Conflict between Family Firms Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Conflict between Family Firms - Essay Example 1985). The founders tend to manage and supervise dissent, allowing very little contribution from others in the decision making process (Dyer 1986). It is this tension among family business partners and unequal business partners that leads to conflict. When one partner believes he/she had the lead position in forming the roots of the business, he/she may anticipate more of his/her time to be allocated to the job role. "Family businesses are unique institutions in the socioeconomic environment of the United States. Family businesses, whether large or small, are characterized by having the founder or a family member as president or chief executive officer, members of the founder's family employed by the company, and managers defining their firm as a family business." (Davis and Harveston, 2001) Those who play down the impact of family firms may not be aware that family businesses comprise an estimated 80 percent of the 15 million businesses in the U.K. (Carsrud 1994) and represent more than 50 percent of Britian's GDP (McCann, Leon-CJuerrero, and Haley 1997). Despite their importance in the Britian economy, family businesses have a complex set of problems not completely addressed by classical management theory (Davies and Stern 1980). One such problem is the effect of conflict in the family. Conflicts "When examining intraorganizational conflict, a central issue is determining the foci of conflict. Conflict theorists (such as Guetzkow and Gyr 1994; Ross 2001; Wall and Nolan 1986) typically describe conflict as either substantive, consisting of task disagreements, or affective, consisting of emotionally-charged interpersonal clashes characterized by anger, distrust, frustration, and other forms of negative affect. Because our focus is f) in the investigation of conflict concerning the business, the model developed here focuses on substantive conflict which describe as "intellectual opposition among participants, deriving from the content of the agenda". (Davis and Harveston, 2001) "That is, substantive conflict arises from disagreements about task issues including the nature and importance of task goals and such key decisions as procedures for task accomplishment, and the appropriate choice for action" As used here, the existence of "substantive conflict is defined as the owner/manager's perception that there are disagreements about task issues including the nature and importance of goals and decision areas". (Davis and Harveston, 2001) "Beckhard and Dyer (1983) have "suggested that the key substantive issues that leaders of family business should address are (Ownership and executive leadership continuity or change, power and asset distribution, and the role of the firm in society". Luce and Raiffa (1957, p. 1) characterize substantive or issue-based conflict as situations in which "an individual is in a situation from which one of several possible outcomes will result and with respect to which he has certain personal preferences. However, though he may have some control over the variables that determine the

Effects of Quality Management on Domestic and Global Competition Essay

Effects of Quality Management on Domestic and Global Competition - Essay Example 2. Quality Management at Nokia Quality is at the heart of Nokia’s operations. Quality has been embedded into every aspect of the products in order to achieve the goal of continuous improvement. Quality Management at Nokia starts right at the top management level and flows from top to bottom. There is a ‘Self-Regulating Management System’ at Nokia which charts out the framework for management practices. The customer needs are the most important input in Nokia’s quest for continuous improvement. Therefore, Nokia makes it a point to thoroughly analyze the lifestyles and needs of its target customers (10 Operations Management Decisions). Nokia lays a great amount of stress on Research and Development. More than 30% of Nokia’s workforce is deployed in Research and Development across geographies. The company strives to maintain a balance between the technological design and user friendly layout. Special fashion designers are deployed for the later (10 Oper ation Management Decisions). 3. Quality Management at Micromax Quality management at Micromax is driven totally by customers. According to Vikas Jain, one of the co-founders of Micromax, Micromax is not a poor cousin of Nokia. Micromax has two important success criteria – perfect assessment of the customer needs and the ability to adapt their supply chain to those needs. The company was a pioneer in initiating dual sim phones in India and challenged Nokia’s supremacy with its innovations. The company realized that a large number of customers were willing to use more than 1 sim cards for various reasons. However, not many were willing to carry 2 or more mobile phones in their pockets. This latent need led to the development of mobile phones with dual sim cards which have become a norm today (Dharmakumar, 2010). 4. Common process between the two organizations and its impact The product design process of the two organizations is quite similar. Both organizations consider assessing customer needs as the most important and preliminary stage of product design. In Nokia, this research is done very methodologically by specialists across various geographies and cultures. At Micromax, the market research is not very structured and the focus is more on identifying the latent needs and to target niche segments of the market. The next step is to choose the theme and develop the product. While Nokia believes in designing an experience rather than a product, Micromax considers a theme such as dual sim and develops and markets its product around that theme. The next step is to test the prototype on a selected group of customers. While this step is a must for Nokia, Micromax may actually skip it and go ahead with judgment of its management. After the product is developed, the supply chain management is very important for both the firms. Nokia maintains a set of requirements for its suppliers. Nokia makes efforts in maintaining a sustainable e-supply chain. The su pply chain management at Micromax is less structured but also less complicated. This enables the company to easily swing the supply chain making it more agile. The product design process has a significant positive impact on their competitive position in the market. By focusing on customer needs, these companies win half the battle. This helps them in efficient planning and execution. By maintaining an effective and agile supply chain, these companies are better equipped to manage change in customer needs, market conditions, global economic

