Organizational Strategy

Strategy of an organisation is the unique position that an organisation aims in the market to gain competitive advantage (Naoum 2001). Strategy is derived from the vision and mission of the organisation. In this, organization has to analyze how a company can adapt themselves with the changing market scenario. Organization needs to do internal as well as external appraisal and based on that strategies should be build upon.

Strategic decisions concern with the whole organisation and requires significant resources. Organizational strategy requires intellectual ability, knowledge, and skills to make the strategies in such a way so that they can deal more effectively with the competitive market conditions, it should be of long term in nature (Cushman, & King 2001).
Objectives of organizational strategy

Top managers have to analyze, strategies that have been made should fit with the organization goals and objectives and providing them a unique feature that helps in building a competitive advantage, strategies should be such that it will provide some benefit to the organization (Rothwell 2010). Optimum utilization of resources that means maximum output with minimum input, it helps in building a competitive advantage that will able to find out company’s current position in the market.

Organization has to identify the future threats and opportunities and then do appraisal of current strengths and weaknesses based on that strategies should be made. Strategies must align with the purpose and motives of the organization and should focus towards the ultimate vision (Dressler 2004).

Importance of organizational strategy

Before starting any company it must have the clear picture of its vision or mission because they have resources, manpower but to utilize in an efficient manner organization needs to form strategies.

Clear perspective: To make the strategies sound and successful, organization must have clear defined goals and put the strategies on the right path. All the strategies, when transferred to the members in the organization they mutually focused towards the goals
Forecasting: Organization must have the capability to forecast the accuracy of its goals so that they can formulate the strategy in a better way (Ronald 2002). On the basis of strategy company can work for a long time by anticipating the future needs of the customer and the market.

Flexibility: To build the competitive advantage organization must have those types of strategies that can be able to face the future challenges and can be modified according to the environment. Some of the organizations disappear due to their poor strategy formulation (Edwards 2007).

Cooperation: Effective strategy translation in all the departments generates better communication. Goals and strategy of the organization should be such that it needs a mutual cooperation of all the members towards its achievement (Pettigrew, Thomas, & Whittington 2006).

Decision making: Organizational Strategy is based on the future assumptions and the upcoming threats and opportunities, according to that organization makes a sound decision and further it helps in achieving the goals efficiently.

Planning: Strategies help in formulation of plans, after making the strategies the organization can make the plans about what to do, how to do, when is to do, and also putting the right members on the right place while working in the organization.

References
Cushman, D.P., & King, S.S. (2001) Excellence in communicating organizational strategy. Albany: SUNY.
Dressler, S. (2004) Strategy, Organizational Effectiveness and Performance Management. Florida: Universal.
Edwards. (2007) International human resource management. South Asia: Pearson.
Hoye, R., Smith, A., Nicholoson, M., Stewart, B., & Westerbeek, H. (2009) Sport Management: Principles and Applications. 2nd ed. USA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Naoum, S. (2001) People and organizational management in construction. London: Thomas Telford.
Pettigrew, A.M., Thomas, H., & Whittington, R. (2006) Handbook of strategy and managemant. London: SAGE.
Ronald, R.S. (2002) Organizational success through effective human resources management. USA: Greenwood.
Rothwell, W.J. (2010) Effective succession planning: ensuring leadership continuity and building talent from within. 4th ed. USA: AMACOM.

Forecasting is the technique that predicts the future uncertainties and helps us to cope up with the rapid changing environment. It is based on certain assumptions and uses the past, present, and makes future trend analysis to do the forecasting, it is the management tool that uses various techniques like Delphi technique, regression analysis, trend projection etc. Forecasting is needed in making the decision about the future uncertain events that cannot be controlled. Expertise are required to do the forecasting as it is based on assumptions that need to be accurate because decisions are based on these assumptions (Armstrong 2001).

The scope of forecasting is very wide it is used in every field of lives; in the organization it is helpful in planning, making decision, controlling uncertain events. As the demands and preferences of the customers changes on regular intervals, rapid changes in the technologies, social or political changes, arises the need of forecasting. To sustain in the competitive market and become profitable company has to do forecasting.

Steps in Forecasting

Identify needs of forecasting: It is the first step includes the identification of the resources required and need of forecasting, it also analyzes how much accurate data is needed, organization has to identify the objectives and examine the internal and external changes in the environment that arise the need of forecasting (Shim & Siegel 2006).

