Bancolumbia: Talent, Culture and Value Creation Management in Mergers Essay

Any organizational culture interventions are designed to address issues that affect almost everybody within that culture. These interventions are done for a number of reasons. There are always enormous pressures on organizations to reduce costs, increase productivity, speed up cycle time of product development, clarify direction, improve morale, and increase participation. Sometimes organizations approach large scale interventions consciously and intentionally, such as when they develop a 3 to 5 year strategic plan, engage in a culture change initiative, or acquire/merge with another organization like in the case of Bancolombia. Change may also be forced on the organization unintentionally due to changes that occur inside the organization such as an unexpected structure change which was also the case for the parties involved in the Bancolombia merger. Organizations often choose a large-scale intervention when the task is complex or urgent, or when multiple people are required to accomplish it. Whatever the reason, the purpose of a cultural intervention in a large system is to make lasting change in the character and performance of an organization, a standalone business unit, or a large department. The large-scale organizational interventions significantly affect integral aspects of the organization’s functioning, structure, and processes. Thus, these interventions are visible, wide-ranging, and require significant commitment and attention of organizational leaders and members. Once culture is established and accepted, it becomes a strong leadership tool to communicate the â€Å"new† organization’s beliefs and values to its members, and especially new comers. When leaders promote the culture, they become successful in maintaining organizational growth, the good services demanded by customers, the ability to address problems before they become disasters and consequently are competitive against rivals. Ultimately, if executed properly, corporate culture can be the only truly sustainable competitive advantage.

Ford Motor Company: Organizational Agility Essay

Ford Motor Company has recently experienced a problem with regard to a fraudulent e-mail which notifies consumers that the company has chosen them as the winner of a Ford Edge Jeep and that they can claim their prize after they have deposited a certain amount in a bank account. The company immediately issued a statement within a few days saying that the notifications are not from the company and that the e-mails are scams designed to acquire personal information from unwary individuals, especially from the consumers of Ford Motors. Moreover, the company released a public statement claiming that the company is not in any way connected with the e-mails circulating over the internet inasmuch as the company has not granted either authority or permission to use the name of the company, its trademark and its intellectual properties in order to engage in such a scam. The company noted that the e-mails may be a form of â€Å"phishing† activity, and advised the consumers to simply delete the message and avoid replying. In terms of demonstrating environmental responsiveness, the Ford Motor Company has formulated a way in order to reduce greenhouse gases used in painting vehicles by as much as 15 percent. The new paint technology is not only â€Å"environmentally sound† but also efficient in terms of cost such that painted automobiles are more durable and look more beautiful than before. The technology used is a combination of â€Å"advanced chemical formulation of high-solids† with a â€Å"three-wet application process† which uses paint shop that is more earth-friendly as compared to traditional vehicle paints. Apart from the reduction in CO2 emissions from the painting of vehicles, the new paint technology also boasts the benefit of a decrease in VOCs or volatile organic compounds by as much as 10 percent. The company states that it can save money in the production of the vehicles and lessen the completion of painting an automobile by a fifth of the total time previously estimated. More importantly, there is also a great reduction in the amount of conventional paint used in the painting process. Even if the Ford Motor Company has already used the new painting technology, the company is still gathering data for wider application. The monitoring of the automobiles over the next year will give the company more data which will enable them to gather â€Å"long-term rollout plans† for the pioneering paint technology that they have developed. In fact, the company has already won international acclaim in France for the new paint technology. The concepts of Total Quality Management apply to the Ford Motor Company in terms of how it handles the current environmental requirements in the industry. Instead of abandoning or taking a step back from the automobile industry, the company opted to stay ahead of the rest by developing tools which will meet the environmental demands of the time. The ability to manage the company efficiently and effectively in such a pressing circumstance is equally significant to the ability to enact the company visions and progress on them through time. The company acts by not resorting to isolated departments in handling the issue at hand. Rather, the company makes the full use of its structured departments in order to arrive at a better approach in providing the suitable method to address the environmental issues typically attributed to automobile companies. That is, Ford Motor Company’s efforts to develop the new paint technology incorporated the input coming from the production department to the conception department. Post-production departments also share a role in assessing the actual impacts of the new paint technology which allows for the acquisition and accumulation of new data which can be used as basis for great improvements in the future.

