Use of Skinner’s Reinforcement Theory in Behavioral Modification

What is Behavioral  Modification? All organisations are set up with particular core goals and aims in mind. Various resources including money, machines and manpower are utilized to achieve these goals. Modern businesses often refer to their Human Resources (manpower) as their biggest and most important asset and it is widely understood that this single resource plays a vital and irreplaceable role in the attainment of success and the achievement of an organisation’s objectives. Thus, human behavior at work plays an essential role in the smooth functioning of day to day activities as well the targeted long term goals. It is essential for a manager to posses the skills to identify and predict undesired behavior and bring about required changes in order to make human behavior at work productive and supportive to the organisation’s goals. In business language the art of modifying and moulding human behaviour is known as behavioural modification. Continue reading

Managing Brand Equity – Stages and Issues

Consistency is the key to successfully building and managing brand equity. Having a long-term outlook and projecting a consistent image of your brand to the customer will maximize the results of building brand equity. It is critical for managers to realize that brand equity can have positive as well as negative effects on a product or company. In the end, it is the customer that truly defines what brand equity means. If management feels it is necessary to change the direction of a brand or change a product it must be careful not to change too quickly. There are many examples of companies that have changed a product or brand too much or too quickly. On these occasions, consumers met changes with adverse reactions. The most famous example is Coca-Cola. They changed the formula of their flagship product Coke, and consumers reacted so poorly to the new product that the Continue reading

Participative Budgeting – Definition, Advantages and Disadvantages

Participative budgeting is the situation in which budget are designed and set after input from subordinate managers, instead of merely being imposed. The purpose of participation in budget setting is to divide responsibility to subordinate managers and set a form of personal ownership on the final budget. The budgeting approach in which the subordinate participates in budget setting, they provide their own information that the supervisors use to formulate the self-imposed budget or participative budget. Organization performance is expected to be well improved by making it possible for the supervisor to allocate the resources more efficiently. According to the information provided by the subordinate, the right resources-allocation decisions are making, the participative budgeting will improve the organization performance. Participation in budget setting has its desirable effects on an organization performance these include the transference of information from subordinate to superior so that it can increase subordinate’s job satisfaction. In addition, Continue reading

Role of Government in Economic Development

Any country’s the prosperity and obstacles of economic growth results from activities of government. That means, government plays important role in economic activities. In free market economies government plays important activities. It has to perform role to prevent market failure. As we know that market does not yield economically efficient outcome every time as the result market fails to operate. In free market economy government has designed activities to stimulate and assist private enterprise and to regulate or control business practices so that their operations are consistent with the public interest. There are various forms of government regulation especially to regulate the activities of private firms. Industrial products are subject to Operating Regulations, governing plant and pollutant emission, product packaging and labeling, worker safety and health etc. Banks and Financial Institutions are subject to  Financial Regulations, both the government as well as the control made by the Central Bank for Continue reading

International Diversification of Investments

In recent years international business activity has been characterized by a dramatic increase in cross-border financial activity. International flows of financial securities have outstripped gains from goods and services trade and, consequently, investment opportunities were no longer constrained by domestic markets. These significant changes gave impetus to the popularity of direct or portfolio investments in foreign countries. Foreign portfolio investment (FPI) is short- or long-term investing activity in corporate stocks and bonds, mutual and hedge funds, government bonds, pension and sovereign funds, various financial derivatives, certificates of deposit, real estate investment trusts, etc. Foreign portfolio investment is relatively liquid, mostly depending on the riskiness of the market where securities and other financial assets are held in. Moreover, FPI is the best choice for investors who are not willing to manage direct ownership rights of a foreign company. The benefits of diversification are well perceived by portfolio managers, that many in Continue reading

Factors Affecting Organizational Structure in Multinational Companies

The organization structure is an approach that helps and guides in organizing the employees of the organization into a structured and organized pattern for better coordination and communication. The structure in a multinational company defines the architecture of the business competence, functional relationship and management function. It helps in reducing confusion in the business environment and also supports in carrying out the business function smoothly and efficiently. The organization structure is affected by various internal and external factors which are also known as the organizational environment since organization works around these factors and the environment. The organizational environment consists of all those factors that influences the organizational working and thus can also influence the organizational structure since in each country and geographical areas the organizational environment would change. The external organizational environment that would influence the organizational structure is the economic, political and legal, socio-economic, technological and natural factors. All Continue reading