The Treaty of Versailles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Treaty of Versailles - Essay Example Certainly after President Wilson’s 14 points speech, it was clear though that the U.S. interest went beyond the defense of its marine. Out of the famous ‘Fourteen Point’ 1918 speech from which the President hoped to bring a ‘‘peace without victory’’, eight of the points directly dealt with territorial and political settlements. These points extended to the ideology of self-rule nationalism in various ethnic populations in Europe. The rest focused on prevention of future war. As stated by Roark et al. (p.25-9), when negotiating the Versailles Treaty, Wilson used the Fourteen Points as the foundation that ended the First World War. His role in the conference that led to the Treaty felt like some of his points were adopted while others were not. In what seemed like failed American ratification of the war, League of Nations was created, freedom of the sea, creation of Poland, reduction of armaments, and independence for Turkey and other nations were agreed upon from Wilson’s Fourteen points scheme. However, the political interest with which the President negotiated using his Fourteen Points scheme failed to be adopted fully. Even though the treaty was not fully keen on the U.S. ‘‘unselfish’’ vision, Wilson’s Fourteen Points is still memorial and powerful assertion of the real strain in the American diplomatic

Critically review and reflect on the reasons why organizations are Essay

Critically review and reflect on the reasons why organizations are using Project Management to achieve their strategic objective - Essay Example Many organizations term project management as a pre-requisite to meeting the strategic objectives. And before approaching any strategic aspect, it is being ensured that project management rules and been followed and project management structure is in place. It is commonly seen that projects often fail due to improper implementation of project management scheme (Morris & Sember, 2008). While scenarios where project management was implemented to the full, have mostly insured success. Project management is a separate discipline in itself and has a list of activities and procedures to it, along with the tools and techniques that help in making the task easy. The importance of Project management in modern times has been more than ever before and for this reason, nearly all organizations have project management scheme in place. Project management in other words is defined as all those actions, strategies, tools and techniques that lead to achieving the strategic objectives (Tonnquist, 2009 ). Strategic objectives on other hand are defined as those factors that impact the organization and its entities in a direct manner. These can be met through clear definition of the elements that contribute towards their accomplishment. These elements are namely, clear and focused vision about objectives, presence of communication channels, work break down structure, assigning of roles to the suitable personnel, making sufficient use of the resources; prepare a plan for the emergency situations. Focus on objectives: One of the most important factors any organization needs to take into consideration is the clear vision in terms of the goals to be achieved. Deviations are expected any time during the project and organizational activities, with help of clearly defined objectives the chances of deviations can be reduced. Before emphasizing on the need for project management, it is vital to understand and define the elements that constitute strategic objectives. Strategic objectives can be in terms of the overall productivity, budget allocation, social factors, the proper relationship establishment with the stakeholders, maintaining the communication channels, individual personnel that are of high importance to the organization, hence all those factors that have an impact on final result. Customers Aspect: Customers hold the key to the success and failure of any organization. Their response can turn an organization either way. Customer satisfaction is a universal strategic objective that is the front line desire of almost every organization. Meeting the customer demands requires proper planning. The field of project management provides ample guidance towards customer satisfaction (Kerzner & Sponholtz,pg 23, 2007). The scope of project management is very vast and it makes up for an entire discipline, it has few basic elements namely: Planning Organizing Controlling Staffing Leading Every organization needs the above mentioned elements to be in place in order to meet their strategic objectives (Weihrich & Cannice, 2010). Co-relation between planning and Organizational Effectively: A co relation can be established between the organizational functions and project management in many aspects. Planning is one of them. Organizations need planning to be in place while project management provides guidelines for achieving this planning. A famous saying goes about planning that â€Å"Failing to plan is planning to fail† (Hess, et al., pg 454,2011), under the principles of project manage

Hathaway and Scottish Power Essay Example for Free

Hathaway and Scottish Power Essay 1.What is the possible meaning of the changes in stock price for Berkshire Hathaway and Scottish Power plc on the day of the acquisition announcement? Specifically, what does the $2.55 billion gain in Berkshire’s market value of equity imply about the intrinsic value of PacifiCorp? 2.Based on the multiples for comparable regulated utilities, what is the range of possible values for PacifiCorp? What questions might you have about this range? 3.Assess the bid for PacifiCorp. How does it compare with the firm’s intrinsic value? As an alternative, the instructor could suggest that students perform a simple discounted cash-flow (DCF) analysis. 4.How well has Berkshire Hathaway performed? How well has it performed in the aggregate? What about its investment in MidAmerican Energy Holdings? 5.What is your assessment of Berkshire’s investments in Buffett’s Big Four: American Express, Coca-Cola, Gillette, and Wells Fargo? 6.From Warren Buffett’s perspective, what is the intrinsic value? Why is it accorded such importance? How is it estimated? What are the alternatives to intrinsic value? Why does Buffett reject them? 7.Critically assess Buffett’s investment philosophy. Be prepared to identify points where you agree and disagree with him. 8.Should Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders endorse the acquisition of PacifiCorp? 1.What does the stock market seem to be saying about the acquisition of PacifiCorp by Berkshire Hathaway? 2.Based on your own analysis, what do you think PacifiCorp was worth on its own before its acquisition by Berkshire? 3.Do you think Buffett is overpaying? 4.Here are the major elements of Buffett’s philosophy. What do those elements mean? Do you agree with them? 5.Let’s return to the basic issue. Is the PacifiCorp acquisition a good or bad deal? Why?

