies that introduced one-day delivery.

In the delivery of items, Amazon only delivers fresh items from the local market by not degrading the quality at all. Added to that, Amazon offers several options for delivery of packages including "pick and drop" services. Most interestingly, the company also launched an initiative namely "tight sleep" for those customers who need fresh groceries early in the morning. Thus, it can be said that the company has adopted very unique and different strategies to make itself successful in this e-commerce business. In technology, the company has dedicated a separate website for AmazonFreshand tracked its traffic rate regularly (Etumnu&Widmar, 2020). It was recognised that the new website lacks reviews related to products and thus the leadership of AmazonFresh has decided to include this aspect quickly in the platform. In leadership, the company has performed great because of its leadership only. The company majorly focused on digital technology for growth.

Thus, this case study has almost detailed each aspect of a business in a broad framework. From the case study, the aspects of supply chain management, delivery, leadership, digital technology and other aspects also.

6. Learning Outcomes

The online grocery selling market of the United States is quite big and AmazonFresh has successfully occupied its place in it through its elaborated strategic plan. The growth rate of AmazonFresh in the United Kingdom stood nearly 76.2 per cent in the year 2020 (Theguardian.com, 2021). The company has fetched positive growth amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The company has started from scratch where it has seen the major failure of Webvan, an online retailer, and learned a different perspective from this lesson. The company majorly focuses on competitive strategies and introduced an extensive digital platform as per the customers' convenience. Amazon has taken a focus strategy to improve the quality of its products and introduced new benefits for the customers through this strategy. The company has increased its minimum size of order and offered "prime membership" on the other to waive the additional charges (Bongard, 2017). This has proved a success factor to the company because it flows regular profit to the company.

Comparison between AmazonFresh and Their Rivals

1. How does the mean wholesale cost of AmazonFresh for retailers contrast with the estimated spending per industry for wholesalers?

- The mean wholesale cost of AmazonFresh for retailers can be determined as the success of Amazon Fresh could rest in the counting of its operations. Brick and mortar food businesses consist mostly of fixed expenses, however, AmazonFresh is trying to provide promotional offers in order to gain the market share. The aim is to achieve a little increase in the narrow gross sales margins to profitability, considerably more than operating expenses (rentals, utilities, shop workers). The cost is largely changeable in comparison with online foodstuffs. Therefore more purchases, the more pickup, packaging, transportation and shipping the firm must pay. Hence, profitability has few possibilities (Lingyu, Lauren &Zhijie, 2019).

2. How does every quality of the product contrast broad effectiveness/excellence to the sector?

- On the other hand, though, there are more — preferably more — items to load the shipment. Hence, Amazon Fresh begins to seem smart here. The firm has a distinct supply chain set up than its competitors such as Big Basket and Grofers. Additional participants often transfer orders to shops that choose either in conjunction with and even as business segments of supermarket local companies delivering from the supermarket shelves directly on customers doors. Amazon Fresh employs rehabilitation centres outside city centres. This offers Amazon offering approximately 500,000 non-consumable products for shipping with AmazonFresh to enhance the standard offer assortment (Etumnu&Widmar, 2020).

3. How does AmazonFresh's weekly sales effort count towards the local average amount of weekly incentives for each province?

- Calling for sales is not what they have been formerly for AmazonFresh before the Pandemic situation. Firstly, because of the accessibility of online and in-person platforms, sales employees deal with clients who are equipped with masses of previous studies. Contemporary salespeople meet more individuals and are supposed to market new sorts of complicated digital items. They must influence consumer groups. The typical purchasing cycle is therefore lengthier, such that consumer demand is tougher to foresee and used for objectives (The Guardian, 2021).

4. How can we assess the extent of each AmazonFresh's retail reductions to the average residual discounted throughout advertising campaigns?

- Many organisations have undertaken key modifications, such as the development of a new online platform, Similar steps were taken by the venture of AmazonFresh. Hence, the inclusion of specialist jobs and the implementation of team sales to develop in this changed and competitive market climate. However, it is nevertheless important to disregard this shift. Taking the current difficulties fully into account requires developing new, deliberate models of remuneration that clearly motivate a sales staff to keep selling efficiently. Salesmen need not be taught what to perform; they ought to be convinced of conducts that complement the marketing approach of a corporation (Robischon, 2017).

5. How do the annual spending of individual companies relate to the area average spending on marketing?

- The combination of incentives, quotas, wages and business unit incentives may be a driving factor for growth. Intelligent modifications of pay models showed a 50% larger sales effectiveness than adjustments in advertising spending. The perception of the company through various engagements and several conversations with the marketing professionals demonstrate that the functional requirements are necessary to redesign sales pay models and to assist sales organisations in responding effectively to some of the most important concerns presently (The Guardian, 2021).