Psychologists’ Participation in Military Interrogatory Operations Essay

The issue of ethical responsibility is always in question especially in the medical and allied medical fields. The article â€Å"Psychologists Clash on Aiding Interrogations† (Carey, 2008) tackles this issue in the context of the services rendered by psychologists to military operations involving the interrogation of detainees. The article points out certain details regarding this issue; among others, those tackled were the issue of this type of assistance and its relevance to the American Psychologists’ Association Code of ethics, the consideration of international laws in the performance of a psychologist’s duties, the ethical responsibilities of a psychologist to the person being interrogated, the relationship of the APA to the practice of its members, and the individual integrity of psychologists who chose to collaborate with the military in interrogatory operations. An initial approach to this issue would be to consider the role of psychologists in society in the context or professionalism. Base on the preamble of the APA Code of conduct, psychologists are â€Å"committed to increasing scientific and professional knowledge of behavior and people’s understanding of themselves and others and to the use of such knowledge to improve the condition of individuals, organizations, and society† (APA, 1992), in addition, psychologist should â€Å"respect and protect civil and human rights and the central importance of freedom of inquiry and expression in research, teaching, and publication. They strive to help the public in developing informed judgments and choices concerning human behavior. † (APA, 1992) Certain features can be easily gleaned from these APA passages; to note in particular are the psychologist’s roles in the development of academic knowledge in the field, the fostering of individual and social understanding, and in promoting and preserving individual, organizational, (your family name) 3 and social welfare. Over and above these professional roles are the particular attention given to civil and human rights and the freedom of inquiry and expression. In this context there is no argument as to whether the psychological profession in general should concede to working with the military in interrogatory operations – the mere fact that these interrogations do not serve the purposes of the profession as outlined above and may even be violations of certain civil and human rights simply shows that participating in military interrogations can be against the APA code of ethics. However, if the last part of the passage is considered, which concerns the preservation of individual, organization, and social welfare, psychologist participation in interrogations may actually serve this end. If the purpose of the military interrogation is to preserve the established order and the issue is national security, then psychologists being accountable, not only to their patients but also to their country, should do well by assisting the military in their operations. This is the argument put out by certain psychologists who have been found to be collaborating with the military – that they did not do anything to cause harm to any of the subjects of interrogation, rather, they merely ensured that the subjects were not caused any harm. In addition, they claimed to also be performing their duties to their country. Another perspective should be considered in this issue – the reports that have been going around that psychologists have been assisting the â€Å"CIA and the military in developing abusive interrogation techniques used on terrorist suspects† (Benjamin, 2007), that psychologists have collaborated with the military in the military’s secretive Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape program to â€Å"reverse-engineer† techniques originally designed to train U. S. soldiers to resist torture if captured, by exposing them to brutal treatment. † (Benjamin, 2007). These grim (your family name) 4 reports bring the issue of civil and human rights into the picture. In a profession that is easily abused as to its practice, civil and human rights should be protected at all costs, but what if those who are supposed to protect these rights are the ones violating the rights themselves? The military and psychology is a very unlikely and dangerous mix, with the former working for national security under the protection of national and international law, and the latter working for the advancement of the psychological profession which incidentally could be of valuable use to the military, and with only the APA Code of Ethics standing in the way, possibilities can be very scary – think Nazi concentration camp style. However, certain arguments point out that psychologists, like their military counterparts are able to set aside the APA Code of Ethics in the interest of national or international law. In the results of a 20025 APA Taskforce, it was implicitly implied that â€Å"psychologists can ignore their ethical code if a governing authority (in this case, the U. S. Military) asks them to do so. † (Reiss, 2007) This implication is based on no less than the the APA’s code of conduct, which states, in full, â€Å"If psychologists’ ethical responsibilities conflict with law, regulations, or other governing legal authority, psychologists make known their commitment to the Ethics Code and take steps to resolve the conflict. If the conflict is unresolvable via such means, psychologists may adhere to the requirements of the law, regulations, or other governing legal authority. † (APA, 1992) This brings the issue to a whole new level – instead of the issue being an organizational or professional concern, it becomes a concern of individual integrity, which, by the way, becomes blurry when an individual is offered lucrative benefits and perks in exchange for that (your family name) 5 integrity. While the issue is obviously one that concerns not only the military, or the field of psychology, but the safety and welfare of even the most hostile subject of an interrogation, the APA Task Force served to bring the issue down to a more personal level to dismiss whatever argument is raised by the profession as a whole. Now, it is basically a question of, â€Å"As a psychologist, are you personally inclined to assist the military in their interrogatory operations even when these operations can be inhumane and can violate civil and human rights as long as the operations are within the â€Å"requirements of the law, regulations, or other governing legal authority† (APA, 1992)? † Many a psychologist would find an easy answer to this question, because this question does not require a psychologist to consult any code of ethics or any law; it simply requires that the psychologist go through the process of self-discernment and consider, first and foremost, his/her reasons for choosing the psychology profession, his/her commitments to the people that he/she serves, and his/her priorities in exercising his/her profession. The issue of whether psychologists should collaborate with the military in developing interrogation techniques that may be inhumane is beyond the jurisdiction of any law or code. This issue is a question of morality and integrity, which, in themselves, are very subjective areas of abstraction. In a moment of personal thought, psychologists should at least put themselves in the shoes of the victims of these inhumane interrogation – knowledge is indeed power, â€Å"and power corrupts† (Acton, 1887) Psychologists wield a considerable amount of knowledge with their training in the profession, and it is up to them whether they would use this knowledge to harm their fellow humans or not. (your family name) 6 The solution to this problem lies in the individual integrities of psychologists. Each psychologist should maintain an internal regulatory mechanism when participating in these operations. The secret is being able to say ‘no’ when what is being asked to be done is beyond our personal conviction, ideals, and the moral standards governing the profession. While laws and codes can only do so much in regulating what psychologists can do, these also serve as roads signs for psychologists so that they may be constantly reminded if they are already overstepping in their profession. On the issue of national security, some argue that the life of one can sometimes be dispensable for the life of all; this argument is a blind interpretation of the truth. Life, whether it be of only one, or of all is still life, and should not be meddled with in any aspect. Where does this put the psychologists conceding to collaborations with the military? In as much as we all want to believe in the integrity of our own chosen professions, we have to have faith in the individual and inherent goodness of man. We cannot condemn psychologists who work for the military just because we think what they are doing is inhumane, and it is also not up to us to pass personal judgment regarding the military’s motives; but in as much as we have hope and confidence in the rationality and discernment of human beings, we might as well advocate integrity and morality as a whole, not only in the field of psychology. Individual issues and motivations of psychologists cannot be questioned by a raging mob – but we can sure make them see the truth, and remind them of their commitment to the welfare of all, and not just for the satisfaction of brute and barbaric interests. (your family name) Works Cited Acton, John Emerich D. â€Å"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. † The Phrase Finder. 1887. 26 Feb. 2009 . APA. â€Å"Ethical Principles Of Psychologists And Code Of Conduct. † APA Online. 2003. 26 Feb. 2009 . Benjamin, Mark. â€Å"The CIA’s torture teachers. † Salon. com. 21 June 2007. 26 Feb. 2009 . Carey, Benedict. â€Å"U. S. psychologists debate role in military interrogations. † International Heral Tribune – The Americas. 16 Aug. 2008. 26 Feb. 2009 . Reiss, Natalie S. â€Å"The Psychologist’s Role in Military Interrogations. † Mentalhelp. net. 3 Aug. 2007. 26 Feb. 2009 .

