Philosophy of managing people in higher educational settings Essay

Capability to manage a team effectively is one of the main qualities which any professional seeking success needs to possess. However, the position of a leader requires many outstanding skills, and it may be very challenging at times. According to Sun Tzu, Chinese General who lived in the 5th century B. C. , â€Å"when one has all 5 virtues together: intelligence, trustworthiness, humanness, courage, sternness, each appropriate to its function, then one can be a leader† (Deal, Kennedy, 1988). Leadership means the ability to influence other people and guide them to the success. During many centuries it has been believed that the key to success in a team lies in the skills of the manager. No company can remain on top unless it has an outstanding manager who guides it into the right direction. Management of people in higher educational settings is a very challenging task due to the complexity of the field of education. Some of the general principles of management can be applied efficiently, but at the same time additional attention needs to be devoted to characteristic features which are common only for educational sphere. The task of the leader in higher educational settings is to manage the staff in such a way that all the skills which the members of the staff possess turn out applied at their maximum. This task is very complicated because â€Å"building the winning team requires more than just hiring a bunch of talented people. It means hiring people who will work well together. It means developing a shared vision and commitment. It means physically bringing people together in formal group meetings for open discussion of broad-based issues. It means encouraging positive, informal interactions between group members. It means instilling a â€Å"winning† attitude throughout the organization. It means watching for and quickly trying to reverse team-building problems such as jealousy, cynicism, and defensive behavior. † (Building a winning team. Retrieved on November 14, from source: www. businesstown. com). The most important issue in managing the team in higher educational settings is choosing the right form of motivation for them. Since all people in the staff are different, all of them need different forms of motivation. For some staff members, only money works, and they do not get motivated by any other benefits. For others, there is nothing more important than social recognition of their efforts. Other staff members will care about the possibilities of future promotion in case of their successful performance. Therefore, in order to manage the staff effectively, the first task to do is to define where the needs of employees fall in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. After some communication with the members of the team it is easy to discover what staff members are very ambitious. They have a very high need of esteem. They need to be praised for the work they do, get recognition from senior-level management, be aware about the possibilities of their future promotion, and fulfill tasks which require lots of responsibility. These staff members are very experienced, they have already made large contributions into the university’s success, and therefore they can be motivated only through getting more and more complicated tasks to fulfill. Other staff members will not be as success-oriented, and not as experienced. They can be rather knowledgeable in the field of education but they do not seek promotion because they are quite happy with their present work. Therefore, they can be motivated by money awards and praise for their work because their needs fall into the category of belonginess and love. The next step of successful staff management in higher education setting is defining relationships between staff members, and making a sociogram which identifies the types of interactions within the social network. Without the knowledge of interactions between the staff members, there is no way to manage the team effectively. In order to manage the members of the team, it is useful at times to apply the approach of influencing some members of the team through other members. It is necessary to identify the member of the team who has the strongest influence on other members because teams are usually aligned to such staff members. It is also necessary to keep up â€Å"healthy culture† in the educational setting. â€Å"A healthy culture can promote identification (who we are), legitimation (why we need to do) communication (with whom we talk), coordination (with whom we work) and development (what are the dominant perspectives and tasks)†. (Davies, 1997, p. 135). The last step of managing the team is choosing the leadership style. Such styles include â€Å"considerate, structuring, autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire and the like† (Bjerke, 1999, p. 57). Some authors determine supporting, directive, coercive, transformational leadership styles. The most efficient styles in the majority of establishments of higher education are democratic and supportive styles, but for some types of situations autocratic and directive styles might be appropriate. For example, when the faculty leader wants to set direct goals for the staff members and make them increase their performance, it can be appropriate to use directive style. The choice of the style mainly depends on the environment in the organization and the goals which it needs to achieve. Autocratic and directive styles can sometimes represent some danger of faculty leaders becoming power-oriented. When managers care only about their own power, they tend to choose those 2 styles of leadership. It is well-known that leadership styles can be oriented on the performance of the team or on the concern about staff members. The analysis of these theories is particularly important for managing staff members in educational settings. Blake and Mouton (1964) have introduced a grid in which they identified the main styles of leadership according to those 2 characteristics. Orientation on the performance of the team means that the manager is very concerned about the results which they are going to have in the end of the period, the extent to which goals will be met. Orientation on people means that the leader will pay lots of attention to maintaining trust in the company, establishing warm relations with all the employees, giving them only appropriate tasks and motivating them. Blake and Mouton have come up with several types of managers based in their grid. â€Å"Under the style referred to as ‘impoverished management’, managers concern themselves very little with either people or results and have minimum involvement in their jobs. † (Bjerke, 1999, p. 59). Such managers usually do not achieve good results because they show minimum concern about the activity of the company. â€Å"Team leaders†, on the contrary, manage to combine both concern about people and achieve great performance of the company. This type of managers cannot be accepted in education settings because it prevents the faculty staff from making large contributions to the development of the educational establishment. â€Å"Another style is management called country club management, in which managers have little or no concern for results but are concerned only for people. † (Bjerke, 1999, p. 59). Such companies might not have great results because employees will not be working to the fullest. â€Å"Autocratic task managers are concerned only with developing an efficient operation, who have little or no concern for people and who are quite autocratic in their style of leadership. † (Bjerke, 1999, p. 59). This type of manager is more favorable than the previous one, but it is also inefficient in the educational setting. In order to make the staff work efficiently, the faculty leader needs to choose the style combining both concern about staff members and concern about the performance of the team. It is very difficult to make the faculty function effectively, but this task can be achieved through the right choices of staff members’ motivation and leadership style. The field of education requires a leader with good communication skills, able to provide success-oriented policy, capable of solving all the possible problems which may arise in the team. Bibliography. 1. Alison, H. Managing people Managing Universities and Colleges Guides to Good Pratice Open University Press McGraw Hill. 2003. 2. Bjerke Bjorn. Business Leadership and Culture: National Management Styles in the Global Economy. Edward Elgar. 1999. 3. Blake, R. R. and J. S. Mouton. The Managerial Grid, Houston, TX: Gulf Publishing Company. 1964. 4. Building a winning team. Retrieved on November 14, from source: www. businesstown. com. 5. Davies, J. The evolution of university responses to financial reduction. Higher Education Management, 9(1), 127-140. 1997. 6. Deal, T. and A. Kennedy. Corporate Cultures, London: Penguin Books. 1988. 7. Garvin, David A. What makes for an authentic learning organization? Management Update: Newsletter from Harvard Business School 2, no. 6 (July 1): 7-9. 1993.

