There is more than one way of fostering ethical behaviour within an organisation. Establishing formal structures and systems is one of them and considered to be very effective in accomplishing this task. However, strong ethical leadership is vital in shaping long-term ethical behaviour in organizations and any other formal structure’s or system’s effectiveness diminishes dramatically without it. Strong ethical leadership is the factor which introduces, sustains and protects the process of ethical change in an organization. In this essay relative merit of code of ethics, ethics training and strong ethical leadership will be determined in the process of shaping long-term behaviour within an organisation and attempt will be made to identify the most effective one. It should be remembered though, in the field of management and ethics definitive and clear-cut answers are a rare thing. ‘Ethics is the code of moral principles and values that governs the behaviours of a person or group with respect to what is right or wrong’ (Daft, 2007, p.252). The role of ethics in the last decade increased and big corporate scandals were probably the main reasons behind this trend. Names like Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Anderson, BP remind us of how proper conduct in ethical matters can save jobs, money and do less harm to the environment. As organizations are trying to find the best ways and methods to introduce and shape ethical behaviour within them, several ideas emerged on how to do it. Most of them involve active involvement of organizations’ leadership. One of them is establishing formal structures and systems in the organization to introduce and facilitate change in ethical behaviour of employees. Written code of ethics is a good example of such formal structure. ‘A code of ethics is a formal statement of the company’s values concerning ethics and social responsibility; it…
The evolution of selling had several distinct phases of development during the course of late 19th and 20th centuries. Industrial revolution of late 19th century caused a tremendous amount of exchange of goods between people and nations all over the world. Strategic resources at this time were capital and resources companies controlled. Therefore sales success was defined by meeting sales quotas. This period can be roughly defined from 1860s – 1960s. However from 1960s a new age in the area of selling has started. It was an Information Age. From 1960s till now information has radically changed how selling is being conducted, methods and attitudes towards selling. In this age, strategic resource of the business is information and it is defined by customer relationships. Adding value is the primary success criteria of the selling process. Of course these are generalised notions of the evolution in selling. There are exceptions and plenty of businesses who are doing things old school and don’t want to adjust to modern reality. Moreover there are businesses which are following century old techniques and methods used by their founders and finding themselves niches in the market where they are successfully operating. One of them is Avon – direct and door to door seller of women’s cosmetics. In this part of the essay professional selling which gained momentum during the industrial revolution and kept serving business well until post-WWII times will be discussed in detail. Major advances in manufacturing and transportation made possessing resources and capital a major aim for business. This naturally required skilled people with talents in persuading and providing goods to a broad range of customers. As selling and exchange goods at this scale were unknown to humankind up until this point, buyers were relatively unsophisticated and could have been easily manipulated towards making…
The “Open Doors Policy” or the economic reformations of the late 1970s in China enormously changed the entire economy of the country. The trade reformation which focused on liberalizing the trade which shifted the country a step closer to free market attracted huge foreign capital into the country in the form of FDI since 1978. The huge scarce resources of China had to be utilized soon after the reformations which indeed required huge capital. However,China heavily relied on the external funds in order to promote its manufacturing industry and the financing of newly privatized formerly state-owned companies. Therefore,China’s government issued series of policies which favoured the foreign investors. The inflows of foreign capital in the form of FDI brought in advanced technology, knowledge, management know-how which accelerated the economic growth in China in the last three decades. Since the “Open Doors” policy and trade reformations in the country in 1978, the country has been consistently achieving significant economic growth which averages at 10% of GDP. When the growth rate of China is compared to other developed economies such as USA which has an average of 3% GDP growth in the 100 years and Germany which has an average growth rate of 1.3% of GDP and Japan at 3.85% of GDP in the few decades, China is far ahead (IMF, 2009). However, many western policy makers and commentators believe that the main source of growth of China has been mainly due to FDI inflows which have been encouraged by fixed exchange rate. The source of economic growth of China is derived from three phases of development which are broken down into three periods of years. The first phase of development lasted from 1952-1978 where the Chinese government prioritized the development of heavy industries such as steel, chemicals and machinery. The second…
