Importance of Work-Life Flexibility

Human Resource Management

Work Life Balance and Wellness in Organizations

Human Resource Management

What is Work Life Flexibility?

Modern Management Concepts

The Relevance of Stakeholder Management in International Business Context

International Business

Why Business Models Matter in Business?

Modern Management Concepts

Analysis of Competitive Position Using Porterā€™s Five Forces Model

Michael Porterā€™s Five-Forces Model of competitive analysis is a widely used approach for developing strategies in many industries as the intensity of competition among firms varies widely across industries. According to Porter, the nature of competitiveness in an industry can be viewed as a composite of five forces: rivalry among competing firms, potential entry of new competitors, potential development of substitute products, bargaining power of suppliers and bargaining power of consumers. There are 3 steps to use Porterā€™s Five Forces Model can reveal whether competition in a given industry is such that the firm can make an acceptable profit. Firstly, identify key aspects or elements of each competitive force that impact the firm. Secondly, evaluate how strong and important each element is for the firm. Lastly, decide whether the collective strength of the elements is worth the firm entering or staying in the industry. Rivalry among the competing firms isĀ Continue reading

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Reasons for Employee Turnover

For employers, a challenge to deal with, in order to improve retention, are the common reasons for which the employees tend to migrate towards better positions. Here are some of them: Expectations not Met Expectations play a large part in determining whether an employee is satisfied or dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. On joining the firm the individual will have a range of expectations covering areas such as the style of management, the working hours, holidays, pay, and bonus and so on. It is not unusual for employees to leave within the first six months when they discover that things arenā€™t quite as they imagined they would be. Their expectations may have been unrealistic from day one, but each departure is yet more disruption, harming productivity, adding extra unnecessary costs and making it more difficult to reach goals for sales, revenue and profitability. Few firms seem to appreciateĀ Continue reading

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Case Study: Restructuring Process of Volkswagen

As western automobile markets reached saturation, automobile giants like Chrysler and Volkswagen resorted to restructuring. Volkswagen had concentrated on its portfolio restructuring since early 90ā€™s. Volkswagen acquired Skoda in 1991. Volkswagen helped Skoda to emerge out of bankruptcy and Skoda soon became ā€œU.K.ā€™s best loved carā€. This in turn helped Volkswagen, whose profits were declining around the same time. It gained access to the little penetrated car market of Eastern Europe. In 2009, it acquired 49.9% stake in Porsche. During recession, Porsche plunged into debts. Volkswagen used this opportunity to gain from its rival, who had a respected brand name globally. Even though the car market has matured in western parts of the globe, Volkswagen has been using strategic acquisitions to grow further. The financial restructuring process of Volkswagen, called as ā€˜ForMotionā€™ is well-known. This restructuring process began in 2004. With the commencement of ā€˜ForMotionā€™, a number of workers lostĀ Continue reading

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Marxist Perspective of Industrial Relations

The Marxists perspective Ā of industrial relations is one based on conflict. Industrial and employee relations can only be understood as part of a broader analysis of (capitalist) society. In contrast to any implicit or explicit assumptions about a balance of power in the industry, Marxists emphasize the asymmetry of power between the employer and employee. Marxists see the role of employees as sellers of their labor and employers as exploiters of that labor. The whole Marxist perspective Ā of industrial relations is based on the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and how the bourgeoisie have with the help of capitalism kept the proletariat down. The different firms in an organisation are a reflection of society and the class divide. Marxist believe there are structured inequalities within organisations that are there to maintain the status quo and that any worker resistance is systematically suppressed by the powers of the state. The Marxist perspectiveĀ Continue reading

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Pluralist Perspective of Industrial Relations

The Pluralist perspective of Ā industrial relations is just as the name suggests, they see organisations as constellations of different groups. The organisation is seen as multi-structured in terms of groups, leadership, authority and loyalty. A miniature democratic state composed of sectional groups with divergent interests over which the government tries to maintain some kind of dynamic equilibrium. The main groups within this perspective that find themselves at the opposite ends of the scales often are the workers and managers. This can be down to a number of issues such as pay, working conditions, bonuses and working hours and it is over issues like these that conflict often occurs. The pluralist perspective during the twentieth century include a widespread distribution of authority and power in society, ownership separation from management, political separation and industrial conflict and an acceptance and institutionalization of conflict in both spheres. The priciple assumption of pluralist perspectiveĀ Continue reading

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Unitary Perspective of Industrial Relations

The Unitary perspective Ā of industrial relations views the organisation as a team ā€˜unified by a common purposeā€™, namely the success of the organisation. This perspective views all the people in the organisation as part of one big team. Unitarists view everyone within the organisation as part of one team with one loyalty structure. This immediately says that there are no barriers between different groups and departments which could lead to poor communication and animosity, which would go against the notion of common values and common goals as that would not be advantageous to the common goal, of the success of the organisation. The set of common goals and values that are put in place are there to try to create and maintain the order within the organisation, the ā€˜commonā€™ set of values and goals are important so that all of the employees are working in unison. This is important asĀ Continue reading

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