University and Its Core Competences - Essay Example

of the Question 4    “One is much like any other”. a.)Critically appraise the above statement with particular reference to the concept of Core Competences.                                                                                          (15 marks) University, as a learning institution, must fundamentally have core competences in instruction, administration and research. Such meant that universities must be built with human resources with educational degrees and variegated expertise or skills which will be academically transferred to its students or learners. Its administration must be imbued with capability to manage an educational institution; equipped with technology and competence for instruction to impart knowledge and skills to students; and conduct community research for communities’ sustainable development. b) In the case of a university of your choice, state what you believe to be their core competences and how they show themselves to their several stakeholders.  (15 marks) In the pursuit of its mission, all universities must be committed to holistic development of human being and to uphold truth, virtue, character formation, personal integrity and academic excellence. All universities for that matter must have its vision, mission and statement of purpose. They must all have competencies in administration, instruction, research and extension services. This is true to all universities who are mandated to follow and maintain accredited standards and rules that are set by government to ensure that they will perform and function in accordance to constitutional, legal and executive orders. Universities, as center for excellence, should not only be perceived of its educational services but also as a melting pot for tourism, sports, arts, humanities and culture. It’s a social structure which helps the country develop human resources to contribute for development, peacebuilding, understanding an appreciation of diversity, and as resource-engine for national growth. The measure of its performance achievement is the number of students who passed and top the bar, government licensure examinations, and its contribution to social developments through research and extension of services. The academe’s competencies provide an integrated approach and system for quality education to promote national identity, cultural consciousness and moral integrity. Graduates of these universities are human resource supply to required regional and national manpower for national development. It must also pioneer in research and extension to lead economic upliftment of communities so that people will lead superior lives. In addition to its traditional function, universities should promote and accelerate integration of graduates to the mainstream of national body politics. Hence, it must also actuate as tool for national policy formulation in addition to its traditional function as an institution of higher learning. Question 5 George Hull is the Chief Executive of a growing industrial company developing and marketing its own products for the brush making machinery, government defense and mobile phone industries in UK. Until now, Hull has organised the company on Functional lines but is having doubts that this structure will serve his new strategy for growth in each market sector. a. What is a Functional organisation and what advantages and disadvantages do you believe this structure possesses when looking to further grow the business. (10 marks) Functional organization emphasizes the role of top positions throughout the business structures to deal with business’ problems and its functional authority restricts itself to guide all departments to ensure performance quality and uniformity in its operations. Often authorities are specialists appointed to manage relevant or key positions. For instance, a managing director or marketing director is designated to direct and lead subordinates in that specific area of the organization. Subordinates simply follow orders and receive orders. Functional Organization divides business operations into operations, finance, marketing and personal relations. It’s maybe a complex form of administration but such focus on specific functional area gave specialists an ample authority to decide on focal performances throughout that specific enterprise. The advantage of functional organization is that there is specialization of better division of labor, hence specialization of function and its consequential benefit. There is also effective control in management as mental function is dissociated form manual functions; check and balance allowed the authority within certain limits and the specialists can provide an assessment of performance of various sections. Since specialists are limited to function on its specific domain only, it is expected that greater efficiency is achieved. Specialization is also perceived with standardized facilities, the organization can engage in production at the maximum with economical costs. Moreover, specialists are imbued with expertise and knowledge that will facilitate control and supervision. The disadvantage of functional organization is that functional system is confusing when applied to low levels since its can create coordinative problems, hence, may result to confusion. Senior officers are maybe too overburdened with responsibilities and in the process could overlook strategic issues. There is also difficulty in coping with diversity and employees from varied cultures may have problems in adaptability. Such lack of coordination weakens disciplinary control and may cause conflict among staffs as they may not agree on certain issues. It is also costly to maintain specialist, as their salary is relatively high. b.If Hull were to consider a Divisional Organisation, what implications would this have for his own ability to consider future strategic options? Use a diagram to illustrate your answer (10 marks)                                           Divisional Organisation manages the business structure by focusing in three areas: product, market, and geographic concerns. Mr. Hull’s strategic option would be to divide employees’ designation in accordance to mentioned structures. Product structure gathers employees together based on specific products produced by the company. They will be considered as one division. Market structure, on the other hand, group employees based on market where products developed are being sold. For instance, employees can be grouped for garment marketing or for information technology marketing. In this system, the sales and consumer service will work together to reach targets and objectives. Meanwhile, the geographic structure will gather employees together in accordance to the marketing area, say, in United States or in India or in Europe. As such, Hull