7. Recommendation

The company AmazonFresh faces several problems as they launched their online services in a competitive market. By this, the company has to know the exact knowledge about market growth. Without knowing about the market growth the company cannot improve its quality of work. The company should know about their competitors' market policies and market growth to better sustain in this competitive and globalised world. The company has to make a good relationship with other companies to know their strategic plan.

On other hand, it is discussed that the Amazon company was not good at all in their technology. They create another website for AmazonFresh which creates a problematic and complicated situation for the customers. The company has dedicated a separate website for AmazonFresh and tracked its traffic rate regularly. It was recognised that the new website lacks reviews related to products and thus the leadership of AmazonFresh has decided to include this aspect quickly in the platform. The company has performed great because of its leadership only. The company majorly focused on digital technology for growth. By this, the company has to take good care of their technological error. They also have to create a single website for them. By this, the customer easily shops their essential items through the main website.

8. Conclusion

The case study report highlights the business of AmazonFresh and discusses it elaborately. In the report, the sections are allotted to explain the key insight about the company and its business extensively. Amazon has successfully operated in the field of e-commerce from the beginning because of its wide competitive strategies. Thus, the element of competitive strategy that the company has gained through its journey is elaborated in this report. The learning outcome of this case study is also attached in the bottom section of the report. Finally, the report ends with some suitable recommendations that the company may follow for its future ventures.

References

MBA5008 Business Research Methods Report 3 Sample

Case Study Report

Introduction

The student will be asked to write a research-based project building on their annotated bibliography in Assessment Task 1, articulating a research problem / issue / question, discussing a thorough literature review, analysis and discussion of the various issues identified from the literature review, using different perspectives and coming up with conclusions, solutions, and recommendations.

Task

Students are to work on a selected research problem/question, conduct a narrative literature review, and prepare a research report.Students are to work on a selected research problem/question, conduct a narrative literature review, and prepare a research report.

Aim

The primary aim of this assessment is for you to understand the research process and get familiar with conducting a literature review, exploring relevant theories, methods, and concepts. The secondary aim of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to enhance your research skills, critical thinking, theoretical applications and report writing skills.

How to write a research report step by step:

To start with your research report, you need to be clear on below questions.

ï What is the aim?

ï What is the topic? (A topic may be given by your lecturer, or you can make your own choice in consultation with your lecturer, this process needs to be determined through Assessment 1)

ï What is the expected research report format?

Use proper in-text referencing as well as list of references. The referencing style must follow the APA referencing style.

Solution

Introduction

The restaurant and hotel business, as well as catering services and food manufacturing, are just a few examples of the diverse and dynamic industries that make up the food and hospitality sector. For Assignment Help, In this industry, motivation is essential since it has a direct bearing on service quality, client contentment, and the general prosperity of firms operating there. Employees must retain their motivation to deliver great service, uphold strict standards of cleanliness and hygiene, and adapt to shifting consumer trends and preferences in this fast-paced and customer-focused industry (Sthapit et al., 2023). The pursuit of personal and professional advancement, financial incentives, a love of the culinary arts, a desire to produce exceptional guest experiences and other considerations can all serve as sources of inspiration. For the food and hospitality sector to continue to develop and evolve while providing consumers with the finest experiences, it is imperative that management and front-line personnel can be inspired and engaged. In the culinary industry, chefs and cooks frequently find inspiration in the artistic preparation of food, the pleasure of trying new things, and the joy of making clients happy with their creations.

A strong motivator is the satisfaction that comes from making sure that clients feel welcomed, pampered, and happy. Positive evaluations from visitors may improve this pleasure even more, and word-of-mouth advertising boosts the success of businesses. Another crucial component of motivation in the food and hospitality sector is the goal of personal and professional progress. Workers in this industry frequently value the chance for skill improvement, job promotion, and exposure to various cultures and cuisines. Motivated employees are more inclined to look for training opportunities, attend seminars, and partake in industry events to keep current on the newest trends and approaches, helping to enhance their workplaces continuously (Abdelhamied et al., 2023). In addition, financial incentives like tips, bonuses, and the prospect of profit-sharing in managerial positions can have a big impact on employee motivation in the food and hospitality sector. The prospect of material gain can strengthen work ethics and dedication while luring brilliant people into the field.

Aim

This study's objective is to learn more about and comprehend the dynamics of motivation in the food and hospitality industries. It aims to investigate the numerous motivating elements that affect management and personnel in this business and evaluate how these aspects affect the sector's success, level of customer satisfaction, and quality of service.

Objectives

• To determine and classify the main motivators that influence management and personnel in the sector.

• To determine how customer satisfaction, job advancement, and a love of the culinary arts affect staff motivation.

• To research the connection between pay incentives and employee happiness and performance

Methods

Categorize the primary motivational factors driving employees and management in the industry.