Choose things to be forecasted: After analyzing the environment the next step is to identify all those critical areas that need to be forecasted and those plans which need to be revised. Due to the rapid changes in the environment organization have to revise its plans and do forecasting of those areas which is of uncertain in nature.

Time Horizon: This is the third step in forecasting in which the organization has to identify the time that will cover in forecasting, whether it is of short term, medium term, or long term in nature. It should be noted that higher the time in forecasting lower will be the accuracy, so it should be done accurately with limited time period (Ozcan 2009).

Gather Information: After selecting the areas or the problems that need to be forecasted the company has to gather the relevant information related to that and find out all those sources from where the they can take the required data, for this company has to do research and analyze the market scenario. They collect all the information related to the problem after that they scrutinize the collected data and take the necessary information (Makridakis, Wheelwright, & Hyndman 2008).

Selection of forecasting model: In this step the organization has to identify and select the techniques or models based on the complexity of the problem. They have to select according to the financial availability. Company must select those models that will fit to the investigation of the problem. There are various techniques available in the forecasting are like Delphi technique, Regression analysis, moving average, econometrics etc. through this forecasting can be done.

Implementation of forecasting: After selecting the forecasting areas and the parameters this step is to implement the forecasting technique, it is based on assumptions and this is done to make the decision. Through the implementation of forecasting company can predict about the future problems (Cravens 2009).

Monitoring: This is the last step of the forecasting process, in this company has to analyze whether the technique which has been adopted is providing the accurate data or not, if not then company has to take another forecasting technique that will generate more accurate results. They also have to monitor the techniques on regular intervals and do updating according to the changes in the environment that will lead to better decision making (Evans 2002).

We hope this post would be useful for students in helping them with their assignments and homework.

References
Armstrong, J.S. (2001) Principles of forecasting. New York: Springer.
Shim, J.K., & Seigel, J.G. (2006) Handbook of Financial Analysis, Forecasting and Modeling. 3rd ed. Chicago: CCH.
Ozcan, Y.A. (2009) Quantitative Methods in Health Care Management: Techniques and Applications. 2nd ed. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons.
Makridakis, S., Wheelwright, S.C., & Hyndman, J. (2008) Forecasting Methods and Applications. 3rd ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Cravens. (2009) Strategic Marketing. 8th ed. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill.
Evans, M.K. (2002) Practical Business Forecasting. USA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Project Organization

Project organization establishes for a short span of time, which exist only during the project inception till its completion. In the project organization various project managers are taken from different departments, they work efficiently and after the completion of the project they get back to their own work or they start up with the new project (Harrison, & Lock, 2004). All the project participants have to work according to the organization strategy. It is developed to achieve some of the important projects like disaster recovery, bringing new technology, special projects requires advices of different expertise.

Advantages of Project Organization

Project organization helps in the efficient achievement of the project goals as all the project members have specialized knowledge. It is beneficial to those specialists who cannot work with the structured environment; through project organization they can show their creativity and apply their knowledge. It is very adaptive approach, because of changing Environment, company needs specialists who can cope up with that and achieve their goals. (Cleland, & Ireland, 2006).

It requires less time and cost as it is of temporary in nature and remains during the project only. Project organization enables the specialists to learn new things, increase knowledge, and interaction with other departments. It is helpful in developing the participative and professional management in the organization and also develops healthy relations among various departments.

Matrix Organization

Matrix organization includes various forms of organization structure which is formed by dividing the departments into various functions and each function is headed by the functional manager or the project manager. It is the structure in which the project participants has to report daily to their project manager whose authority flows horizontally and simultaneously they have to report to their department head whose authority flows vertically (Edwards, & Bowen, 2005). It also requires the specialists of various departments who work on the common project. It is the hierarchal structure which is formed by consolidating the various departments and achieves the targets of the project.

Advantages of Matrix Organization

In the matrix organization managers can take sound and effective decision as it is taken by the experts, with the help of the experts, organization can use its resources optimally and efficiently. Through the matrix organization the people who are involved in the project can develop their skills and knowledge other than their specialization. The managers at the top level can concentrate on their organizational strategies as they delegate their work to the lower level managers (Eekhout, 2008). With the help of the matrix organization structure the company can cope up with the changing environment as it involves the expertise in doing the project.

Due to the various members are involved in the structure it leads to the integrity of various department members and also motivates them to do work with full dedication. The project members have to report on the daily basis to the department head as well as project head; it will generate better coordination and communication in the organization. Due to the members from different specialization are involved it leads to higher efficiency at the lower cost with minimum time involvement (Johnson, 2008).