The Meaning of a Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Meaning of a - Research Paper Example In addition, a research paper refers to a culmination and the final product of the entire process of research that involves evaluation of sources, critical thinking, composition, and organization. A research paper is a combination of the above mention elements. Perhaps, it is essential to think of it as a living organism that grows and at the same time changes as the writer interprets, explores, and makes an evaluation of the gathered information from sources that are related to a distinct and specific topic. The main elements that contribute to a research paper are secondary and primary sources(Klein 33). Therefore, it is good to acknowledge that without a proper interpretation of the information gathered from these two types of sources, the research paper would definitely change to be another writing genre, for example, an encyclopedic article. A research writer must have good support for these sources as well as interaction since they provide a research paper’s nourishment. A research paper not only serves to further the topic which the paper covers, but also to improve the writer’s understanding and knowledge of that topic. Lastly, no matter what subject is being researched, a research paper must achieve the following specific goals. First paper must meet the assignment needs. Most instructors give students specific needs for a research paper, which include, use of references, detailing topics, and documentation procedures. A writer must ensure that he or she fully understands the assignment’s scope.

Portfolio management Statistics Project Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Portfolio management - Statistics Project Example In this project, the prices of the stocks provide the weights of the portfolios for all the stocks provided. The monthly returns for the stocks in the investment pool are calculated with the formula in equation 1 below: Where xp is the monthly expected return, pi is the weight of the portfolio and n is the average number of assets. The values of calculation of the expected monthly returns are presented in the table 1 presented below: The returns computed for the years of this study show the expected return increasing from left to right for all the stocks except IBM that drops at the end of the period within the time series. The stock returns values experience wide variance due to the fluctuation in portfolio weights across the period. The process of refining the investment involved ignoring the portfolio with low weights and retaining the high weight portfolio. The selection aimed at picking 3 stocks with the best returns to represent the high efficiency required in the pool decision. The high efficiency stocks were found to be IBM and MMM. The decision was made on the values based on the original currency returns. The time series for the refined investment pool carries the following stock: The major reason for reducing the number of stocks in the refined investment is that many assets have caused a wide variation of the portfolio weights and return on investment (Tobin 1958, p. 65). The analysis sets up individual each of the assets independently to as to classify them as either risky assets or risk free assets using the correlation projections. The refinement judges the investment by their return, hence; it operates with the few selected manageable stocks to reduce the portfolio size by ignoring the low return stocks. The tangent portfolio was constructed using the Matlab program. The program uses the data entries from the covariance matrix with the new weights of portfolios. The mean return values and the optimal portfolio