The term of brand can be defined as “a physical labelling of products, so that consumers are able to identify which firm produces which goods or services” (Soto, 2008, p.8). Alternatively, brand can be defined as “a seller’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits and services consistent to the buyers” (Kotler et al., 2001, p.188). References Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J. and Wong, V. (2001) “Principal of Marketing”, (3rd ed.) Harlow Pearson Education Limited. Soto, T.J. (2008) “Methods for Assessing Brand Value: A Comparison Between the Interbrand Model and the BBDO’s Brand Equity Evaluator Model” Diplomica Verlag
Marketing can be explained as a “set of instructions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (Boone and Kurtz, 2013, p.7). The following alternatives of marketing definition have been offered by various authors: “the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably” (Shaw, 2007, p.1) “an organisational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organisation and its stakeholders” (Ferrell and Hartline, 2010, p.8). References Boone, L.E. & Kurtz, D.L. (2013) “Contemporary Marketing” Cengage Learning Ferrell, O.C. & Hartline, M. (2010) “Marketing Strategy” Cengage Learning Shaw, S. (2007) “Airline Marketing and Management”, Ashgate Publishing
The completion of the Research Report as a part of degree requirements has involved my engagement in a highly challenging and motivating research experience. The following texts represent the skill and learning statement that reflect the implications of the research experience on my personal and professional development. The skill and learning statement includes the implications of interactions with mentor, an analysis of the extent to which research questions have been answered, a brief analysis of interpersonal and communication skills and their relevance to the research, as well as the contribution of the research experience to my professional and personal development. 1. Experiences of interactions with mentor I had chances of meeting my project mentor three times and obtained practical support regarding various aspects of the work during these meetings. Our first meeting was mainly dedicated to clarifying our expectations from the research experience and the discussions took place related to the issues of selection of the research approach and formulation of research questions and objectives. By the time I had a meeting with my mentor for the second time Introduction and Information gathering chapters of the work have been completed and I received detailed feedback for these chapters of the research. Also, discussions were held about data analysis and presentation associated with the project. During the final meeting with my mentor the overall work has been scrutinised and a set of specific points have been mentioned by my mentor. Specifically, my mentor raised a point that my discussions of research findings lacked depth and scale. Then, these points have been addressed and the final draft of the Research Report was completed. I found advices given by my mentor very helpful in terms of increasing the quality of my Research Report and equipping me with knowledge of effectively conducting similar…
This article illustrates a sample personal reflection of the author upon the learning experience and presents critical analysis of the development of the author as a researcher and scholar as a result of conducting this study. The content of the article is divided into three main themes: the development of secondary research skills, the development of primary research skills, improvement of time-management skills, increasing the level of self-confidence. The Development of Secondary Research Skills The author had some basic secondary research skills before engaging in this research; however those skills were greatly improved as a result of conducting the current study. The 21st century has been characterised as the information age, and in this age companies can obtain competitive advantage through analysing information about various aspects of the marketplace, as well as, information related to internal and external factors affecting the company. However, dealing with information from such a perspective requires secondary research skills. Therefore it can be said that the secondary research skills gained by the author during the course of conducting this research will contribute immensely to his career progression in the near future. Specifically, the author gained competency in the following two directions of secondary research: First, prioritising the secondary data. Nowadays a large amount of data is available regarding any business or other subjects in various secondary data sources including books, journals, magazines, newspapers, internet etc. The current research experience has taught the author that it is not physically possible to analyse all the available data related to the research question for obvious reasons. Accordingly, during the literature review stage of the research the author had learned to prioritise the secondary data related to the research questions according to a set of important criteria such as the authority and credentials of the author, date of…