Managing people Essay

2. What mental models do you have about attending a university or college lecture? Are these mental models helpful? Could any of these mental models hold you back from achieving the full benefits of the lecture? To achieve our goals with some degree of predictability and sanity, road maps are used. Road maps (mental models): are internal representations of the external world. Consist of visual or relational images in our mind, such as what the classroom looks like or Conceptually what happens when we submit an assignment late. Rely on it to make sense of our environment through perceptual grouping Models fill in the missing pieces, including causal connection among events Example: mental model about attending a class lecture or seminar assumptions or expectations about where the instructor and students seat themselves in the room, how they ask and answer questions Create a mental image of a class in progress 1st class of the semester: would expect that lecturers would go through the topic guide and what is expected outcome of this topic. Expect that lecturer would start the discussion of the tutorials before going through the lecture. An important role in sense making, yet they also make it difficult to see the world in different ways. Example: accounting professionals tend to see corporate problems in terms of accounting solutions marketing professionals see the same problem from a marketing perspective Blocks our recognition of new opportunities How do we change it? Developed through several years of experience and reinforcement. To constantly question them and ask ourselves about the assumption we make. Working with people from diverse background, cultures and different area of expertise will make us realise our own assumption These assumptions may hold me back. If I presume that the first lecture would be on going through the topic guide when there is a tutorial and I did not prepare. Or when I ought to have read the chapter before attending the first lesson so that I am able to participate. 3. Do you define yourself in terms of the university or college you attend? Why or why not? What are the implications of your answer for your university? We define ourselves to a large extent by the groups to which we belong or have an emotional attachment. Social identity theory explains the dynamics of social perception – how we perceive others. Influenced by three activities in the process of forming and maintaining our social identity Categorisation Categorising people into distinct group Remove that person’s individuality and instead see them as a prototypical representative of the group ‘Australians’. Allows you to distinguish Australians from people who live in NZ, HK and other countries in that region Homogenisation Tend to think that people within each group are very similar to each other Australians collectively have similar attitudes and characteristics Every individual is unique but we tend to lose sight of this fact when thinking about our social identity and how we compare to people in other social groups Differentiation Fulfils our inherent need to have a distinct and positive self-convept. We do more than categorise people and homogenise them Differentiate groups by assigning more favourable characteristics to people in our groups than to people in other groups It’s often subtle but can escalate into a ‘good-guy-bad-guy’ contrast when groups are in conflict with each other â€Å"Hello-kitty† people 6. Describe a situation in which you used behaviour modification to influence someone’s behaviour. What specifically did you do? What was the result? 7. Why are organisations moving toward the use of experiential approaches to learning? What conditions are required for success? Another way that employees learn is through direct experience Most tacit knowledge and skills are acquired through experience as well as observation. Begin when we engage with the environment; then reflect on the experience and form theories about how the world around us works Most important ingredient is a strong learning orientation within the organisation and its employees. People with a global mindset have a strong learning orientation that they welcome new learning opportunities, actively experiment with new ideas and practices, view reasonable mistakes as a natural part of the learning process and continuously question past practices. Encourage employees to question long held assumptions or mental models and to actively ‘unlearn’ practices that are no longer ideal

