How an Organization can Become Proactive - Assignment Example

PART 2. Analyze how an organization can become proactive if it is burdened with a past reactive posture that s, "If it aint broke, dont fix it." Formerly, organizations adhered to the rule, "If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it." But crisis managers are now strongly advising "If it isn’t broken, look for the cracks before they get too large to fix." (National Hotline Services, Inc. 2005) There is a significant difference between proactive and reactive approach in the way how an organization is used to solve its problems. As Shukla (2005) defines, organizations demonstrate reactive behavior when process improvement is a reaction to historical performance data. In reactive approach, when performance is below the baseline, the gap or deviation in the process metric needs to be analyzed for root cause so that it can be removed and performance can get back on target. So attempts to remove or replicate a deviation that occurred in the past are being made as a reaction to those changes. Shukla (2005) advises to use improvements from the reactive phase that help to create a new, improved baseline. Firstly, the cause of performance decrease should be analyzed. In the reactive state, the team looked at cause and effect. In proactive mode, attention shifts to the "likely cause" and "likely effect." Lean teams in this phase spend time shaping the future: looking for potential problems and opportunities and ways to avoid or exploit them. After the potential problem analysis, the team addresses the likely cause of a process performance decline by taking preventive actions. If, despite preventive actions, the likely cause does occur, the team is prepared for damage control with planned contingency actions. Potential opportunity analysis helps teams explore the future for better-than-planned process performance, helping them promote the likely cause so process performance exceeds expectations. They take promoting actions to capitalize on the potential positive effect. When things do go better, they are prepared to take full advantage of the opportunity. For example, a company has Support Departments which reacts on users’ complains about network performance. Reactive approach is to react on each user’s request asking him or her to wait while network be unloaded. Proactive approach in this case is to purchase and install new network equipment that is more costly and takes more time. But proactive approach advantages in strategic outlook because as a result number of users’ complains in Support Departments decreases. 3. Illustrate how an organization could use outsourcing to gain a competitive edge on competition. An organization could use outsourcing for managing network security. When this part of work is entrusted to professionals they do it in qualitative manner and for lesser money, what really gives a competitive advantage to the organization. Schweitzer (2004) writes that for some organizations, network management operations may be better served through outsourcing. Freeing up some of staffs administrative duties may merit farming out perhaps a portion of the companys network management tasks. With so many vendors now offering a plenty of services, including remote monitoring and management of networks, its not difficult to find prices that fall within a range of budgetary parameters. The outsourcing alternative can ease the sometimes perplexing burden of network management. In the end, an effective network security team will exercise a comprehensive management approach that applies both proactive and reactive elements. Individual businesses should engage knowledgeable managers to examine the needs of the company and make choices as to the best courses of action to ensure the highest level of network security available, whether via proactive or reactive means. (Schweitzer 2004) 5. Analyze the assertion that "Security is as much a human problem as a technical problem." When the personal information of hundreds of thousands of individuals comes upon swindlers, many people think that careless computer or network security is to blame or that someone should develop a new technology or application that protects the data better. Of course, it is possible to create strict security policy that protects people from themselves, but as long as people are willing to share sensitive, personal information with strangers no security manages to protect them. Bradley (2006) advises that a little education and an ounce of common sense will go much farther than snappiest of new whiz-bang security technologies could ever dream of. PART 2 5. Many organizations at least partially exhibit a "not invented here" mentality, more commonly called the NIH Syndrome, where they are loathe to accept systems that they did not "make" internally. Convince such an organization to entertain more "buy" decisions. Wikipedia assumes that in many cases, "Not Invented Here" Syndrome occurs as a result of simple ignorance, as many companies simply never do the research to know whether a solution already exists. Also common, however, are deliberate cases where the organizations staff rejects a known solution because they dont take the time to understand it fully before rejecting it; because they would have to embrace new concepts in infrastructure or terminology; because they believe they can produce a superior product; or because they would not get the creditability of using or implementing it. As a result, much effort and money is wasted on a solution that in many cases was already developed elsewhere. Firstly, it is not easy to become proficient in any new idea, but use of appropriate learning methodologies may significantly ease this process. Anyway, transition period wouldn’t be endless, so after it finishes the organization will have staff well-informed about new technology and people will be so adhere to new technology as they were used to the old one. Secondly, people may believe that they can produce a better product then outsourcers. However they should ask themselves why other companies have successful experience of outsourcing their processes and benefit from it. If outsourced do their work badly they would lose their customers and become bankrupts. Then, organizations with "Not Invented Here" Syndrome often do not trust to outsourcers. They are not sure in security because they do not have enough control over the solution. Confidence is very important issue, but I think it is possible to find outsourcers that are highly professional in security. Finally, leaders of the organization should think about efficiency. Why should they waste time, money and human resources now and wait until the solution will be developed, when they can purchase it now and benefit from the solution or technology earlier? 