Tag Archives: Business

Article Critique: “Diverse Teams: Breakdown or Breakthrough?”

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1 Introduction Diverse teams’ management is among the central issues in today’s research and practice of business administration (Robbins & Coulter 2004). This kind of work arrangement correspond to the changes in modern societies (Mousumi 2008), balances the best work practices from different sources (Harzing 2004) and is considered as essential for holistic marketing operations (Kotler & Keller 2006). One possible reason for the attractiveness of diverse teams is the promise to combine two popular managerial concepts – workplace diversity and team orientation (David 2007).

Nonetheless, in order to be effective, diverse teams must be managed carefully, as their heterogeneity may also underlie unique challenges. This paper reviews a 1995 article (“the article”)by Griggs & Louw (“the authors”), which presents a study case of unsuccessful management of a diverse team and suggests some guidelines for proper management. The article is criticised in reference to its academic qualities, as well as to its relevance as a helping tool for managers. Continue reading →

“What is Business Ethics?” Essay

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1 Introduction
Dated back to Code of Hammurabi some 4,000 years ago, business ethics is a social science, whose main aim is to define and examine the responsibilities of businesses and their agents as a part of the general moral environment of a given society. The products of this field of research are sets of rules and codes of conducts, which serve as a means of protection from the possible infringements of moral codes as a result from the general activities and responsibilities of a firm to its stakeholders (e.g. generating profits for shareholders and taxes to the government). This paper will briefly explain the foundations and the growing importance of business ethics in today’s economy. Finally, it will describe several contemporary issues of research and practice. Continue reading →

Management Decision Making Essay

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In our habitual life, we make hundreds of decisions. Decisions could be as insignificant selection of clothes and watching TV channels as well as the choice of workplace, university or college at which to pursue an education. Due to the psychological factors, people often spend a disproportionate amount of attention to some decisions, ignoring the value of others. Many decisions are taken without proper systematic deliberation (Hammond, Keeney & Raiffa, 2002, p. 109). However, decision-making in management is a more structured process than in private life. Continue reading →

Essay on Automation

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In order to answer the question how does a process becomes automatic we should refer to the definition of automation. “Automation or Industrial Automation is the use of computers to control industrial machinery and processes, replacing human operators. It is a step beyond mechanization, where human operators are provided with machinery to help them in their jobs” (Naresh, 2005, p. 302). From this definition we may derive that key factor distinguishing automatic process is replacement of human labor with automated one. It is not necessarily there is no human labor at all, but we expect that there is no direct labor involved in the processing. Human labor can be used to input raw materials (or other resources) for processing, define processing parameters and to control the process. According to the definition of Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society (ISA), automatic means “functioning without intervention by a human operator under specified conditions” (Dimon, 2002, p. 34). Continue reading →

Main Barriers to Optimal Decision Making Essay

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Introduction Decision making can be regarded as a process mental processes leading to the selection of a course of action, a decision, among number of available alternatives. A selected decision may be far from optimal due to number of reasons, internal or external to the subject of decision making process. Besides trivial errors in estimating outcomes, the reasons for non-optimal decisions may be result when alternatives were not clearly defined or required information was not collected. However, one of the major problems may lay in decision makers cognitive and personal biases, being a tendency or preference towards a particular perspective, ideology or result, interfering with the ability to be impartial, unprejudiced, or objective (Soukhanov, 1992, p. 231). This paper reviews several major types of internal cognitive biases which may prevent from optimal decision making. Continue reading →

Research Paper: Online Retail in the Canadian Coffee Market

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Target market Canadian Coffee Drinking Study revealed that about 81% of Canadians over the age of 18 drink coffee occasionally and over 63% of drink coffee on a daily basis making coffee the # 1 beverage choice of adult Canadians. Coffee consumers include men and women almost in equal proportion, with men drinking slightly more coffee. Average daily consumption of coffee among Canadian coffee consumers amounts to 2.6 cups. The major portion of coffee is consumed at home – 66%, 16% – at eating places, 12% – at work, and 5% is consumed in other places such (e.g. hospital, schools, hockey rinks and other institutions). Coffee consumed at home is purchased primarily at a grocery store/supermarket – 79%, with 7% being purchased at the gourmet/specialty coffee shops. Daily coffee consumption among adults varies across Canada, from a high of 70% in Quebec to a low of 53% in the Atlantic region, with approximately 60% in Ontario, 67% in the Prairies and 61% in B.C. Continue reading →

Research Paper: Organics Coffee Business in the Canadian Market

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Target market In recent years the world has seen a growing awareness of health and environmental issues. It is a constantly growing number of concerned consumers, mainly in the industrialized countries of North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia that are the cause of this development.

Canada, with retail sales estimated at US$ 0.8-1.0 bln, is ranked as the 6th largest market in the world for organic food and beverages in 2003, while the market appears to be growing approximately by 20-25% annually and this growth is sustained by strong consumer concerns over environmental and health issues (Kortbech-Olesen, R., 2004, p. 1). Continue reading →

Information Systems and Organizational Departments Essay

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In this paper I will present results of my research findings regarding software applications that are available for different organizational departments within a company. I will concentrate on software for such organizational departments, as accounting, human resources and marketing. In the process of my research I have found out that there are plenty of solutions for each department and it is the task of the management of the company to choose the one that best suits the needs of the company, its size, financial capabilities, type of business, etc. Continue reading →