Team life cycle to consist of the following stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning. All of these stages were passed by the team during the course of preparing the presentation and presenting it. 1.Forming. Five team members were identified. All of the members of the team had known each-other before the team project, however, team presentation had given team members a chance to know each other closer. 2. Storming. There were some arguments within the team at the beginning of the project when the team members were dividing the project into parts and distributing these parts to the team members. Moreover, opinions within the team differed about what company needed to be selected. However, disagreements were not serious, without any emotions attached, and came as a natural part of the project. 3. Norming. Towards the end of the first group meeting major points of argument were settled, company for the presentation was selected, and roles and responsibilities were divided among team members with everybody’s consent. 4. Performing. The team had several meetings and during each meeting a specific part of the work was completed according to the plan that has been formulated during the first meeting. Specifically, in this stage areas within the practice of Viva managers were formulated that needed to be improved as a result of the training and development program. Also, various training and development methods were reviewed to identify which of them were the most suitable to be integrated into Viva training and development program. As a result of the analysis and heated discussions within the team, it was identified that time management and team working were the skills that needed to be developed in Viva supervisors and managers. Accordingly, relevant training and development elements were selected presentation materials have been prepared. Roles within the…
Viva is a leading provider of risk, savings and investment management products based in UK, with operations also in France, Germany, Netherlands, USA, Gulf and India. Being established in 1836, the company serves nearly seven million customers worldwide. Viva has organised its foreign operations efficiently, taking into account local specifications. For example, the company offers Takaful products in Gulf countries, that is financial products that have been devised according to Sharia Islamic laws, due to the fact that local customers are very sensitive about these issues. Also, Viva has engaged in joint-ventures in India with Bank of Baroda, and Andhra Bank. This article briefly introduces Viva Company and discusses the various elements of development scheme that group has proposed for the company in the form of presentation. Moreover, additional development elements are included in the article, and the rationale behind the choice of each element is explained in detail, listing their advantages, as well as disadvantages. Training and Development Schemes for Viva Initially the purpose of training and development scheme for Viva managers have been identified. The primary purpose for the scheme has been found as equipping Viva managers with necessary skills and knowledge so that they can manage the business globally in the most efficient manner. Moreover, the following purposes of training development as proposed by Beardwell et al (2004) were planned to be achieved for Viva as a result of the project: a) Maximising productivity and service provision for the company b) Developing the adaptability for the workforce c) Developing the Viva as an organisation as a whole d) Increasing job satisfaction, motivation and morale of Viva workforce e) Improving standards and safety at work f) Promoting the Better utilisation of other resources g) Standardisation of work practices and procedures Wood (2009) divides trainings methods into two categories: traditional…
The European Business Environment module coursework was a good learning experience for me in many aspects. Among many positive benefits it positively contributed to my secondary data research techniques, improved my time-management skills and made me a more industrious student. However, I encountered with a range of issues at various stages of completing the assignment. Specifically, there was a problem with the lack of trustworthy secondary data resources, since most of the materials found on-line arose my suspicion regarding their validity as references. The issue was dealt with through more visits to the library than was initially planned. If I were to complete the same assignment one more time I would definitely start my visits to libraries weeks earlier than I did. This would have enabled me to avoid last-minute hassles, and would ensure the greater scope and depth for my research. During completion of the assignment I found easier to perform at argument and application learning outcome due to my practicability and an analytical mindset towards various issues. Moreover, I think I did well in communication learning outcome as well, because the whole text was revised many times in order to increase its standard. The achievement of learning outcome I was not satisfied with is a research. Specifically, my references include only ten books and one internet web-site. If I had started my research process earlier references could have included relevant magazines and journals as well, and thus the overall validity of the research could have been increased. I cannot state that I have performed to the best of my ability for this specific assignment. The primary reason was that I had started to write the assignment much later than I have should and this had affected many aspects of the work. But the most important point is that …
By John Dudovskiy
Category: Personal reflection & development