2 DB Post Replies 450 words a piece !!!

Running head: GROUP DISCUSSION BOARD

Group Discussion Board Forum 2: Part 1

Jessica Raborn

Chapter 4: How do you think planning in today’s organizations compares to planning in an organization 25 years ago? Do you think planning becomes more important or less important in a world where everything quickly changes and crises are a regular part of organizational life? Why?

Today companies must constantly seek competitive advantage without disrupting daily operations. They must be able to adapt quickly and more efficiently to change. In a high technology, instant gratification, fast paced world companies can’t just focus on doing one thing well and make changes slowly. They must be able to adapt to situations quickly and with effective results. They should constantly seek opportunity and be able to identify and capitalize on initiatives (Kotter, 2012).

Companies and organizations are affected by their environment. The external environment affects what happens in the internal environment. The external environment is generally classified as either certain or uncertain and by degree of complexity. As these factors change and increase or decrease in the external environment, the internal environment adapts to these changes. Years ago companies coped with environmental changes by creating “buffer departments.” The purpose of these buffering roles was to absorb the uncertainty from the environment. Many organizations no longer create these buffer departments. They instead allow the core of the company to be exposed. They believe that by doing so they are being more open to the customers or suppliers and not focusing on internal efficiency. This allows the building of closer relationships with suppliers and customers.

A Crisis is defined as a set of circumstances in which institutions or individuals face threats outside of the normal daily routine. The significance of these circumstances vary widely depending to individuals and their coping mechanisms (Drennan, McConnell, & Stark, 2015). The last decade in America has introduced us to many crisis events including 9/11 and hurricane Katrina. These crisis events have made people question the vunerability of our country, as well as, the ability to cope and respond to crisis. Crises can also occur frequently in the business world. The key to correcting these crises is to react quickly and formulate a plan, although I think that planning months in advance is less likely the key to success today. The best plan of action in today’s business world is just to have general idea of what you plan to do with the ability to adapt quickly when necessary.

Chapter 4: Is changing the organization's domain a feasible strategy for coping with a threatening environment? Can you think of an organization in the recent news that has changed its domain? Explain.

The domain is defined as the chosen environment field of action. It is the location in which a particular organization conducts its business and provides its products and services. However, a organization’s domain is ever changing. It develops and changes with the products and services in order to stay up to date with the trends in that particular field. Especially in order to be able to compete with competitors in the same field. (Daft, 2016).

In today’s highly competitive and over technological world, organizations must change their domain to keep up with competitors. One of the most recent examples is with Facebook. Facebook has been around since the early 2000s. The social media giant was originally only popular with college students. Today everyone has a facebook account or atleast knows what the application is. In recent years other social media applications such has Twitter, Instagram, Periscope and most recently snapchat have entered the field. Although facebook was originally only know for its profile and picture sharing, it has recently added the ability to post “stories” or short snapshot videos to user profiles. Facebook added this feature or changed their domain in order to compete with all of the other social media applications in their field. This change in their domain will help to keep them current in the everchanging world of social media.

Chapter 6: Compare the descriptions of the transnational model described in Chapter 6 to the elements of the learning organization described in Chapter 1. Do you think the transnational model would work in a huge global firm?

A transnational model is a commercial enterprise that operates substantial facilities, does business in more than one country and does not consider any particular country its national home. One of the significant advantages of a transnational company is that they are able to maintain a greater degree of responsiveness to the local markets where they maintain facilities (WebFinance Inc., 2017). The transnational model represents one of the most advanced kind of international organizations and is extremely complex. This model is most useful in large, multinational organizations that have many diverse units. This model is characterized by 4 main characteristics:

-“The assets and resources are dispersed worldwide into very specialized operations that are linked together throught interdependent relationships” (Daft, 2016). This means that resources are distributed to help the organization respond to needs within the product market.

-“Structures are flexible and ever-changing” (Daft, 2016). According to this characteristic the organizations centralize some functions in one place and some in another. This helps to be able to specialize functions and products depending on the domain and environment.

-“Subsidiary managers initiate strategy and innovations that become strategy for the corporation as a whole” (Daft, 2016). This means that managers have specific roles only for their division. This allows adaptation depending on the demands and opportunities of the environment (Daft, 2016).

-“Unification and coordination are achieved primarily through corporate culture, shared vision and values, and management style, rather than through formal structures and systems” (Daft, 2016).

These characteristics help to develop the transnational model and seek to provide strong coordination and knowledge building throughout the entire organization. The model is very complex but in the previous years has gradually became more popular with larger organizations across the globe.

How can/should a biblical worldview be applied?

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15 NIV) The lord expects us to work hard for the things that we want. He wants us to put substantial effort into our work. This means that managers should constantly strive to take care of their business and the organization they work for, as well as, their employees. I feel as though if managers and owners of organizations will continue to look to the lord and the word of the bible they will be very successful in today’s business world.

References:

Daft, R. (2016). Organizational Theory & Design. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Drennan, L., McConnell, A., & Stark, A. (2015). Risk and Crisis Management in the Public Sector. New York, NY: Routledge.

Kotter, J. (2012). Accelerate. Harvard Business Review.

WebFinance Inc. (2017). Retrieved from Business Dictionary: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/transnational-company.html