Micro economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Micro economics - Essay Example (Worker`s compensation, web). Compensation of an employee who has died as a result of the company`s negligence, can be collected by the widow or other family members who were directly dependant on the employee. Employers are required to pay into the compensation once a month. Employees are not required to pay anything for the compensation fund and therefore, the employers cannot charge it to the employee`s wage. A lawyer is obliged to give clear advice keeping in mind the core values as well as the rules of the company. The advice should also be in the interests of the company. if the company has an employee compensation fund, then the family of the deceased cannot sue the company as long as they get compensation. Because the employee was killed due to the company`s negligence it is evident that the compensation for the dependants of the deceased employee should be enough so as to support them. For the spouse, the company should give twice the amount of the pension which the employee would have received if they were completely disabled (Labor law, Web). This should be paid as a lump sum amount and along with this, almost 30% of the employee`s monthly wage should be paid on a monthly basis if there is no other source of income for the spouse. As the company`s negligence resulted in the death of this employee, it is the responsibility of the company to support the family of the employee. Compensation should also be given for other dependant members of the employee such as children, parents etc. 10% of the employee`s wage should be given to the children until they reach the age of 18. Other dependants, if they were fully dependant on the employee, should be given the same amount as the spouse. If they were dependant partially, then a one-time payment should be made according to their level of dependence. In all this, it should be kept in mind that the total compensation paid should not be more than 75% of the employee`s wage because the company has to

Sports Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sports - Essay Example For example, the 100 Metres race is known to be dominated by black people. White people shy away from it because they assume that they do not have the energy to run as fast as the blacks do. On the other hand, white people dominate swimming more than the black people do. White people are known to spend most of their time in water. This creates the perception to blacks that whites are best at swimming, and other races in the sport cannot replace them. This essay will explain the effects of race in sports, and how it affects the performance of participants in different fields of sports. Most people and participants know the effect of race on sports. In various universities in the USA, there are certain sports that are mostly practised only by people of a certain racial identity. This has a lot to do with the economic condition of people who belong to the African American community; which is historically underprivileged also due to preconceived notions and prejudices. There are many rea sons for this, the primary one being the historical one where they had access to formal education for a short period due to slavery. Even today, there are many prejudices that are associated with race in the minds of people of all races. Sport is seen as one of the main ways African youths can escape the poverty of the places they were born. For the eradication of such beliefs, education is considered as the best remedy. People like Booker T. Washington (Washington, 2006) also suggested this. There are, however, problems that have occurred during the implementation of this policy. Many African Americans secure admissions to good colleges because of their skills in sports, and this often makes them to neglect other aspects like their education. Due to the oppressive circumstances, they have to go through; many see this as the only avenue that is open. This discussion is about those sections of the African American community that is economically underprivileged, and not those that hav e achieved a high social status in their lives. The importance of this difference must be understood, and affirmative governmental action should be taken to account for the differences that are engendered by class distinctions, while at the same time being aware of the handicaps that racial oppression has created in the society. Interest in sports has also to do with history and the challenge that the African American community took up for attempting to rival the other races that had oppressed them for long. Sadly, this took on the form of a machismo that had the corollary of leading to the oppression of African American women at the hands of African American men. It is important to look at this lack of strategic essentialism, in an analysis of the importance of sports in the development of certain unhealthy social trends amongst people of the African American community. Sport has led to the achievement of many laurels for the United States of America. However, it has led to the pol arisation of several communities based on essentials that has stemmed from historic stereotypes and inequalities. In Stuck in the shallow End: â€Å"Education, Race, and Computing, UCLA researcher† Margolis Jane outlines the history of swimming in the USA to show how blacks have been affected by inadequate access to swimming facilities and lessons. She asserts â€Å"In most cases of discrimination, typecasts and systems of beliefs about dissimilar ethnic gender groups genetic makeup and

