Managing the Technology-Driven Workplace

The shift to the learning organization  goes hand-in-hand with the current transition to a technology-driven workplace. The physical world that Frederick Taylor and other propo- nents of scientific  management measured determines less and less of what is valued in or- ganizations and society. Our lives and organizations  have been engulfed by information technology. Ideas,

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Management and Organization

A historical  perspective on management provides a context or environment in which to in- terpret current opportunities and problems. Studying history, however, doesn’t mean merely arranging events in chronological order. It means developing an understanding  of the impact of societal forces on organizations. Studying history is a way to achieve strategic thinking, see the

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The External Environment

The tremendous and far-reaching  changes occurring  in today’s world can be understood by defining and examining components of  the external environment.  The external organizational environment includes all elements existing outside the boundary of the organization that have the potential  to affect the organization.5 The environment includes competitors,  resources, technology, and economic conditions that influence

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The Organization–Environment Relationship

Why do organizations  care so much about factors in the external environment? The reason is that the environment  creates uncertainty  for organization  managers, and they must respond by designing the organization to adapt to the environment. 1. ENVIRONMENTAL  UNCERTAINTY To  be  effective,  organizations   must manage environmental   uncertainty. Uncertainty means that managers do not have

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The Internal Environment: Corporate Culture

The internal environment within which  managers work includes corporate culture, pro- duction technology, organization structure, and physical facilities. Of these, corporate culture  surfaces as extremely  important to competitive  advantage. The internal culture must fit the needs of the external environment  and company strategy. With  this fit, highly committed  employees create a high-performance  organization  that

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Environment and Culture

A big influence on internal corporate culture is the external environment. Cultures can vary widely  across organizations; however, organizations within the same industry  often reveal similar  cultural  characteristics  because they are operating  in similar environments.49 The internal culture should embody what it takes to succeed in the environment. If the external environment requires extraordinary

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Shaping Corporate Culture for Innovative Response

Research conducted by a Stanford  University  professor indicates that the one factor that increases a company’s value the most is people and how they are treated.57  In addition, sur- veys found  that CEOs cite organizational culture as their most important mechanism for attracting, motivating, and retaining  talented  employees, a capability  they consider the single

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A Borderless World

Why do companies such as Dell, FedEx, and eBay want to pursue a global  strat- egy, despite difficulties, failures, and losses? They recognize that business is becoming a unified,  global field as trade barriers fall, communication becomes faster and cheaper, and consumer tastes in everything from clothing to cellular phones converge. Thomas Middelhoff of

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Getting Started Internationally

Organizations   have a  couple of ways  to become  involved internationally. One is to seek cheaper  sources  of materials or labor offshore, which is called  offshoring or global outsourcing. Another  way is to develop markets for finished products outside their home countries, which may include exporting, licensing, and direct investing. These market entry strategies represent

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The International Business Environment

International management is defined  as the management of business operations con- ducted in more than one country.  The fundamental  tasks of business management,  includ- ing financing, production, and distribution of products  and services, do not change in any substantive way when a firm is transacting business across international borders. The basic management functions  of

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The Economic Environment

The economic environment  represents the economic conditions in the country where the international organization operates. This part of the environment  includes factors such as economic  development,  infrastructure,   resource and product markets, and exchange rates, each of which is discussed next. In addition,  factors such as inflation, interest rates, and economic growth are part of

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The Sociocultural Environment

A nation’s  culture  encompasses the shared knowledge,  beliefs, and values, as well as the common modes of behavior and ways of thinking, among members of a society.  Cultural factors  can be more perplexing than political and economic factors. When working or living in a foreign  country,  cultural  clashes can emerge in some unusual ways.

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International Trade Alliances

One of the most visible changes in the international business environment in recent years has been the development of regional trading alliances and international  trade agreements. These developments are significantly  shaping global trade. 1. GATT  AND THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT),  signed by 23 nations in 1947,

Managing in a Global Environment

Managers working in foreign countries often face tremendous personal difficulties. In addi- tion, they must be sensitive to cultural subtleties and understand that the ways to provide proper leadership, decision making, motivation,  and control vary in different cultures. A clue to the complexity of working internationally  comes from a study  of the factors that

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What Is Managerial Ethics?

Ethics is difficult to define in a precise way. In a gen- eral sense, ethics is the code of moral principles and values that governs the behaviors  of a person or group with respect to what is right or wrong. Ethics sets standards  as to what is good or bad in conduct and decision

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Criteria for Ethical Decision Making

Most ethical dilemmas  involve a conflict between the needs of the part and of the whole—the individual versus the organization or the organization versus society  as a whole.  For example, should  a company implement mandatory alcohol and drug testing for employees, which might benefit the organization as a whole but reduce the individual freedom

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Factors Affecting Ethical Choices

When managers are accused of lying, cheating, or stealing, the blame is usually is placed on the individual or on the company situation. Most people believe that individuals  make eth- ical choices because of individual integrity, which is true, but it is not the whole story. Ethi- cal or unethical  business practices usually reflect

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What Is Social Responsibility?

Now let’s turn to the issue of social responsibility. In one sense, the concept of social re- sponsibility, like ethics, is easy to understand: It means distinguishing  right from wrong and doing right. It means being a good corporate citizen. The formal definition of corpo- rate social responsibility is management’s obligation  to make choices

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Organizational Stakeholders

One reason for the difficulty in understanding corporate social responsibility is that man- agers must confront  the question, “Responsibility to whom?” Recall from Chapter 3 that the organization’s environment  consists of several sectors in both the task and general environment. From a social responsibility  perspective, enlightened  organizations view the internal and external environment as

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The Ethic of Sustainability and the Natural Environment

When the first Earth Day celebration was held in 1970, most managers con- sidered environmentalists  to be  an ex- tremist fringe group and felt little need to respond to environmental concerns.39 Today environmental   issues have be- come a hot topic  among business leaders, and managers  and organizations  in all industries  are jumping on the

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