MBA Knowledge Base

Participative Management – Workers Participation in Management

Participative Management is a sophisticated concept in the modern managerial world. Participative management or worker’s participation in management means giving scope for workers to influence the managerial decision-making process at different levels by various forms in the organization. Participation in the decision-making process helps to achieve greater job satisfaction on the part of the employees and higher production on the part of the organisation. The workers can be motivated more effectively through non-monetary incentives than through monetary incentives. It is observed in recent times that participation is one of the best non-monetary Incentives. If the organisation applies the participation schemes properly, it is believed that it will be able to improve the production and productivities of the different factors of production. At the same time it serves as a motivator and satisfaction to the employees by meeting their ego needs. Participative Management is the process of involving subordinates in the decision-making Continue reading

Abey Francis

Case Study on Entrepreneurship: Larry Page

The Google Guys: Inside the Brilliant Minds of Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin by Richard L. Brandt is a guidebook to the inner workings of Google’s founders. Brandt examines the key characteristics that has led Google co-founders, Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin through their progression and subsequent success. The Google Guys explores the beginning of their venture while they were graduate students at Stanford University and through the obstacles that they encountered as they built their empire. Page is scientifically and academically oriented with an undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of Michigan and a Master of Science in computer science. During his doctoral studies at Stanford, he developed BackRub which was the antecedent of PageRank, a complex algorithm that analyses and ranks websites based on quantity and quality of backlinks or website links to another website. PageRank is analogous to citations used in research where a reference source that Continue reading

Abey Francis

The Boundaryless Career: Modern Contemperory Perspective on Career

Organizations cannot exist without managing the development of individuals that comprise their people. People in organizations are individuals who seek to find work situations and developmental opportunities which suit their needs. Thus, a career has been defined as the sequence of employment-related positions, roles, activities and experiences encountered by a person. As this definition suggests, a career is not simply an occupation but a personal sequence of employment-related events. As such, it may include self-employment and freelance work, as well as education and leisure activities that relate to a person’s work-life in some way. It is also closely related to the non-work aspects of a person’s life upon which it impinges. However, in a world rapidly modernizing, the boundaryless career captures the idea that careers are not tied to (or bound to) a single organization and that people will have a variety of work experiences in different organizations over the Continue reading

Abey Francis

Concepts of Throughput Accounting and Theory of Constraints

Goldratt’s ‘Throughput Accounting’ revolutionized the methods by which companies viewed their costs and associated them with profits. Unlike the traditional cost accounting methods, Goldratt argues that accounting should seek to maximize the movement of products through an organization to eliminate potential bottlenecks that prevents efficiency and speed. Goldratt argues that the current costing systems in use were developed almost a hundred years ago based upon the business practices and business designs of that particular era. The traditional accounting system therefore can be understood in the context of a “Cost World”. This cost world focuses all aspects of business value and decision making upon the cost of products themselves. In order to connect all of the subsequent aspects of business to costs, very elaborate allocation of expenses had to flow through to products. These “cost schemes” in effect have many different errors and assumptions that impacts the accuracy of accounts and Continue reading

Abey Francis

Gantt Charts – Tool for Project Planning and Scheduling

The Gantt chart is an important framework for designing a proper time plan when carrying out a certain project. Gantt chart can be defined as a tool for depicting a schedule graphically in the form of bars and lines, which lets stakeholders see the timeline of a project more clearly. Since the Gantt chart is generally a popular tool, it is used by numerous organizations operating in different spheres with an intention to have a better understanding of the time limits of their projects. For instance, the Gantt chart is useful for construction projects with deadlines and multiple contractors whose efforts must be coordinated. The Gantt chart lists the construction tasks that need to be performed down a single column, generally in the order in which they are to be carried out, along with a second column indicating the length of time required to complete each task. At the top Continue reading

Abey Francis

Kaizen – Understanding the Japanese Business Philosophy of Continuous Improvement

Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning “continuous improvement,” referring to an approach of constantly making small, incremental changes for the better. Originating in post-World War II Japan, Kaizen emerged as a key principle in the Toyota Production System and later gained global recognition as a foundation of lean manufacturing. The concept was introduced to the Western world by Masaaki Imai in his 1986 book Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success, which highlighted how a focus on ongoing improvement helped Japanese industries outperform their competitors. At its core, Kaizen is more than a one-time initiative – it is a philosophy and culture that engages all levels of an organisation in continually finding ways to improve processes, reduce waste, and increase quality. Indeed, Kaizen involves everyone from top management to frontline workers in the quest for better methods, embodying the idea that many small changes can yield substantial results over time. Over the decades, this approach Continue reading

Abey Francis