Teaching learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Teaching learning - Essay Example They normally fight within the class for no good reason whilst the teacher is teaching thus disrupting and bothering other prevailing classmates by throwing papers towards the students, pulling the female classmate’s hair The teacher ought to alter the strategy in order to curb and advance these students behaviors. Nevertheless, prior to the start of the class, the teacher ought to clearly and directly tell the students concerning the new classroom regulations. Moreover, the teacher outlines the consequences of fighting within the class, harassing the classmates and general misbehaving. The rules should to be written on piece of paper and hang them on an obvious place within the classroom wall. Subsequently, the teacher ought to choose a noticeable signal, which could be executed in case the teacher notices any misbehaving such as turn the classroom light steps off for few seconds. The teacher will not require any additional material for this signal. I think in case the teacher executes this signal consistently within the class, the students will comprehend it unconsciously. Since the lesson is about science, the teacher can utilize easy practical in

BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT - Essay Example As a far as being and achiever is concerned, I consider myself one since I see life as a set of goals that need to be fulfilled and as such whenever I complete a task I feel that I have achieved something no matter how small. Lastly, I am a restorer because I always derive pleasure and satisfaction from patching things, situations and even people. This is influenced by my positivism since whenever I come across a situation that could be made better; I almost always try my utmost to remedy it. While the test may have indicated that am an includer, I do not think that is very descriptive of me since I tend to prefer to run projects on my own rather than as part of a team. While I do include people in them, when it comes to their management, I end up trying to be the one to run point because I am a bit of a perfectionist. In the past, teachers and even friends have been full of praise about my positivism, I remember one of my teacher once told me that my glass is always half full and I should influence my colleagues to be as positive. Whenever my siblings or friends are stressed, sometimes by academics or life issues such as relationship they often seek me out since they know I will help them see the best in such situations. This has also been very useful to me personally since, as a student, I frequently used my positivism to motivate myself to take on complicated projects that others did not want to tackle. I often view challenges as opportunities to make myself a better person rather than inconvenient situations that should be avoided. As a result, I have found myself exceling and standing out, not because I am better than others are but because I am willing to try what they refuse to handle. Being an achiever as well as a positivist is often instrumental in helping one achieve success in most of the things they set out to do (Clear). In many cases, I make small short term goals which I gradually and consistently work on combining the small

Macroeconomic analysis of France Research Paper

Macroeconomic analysis of France - Research Paper Example This has been accredited to the global financial crisis that has affected Finance as well; although it is difficult to identify the exact nature and extent of impact that the financial crisis had had on GDP (Banque De France, 2008). There are other factors that influence gross domestic product of a country. These include trade balance (exports and imports), public debt, consumption, expenditure and savings in the economy. The above figures show that there has been continuous growth in imports for the country but it is not matched with growth in exports. As a result, the trade deficit has been increasing over the years. Imports for 2008 were almost 33% of GDP; whereas exports were 30.36% of GDP. This has also affected the reducing growth in the GDP. As per the latest report published by INSEE, the consumer price index (CPI) for all households, which is the measure generally used to determine inflation, was 1% in March 2009, as opposed to 0.8% last year which shows an increase of 0.2% (INSEE, 2009). The increase in the consumer price index from 2008 was mainly due to the fact that prices for clothing and footwear increased due to the winter season. Although their effect was somewhat compensated due to the decrease in prices of communication services, energy and transport services (INSEE, 2009). As a general rule, the greater the consumption by government, the higher will be the economic activity in the country; thus leading to higher GDP. Government consumption for France over last three years is shown in the following table (OECD, 2009): The above table shows that government consumption has been growing at a constant rate for the last three years. However, considering the financial crisis, the government consumption growth rate is expected to decline in 2009 by 0.8% (absolute amount of government consumption in 2009 is expected to be 429.2 billion Euros). Moreover, government consumption in 2010 is expected to increase by 0.7% of 2009 (OECD,

Major project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Major project - Essay Example nt, sexual abuse, neglect, and exploitation that results in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, development or dignity† (Child maltreatment. 2008). The statistics about the issue of child abuse is alarming and calls for effective campaign against the victimisation of children. â€Å"Each week, child protective services (CPS) agencies throughout the United States receive more than 50,000 reports of suspected child abuse or neglect† (Iannelli 2007). According to a study which inspected the differences in annual health care costs between women with and without histories of abuse, came to the conclusion that â€Å"childhood abuse and neglect histories were reported by 42.8% of the women in this HMO sample (sexual abuse: 18.4%; physical abuse: 14.2%; emotional abuse: 24.1%; emotional neglect: 21.1%; physical neglect: 12.2%), with about half of these women meeting severity criteria for more than one type of maltreatment† (Walkeret al 1999, p. 609-613). The project under consideration chiefly aims at the campaign against child abuse, by means of advertisement, through the effective media of Television which has a wider reach to the larger sections of the society. Let us remember the following facts. â€Å"98. 5 percent of U.S. households have at least one television set,† â€Å"90% of U.S. households have two or more TV sets,† â€Å"87% of U.S. households have at least one VCR or DVD player,† â€Å"The average U.S. home has the TV on more than 51 hours a week.† (Obviously, the TV is on many more hours a week than each family member spends watching it.) (The Social Impact of Television. 2007). Apart from the great social purpose, the project has a higher possibility of success and of expansion of the business among the cause-oriented groups and establishments due, mainly, to the social nature of the issue. The foremost requirement of the project is the establishment of an efficient project team comprising of a director, production assistant, scriptwriter,