SWOT Analysis of Apple Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

SWOT Analysis of Apple - Research Paper Example It could not be denied that this name has assisted them in becoming better pioneers of quality product and high-end service in the field of technological developments. As noted earlier in the discussion, Apple is a well-known brand worldwide. It is undeniable that this brand has naturally grown among the other brands that introduced high-end quality to the market. As an established brand, it could be observed that Apple Computer Corporation is already a well-known name in the industry that the market would likely be able to readily trust. (Carlton, 2000, 33) IT is also noticeable how the pioneering status of the organization was able to carry out its name in the field of global trade. Certainly, through this status, Apple has no problem penetrating any outside market besides the United States and the United Kingdom Territories. (Deutschmann, 2000, 43)From this particular fact, it could be observed that it is an essential asset of the corporation to take great concern of the fact that they were already able to establish the right kind of reputation for their carrier brand to make a great impact in the world market. Marketing the said brand to the worldwide number of target purchasers would become much easier to handle since the reputation of the organization has already been trusted within the global market. The proof for this fact had been continuously presented through the level of sales that the corporation annually makes worldwide. The level of profit that is set for the Weaknesses One particular mater that is serving as a weakness on the part of the business strategies adapted by Apple Corporation, as their primary asset against global competition, is that of loosing their contract with that of IBM and replacing their processor with Intel. This particular approach to change may cause a lot of troubles on the part of the confusion of the people as to what particular brand they are supposed to trust. Of course, both Intel and IBM have their own reputations in the industry. Over the years, there are some percentage of the major customers trusting Apple Computers simply because they trust IBM as a quality producer and distributor of processors. Hence, with the sudden change of provider, some of the customers may make different decisions when it comes to purchasing the products that they are offering today. OUTSOURCING is also one issue that may serve the Apple Corporation both the best and worst results of business. It could be noted that as the company began to outsource from China, India and Taiwan, the cost of expenses on the part of the company has decreased, giving them better chances of decreasing the rate of their products as offered to the market. However, it is also through this particular fact that some of the major clients of the organization may be lost simply upon knowing that the other parts of the gadgets distributed by the company was not made from the United States or UK. This situation cannot be controlled simply by saying that the works from other countries where the company outsourcers its programs and hardware parts from are of high-edge quality. Some consumers could not be robbed off from their belief on the brand and manufacturer that they trust. Opportunities With the growing number of technological gadgets released in the market every now and then, it could be

Could machines have minds ( in answering, explain what you mean by Essay

Could machines have minds ( in answering, explain what you mean by mind) - Essay Example When the computer was in its early development stages, it was thought of as an electronic, thinking device, the mechanical equivalent of the human brain. This misconception is a gross oversimplification of the seemingly limitless boundaries of the human mind. The potential of machines were thought to be able to eventually encompass â€Å"an inductive and creative mind, capable of taking initiative, to which human beings could confide all their problems and obtain instant solutions in return† (Ifrah, 1997: 1679). This misconception in the early days of the computer has carried over even to today. This discussion examines the functions of the computer brain along with the similarities and differences to the human brain in addition to the meaning of knowledge and the limitations of machines as compared to the human mind. It also delves into the complex definition of consciousness in some depth so as to illuminate the distinctions between the human mind and the ‘mind’ of the machine. Simply stated, computers are machines which effectively carry out algorithmic functions. The machine discerns formalized input through a sequence of fixed stages through a predetermined, straightforward set of rules of a standardized and exacting description. This allows computers to perform procedures in a precise number of steps. Mechanical computers, unlike the functions of the computer-like brain do not have the capability to determine right from wrong nor can they make judgments, have no feelings and cannot think on their own. It cannot be denied that some types of intelligence can be attributed to computers but this capacity is very limited when balanced against the boundless intricacies in a human’s brain. However, the computer is superior when considering its capability to process information at a higher speed. This has provided humans a useful tool for a myriad of endeavors. Nevertheless, computers cannot reason, imagine, invent, create, express

Reading questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reading questions - Assignment Example He stresses on his scientific deduction of the evaluation typology as the model framework and establishes it with appropriate examples. Evaluation is invaluable for the functional prospect of any program. Deducing an apt evaluation system has direct impact on the success rate of a process. The studies of Chen as well as Worthen and Sanders focus on the different approaches to evaluation both on the conceptual and functional level. But the researchers have discussed the topic from the perspectives of their individual understanding and findings. Chen goes into an in depth analysis of the evaluation system that involves a study of how it works in the program, its role in defining and affecting the program and its effectiveness. Chen seems to dissect the evaluation process on an operational level. But Worthen and Sanders emphasize the theoretical, philosophical and psychological aspects of evaluation. Their study covers a wider range of the meaning and conceptual basis of evaluation and how it can be implemented accordingly. In discussing evaluation Chen has kept his focus strictly on the key factor of evaluation which is to determine the efficacy of a particular program and the success of its outcome or end result. He criticizes the analytical interpretations of both Scriven and Stake regarding the use and purpose of evaluation. Chen attempts to take an objective, data-based and technical approach to the analysis of evaluation. His aim seems to formulate basic scientific criteria of a typology that could be applied to different situations. He holds that the four categories of evaluation, process-improvement, process-assessment, outcome-improvement and outcome assessment, are at the basis of judging any situation. Chen elaborates on these categories defining their inter-relationship and inter-dependency through real-life examples. His main purpose is to emphasize the usability of the evaluation process in a competitive atmosphere. Worthen and Sanders provide a