References
Cleland, D.L., & Ireland, L.R. (2006). Project management: strategic design and implementation (5th ed.). US: McGraw-Hill.
Edwards, P., & Bowen, P. (2005). Risk management in Project Organization. Australia: UNSW.
Eekhout, M. (2008). Methodology for product development in architecture. Netherland: OS Press.
Harrison, F.L., & Lock, D.(2004). Advanced project managemant:A structured approach (4th ed.). England: Gower publishing.
Johnson. (2008). Exploring Corporate Strategy. UK. Pearson.

Performance Appraisal is a process that helps organization to improve its human resource’s productivity to achieve some objectives and goals. It can be possible by identifing the strengths and weaknesses of employees. After identification, it goes for the measurement of potentiality, than record that information and lastly it involves development of employees. This whole process generally supervised under the managers or seniors (Erasmus, Swanepoel, Van Wyk, & Schenk, 2003). This post could be a source of information who are looking for assignment help related to performance appraisals.

Performance appraisal is an important tool to improve organizational performance. It provides a benchmark to organization for effective recruitment and selection. It appraises individual performance but through this improvement in performance has been made automatically. Training program is also improve by it because when an employee’s strength and weaknesses is identified than selection of training method become easier for organization (Sims, 2002). So, these factors increase importance of appraisal system in organizational improvement.

Performance appraisal is conducted through different ways in different type of organizations. These ways are called methods of performance appraisal. Basically it can be of two types: Traditional and Modern Methods.

Traditional Methods: These methods are used by organization since very long time. It appraises employees on the bases of their traits. This type includes several methods and related to self-appraisal of employee. These are:

Essay Appraisal Method: This method used by rater to explain employee’s strengths, weaknesses, potentiality etc. also give suggestion for improvement in written form (Cascio, 2006).

Straight Ranking Method: Rater rate employees from top to bottom or best to worse on the bases of performance behavior (Kreitner, 2008).

Critical Incident Method: Supervisor appraises subjective behavior of employee in a particular task or job (Cascio, 2006).

Check List Method: Appraiser appraise employee by prepare a list of normal behavior and check it according to once behavior (Cascio, 2006).

Graphic Rating Scale: In this method each employee rated on the bases of characteristics and it is a graphical representation (Denisi & Griffin, 2005).
Forced Distribution: It make clear difference between successful and unsuccessful performance of employees (Denisi & Griffin, 2005).

Modern Methods: This type of appraisal includes various methods that are introduced from past few decades. It also called results method. These include:

Management by Objectives: It rates employees on the bases of achievement of goals that are mutually decided by manager and employees (Denisi & Griffin, 2005).

360 degree appraisal: appraise employee’s performance from 4 sides that mean manager, subordinate, peer group and customer give feedback about an employee (Kreitner, 2008).

Interview Method: It provides a way to subordinate to discuss about performance and areas of improvement with employee (Denisi & Griffin, 2005).

Both types of methods are used by different type of organizations. But in present scenario, modern methods are used more specifically. In modern method 360 degree appraisal is most usable method in many organizations. Management by objective and interview method are also effective methods but used lesser than 360 degree appraisal (Catano, 2009). It is because 360 degree appraisal provides feedback of any employee from manager, peer group, subordinate and customers. So, it provides all over behavior and performance of employee at all level.

References
Cascio. (2006). Managing Human Resources. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Catano, V.M. (2009). Recruitment and Selection in Canada (4th ed.). USA: Cengage Learning.
Denisi, A.S., & Griffin, R.W. (2005). Human Resource Management (2nd ed.). USA: Dreamtech Press.
Erasmus, B., Swanepoel, B., Van Wyk, W., & Schenk, H. (2003). South African Human Resource Management: Theory & Practice (3rd ed.). USA: Juta and Company Ltd.
Kreitner, r. (2008). Management (11th ed.). USA: Cengage Learning.
Sims, R.R. (2002). Managing organizational behavior. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Leadership is the ability of an individual to control people and move them in the right direction for achieves objectives. Leadership has been defined in a several ways. It is a process of leading people in the right direction to achieve a common goal. Many situations require leadership. Most common ways of looking at leadership are as a trait, ability, skill, behavior, relationship or a process. Leaders apply leadership for the use of values, ability, skills and knowledge in an organization. A leader needs to be fully aware of the followers (Northouse, 2011). Leadership can also be defined as being able to motivate and inspire others.