will group his employees either by product structure: brush production machinery, government defense facilities production and mobile phone production. He may also group his employees in accordance to his business area of operations or based on his marketing plans and management. Hull will make strategic decisions that will be fundamentally considerate of business relevant ranks, on criteria and potential scenarios that is reflective of financial returns and associated risks. Hulls business structure can be illustrated using this structure: (c.) In what circumstances do you believe that a Matrix Structure may serve the needs of an organisation better than other approaches? Use examples to illustrate your answer. ( 10 marks) Matrix structure is a system that group’s employees by both function and product, thus combine the best of separate or dissociated structures. The matrix structures organize functions as departments of sales, customer service, and accounting. This is may be complex since this is detailed with systems and coordination. This structure encouraged managers to be involved in decision making and thus develops their maturity in confronting business problems and concerns. To cite examples, the system is practiced mostly by corporations with operations offshore or that of multinational corporations with wide geographic scale of operations. Question 6 (a) When managing a portfolio of Strategic Business Units (SBUs) explain the importance of the process of Corporate Parenting, giving examples to illustrate your answer.       (10 Marks) Corporate parenting is valuable because it can provide direct financial and operational guidelines to subsidiaries. Parent company can do further collaboration, expansion, education or capability strengthen, intervention, provide direction and enforce coercion to subsidiaries to meet targets and goals. It can also support when business operation is confronting difficulties and changes. Parent companies exercises control over subsidiaries and may share authorities in decentralize or centralized system. Parent company can facilitate devolution. Risk are spread and shared by parent and subsidiary companies, thus easing burdens.                                                                                            (b) In what circumstances do you believe that an SBU may no longer ‘fit’ into the portfolio of company activities? Explain using examples. (10 marks) Strategic Business Unit or SBU is perceived as an external market where business managers conduct strategic planning based on products and markets. All businesses cannot operate without clear business portfolio that details its plans, objectives, targeted outcomes and sustainability measures. These serve as the control, measure and standard of all business enthusiasts. SBUs assist make strategic choices based on thorough political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal concerns. It also take into account the expectations and influence of stakeholders based on broad and available strategic choices. SBUs determine what resources and competences need to be developed to sustain business strategies. Etymologically, SBU emanated from the experience of General Electric company’s business strategizing and is adopted by many other multinational corporations and chains. It is essential for market needs assessment and to refine strategies that will meet customers’ satisfaction. These days, companies call SBU as either segmentation, deviation or an aggregate of those that are sharing general commonalities. It is difficult to perceive that SBU may no longer fit to business portfolio noting its relevance in business management and operation. (c) When undertaking the acquisition of a new SBU, giving “synergy” with existing activities as a justification for such action, what pitfalls might you encounter and how may these be mitigated in practice? (10 marks) Synergizing maybe positively understood as partnership developed to produce results that can’t be independently obtained. This meant that partners will share costs, products, markets, technology and processes. The downside of this strategy is that returns of investments are equitably shared by partners and decision-makings can’t be solely done by one company. Within the business continuum, conflicts may arise and may constrain business relations of partners. These maybe mitigated by merging, building strategic alliances or investing for total acquisition. Question 7: a. The culture of each organisation is unique. Analyse this statement using suitable models to explain your answer.  (10 marks) Culture means the customary way and behavior of an organization in managing business. It is indeed true that culture vary in different business organizations because this will all depend on the foundational philosophy of each corporation, the knowledge imbibed in respective corporate managers, and the level of maturity in managing customer relations that befit company’s target and objectives. The geographic location of business operations also influence on the behavior of the company, e.g. business styles and management in Asean countries is different in American or in Europe. The environmental landscape, which include socio-economic profile and political landscape of each region, vary and thus, any corporation who are operating thereof must be culture-sensitive to ensure sustainability and ensure return of investment as less risks. b. A significant proportion of company mergers fail. Explain how company culture may play a part in this and how failure may be avoided. (10 Marks) Companies that are expanding operations through merging must be culture- sensitive about how potential partners operate because while merging lessen financial risks and burdens, however the business politics of decision-making will largely affect the strategies and behaviors of business operation and its management under merging. Potential problems must be considered at the planning stage so that buffer zones and alternatives will be forecasted and utilized in case problem starts to arise. c. Paradigm change is best avoided. Analyse why this statement may or may not be true.(10 marks) Paradigms change need not be avoided. It must be construed foremost that paradigm refers to some philosophical foundation in business management and operation. All business stakeholders must realize that the only constant in this world is change. Hence, like how civilization transition into stages of developments, business managers and stakeholders must be capacitated on how to manage change to turn it into opportunities and strength. Like history, business must be adaptive to change and innovate to meet all the challenges in the market places—regional or global. Business managers should therefore be able to strategize alternative direction and methods to sustain. Read More