If Slavery were Considered Moral :: Slavery

Describe the differences of this time period if slavery was considered "right". ISSUES TO UNDERSTAND CH. 14 1) The Compromise of 1850 was a dispute on whether or not Mexico (gained by US) would become a slave or free state. The northerners didn't want the 36'30' line to be moved to the Pacific and the southerners didn't want "free soilism" which would make Mexico a free state. Northerners gained from the Compromise California as a free state, New Mexico and Utah as likely future slave states, a favorable settlement of the New Mexico-Texas boundary, and the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Colombia. Southerners gained the burial of the Wilmot Proviso's persistence of new territories being free states, but the position of the free-soilers remained viable, for the compromise left open the question of whether Congress could prohibit slavery in territories outside the Mexican cession. Ââ€"How did the Compromise of 180 affect Southerners? 2) The Fugitive Slave Act affected the relationship between the two sides because often when a slave would leave and escape to the North, northerners wouldn't do anything to help get the slave back, in fact, in most incidents northerners tried to help keep slaves away from southerners if they escaped. South began to realize that opposition to slavery in the North was a threat to what they believed.-What was the Fugitive Slave Act and how did it hurt Southerners? 3) Uncle Tom's Cabin made many people convert to the belief that slavery was wrong and evil. It caused many people to view southerners as evil people. It also made northerners have sympathy for black slaves.-How did this book affect people's view of slavery? 4) The second party system collapsed because Whigs began to split into two groups: the American (know-nothing) Party and the Republican Party. Whigs also began to fall apart because of immigration. They thought immigration would not be important because they wouldn't be a big enough force for voting. So when the Whigs tried to get immigrant votes it just backfired and caused them to lose some ground with Protestant Whigs because the party had a hard anti-immigrant stand. Ââ€"What was the second party system? 5) The Nebraska-Kansas Act made many people angry because they thought that it was another territory that would be a slave state and not free. The idea of making it a state was to benefit Northerners because they were going to put a railroad system going through the Midwest to the pacific.

Distinction of Sex and Gender

1. The sex/gender distinction. The terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ mean different things to different feminist theorists and neither are easy or straightforward to characterize. Sketching out some feminist history of the terms provides a helpful starting point. 1. 1 Biological determinism Most people ordinarily seem to think that sex and gender are coextensive: women are human females, men are human males. Many feminists have historically disagreed and have endorsed the sex/ gender distinction.Provisionally: ‘sex’ denotes human females and males depending on biological features (chromosomes, sex organs, hormones and other physical features);‘gender’ denotes women and men depending on social factors (social role, position, behaviour or identity). The main feminist motivation for making this distinction was to counter biological determinism or the view that biology is destiny. A typical example of a biological determinist view is that of Ged des and Thompson who, in 1889, argued that social, psychological and behavioural traits were caused by metabolic state.Women supposedly conserve energy (being ‘anabolic’) and this makes them passive, conservative, sluggish, stable and uninterested in politics. Men expend their surplus energy (being ‘katabolic’) and this makes them eager, energetic, passionate, variable and, thereby, interested in political and social matters. These biological ‘facts’ about metabolic states were used not only to explain behavioural differences between women and men but also to justify what our social and political arrangements have to be.It would be inappropriate to grant women political rights, as they are simply not suited to have those rights; it would also be futile since women (due to their biology) would simply not be interested in exercising their political rights. To counter this kind of biological determinism, feminists have argued that behavioural and psychological differences have social, rather than biological, causes. For instance, Simone de Beauvoir famously claimed that one is not born, but rather becomes a woman, and that â€Å"social discrimination produces in women moral and intellectual effects so profound that they appear to be caused by nature†.Commonly observed behavioural traits associated with women and men, then, are not caused by anatomy or chromosomes. Rather, they are culturally learned or acquired. Although biological determinism of the kind endorsed by Geddes and Thompson is nowadays uncommon, the idea that behavioural and psychological differences between women and men have biological causes has not disappeared. In the 1970s, sex differences were used to argue that women should not become airline pilots since they will be hormonally unstable once a month and, therefore, unable to perform their duties as well as men (Rogers 1999, 11).More recently, differences in male and female brains have been said to explain behavioural differences; in particular, the anatomy of corpus callosum, a bundle of nerves that connects the right and left cerebral hemispheres, is thought to be responsible for various psychological and behavioural differences. 1. 2 Gender terminology In order to distinguish biological differences from social/psychological ones and to talk about the latter, feminists appropriated the term ‘gender’.Psychologists writing on trans sexuality were the first to employ gender terminology in this sense. However, in order to explain why some people felt that they were ‘trapped in the wrong bodies’, the psychologist Robert Stoller (1968) began using the terms ‘sex’ to pick out biological traits and ‘gender’ to pick out the amount of femininity and masculinity a person showed. Along with psychologists like Stoller, feminists found it useful to distinguish sex and gender.This enabled them to argue that many differences between women and men were socially produced and, therefore, changeable. For instance Gayle Rubin's thought was that although biological differences are fixed, gender differences are the oppressive results of social interventions that dictate how women and men should behave. Women are oppressed as women and â€Å"by having to be women† (Rubin 1975, 204). However, since gender is social, it is thought to be changeable and adjustable by political and social reform that would ultimately bring an end to women's subordination.Feminism should aim to create a â€Å"genderless (though not sexless) society, in which one's sexual anatomy is irrelevant to who one is, what one does, and with whom one makes love† (Rubin 1975, 204). In some earlier