BUSI 340 DB#4 Replies

Read the threads of your classmates and the articles which are referenced (this is why it is imperative that the articles be accessible via working URL links). Expect to spend some time each day reviewing all threads and replies, even those in which you are not involved.

Write a reply of at least 200 words to at least 3 of your classmates’ threads. You should expect to answer questions posed within each discussion thread. Student interaction is key to success in this course.

Olivia Walcott

RE: Organizational Strategy

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Definition: Organizational Strategy

Organizational strategy refers to the organization positions itself in its setting in relation to its stakeholders, given the organization’s resources, capabilities, and missions (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008).

Summary:

According to an article written by Vele Christian (2013) Organizational culture and strategy, he discusses why some organizations fail in their efforts to implement competitive strategies and why others win in implementing competitive strategies. Strategy is design to increase an organization performance and its capabilities through eliminating inefficient activities. Vele, mentions in order to implement an effective organizational strategy, leaders must observe the company’s vision, value system, behavioral standards and norms. He emphasizes that is imperative for the vision to be formulated in such a manner in which to ensure a proper alignment between strategy and organizational culture. In order for organizational strategy to be effective managers are required to adjust components such as vision, employee behaviors to meet the requirements set by the new strategy. Organizational strategy cannot be successful without realistically evaluating external factors like customers, competitors, the environment and of course internal factors (employees).

Discussion:

Vele (2013) article highlights the importance of organizational strategy for any business, without strategies companies have no direction. In a nutshell strategy is the actions a company will take in order to execute its goals. Organizational strategy is important because it influences the contingencies of structure and the structure itself. Organizational structure is influenced by size, technology and environment, but the organization’s strategy may reshape these elements and loosen their connection to organizational structure (McShane & Von Glinow, 2008).

At my job, our organizational strategy is “customer first,” every change the company implements over the years is geared towards improving customer satisfaction. If management and employees get sidetracked or complain about certain rules and procedure they can refer back to the organizational strategy, the reason for achieving company goals. Thus, changes need to be embraced by associates and management in order to meet strategic goals. Following this, organizational culture needs to support the new strategy, and this support can be achieved by transforming the strategic process in a highly transparent one (Vele, 2013). Organizational structure resembles that of John 15:2 which states that “every branch in me that does not bear  

fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Organizational strategy is essential to any company in bearing fruit, in order words achieving results.

IS organizational strategy an effective tool for organizations?

References

McShane, S., & Von Glinow, M. (2008). Organizational behavior (7th ed., p. 74).

Vele, Christian. (2013). Organizational culture and strategy. How does it work? An empirical research Annals of the university of Oradea: Economic Science. Retrieved from http://anale.steconomiceuoradea.ro/volume/2013/n1/180.pdf.

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2 days ago

Megan Buechel

RE: Large Group Interventions

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Definition: According to McShane and Von Glinow, large group intervention is “adopt a “whole systems” perspective of the change process”.

Summary: The article I chose is called Organization Development Primer: A Review of Large Group Interventions. This article is written by Brenda Barker Scott who is part of the faculty at Queen’s University. It talks about the main bullet points of a large group intervention, future research and much more. This article helps understand the underlying aspects of how large group interventions help a company when it comes to making decisions.

Discussion: Large group interventions help an organization collaborate effectively. “Large group techniques bring together stakeholders from all parts of an organization to dialogue and achieve a mutual understanding of their interdependence” (Scott, Para 2). No matter what company you work for, it is extremely important for everyone to express their opinions. It is also important for everyone around them to be able to sit back and listen with open ears even if they do not agree. We must realize that everyone is there for the same reason and therefore want to get to the bottom of the issue or figure out what would be best for an organization. “Large-scale methods assume that people are “good” and driven by common needs that define our humaneness such as love, sense of belonging, justice, harmony, respect, dignity. These core values form the basis for creating common ground” (Scott, Para. 7). By setting a common ground, each person in the group will know the boundaries and will not cross them. Also, this will help keep the arguments to a minimum which will make these meetings even more successful. Just like God states in Mathew 8:16, “That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.” God would always sit down with others to find a solution no matter the situation. This is what we need to do as individuals when we have large group interventions. We as individuals know that we have our own opinion but need to take a step back to understand where everyone else is coming from. God would not want us to judge those of whom we are with when he never judged us.