Business Strategy of Emirates Airline

Business Strategy of Emirates Airline In 1974, three years after the independence, the rules of the EAU decided to establish to a joint carrier of flag: Air of Gulf. Nevertheless, a tense relation between the air line and the government of Dubai existed after his beginning, as this one re fading to yield before the demands of the Air of Gulf to leave his politics of open skies. In the reaction, the Air of Gulf reduced frequencies and capacities to and of Dubai for more than two thirds between 1984 and 1985 without the notice previous(Wilson 2005). Since the foreign carriers demonstrated incapable or desinclinados to fill the hollow, Dubai then the rule, recepiente of Sheikh Mohammed Rashid To – Maktoum, summoned a team of experts – headline Maurice Flanagan and later affiliated by Tim Clark and the son then 26-year-old of the rule, Sheikh’s Recepiente Ahmed Saeed Al – Maktoum – to design an emergency plan. The recommendation of the group to establish to a carrier of house for Dubai was rapidly accepted by the rule, but heimposed two conditions: the new air line should find the standards of the highest quality and there would be no additional injections of capital of the government in addition to the financing of starter of 10 millions of reconciled USD. On October 25, 1985, the first flight of the Emirates left to Karachi, using an A300 wet – leasehold of Pakistan International air Line. The air Line of Emirates is the carrier of flag of United Arab Emirates and a principal air line of the Middle East. His key bucket is the International Dubai Airport, which joins it with an extensive network of international routes.The air line is a branch of the group of Emirates, an international public corporation that also supports the honor of making work four of the commercial flights the longest continues – from Dubai to Los Angeles, San Paulo, Houston, and San Francisco. This offers extensive trips of air in the EAU and Middle East. The air line also suppor ts a division of separated load, for the name of Emirates SkyCargo. It is between the most rapid air lines of growth of the world, which gained enormous income for 500 million dollars in 1993. HISTORY OF EMIRATES AIRLINE Air Lines of Emirates support 127 aircraft quickly, consisting of Airbus A330-200, Airbus A340-300, Airbus A340-500, Airbus A380-800, Boeing 777-200, Boeing 777-200ER, Boeing 777-200LR, Boeing 777 -300 and Boeing 777-300ER. The airline investigating its fleet frequently, in accordance with its policy to support a young fleet. In 2008 the Emirates for the second air line to demolish the Airbus 380-800, after Air Lines of Singapore. This has also asked for 58 Airbus A380-800, making it the biggest customer of this Airbus. The use of air line of his plane is the highest in the industry, climbing to 13.7 hours in a day. aviation, value U.S. $ 19 billion, adding 71 new planes. This is now the client as principal cast of two ultra-modern new aircraft – A340-600 HGW and double-decker A380 super-jumbos. DESTINATION COVERED Emirates Airline covers 101 destinations, in 60 countries of the world. It flies to Canada, U.S, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. In Europe, it serves France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, England, Switzerland, Turkey and Malta. The airline carries passengers to destinations like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Philippines in Asia and Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Libya, Angola, Kenya, Mauritius, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana in Africa.

A Study on Total Quality Management and Lean Manufacturing Assignment - 1

A Study on Total Quality Management and Lean Manufacturing - Assignment Example These include quality control measures, selecting the best machines for production, maintaining higher levels of security, being potent in project management and proper maintenance of tools and equipments among other strategies. This paper addresses the case evaluation of Toyota and Total quality management by looking at the TQM methodologies and tools, some of the steps that were required in developing TQM at Toyota, how it was implemented at the company, how it worked, TQM criticism and finally how the company responded to the new plan of management. Total Quality management (TQM) is a management structure that mainly intends at improving production standards by using the already existing organs, for example, quality control (Besterfield, 2011). It is organized into four levels; Plan, Do, Check and Act, which is commonly abbreviated as PDCA. At the first level, Plan, there is identification of an issue, could be a challenge or a problem with all the relevant information concerning it not leaving out the problem,s main cause. It then develops further to the Do level where possible solutions are looked into. These further progresses into checking where the concerned parties do data comparison before it moves to the final stage where recommendations to the problems are done (Rawlins, 2008). Toyota motors is one of the companies that has successfully implemented Total Quality Management to ensure high quality products that serves their clients with contentment hence leading to success of the company, including the success of the soc iety. These refer to an accurate system used to justify a state of event or situation, which can be used in data analysis and, in turn, lead to accurate decision-making. Some of the tools and methodologies that are employed by TQM are the management tools, quality control tools and the improvement cycle, which is commonly referred to as PDCA (Besterfield, 2011). In ensuring that the production level at Toyota