interpretations, like Rubin's, sex and gender were thought to complement one another. The slogan ‘Gender is the social interpretation of sex’ captures this view. Nicholson calls this ‘the coat-rack view’ of gender: our sexed bodies are like coat racks and â€Å"provide the site upon which gender [is] constructed† (1994, 81).Gender conceived of as masculinity and femininity is superimposed upon the ‘coat-rack’ of sex as each society imposes on sexed bodies their cultural conceptions of how males and females should behave. This socially constructs gender differences – or the amount of femininity/masculinity of a person– upon our sexed bodies. That is, according to this interpretation, all humans are either male or female; their sex is fixed. But cultures interpret sexed bodies differently and project different norms on those bodies thereby creating feminine and masculine persons.So, this group of feminist arguments against biological determinism suggested that gender differences result from cultural practices and social expectations. Nowadays it is more common to denote this by saying that gender is socially constructed. This means that genders (women and men) and gendere d traits (like being nurturing or ambitious) are the â€Å"intended or unintended product[s] of a social practice† (Haslanger 1995, 97). But which social practices construct gender, what social construction is and what being of a certain gender amounts to are major feminist controversies.There is no consensus on these issues. (See the entry on Intersections between Analytic and Continental Feminism for more on different ways to understand gender. ) 5. Conclusion This entry first looked at feminist arguments against biological determinism and the claim that gender is socially constructed. Next, it examined feminist critiques of prevalent understandings of gender and sex, and the distinction itself. In response to these concerns, the final section looked at how a unified women's category could be articulated for feminist political purposes and illustrated (at least) two things.First, that gender — or what it is to be a woman or a man — is still very much a live is sue. Second, that feminists have not entirely given up the view that gender is about social factors and that it is (in some sense) distinct from biological sex. The jury is still out on what the best, the most useful or (even) the correct definition of gender is. And some contemporary feminists still find there to be value in the original 1960s sex/gender distinction.

The Global Issue Of Population Growth - 960 Words

Beyond a doubt we urgently need to address the devastating global issue of population growth in the United States America before we destroy our planet. We are facing many devastating economic problems, such as pollution, global warming, education, but the most critical is overconsumption. Overpopulation is a huge problem in the United States of America, which is causing us to run out of natural resources. The human race is already too large and is destroying the natural systems that support us. There are many solutions to this problem, but the common factor is controlling the human race. What can we do as a society to help contribute to controlling the population growth? â€Å"The United States is the most overpopulated country in the world†. (Ehrlich) Let’s first discuss what is considered to be overpopulated? Overpopulation is â€Å"The condition of having a population so dense as to cause environmental deterioration, an impaired quality of life, or a population crash†. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary.com, 2011). The growing rate of population in America is becoming exceeding extreme and dangerous. â€Å"The rate of population increase, now approximately 1.7 percent a year will decline to a little less than 1 percent sometime between the years 2020-2025†. (Ehrlich) The more people added on to this earth the more resources we will have to use to maintain. Arije 2 The more people increase on this earth, the more we consume resources, causing more damage to the earth that generates moreShow MoreRelatedThe Global Issue Of Population Growth979 Words   |  4 PagesBeyond a doubt we urgently need to address the devastating global issue of population growth in the United States America before we destroy our planet. We are facing many devastating economic problems, such as pollution, global warming, education, but the most critical is overconsumption. 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Although, there are strategies to manage the environmental issues, a sector-wide approach is required from developed and developingRead MoreThe Growth Of Population Growth Essay1422 Words   |  6 Pagespresent rate of population growth is one of the most significant environmental issues we as humans are facing. The exponential growth at which the population is moving is having direct impacts on climate, energy, poverty, food, the global economy, and politics (Why Population Matters). The world population is currently 7.3 billion people and there is growing doubt that the planet is able to sustain human needs and resource consumption (Population Concern). The expansion of human population is impactingRead MoreThe Problem Of A World Problem1281 Words   |  6 PagesAdditionally, global prob lems can be so significant that they affect the ability of the planet itself to support life. There are many world problems that are evident around the globe today, however the most significant problem is population growth. According to the UN News Centre, in 2015 the world population was 7.3 billion. In 1990, the population was only 5.3 billion, meaning in 25 years, there was a dramatic increase in population by 2 billion. It is projected that by 2100, the population will exceedRead MoreHuman Overpopulation Essay1109 Words   |  5 Pagesbiggest global issues addressed in the 21st century. This concept negatively affects almost every aspect of society: extinction of plants/animals or habitats, over use of natural resources, climate change, and other environmental problems (â€Å"As World’s Human†). This continual predicament needs to be corrected by intensified human productive abilities and a global law that will stimulate positive outcomes across the world. 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Managing organisational change The case of Omega Industries - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2759 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Analytical essay Level High school Did you like this example? Section-1 Doggett (2005) believes that there is always a cause behind any problem and this cause must be identified and addressed to solve the problem or else the problem may continue. So, a consultant must use the diagnostic process as the initial step to identify the actual cause of the problem (Cope, 1999). This approach of continuous probing helps a consultant to differentiate symptoms from root causes. The symptoms of problems face by OI along with the root cause(s) can be: . Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Managing organisational change: The case of Omega Industries" essay for you Create order Low moral of the management and the work force. The root causes identified here are the policies of redundancy and cost cutting and also the low confidence of workforce in the newly appointed management. Poor communication between managers. This is possibly due to the conflict of interests and lack of trust among the general mangers. Low productivity. This is due to the lack of coordination between the departments and the poor warranty handling and client handling policies. Others causes include lack of innovation in designing product(s) and poor marketing strategy. Overstocking of products. This is due to the inaccurate demand forecasting, inadequate insufficient information about customer needs and the lack of understanding about the customer needs. Fischer, which made a cascading impact on the OI and thus resulted into most of the above mentioned symptoms and their respective root causes. Much of the chaos in Business Services is because of the complex departmental structure within it. One way of handling this structure is to integrate the Sales and the Marketing departments into one department under the director of the Sales as he has got the better client contacts and who can understand and address the customer needs better. Similarly, the Parts services department can also be brought under the GM Engineering support services by which overspending budget can be controlled and the demands of the parts can be met on time. This particular integration will handle the overstocking problem as well. Another structural approach for improving the salesmarketing interface or parts-engineering support is to form cross-functional teams composed of people from the two functional areas along by rotating managers and other workforce within the dependent departments. This approach can serve two purposes; first, through job rotation, employees develop a larger network of people with in the firm that can be called on when opportunities or challenges arise and second, through immersion in different functional areas, managers can develop a better understanding of their counterparts culture, activities, constraints, and objectives. The next piece of advice would be to implement Information System such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application software across OI or especially across Business Services, where information about customers, customer interactions, procurements, inventory etc can be entered, stored and accessed by employees across departments. The data thus maintained can be analyzed to determine the customer needs and forecast demand thus helping OI to improve its services, inventory management and products. Besides improving communication and coordination across different departments within Business Services, this application software will also help in attaining better customer satisfaction and retaining existing customers. The last advice would be to stop the redundancy program, as it builds fear and insecurity and can lead to lack of coordination and individualistic approach of departments. So, to encourage cooperation and coordination the HR department needs to strengthen the rela tionships between the inter-departments, by means of Appreciative Inquiry and thus encourage people to share the best practices in the organisation (Hayes, 2007). The above mentioned advices when implemented can face some serious resistances like the resistance from affected key stakeholders; the GM Marketing and the GM Part services, who would definitely resist this change as their positions would be affected directly. This resistance can be handled by making the GM Marketing redundant as this post is not directly in touch base with customers and always depends on sales and support department to make marketing forecasts. Similar approach can be taken for the post of GM Part services, which can be handled by the GM Support services. Other key stakeholders that may also resist the change can either be made redundant or can be given roles with better incentives or roles with more responsibilities within OI or in other companies under the same parent company. According to Clampitt et. al. (2000), the most effective way of communicating change is to underscore and explore, where the individuals are empowered to generate creative ideas and alternatively listen to potential misunderstanding and unrecognized obstacles rather than being forced to adopt the ideas of management. So, for this presentations or seminars can be organised where employees can be made aware of the change and its associated benefits and can be asked about their opinions. Cross department training and development programs can also be organised by the HR department to develop the necessary skills and minimize the resistance towards the change and to make a department such as sales or marketing, aware of the functioning of other departments such as engineering support services so that each of the departments communicate with one another on a longer run. Another problem can be in the implementation of the Information system where employees such as the sales personnel w ould be least interested and have the minimum scope of using computers to access the information system. In this case these employees need to be convinced about the potential benefits of using this IS and can be given gradual training to know more about the information system. The basic idea is to involve more people in the change process by making them understand their responsibilities in contributing to the transition process and thus minimising the resistances faced by the top management. Here the need of the hour is the strong leadership and commitment from the CEO and senior management, where they should ensure that the whole change process is in line with the new strategies of the company. Section-2 Management Consulting is defined as delivering skills from outside an organisation (Markham, 2004). It is important for an external consultant like Timothy to choose an appropriate model that delivers the real value for the client organization. A good consulting model should also allow a consultant to deliver his knowledge, skills and experience in an efficient way in improving the consultancy practice. Now, in the context of the case, the initial steps towards addressing the problems are by using consultancy and therefore calls for understanding of client-consultant relationship in depth using the below models and theories. Edward Scheins (1987) three models for consulting are commonly viewed as a starting point from which client expectations can be understood and consultant roles can be defined (Wickham Wickham, 2008). These are; purchase-of-expertise, doctor-patient, and process consultation. The Purchase-of-Expertise model is one in which the client hires the consultant to bring a separate and autonomous perspective to existing issues. The client communicates the problem to the consultant and he executes a solution by using specialist knowledge (Wichkham Wickham, 2008). This model may meet immediate needs or the efforts to put structural changes into place, but will do