Operation Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 2

Operation Management - Essay Example Thirdly, Maielli (2005) states that the plant was aimed at addressing persistent industrial conflict. In establishing this plant, 1000 knowledge workers participated in crafting the agreement that led to the creation of the new plant. As a leading objective, the new plant was intended to address union and company industrial conflict. Besides, the existing plants had continuously deteriorated the quality of the products, the management, therefore, set this new plant with an objective of acting as a benchmark in establishing quality production. The main goal was to foster quality, expand production, and end industrial conflicts with the unions. In addition, the objective driving this new plant was to restore a cognitive and institutional order. Traditionally, the car manufacturer had suffered a huge industrial unrest, in establishing the new plant the focus was establishing an industry based on realigning industrial processes and put under management controlled. Moreover, the objective was to streamline company operations with a view of setting car manufacturing strategy driven by astute institutional order driven by consumers’ intention of improving quality and expanding production. Lastly, Melfi plant objective was to establish organizational turn-around that would revamp production, establish quality and promote industrial growth (Maielli 2005). The design of the Melfi plat appeared to have been substantially affected by previous experience with automation and robotics in a number of ways. The Melfi plant was significantly influenced by Post-Fordism ideas of extensive production and organizational restructuring to meet the industrial dynamics. Post-Fordism reflects a move to expand quality production; the largest production plants established during the 1970s and 1980s were driven by this industrial ideology (Seitz &

