The Competing Values Framework

Competing models of management refer to those models that attempt to explain the competing value framework of organizational management. The organizational management sometimes faces the management challenge of balancing between two or more important processes that affect the operation of an organization. The competing values framework is a model that was developed by Robert Quinn and Kim Cameron to assess the organizational culture. The theory of competing values framework, in essence, shows the interrelationship between processes that enable the organization to focus on the internal environment or external environment. The area of focus of an organization leads to the development of the organizational culture and often results in a balancing of two or more competing value factors. This implies that the organizational competing values framework models have a role in the success of an organization. The competing values framework can be used in constructing an organizational culture profile. An organizational Continue reading

Ten Personality Factors in Organizational Behavior

Personality is a complex, multi-dimensional construct and there is no simple definition of what personality is. Salvatore R.  Maddi  defines personality as, “A stable set of characteristics and tendencies that determine those commonalities and differences in the psychological behavior and that may not be easily understood as the sole result of the social and biological pressures of the moment”. All individuals have some universally common characteristics. Yet they differ in some other specific attributes. This makes it difficult for the managers to assume that they can apply same reward types or motivation techniques to modify different individual behaviors. The definition, however, does not mean that people never change. In simple terms, it asserts that individuals do not change all at once. Their thoughts, feelings, values and actions remain relatively stable over time. Changes in individual’s personality can, however, occur gradually over a period of time. The managers should, therefore, attempt Continue reading

Margin trading at stock exchanges

Margin Trading (MT) is an arrangement whereby an investor purchases securities by borrowing a portion of the purchase value from the authorised broker by using securities in his portfolio as collateral. Since April 1, 2004, SEBI has allowed member brokers to provide margin trading facility to their client in the cash market. Only corporate brokers with net worth of at least Rs. 3 crores would be eligible to participate in Mragin Trading. The brokers interested to provide margin trading facility to their clients have to seek approval from the stock exchange. The broker may use his own funds or borrow from scheduled commercial banks/NBFC regulated by the RBI. The total exposure of a broker shall be within self imposed prudential limits and not exceeding 50% of networth. The margin arrangement has to be agreed upon between the broker and the client, subject to SEBI Guidelines, 2004. Initial and maintenance margin Continue reading

Investment Diversification

Diversification is the strategy of combining distinct asset classes in an investment portfolio in order to reduce overall portfolio risk. In other words, investment  diversification is the process of selecting the asset mix so as to reduce the uncertainty in the return of an investment portfolio. Diversification helps to reduce investment risks because different investments may rise and fall independent of each other. The combinations of these assets will nullify the impact of fluctuation, thereby, reducing risk. Most financial assets are not held in isolation, rather they are held as parts of portfolios. Banks, pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, and other financial institutions are required to hold diversified portfolios. Even individual investors – at least those whose security holdings constitute a significant part of their total wealth – generally hold stock portfolios, not the stock of a single firm. Why is it so? An important reason is the lowering Continue reading

Corporate Parenting Strategy – Meaning, Styles, and Propositions

The complexity of transitional business conditions creates a need for creating value through aggregation of different businesses in complex corporate enterprise, which gives it the character of a multi-business firm. Businesses could be defined as being whatever the enterprise chooses to operate as organizationally separate profit-responsible units. Such business entities are often referred to as Strategic Business Units (SBUs) and they are organized as largely separable businesses with control over the main strategic levers that affect their performance. Besides this organizational definition, the businesses could be defined in economic sense relating to Strategic Business Opportunities (SBOs), which are clusters of product-market transactions able to sustain a successful focused business, with financial independence. Processes of merger, acquisition, divestment, and the other processes of transformation continually create new challenges to corporate management towards providing better performance of aggregated businesses than they would achieve if they were independent, stand-alone entities. It is corporate Continue reading

Correction of Balance of Payments (BoP) Deficit

Balance of Payments Adjustments The short-term and small deficits in balance of payments are quite likely to emerge in wide range of international transactions. These deficits do not call for immediate corrective actions. More importantly, irregular short-term changes in the domestic economic policies with a view to remove the short-term deficits in balance of payments may do  more  harms than good to the economy. Since these changes cause dislocations in the process of reallocation of  resources  and short-term fluctuations in the economy. Therefore, short-term deficits of smaller magnitude are not a serious concern to the policy makers. A constant deficit indicates that the country’s imports dominates exports  or depreciation of its foreign exchange and gold reserves. These countries lose their international liquidity and credibility. This situation often leads to compromise with economic and political independence of these countries. India faced a similar situation in July 1990. Therefore, a country facing Continue reading