little to sustain development or the organisation over the time. The Purchase-of-Expertise model is one in which the client hires the consultant to bring a separate and autonomous perspective to existing issues. The client communicates the problem to the consultant and he executes a solution by using specialist knowledge (Wichkham Wickham, 2008). This model may meet immediate needs or the efforts to put structural changes into place, but will do little to sustain development or the organisation over the time. The Process Consultation model is a client centred approach in which the consultant acts as a facilitator and brings his own expertise to methods for directing potenti al organisational behaviours. The consultant works with the organisation to find internal methods for resolving the issues and for implementing change, and utilising existing resources within the organisation. This process is based primarily in the ability of the organisation to sort through its needs, discover its own resources and the best methods for change, and implement changes using its own internal resources. The consultant simply acts as a catalyst directing and redirecting activities to help the organisation achieve the best outcomes based on its needs and thus making the change happen (Schein, 1987). The consultant does not push a solution to the client and it is the client who makes the ultimate choice of implementing the solution (Wickham Wickham, 2008). Reason for selecting Process consultation model: In this case study, the initial attention is paid to the client-consultant relationship where, Timothy is hired for his expertise and for guiding OI, which has less clarity about its specific issues and concerns. Timothy works with the OI management through the diagnostic and intervention stages (Czander Eisold, 2003). In the diagnostic stage Timothy gathers the data required to understand the problem by meeting and interviewing managers and finally evaluates it to understand the root cause of the problem (Cope, 1999). The consultant then uses his expertise to plan an intervention model to address the root causes of the issues faced by the OI. As there is high risk involved, OI would look for solution which involves intensive analysis and is exclusively customized to its needs and for this the process consultation model provides OI the power and flexibility to decide and take action on implementing the intervention proposed by the consultant (Whittle, 2006). Five phase Model of Management Consulting Over the years researchers suggested various models and approaches to consulting, but they all seem to be built around the five phase consulting process or cycle model (Kubr, 2002). For instance, Markham (2004) also suggested model the CONSULT delivery process with five stages; Entry, Contracting, Diagnostic, Intervention and Closure. The five phase consulting model provides a systematic phase by phase framework to consultants about how to plan their approach to a particular assignment and for the same reason this model can be associated with the case of OI. This consulting model consists of five phases; Entry, Diagnosis, Action Planning, Implementation and Termination. Entry: It is the initial phase of consulting process cycle that involves the initial meeting of the consultant with the client and the discussion about the purpose of bringing in the consultant. The consultant prepares for the first meeting by gathering information about the client, their business, history and organizational culture and structure. The client tries to apprise the consultant of the problems it is facing and the consultant does a preliminary diagnosis of the problems. According to Kubr (2002), both the client and the consultant, together decide the scope of the assignment and the client ensures that it has approached the right consultant and the consultant has the necessary expertise to deliver the results as per the clients needs. In the case study, it is evident that the consultant Timothy Edwards has been appointed and apprised of the problems of the OI. He has a fair idea regarding what the firm is trying to achieve by taking his services. Diagnosis: This phase involves an in depth analysis of the root causes of the problems and collection of information to develop solutions to those problems. This phase is regarded as most value addition from consultants side as it involves understanding the issues further by establishing timelines, processes and the information needed to be gathered to work out solution. The main idea is to discover more about the issues faced by the client and what could be helpful in addressing them. More importantly, the client has to be involved actively. Kubr (2002) considers this phase as an important one as there is a need to maintain a positive client consultant relationship, where the client must be provided feedback about the consultants progress and investigation approach to prevent any confrontation from the clients side. The diagnosis phase ends with submission of report regarding the progress on the assignment and signing off the consulting contract. The case study indicates that Timothy has gathered information about the issues by interviewing the senior management and has provided the feedback to the CEO, who has given his consent to the consultant to further analyse and design a new structure for the Business Services. Action Planning: The action planning phase is the stage where the actual solutions are prepared and proposed by the consultant. The consultant generally finds more than one solution which he proposes to the client and helps the client understand and choose the one best ones suited to their need. The consultant makes sure that any factor that might be a risk to the change implementation is recognised and addressed in advance. He also explains about the conditions that might be necessary for the solution to be implemented and about the future plans/strategies of the organisation that might be affected by the change. The consultant also puts together a plan for implementation with details of key people involved and the way the solution will be implemented. The action plans identified in this case study include the change in the management structure of the Business services where merging of departments like the marketing and the sales will address the customer needs better and reduce the conflict of interests within those departments; the implementation of CRM application will result in better demand forecasting and customer service. Implementation: It is final phase of the collaborative approach between the client and the consultant, where the actual implementation of the agreed solutions takes place. The consultant may also be actively involved in guiding the client about the continuous improvements in a case where the client feels that the action plan requires a major change in the structure and the culture of the organization; and it cannot handle the change without proper expertise or guidance of the consultant. It is evident from the action plan phase that the Business Services would require a restructuring and an introduction