Scott, B. B. (2009). Organization Development Primer: A Review of Large Group Interventions. IRC Article Series. Retrieved August 16, 2017, from http://irc.queensu.ca/sites/default/files/articles/organization-development-primer-review-large-group-intervention.pdf

32 Bible Verses about Divine Intervention. (n.d.). Retrieved August 16, 2017, from https://www.openbible.info/topics/divine_intervention

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1 day ago

Sarah Smith

RE: action research approach

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Action Research Approach

Definition: "The philosophy of action research is that meaningful change is a combination of action orientation (changing attitudes and behavior) and research orientation (testing theory)."(McShane, S., & Von Gilnow, 2015, p. 440).

Summary:

In the article Aligning Information Technology with Business Strategy: An action research, the author found that this dynamic caused more problems and stress. In fact, it can cause competitors to learn of internal company issues. Also, it can cause authors to be concerned that their consulting confidentiality may be a cause for the author to not be able to publish the article. One of the main concerns that the author addressed was that "Companies are not eager to have academics meddle with company survival, profitability, or morale, while academics are unlikely to have the productive skill sets necessary to land them a senior consulting job in the company" (Peak, et. al., 2011, p. 35).

The action research was done with the IT department at Omaha Public Power district. In performing the action research, the IT department worked with their clients to assess what was needed to help improve the information exchange. A SWAT analysis was performed and weaknesses were addressed. Then they came up with a roadmap to follow to stay on track with vision, cost, and resources.

Meetings were originally required to be able to obtain data from managers, and this did not work well. They found the easiest collection was through an online questionnaire which meant that in the long run. However, the study had to double the amount of allotted time needed to collect given information.

Discussion:

This article shows that aligning IT and business strategy using the action research approach is difficult. It is hard to set up this kind of research and the analysis is harder to obtain. If the original definition was applied to the article, it shows that in the study, the behaviors were changed when testing the responses from the managers. So in this, there were changes in behavior.

Where I currently work, we employ a research company to discuss with patients how their care went during their appointment. This includes communications from patients with doctors and staff. We are all having to learn how to communicate better on the level of our patients. As we do better our ratings improve. When we do worse, the ratings fall. It is a good indicator of how we are doing as a team in taking care of our patients.

Have you ever had an action research approach applied at your company? If so, how was it applied?  How was this approach received by the staff?

 Biblical Integration:

Malakai 3:10 says "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this," Says the Lord of hosts, 'If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.'" 

So God was trying to change the people's minds to get them to increase their tithes. He asked them to test his blessing. It would be a good thing for us to do too.

References:

Curry, M., Marshall, B., & Kawalex, P. (2017).  A Normative Model of Assessing SME IT Effectiveness.

     Communications of the IIMA, 15(1), 35-60. Retrieved from: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=8&sid=b94fdeaf-3673-4bfb-8ed7-6746c08b487a%40sessionmgr104 .

Lorenzo, O., Esqueda, P., & Larson, J. (2010). Safety and ethics in the global workplace: asymmetries in culture and

      infrastructure. Journal of Business Ethics, 92(1), 87-106. Doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0142-9 Retrieved from: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=11&sid=b94fdeaf-3673-4bfb-8ed7-6746c08b487a%40sessionmgr104

McShane, S., & Von Glinow (2015). Organizational behavior (7th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw- Hill.

Peak, D. A., Guynes, C. S., Prybutok, V. R., & Chenyan, X. (2011). Aligning information

technology with business strategy: an action research approach. Journal of Information Technology Case & Application Research, 13(1), 16-42. Retrieved from: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=b94fdeaf-3673-4bfb-8ed7-6746c08b487a%40sessionmgr104