Cross-cultural Training for Expatriate Managers Essay Example for Free

Cross-cultural Training for Expatriate Managers Essay The emergence theories of charismatic and transformational leadership have formed our understanding of these topics in the past decade. While the terms charisma and transformational leadership have often been interchanged, Bass (1990) clarifies that charisma forms a part of transformational leadership. Within Bass’s approach, transformational leadership includes charisma (providing a vision and a sense of mission and raising follower’s self-expectations), intellectual stimulations (assisting employees emphasize rational solutions and challenge old assumptions), and individualized consideration (developing employees and coaching). Furthermore, Bass (1990) emphasized that transformational leadership also goes beyond transactional leadership (or contingent reward such as the exchange of rewards for efforts) in elevating leaders and helping followers achieve higher levels of organizational functioning. Hence with an increased level of interest in conceptual framework of transformational leadership, several studies have documented the benefits and importance of changing leadership styles. Koh et al. (1995) study show that there is a significant correlation between transformational leadership facets and organizational functioning. In fact, the study shows that subordinates’ satisfaction with their supervisors is associated with the extent which supervisors manifest transformational leadership. In addition, several researches suggest the importance of transformational leadership as a precursor to some aspects of financial performance (Howell and Frost 1989, Howell and Avolio 1993). Ultimately, the significance of transformational leadership in an organization cannot be adequately understood without comprehending how changing leadership styles is both possible and likely to result in changes in subordinates’ perceptions, attitudes, or performance. Barling et al.’s (1996) research suggests that an effective training program on developing transformational leadership at different organizational levels can increase an employee’s morale, commitment, and overall performance. Barling et al.’s (1996) study also extends prior researches (Kirkpatrick and Locke 1996, Howell and Frost 1989) suggesting that there is strong positive correlation between transformational leadership, commitment, and financial performance. In line with this, the case of United Motors Company (UMC) suggests developing the company culture to better respond to the market needs. As such, one of the goals of H. Arthur Grommet was to develop and to hone leadership skills at different managerial levels. Because Mr. Grommet had inherited the most conservative and bureaucratic management in the industry, he organized a management traineeship program wherein management trainees were recruited from top business schools in the US, and selection from internal management to participate in the training program was also done. The program, â€Å"LeaderMex† was then developed with the mission to identify, train, and monitor UMC’s managers who have strong performance records and the desire to work for their new subsidiary in Mexico. The high-profile program indicates that participants will assume positions with high responsibility and is a â€Å"fast-track† program in identifying potential leaders within the company. Individuals who qualify for the program are expatriated to Mexico and undergo rotations within at least two corporate divisions from three to five years. After which, the employees are promoted to higher positions after two years upon return to the US. While the LeaderMex program is aimed at identifying internal leaders within the company, Human Resources has noted numerous problems that have faced by expatriate managers. At the start, there was no human relations program in place. Managers undergo a three day seminar on labor law and complete a language course before going to Mexico. However, as human relations realize that language alone is not a barrier, the organization recognized the need for a specific training on cultural awareness and the effect of cultural differences on employee attitudes and performance. In response to the problems, a â€Å"cultural awareness† training program has been developed for managers prior to their relocation and assignment to Mexico. A series of trainings were developed for managers to understand how to work in different cultural environment and in how to handle human relations problems that may arise in the course of operations in Mexico. Top management has recommended the following goals for the training program design: (1) introducing managers to the cultural differences between the United States and Mexico, (2) presenting some typical problems American managers face in that company as well as solutions to the problems, and (3) reducing the amount of time needed to adapt to managing in Mexico. Top management has assigned the Human Resources staff members, and possibly using the services of external consultant, in conducting the training program. The value of the â€Å"cultural awareness† program in this case cannot be overemphasized. UMC’s move to set-up a subsidiary in Mexico only presents the increased internationalization and interpersonal cross-cultural contact within the company. In an effort to regain competitiveness in the global automotive industry, the need for UMC to develop the requisite skills in its employees to work within diverse cultures has become an important component in its strategy. Moreover, as UMC has created the LeaderMex program to expatriate leaders in order to build and integrate the technology and culture of the new subsidiary, UMC must provide support functions for expatriate leaders in the new subsidiary. As such, a number of studies advocate cross-cultural training as a means of facilitating the expatriate’s ability to adjust to the new environment (Brislin 1981; Landis and Brislin 1983; Mendenhall and Oddou 1986; Tung, 1987). The need for the support structures in training for the expatriate program can be seen in the cost of an expatriate assignment. According to the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) survey in 2002, a three year expatriate assignment for an employee with a $75,000 to $100,000 base salary costs an employer $1 million total. Moreover, the cost of a poor staffing decision could range from $200,000 to $1.2 million (the figure only includes identifiable costs associated with compensation, training, development, etc.), and the rate of expatriate failures[1] ranges from 10% to 45%. The cost of an expatriate assignment, therefore, demonstrates how measurement and evaluation of the assignments are crucial for companies. Ultimately, the lack of necessary preparation, HR assistance and appropriate support for repatriation is the culprit for expatriates’ failure. In fact, the lack of understanding on the different dimensions of national culture in Mexico can lead to expatriates failures. Hostede (1993) identified the five dimensions of national culture as follows: (1) individualism-collectivism[2], (2) uncertainty avoidance[3], (3) masculinity-feminity[4], (4) power distance[5], and (5) time orientation[6]. Awareness of these dimensions will help develop cross-cultural preparation programs that include meaningful information regarding the culture the expatriates will find themselves working in. In addition, Minehan (2004) suggests that US expatriates in Mexico should understand cultural dimensions in