Business Models and Planning Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business Models and Planning - Case Study Example The restaurants are intended to serve medium and high income community. It fits into the busy lives of the community by offering quick foods at premium prices. It will be open on weekends and late night. The primary target for RFD is the medium and high income earners. This group includes household that have an average annual income of above $50000 and reside in urban neighborhoods (Lassiter & Roberts, 1998). It is assumed that this group has a high propensity to consume desserts and other services offered by the restaurant. The target market resides in multiunit houses in uptown areas. Such populations are in California, Texas, New York City and several other Cities and States in the country. Most Dessert users are aged between 25-54. The group is comprised of people who are working and attend outside events such as parties, dinners and theaters. As such, they have a sizeable amount of disposable income and are willing to consume if they come across an RFD restaurant. People attending night events are highly likely to enter a restaurant for refreshments. The restaurant will differentiate itself from others based on human resource, quality, and service. The restaurant will ensure that its staff are trained in specific products and services offered by the restaurant. All workers are required to pursue further studies on baking, pastry, and hospitality. Also, staff members are given a chance to practice their skills. Quality is emphasized in the restaurant. The restaurant specializes in making desserts. As such, efforts are concentrated towards ensuring the best desserts. Unlike other restaurants, RFD desserts are not frozen for future sales. The desserts are prepared daily to enhance their freshness and hence customer satisfaction (Lassiter & Roberts, 1998). RFD also offers customized services to its regular customers. In fact, the restaurant stores data relating to its loyal customers. Thus, loyal customers can enjoy

Have British governments been 'tough' or 'tolerant' on race and Essay

Have British governments been 'tough' or 'tolerant' on race and immigration - or have they simply 'muddled through' - Essay Example The national security forces are engaged in patrolling the shoreline of the country so that illegal immigration can be reduced in terms of intensity and volume. Historically, the English policy towards managing illegal immigration was quite lenient but with the passage of time, as economic conditions got worse then, the immigration policy tightened. The governmental offices do not waste much time in deporting the illegal visitors so that population growth should be kept under control. The national per-capita income reduced significantly during the past few years. The dropdown of per-capita income is considered a direct response towards national level failure of the country in making a switch from industrialization to services. The English administrators and government are notorious for their egoistic attitudes and therefore, they attempted to carry out industrialization and services in parallel while, failing to keep their cost advantage intact in the global market. The English and A merican products were literally beaten up by the Chinese ones in the boundary-less marketplace (Nolan 2001). The American industrialists responded to the challenge effectively by outsourcing their productions to China whereas, the English business professionals falsely tried to save their national pride. The consequences of a wrong and unduly enforced strategic choice are becoming obvious in terms of lowering Gross Domestic Product and per-capita income. The nationalism is the one concept that experienced significant level of deformation in the recent years and the English government attempted to revitalize a dying notion that resulted in a prevailing horrific fiscal conditions (Burgoyne 2000). Previously, the nation was more than happy in accommodating immigrants who had a clean criminal record in the home country and used them as a means of promoting itself in the form of a humanitarian nation. The actual cause of helping the immigrants is to counteract negative growth of populati on while, increasing available and willing workforce. Thusly, the immigration policy of England was quite relaxed and the gaining of entry was also relatively easy in the past. The relaxed immigration policy was a manifestation of excellent economic conditions that were known to prevail in the last years of 20th century. However, as the world entered into the electronic era of the 21st century then, it rapidly converged to become a global village. The economic interdependencies increased and nations developed growing number of collaborative contractual agreements in order to manage the uncertainty of the global economic system (Hannon, Huang, & Jaw 1995). The technology improved and helped the global economic leaders in attaining widening cost related advantages as their ability to attain economies of scale and scope developed and strengthened. Nevertheless, Britain felt reluctant towards collaboration of their corporate activities with rest of the world and therefore, experienced l oneliness in the global market. Additionally, the national ability to develop and implement efficient technology reduced. In this way, the leading economy of the past failed in terms of sniffing the winds and due to this reason, it readily failed to maintain a proper and respectable place in the changing world order (Jensen 2002). The English philosophers are believed to be the providers of management theories and other