of a new CRM technology. This type of change could evoke resistance from the key stakeholders such as the general managers or the employees of the company. Hence, the implementation phase may require guidance of the consultant to manage the key stakeholders and align their interest with the business strategy of the OI. The crucial thing here can be the change implemented with roles and expectati ons may require proper communication to the employees and for this consultant can play important role along with the HR department for designing a proper training program to enhance employees skills to fit them in the new organizational culture. Termination: This is the final phase which marks the end of the assignment, provided the project has served its purpose as per the satisfaction of the client and the consultant, which can be evaluated at the end of the implementation phase. There can also be a room for extension of the project if the client feels there is a need for revising some part of the implementation or for expanding the scope of the project to other parts of the organisation. In this phase, the client and consultant can take a call whether the implementation has been a failure, success or something in between (Kubr, 2002). The circumstances and situation under which the client consultant relationship terminates will determine the repeat business for the consultant. In the context of the case study of the OI, it is difficult to anticipate how the current assignment of the consultant, Timothy Edwards, ended. Conclusion: The above analysis has been drawn based on the information available from the case study and the models used should not be considered one that fit all solutions as these provide a framework that can be adapted depending on the situation. References: Clampitt, P.G., DeKoch, R.J., and Cashman, T., (2000) A Strategy for Communicating About Uncertainty, Academy of Management Executive, 14(4), pp. 41-57. Cope, M. (1999). The Seven Cs of Consulting: The Definitive Guide to the Consulting Process. London: Prentice Hall. Czander, W. Eisold, K. (2003). Pyschoanalytic perspectives on organisational consulting: Transference and counter-transference. Human relations. 56(4), pp. 475-490. Doggett, A.M., (2005) Root Cause Analysis: A Framework for Tool Selection. The Quality Management Journal, 12, pp. 34-45. Hayes, J. (2007). The Theory and Practice of Change Management. Second Edition. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan Kubr, M. (2002). Management Consulting: A Guide to the Profession, 4th edition, Geneva: International Labour Office. Markham, C. (2004). The Top Consultant: Developing Your Skills for Greater Effectiveness, London: Kogan Page Schein, Edgar H. (1987). Process consultation Volume II: Lessons for managers and c onsultants. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Whittle, A. (2006). The paradoxical repertoires of management consultancy. Journal of Organisational Change Management. 19(4), pp. 424-436. Wickham, P and Wickham, L. (2008). Management Consulting: Delivering an Effective Project. Third Edition. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Managing organisational change The case of Omega Industries - Free Essay Example Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2759 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Analytical essay Level High school Did you like this example? Section-1 Doggett (2005) believes that there is always a cause behind any problem and this cause must be identified and addressed to solve the problem or else the problem may continue. So, a consultant must use the diagnostic process as the initial step to identify the actual cause of the problem (Cope, 1999). This approach of continuous probing helps a consultant to differentiate symptoms from root causes. The symptoms of problems face by OI along with the root cause(s) can be: . Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Managing organisational change: The case of Omega Industries" essay for you Create order Low moral of the management and the work force. The root causes identified here are the policies of redundancy and cost cutting and also the low confidence of workforce in the newly appointed management. Poor communication between managers. This is possibly due to the conflict of interests and lack of trust among the general mangers. Low productivity. This is due to the lack of coordination between the departments and the poor warranty handling and client handling policies. Others causes include lack of innovation in designing product(s) and poor marketing strategy. Overstocking of products. This is due to the inaccurate demand forecasting, inadequate insufficient information about customer needs and the lack of understanding about the customer needs. Fischer, which made a cascading impact on the OI and thus resulted into most of the above mentioned symptoms and their respective root causes. Much of the chaos in Business Services is because of the complex departmental structure within it. One way of handling this structure is to integrate the Sales and the Marketing departments into one department under the director of the Sales as he has got the better client contacts and who can understand and address the customer needs better. Similarly, the Parts services department can also be brought under the GM Engineering support services by which overspending budget can be controlled and the demands of the parts can be met on time. This particular integration will handle the overstocking problem as well. Another structural approach for improving the salesmarketing interface or parts-engineering support is to form cross-functional teams composed of people from the two functional areas along by rotating managers and other workforce within the dependent departments. This approach can serve two purposes; first, through job rotation, employees develop a larger network of people with in the firm that can be called on when opportunities or challenges arise and second, through immersion in different functional areas, managers can develop a better understanding of their counterparts culture, activities, constraints, and objectives. The next piece of advice would be to implement Information System such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application software across OI or especially across Business Services, where information about customers, customer interactions, procurements, inventory etc can be entered, stored and accessed by employees across departments. The data thus maintained can be analyzed to determine the customer needs and forecast demand thus helping OI to improve its services, inventory management and products. Besides improving communication and coordination across different departments within Business Services, this application software will also help in attaining better customer satisfaction and retaining existing customers. The last advice would be to stop the redundancy program, as it builds fear and insecurity and can lead to lack of coordination and individualistic approach of departments. So, to encourage cooperation and coordination the HR department