four aspects. First, American assignees need a real understanding of the relationship between the two nations, Mexico and the U.S. In most cases Mexican colleagues will have a lot more knowledge of the U.S. than vice versa. Second, Americans are perceived to be arrogant and inflexible. For Mexicans, relationships are paramount. People in Mexico obey people, not rules. In the US, people obey rules, not people. Third, language proficiency may not necessarily be a requirement in conducting business; nevertheless, proficiency in Spanish can help assignees forge and develop interpersonal relationships. Speaking the language goes a long way in helping the expatriate gain respect among colleagues. Fourth, crime rates is a serious issue in Mexico, and expatriates must be willing to adapt to whatever security measures are required to keep them safe. Understanding these key aspects of Mexico’s culture and history can go a long way in establishing good working relationships in the new environment. While the content of the training program should highlight and assess the US expatriates understanding of Mexican culture and history, the training program should undergo different phases in the process. Noe (2002) suggest that the training program should have three phases: Phase 1 involves the pre-departure training, Phase 2 involves the on-site training, and Phase 3 is on the repatriation training. The pre-departure training should involve employees learning the language and an orientation in the new country’s culture and customs. Noe (2002) suggest that the type of training most suitable would be language training, cultural awareness and sensitivity training, and daily living training. Language training can be conducted in a classroom type setting, videos, or an interactive learning through conversations. Cultural awareness and sensitivity training aims to familiarize expatriates with cultural attitudes, communication styles, and cultural assumptions of the community. It also introduces the expatriates on the core cultural values, bias, and stereotypes that visitors need to be aware of. Daily living training includes providing expatriates with information about schools, housing, recreation and sports, shopping, transportation, utilities, banking, and health care facilities in the country. The on-site training involves continued orientation to the host country and its customs and cultures through formal programs or through a mentoring relationship. The type of training suggested by the Bureau of National Affairs’ Human Resources Library includes continued language training, orientation, and mentoring. It is advisable that every employee sent overseas for training has a person who is responsible for well-being and is two levels above them in the corporation. That person is tasked with ensuring that the offshore employee is kept in the loop and comes home periodically for meetings or just to hang out. In addition, the continued orientation to the host country through a mentor both for the expatriate and his/her family is a must during the adjustment process. It is important to maintain an active communication and provide company newsletters to expatriates as well. The repatriation prepares employees for return to the home country. It aims to reduce stress level and anxiety when they return. It is important to continue mentoring in the process and to organize career planning discussions with the expatriate. Repatriation phase is important and valuable to the company as expatriates have been equip with a good understanding of the global marketplace having been immersed in the different market. Expatriates also bring a global vision to day-to-day company practices. More importantly, they can be crucial members of international task forces and if left â€Å"un-valued†, they can become significant assets to competitors. The three phases are important in the overall training-program design and maximizing the return on investment of training-program. Nonetheless, it is important to note that while the LeaderMex program goal is to improve its market position by integrating the new subsidiary to UMC’s, the key of ensuring a sound global business is building a solid infrastructure with local talent. In the end, outstanding global organizations will hire the outstanding local people in every business around the world. LeaderMex will ultimately play an important role in the initial stages of building a company in a foreign location, but in the long run, a qualified, well-trained group of local managers will be the key factor to success. And, the reason for the development local managers can be because of the high costs associated with sending parent country nationals to foreign country with a high failure rate. Other benefits of developing local talents include local manager’s knowledge of the local market and business practices, cultural preferences, and local connections (Hsieh and Lavoie 1999). References Barling, J, Weber, T, and Kelloway K. (1996). Effects of Transformational Leadership Training on Attitudinal and Financial Outcomes: a Field Experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology 81 (6): 827-832. Bass, BM (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, 18(3): 19-36. Bass, BM and Avolio, BJ (1990). Transformational leadership development: Manual for the multifactor leadership questionnaire. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. The Bureau of National Affairs’Human Resources Library. (2000). Preparing Expatriates for Global Assignments. Corporate Leadership Council (1999). Effective Repatriation Strategies. Corporate Leadership Council (2001). Cultural Training for Expatriates. Hofstede, G. (1993). Cultural Constraints in Management Theories. Academy of Management Executive, 7, 81-94. Howell, JM and Frost PJ (1989). A laboratory study or charismatic leadership. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 43: 243-269. Hsieh, T. and Lavoie, J. (1999). Think global, hire local. McKinsey Quarterly. Joinson, C. (2002). Save thousands for expatriate. 47, 7. Kirkpatrick, SA, and Locke EA (1996). Direct and indirect effects of three core charismatic leadership components on performance and attitudes. Journal of Applied Psychology 81:36-51. Koh, WL, Steers, RM, and Terborg JR (1995). The effects of transformational leadership on teacher attitudes and student performance in Singapore. Journal of Organizational Behavior 16: 319-333. Mercer, W.M. (2000). Expatriates Risk Management Survey. Minehan, M. (2004). Prepping U.S. Employees for Mexican Success. SHRM Global Forum. Noe, R.A. (2002). Employee Training and Development. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. SwaakR.A. Expatriate Failures. Executive Placement International Human Resources. Tarelli, E. (2003). How to Transfer Responsibilities to Local Nationals. SHRM Global Forum. [1] Expatriate failure is defined as â€Å"employees who return home before completing their assignments† [2] Individualism-collectivism describes the degree to which people act as individuals rather than as members of a group. [3] Uncertainty avoidance refers to the degree to which people prefer structure rather than unstructured situations [4] Masculinity-feminity refers to the extent to which the culture values behavior considered traditionally masculine (competitiveness) or feminine (helpfulness) [5] Power distance refers to expectations for unequal distribution of power in a hierarchy [6] Time orientation refers to the degree to which a culture focuses on the future rather than the past and present.