6. Client/Server (CS) computing has been the buzzword for the strategy of distributing computing resources to meet the business need for distributed functional processes. The CS environment, when compared to a mainframe approach, is typically more costly, more complex, and more fragile. Summarize why organizations are continuing to install such systems. Client/Server architecture is still widely spread in many organizations, although Peer-to-Peer approach becomes more and more popular. In local area network, the Client/Server model provides a convenient way to interconnect programs that are distributed efficiently across different locations. Computer transactions using the Client/Server model are very common because they are easy to track in case of need then transactions in Peer-to-Peer environment. Also, Client/Server strategy is very well investigated, a plenty of tutorials, studies and researches is produced about it. It is proved that Client/Server architecture is not the best solution in many cases but it often fits basic needs, so organizations are not interested in looking for better solutions. 7. ERP is supposed to be the conceptual representation of an organizations physical system. Where there are discrepancies, the physical system may have to change in order to implement the ERP. Assess the potential risks associated with mandatory changes to the firms physical system. It is certainly true that all application software projects involve risk. The most common risk about ERP implementation in physical system is that the project will not be on-time, within budget, and achieve planned benefits. It is not easy to find a balance between the desire to satisfy everyones functionality needs and the need to keep things simple enough to ensure success. Here a situation may occur, when the old system is not working already while new system is not working yet. Its common that many problems with a companys existing physical system are more related to inaccurate data than to faulty systems. Converting to a new system full with the latest features and functions, and then populating it with rusty, broken-down data is very common mistake of EPR implementation. PART 3 2. Although an initial high salary and subsequent salary increases are temporal motivators at best, formulate the requirements of intrinsic rewards to ensure that IT personnel remain consistently motivated. To remain consistently motivated, IT personnel should be satisfied with their work conditions, such as opportunities for professional growth, reasonable pressure and responsibility, and, of course, feeling of importance of their achievements. Person becomes highly motivated when he or she is aware of positive feedback from supervisor or customers. Therefore an organization should provide ways of receiving such feedback. Another important motivation factor is transition that helps IT personnel to fight with boredom. So HR managers should provide opportunities for personal outcomes (e.g., having job-related, transferable skills, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, recognition, and appreciation) and continuous personal learning were the main enablers of successful transition. Also person’s attitude toward acceptance of change and new technology, and their perception regarding communication with management, are the main inhibitors of successful transition. At this point, good general business environment, job environment, and corporate support and direction are the key ingredients in supporting positive personal outcomes and influenced a person’s attitude. In addition, HR managers should pay special attention to junior IT staff. Young IT workers must go through an organizational assimilation process just as people in other types of professional work. In the organization, they need to become more independent and self-motivated learners; and they need to interact closely and build relationship with other colleagues. Then as the young IT workers’ careers progress and they take on more responsibilities, they must learn to deal with deadlines, time pressure, and stress that are characteristics of IT work. 3. If you were a CIO, what types of controls would you implement to temper your staff against getting overly seduced by new technology and wanting to go out and replace old systems with it? I think the issue should be regarded more globally, because measure of innovations’ profit should be defined first. The new technology is well-taken if benefits it gives exceed costs of its implementation. This can be received from operational or financial reports: if reports show that new technology improve business processes – let it be. Sometimes there is no apparent profit from innovation immediately. In this case a plan should be set for the innovation to predict what it can give in perspective; also its compatibility with existing technologies should be investigated. So strategic planning answers question if new technology is suitable for every specific situation and only then decision about its implementation by staff should be taken. 5. Some organizations nurture a NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome where the key premise is that, if we didnt "build" it, then its no good. Assess how such an attitude is a major deterrent to the use of class libraries for software. "Not Invented Here" Syndrome can prevent an organization from use of class libraries for software due to some reasons. I think the main issue is compatibility: software developers can not be 100% sure that the new versions of the class library will be compatible with their software in a year. Secondly, software developers often lack time to familiarize with applications program interface (API) of the class library, so they are unaware of its main features. They may think that in-depth study of class library does not worth their time, and therefore acquaint them with the class library only superficially and make wrong decision about it. The least but not the last reason is lack of trust: software developers frequently do not believe that others could create something better than they can. By the way, this disadvantage concerns not only software developers, but people in many other fields and depends more on personal characteristics of individuals then on their scope of activity. References Bradley, T. (2006) Blaming Technology For Human Error. About.com. Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://netsecurity.about.com/od/newsandeditorial1/a/aatechbandaid.htm Client/server. (n.d.). WhatIs.com Definitions. Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci211796,00.html ERP Project Management Basics. (1998). Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://members.aol.com/AllenWeb/ERP_PM.html HOTLINES: PROACTIVE OR REACTIVE? (2005). National Hotline Services, Inc. Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://www.hotlines.com/article31.htm ITtoolbox ERP Knowledge Base. (n.d.). Information Technology Toolbox, Inc. Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://erp.ittoolbox.com/ Koch, C. (2006). The ABCs of ERP. International Data Group (IDG) Company. Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html Schweitzer, D. (2004). Proactive vs. Reactive: Which Network Management Approach Is Best For Your Company? Sandhills Publishing Company. Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?Article=articles/p2645/31p45/31p45.asp Shukla, A. (2005). FAT results from Lean implementation. Plant Engineering. Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://www.manufacturing.net/ple/article/CA6271645.html Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Read More