needs to strengthen the rela tionships between the inter-departments, by means of Appreciative Inquiry and thus encourage people to share the best practices in the organisation (Hayes, 2007). The above mentioned advices when implemented can face some serious resistances like the resistance from affected key stakeholders; the GM Marketing and the GM Part services, who would definitely resist this change as their positions would be affected directly. This resistance can be handled by making the GM Marketing redundant as this post is not directly in touch base with customers and always depends on sales and support department to make marketing forecasts. Similar approach can be taken for the post of GM Part services, which can be handled by the GM Support services. Other key stakeholders that may also resist the change can either be made redundant or can be given roles with better incentives or roles with more responsibilities within OI or in other companies under the same parent company. According to Clampitt et. al. (2000), the most effective way of communicating change is to underscore and explore, where the individuals are empowered to generate creative ideas and alternatively listen to potential misunderstanding and unrecognized obstacles rather than being forced to adopt the ideas of management. So, for this presentations or seminars can be organised where employees can be made aware of the change and its associated benefits and can be asked about their opinions. Cross department training and development programs can also be organised by the HR department to develop the necessary skills and minimize the resistance towards the change and to make a department such as sales or marketing, aware of the functioning of other departments such as engineering support services so that each of the departments communicate with one another on a longer run. Another problem can be in the implementation of the Information system where employees such as the sales personnel w ould be least interested and have the minimum scope of using computers to access the information system. In this case these employees need to be convinced about the potential benefits of using this IS and can be given gradual training to know more about the information system. The basic idea is to involve more people in the change process by making them understand their responsibilities in contributing to the transition process and thus minimising the resistances faced by the top management. Here the need of the hour is the strong leadership and commitment from the CEO and senior management, where they should ensure that the whole change process is in line with the new strategies of the company. Section-2 Management Consulting is defined as delivering skills from outside an organisation (Markham, 2004). It is important for an external consultant like Timothy to choose an appropriate model that delivers the real value for the client organization. A good consulting model should also allow a consultant to deliver his knowledge, skills and experience in an efficient way in improving the consultancy practice. Now, in the context of the case, the initial steps towards addressing the problems are by using consultancy and therefore calls for understanding of client-consultant relationship in depth using the below models and theories. Edward Scheins (1987) three models for consulting are commonly viewed as a starting point from which client expectations can be understood and consultant roles can be defined (Wickham Wickham, 2008). These are; purchase-of-expertise, doctor-patient, and process consultation. The Purchase-of-Expertise model is one in which the client hires the consultant to bring a separate and autonomous perspective to existing issues. The client communicates the problem to the consultant and he executes a solution by using specialist knowledge (Wichkham Wickham, 2008). This model may meet immediate needs or the efforts to put structural changes into place, but will do little to sustain development or the organisation over the time. The Purchase-of-Expertise model is one in which the client hires the consultant to bring a separate and autonomous perspective to existing issues. The client communicates the problem to the consultant and he executes a solution by using specialist knowledge (Wichkham Wickham, 2008). This model may meet immediate needs or the efforts to put structural changes into place, but will do little to sustain development or the organisation over the time. The Process Consultation model is a client centred approach in which the consultant acts as a facilitator and brings his own expertise to methods for directing potenti al organisational behaviours. The consultant works with the organisation to find internal methods for resolving the issues and for implementing change, and utilising existing resources within the organisation. This process is based primarily in the ability of the organisation to sort through its needs, discover its own resources and the best methods for change, and implement changes using its own internal resources. The consultant simply acts as a catalyst directing and redirecting activities to help the organisation achieve the best outcomes based on its needs and thus making the change happen (Schein, 1987). The consultant does not push a solution to the client and it is the client who makes the ultimate choice of implementing the solution (Wickham Wickham, 2008). Reason for selecting Process consultation model: In this case study, the initial attention is paid to the client-consultant relationship where, Timothy is hired for his expertise and for guiding OI, which has less clarity about its specific issues and concerns. Timothy works with the OI management through the diagnostic and intervention stages (Czander Eisold, 2003). In the diagnostic stage Timothy gathers the data required to understand the problem by meeting and interviewing managers and finally evaluates it to understand the root cause of the problem (Cope, 1999). The consultant then uses his expertise to plan an intervention model to address the root causes of the issues faced by the OI. As there is high risk involved, OI would look for solution which involves intensive analysis and is exclusively customized to its needs and for this the process consultation model provides OI the power and flexibility to decide and take action on implementing the intervention proposed by the consultant (Whittle, 2006). Five phase Model of Management Consulting Over the years researchers suggested various models and approaches to consulting, but they all seem to be built around the five phase consulting process or cycle model (Kubr, 2002). For instance, Markham (2004) also suggested model the CONSULT delivery process with five stages; Entry, Contracting, Diagnostic, Intervention and Closure. The five phase consulting model provides a systematic phase by phase framework to consultants about how to plan their approach to a particular assignment and for the same reason this model can be associated with the case of OI. This consulting model consists of five phases; Entry, Diagnosis, Action