In the words of Idriz et al. (2023), Extrinsic and intrinsic motivational variables may be roughly categorised as what drives managers and staff alike in the food and hospitality sector. Genuine love for the culinary arts and a desire to provide outstanding guest experiences are examples of intrinsic motivators. Employees who are driven by the culinary arts and the joy of satisfying consumers typically have strong work ethics (Ramanathan et al., 2023). Their passion is maintained by the sense of accomplishment they gain from their job and the ongoing search for culinary innovation. The acknowledgment and admiration from colleagues and customers also frequently fuels the inherent urge to succeed in this business. Extrinsic motivators, on the other hand, include monetary rewards like tips, bonuses, and the possibility of profit-sharing in management positions.

These rewards have a big influence on employees' prospective earnings, which helps to motivate them. Employees in the quick-paced, customer-focused food and hospitality industry value the financial benefits that come with providing outstanding service. These rewards encourage employees to give exceptional customer service and also entice smart people to work in the field since they may potentially make money from it. The food and hospitality sector is therefore motivated by a combination of inner and extrinsic reasons, which improves the quality of services provided, employee happiness, and overall corporate performance.

In what ways customer satisfaction, job advancement, and a love of the culinary arts affect staff motivation

Within the food and hospitality industries, employee motivation is influenced by a variety of interrelated factors, including work growth, a passion for the culinary arts, and customer pleasure. In the beginning, employee motivation is greatly influenced by customer happiness. According to Schrobback et al. (2023), a feeling of purpose and success is frequently instilled in employees when they see the direct results of their efforts on the satisfaction and pleasure of visitors. Opportunities for career progression are a key motivator. The possibility of climbing the professional ladder is a powerful motivation in a field where career advancement and development are highly valued. Because they regard their current positions as stepping stones towards their professional ambitions, employees who perceive a clear route for promotion are more likely to be driven to achieve in them (Kalenjuk et al., 2023). The prospect of promotions, more responsibility, and greater compensation can motivate employees to keep developing their abilities, taking on new tasks, and proving their commitment to the position. A passion for the culinary arts, especially among chefs and cooks, is crucial for employee motivation. Food and the culinary arts are strong passions for many who find inner inspiration in their everyday job.

Connection between pay incentives and employee happiness and performance

A difficult and important part of human resource management in a variety of businesses, including the food and hospitality industry, is the relationship between pay incentives and employee satisfaction and performance. Bonuses, commissions, profit-sharing, and gratuities are examples of pay incentives that directly affect employees' performance and happiness. Financial incentives, first and foremost, frequently result in happier employees. Receiving compensation for one's efforts and devotion not only validates one's efforts but also increases one's level of job satisfaction (Sreen et al., 2023). A sense of justice and recognition may be fostered by the possibility of earning more through incentives, which in turn raises morale and drive.

The food and hospitality business, where many employees rely on gratuities as a large portion of their salary, is one sector where this enhanced contentment is particularly noticeable. They have a strong motivation to deliver outstanding service since gratuities are directly correlated with their performance.
In the words of Kalargyrou et al. (2023), This frequently translates into better customer service, quicker reaction times, and a higher degree of attention to detail in the food and hospitality industries. Employees are inspired to continuously do their best work when they can perceive a clear connection between their efforts and cash benefits. To maximise employee satisfaction and performance, a well-designed compensation and incentive system that accounts for both monetary rewards and other non-monetary aspects like recognition is essential.

Results

Discussion

The success and calibre of service within this dynamic profession are greatly influenced by motivation, which is a varied and crucial factor. The exploration of this subject shows several important concerns and insights. The primary factor influencing staff performance in this sector is intrinsic motivation, which derives from a sincere passion of the culinary arts and a desire to provide great visitor experiences (Chang et al., 2023). Passionate chefs, cooks, and front-line employees frequently exhibit higher levels of dedication, creativity, and engagement. This inner incentive acts as a constant source of inspiration, encouraging an innovative and excellent culture and raising the level of service.

Extrinsic motivators, in particular monetary rewards like tips, bonuses, and profit-sharing, also have a significant impact on performance and job satisfaction. In addition to rewarding great service, these incentives help the business recruit and keep talent. When workers can directly link their work to financial benefit, they are inspired to constantly outperform in their positions, which improves both the general customer experience and the company's profitability. The influence of motivation also affects prospects for professional advancement. Within the industry, the possibility of career progression, skill improvement, and more responsibility is a strong motivation.

Additionally, the food and hospitality industries' motivation directly affects customers' levels of satisfaction (Alnasser et al., 2023). Employee motivation increases the likelihood that they will deliver outstanding service, creating memorable visitor experiences. Positive customer reviews provide as more evidence of the intrinsic motivation of employees and demonstrate the close relationship between employee motivation and overall business performance.

Conclusion

In summary, motivation is a major factor in the food and hospitality industries, affecting both worker productivity and client happiness. Approaches to employee recognition and remuneration that is well-balanced and takes into account both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators are crucial. The continued success and progress of the sector depend on comprehending and using these motivating elements.

References