Creating an Efficient IT Infrastructure

Creating an Efficient IT Infrastructure Richard Lecator 1 Business Requirements 1.1 Project Overview Since the firm works on web analytics and effective qualitative reportage. The project assist of software used by the firm that enables it to have high quality, data collection that is very effective that starts in minutes without any necessity of additional programming. 1.2Background including current process The company is known for its dominant role in the collection and analysis of data. The firm has been operational for a duration almost equaling two years and has a total of approximate 20 employees, where four have been delegated to the IT department. The firm is further able to collect native and email data from almost all the electronic sources, with the inclusion of the individual computers, storage devices for mobile media, backup tapes, networks belonging to the companies, and the mobile devices for personal use. This shows that the company is well equipped to manage almost all of the devices. 1.3 Scope 1.3.1 Scope of Project The scope of this project should be controlled through the following tips: Through making sure that the project team, the stakeholders, the business leaders, as well as everybody else involved understanding the scope of the project. This can be achieved through keeping on reinforcing what it is throughout the project life cycle. The second tip involves making sure that the project team understands how to identify a scope change when they see it and to be able to answer appropriately and correctly back to the business users. This means they should be able to answer all queries relating to every single instant of the project. They should not answer questions with NO but try to find solutions for different issues regarding the project and bring back the best results to the project manager. The third tip is communication, which involves managing the communications of the project through managing the expectations of what the project is going to deliver regarding scope; this is an important part of the project plan. This also involves making sure that there is continuous communication and there is effective communications plan to manage scope changes. Data warehousing involves the process of designing how data is stored for the goal of improving reporting and analysis (Sinha, 2011). Data warehouse specialists ensure that various stores of data are related and connected to each other both physically as well as conceptually. An organizations data is usually stored in some databases. To be able to analyze the broadest range of data, each of the databases needs to be connected in some way. This implies that the data within them need a way of being related to other relevant data and that the physical databases themselves have a connection so their data can be viewed at together for reporting and analysis purposes. Data analytics can be utilized to examine whether a database is working as projected. With the information acquired from the analytics, the database administrators can establish which areas of the warehousing are accepted and which areas of their site are not accepted by the users. Analytics, therefore, enables the database designer to improve the user experience; analytics is a core aspect of this project implementation and adoption (Ohlhorst, 2013). Interfaces and cloud computing are key to the company growth due to the rapid involving technological world. The virtualization of databases through cloud computing is a key concept since it enhances security by avoiding system failure and improved disaster recovery techniques. Outsourcing and off-shoring needs potentially offer greater and wider benefits. Complex strategies in this project can be outsourced. Virtualization technologies such as cloud computing and security issues which are core in the project can be outsourced. Security is a major part of this project since failure to implement good security measures would mean that the company will not grow as speculated and therefore lowering its competitive edge. Therefore the project plan should lay down the security measures to be implemented so that the Wiggly Corporation can implement a secure database system. The necessary resources for this project include analytics software for collecting the relevant data, database management system for managing the databases, and knowledgeable staff to manage key dockets of the project management. The staff members may include Chief Technology Officer (CTO) who is responsible for ensuring the throughput, speed, accuracy, availability, and reliability of the relational databases and Chief Security Officer (CSO) who is responsible for ensuring the security of the database. 1.3.2 Constraints and Assumptions The project should have well-defined constraints regarding who has access to what resources; for example, the database administrator should have different login credentials from other users. Assumptions have been made in defining the scope, objectives and approach in this case, are that the data collected is of both of qualitative and quantitative measures. 1.3.3 Risks There are various risks that exist within the implementation and deployment of this project which may include the following: The lack of awareness for security policy in the user domain; this risk emerges from intentional malicious activities within the workstation domain through unauthorized user access. Weakness in installed software and malicious software introduces vulnerabilities. Unauthorized network access, transmitting private data which is unencrypted, or spreading malicious software. Exposure and unauthorized access of internal resources to the public, which may lead to loss of productivity due to internet access, denial of service attacks, or brute-force attacks on the organizational network infrastructure. 1.3.4 Scope Control Scope control is apprehensive of the factors that contribute to scope changes and therefore aims at ensuring that the scope changes are positive. Scope control determines whether the scope change has taken place and managed the changes in the case that they occur. For scope control to succeed, it must be systematically incorporated with other control processes which include time control, risk control, and quality control (Martin, 2008). The aspect of scope control is made up of measuring the extent into which development towards goals and objectives is being accomplished, the evaluation of the possible reactions to any deviations, as well as the correcting any hostile trends. 1.3.5 Definition of Terms (if applicable) Project Goal This is the objective of the Project. Project scope This involves defining the activities that are involved so as to achieve the project goal. The risk assessment Defined regarding the probability of project occurrence and the negative cost impact of project outcomes. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) This involves breaking down the project activities so as to plan for time and other resources. Functional Point Analysis (FPA) This would be extremely useful in managing the change of scope of the project, communicating functional requirements, as well as measuring productivity. References Sinha, A. K. (2011). Data warehousing. Indianapolis, IN Prompt Publications. Martin, P. K., Tate, K. (2008). Getting started in project management. New York: Wiley. Ohlhorst, F. (2013). Big data analytics: Turning big data into big money. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley Sons.