Planning, Implementation and Termination. Entry: It is the initial phase of consulting process cycle that involves the initial meeting of the consultant with the client and the discussion about the purpose of bringing in the consultant. The consultant prepares for the first meeting by gathering information about the client, their business, history and organizational culture and structure. The client tries to apprise the consultant of the problems it is facing and the consultant does a preliminary diagnosis of the problems. According to Kubr (2002), both the client and the consultant, together decide the scope of the assignment and the client ensures that it has approached the right consultant and the consultant has the necessary expertise to deliver the results as per the clients needs. In the case study, it is evident that the consultant Timothy Edwards has been appointed and apprised of the problems of the OI. He has a fair idea regarding what the firm is trying to achieve by taking his services. Diagnosis: This phase involves an in depth analysis of the root causes of the problems and collection of information to develop solutions to those problems. This phase is regarded as most value addition from consultants side as it involves understanding the issues further by establishing timelines, processes and the information needed to be gathered to work out solution. The main idea is to discover more about the issues faced by the client and what could be helpful in addressing them. More importantly, the client has to be involved actively. Kubr (2002) considers this phase as an important one as there is a need to maintain a positive client consultant relationship, where the client must be provided feedback about the consultants progress and investigation approach to prevent any confrontation from the clients side. The diagnosis phase ends with submission of report regarding the progress on the assignment and signing off the consulting contract. The case study indicates that Timothy has gathered information about the issues by interviewing the senior management and has provided the feedback to the CEO, who has given his consent to the consultant to further analyse and design a new structure for the Business Services. Action Planning: The action planning phase is the stage where the actual solutions are prepared and proposed by the consultant. The consultant generally finds more than one solution which he proposes to the client and helps the client understand and choose the one best ones suited to their need. The consultant makes sure that any factor that might be a risk to the change implementation is recognised and addressed in advance. He also explains about the conditions that might be necessary for the solution to be implemented and about the future plans/strategies of the organisation that might be affected by the change. The consultant also puts together a plan for implementation with details of key people involved and the way the solution will be implemented. The action plans identified in this case study include the change in the management structure of the Business services where merging of departments like the marketing and the sales will address the customer needs better and reduce the conflict of interests within those departments; the implementation of CRM application will result in better demand forecasting and customer service. Implementation: It is final phase of the collaborative approach between the client and the consultant, where the actual implementation of the agreed solutions takes place. The consultant may also be actively involved in guiding the client about the continuous improvements in a case where the client feels that the action plan requires a major change in the structure and the culture of the organization; and it cannot handle the change without proper expertise or guidance of the consultant. It is evident from the action plan phase that the Business Services would require a restructuring and an introduction of a new CRM technology. This type of change could evoke resistance from the key stakeholders such as the general managers or the employees of the company. Hence, the implementation phase may require guidance of the consultant to manage the key stakeholders and align their interest with the business strategy of the OI. The crucial thing here can be the change implemented with roles and expectati ons may require proper communication to the employees and for this consultant can play important role along with the HR department for designing a proper training program to enhance employees skills to fit them in the new organizational culture. Termination: This is the final phase which marks the end of the assignment, provided the project has served its purpose as per the satisfaction of the client and the consultant, which can be evaluated at the end of the implementation phase. There can also be a room for extension of the project if the client feels there is a need for revising some part of the implementation or for expanding the scope of the project to other parts of the organisation. In this phase, the client and consultant can take a call whether the implementation has been a failure, success or something in between (Kubr, 2002). The circumstances and situation under which the client consultant relationship terminates will determine the repeat business for the consultant. In the context of the case study of the OI, it is difficult to anticipate how the current assignment of the consultant, Timothy Edwards, ended. Conclusion: The above analysis has been drawn based on the information available from the case study and the models used should not be considered one that fit all solutions as these provide a framework that can be adapted depending on the situation. References: Clampitt, P.G., DeKoch, R.J., and Cashman, T., (2000) A Strategy for Communicating About Uncertainty, Academy of Management Executive, 14(4), pp. 41-57. Cope, M. (1999). The Seven Cs of Consulting: The Definitive Guide to the Consulting Process. London: Prentice Hall. Czander, W. Eisold, K. (2003). Pyschoanalytic perspectives on organisational consulting: Transference and counter-transference. Human relations. 56(4), pp. 475-490. Doggett, A.M., (2005) Root Cause Analysis: A Framework for Tool Selection. The Quality Management Journal, 12, pp. 34-45. Hayes, J. (2007). The Theory and Practice of Change Management. Second Edition. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan Kubr, M. (2002). Management Consulting: A Guide to the Profession, 4th edition, Geneva: International Labour Office. Markham, C. (2004). The Top Consultant: Developing Your Skills for Greater Effectiveness, London: Kogan Page Schein, Edgar H. (1987). Process consultation Volume II: Lessons for managers and c onsultants. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley Whittle, A. (2006). The paradoxical repertoires of management consultancy. Journal of Organisational Change Management. 19(4), pp. 424-436. Wickham, P and Wickham, L. (2008). Management Consulting: Delivering an Effective Project. Third Edition. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.