One of the most widely recognized approaches to leadership is the situational approach. It was developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1969, 1972) based on life-cycle theory of leadership. It is also known as the leader-member exchange theory. The situational approach has been redefined and revised several times since its inception. Situational theories are also called contingency theories because the theory is contingent upon the needs of the situation. According to the name situation leadership is based on leadership in according to the situation. So that different kind of situation demands different leadership. From this approach, leader requires to adapt his style according to the different situations. Leaders determine the need in a particular situation then evaluate his employees to perform a given task (Northouse, 2011).

Situational leadership can be understood along four dimensions. These are the personal characteristics of the leader, the nature of the job, the nature of the organization, and the nature of the follower. The fist dimension showed the personal characteristic of the leader. This is traits, skills, ability, experience, personal motivation to achieve, decision making, control the followers. The second dimension required that the nature of the job or the task. It must be defined so the leader understand what must be done. Leader motivated the followers so the followers are performing tasks easily. The third dimension concerns the nature of the organization. It includes the organization rules and policies, corporate culture, the time and resource available, and the organizational expectation. The fourth dimension is the nature of followers. There are personalities, values, needs, ideas, motivations, expectations and experiences. All of these dimensions affect the leader performance and effectiveness (Bertocci & Bertocci, 2009).

Several leadership theories have emerged. These are situational leadership, trait-based leadership, transformational leadership, distributed leadership, servant leadership, collaboration leadership, etc. Leadership is a situational. In the situational approach, different situation demand different kinds of leadership. Leadership effectiveness depends on both the leader and the situation. Some leaders are effective in one situation but not in others. So therefore situation theory indicates that there is no one best way of leading. Leaders must understand their own behavior, the behavior of their subordinates, and the situation at hand (Ladkin, 2010).

Situational leadership is central to applying the theory. Situation leadership theory argues that a high task low relationship combination of leader and subordinates behaviors. Hersey and Blanchard’s diagnosis that the group is now unable to solve a problem and it needs an intervention from the leader. The Hersey and Blanchard situational leadership theory creates minor contributions to the leadership literature. It is focus on the truly situational nature of leadership. Situational leadership applies for measuring leader style, style range and effectiveness (Bryman, 2011).

For the above discussion, it can be said that leadership is situational because they lead according to personal characteristics of leader, nature of job, nature of organization and nature of followers and what is the demand of the given situation.

References:
Northouse, P.G. (2011) Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice. 2nd ed. USA: SAGE Publication Inc.
Northouse, P.G. (2009) Leadership: Theory and Practice. 5th ed. USA: SAGE Publication Inc.
Ladkin, D. (2010) Rethinking leadership: a new look at old leadership questions. UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Bertocci, D.I. & Bertocci, D.L. (2009) Leadership in Organizations: There Is a Difference Between Leaders and Managers. USA: University Press of America.
Bryman, A. (2011) The SAGE Handbook of Leadership. USA: SAGE Publication Inc.

Paid in capital and retained earning both are the different section of shareholder’s equity in balance sheet. This difference is important from both an economic and a legal point of view. Paid in capital represented the amount which an investor pays for the stocks of any company. This amount represents the ownership of the investors (Kimmel, Weygandt & Kieso, 2008). Paid in capital is also referred to as contributed capital. It represented the amount of stockholder which they contributed in an organization asset. It is important part of the balance sheet as it shows par value of company’s stock which has issued.

On the other hand retained earning represents earning of an organization after distribution of dividend to their stockholder. This represents only that amount which is generated by firm by its operation. This does not include any amount of shares issued. Retained earnings show the amount which is not distributed among shareholder but is retained in the business itself.

The basic reason is to separate both these sections is to find out clear difference between inputs of stockholder and capital generated from company’s operation (Bierman & JR, 2009). Company’s also legally bound to show both in different section. It is necessary to show share amount and earning of company separated. These both account shows separated so that investor and the corporate itself find out the earning on their stock which they have issued. Paid in capital represented the amount of stocks that company has received from their investor. By retained earning investor can find out the performance of company. This separation is also important for company itself as it tracks its overall performance of their operations.

References
Bierman, H. & JR. (2009). An Introduction to Accounting and Managerial Finance: A Merger of Equals. Singapore: World Scientific.
Kimmel, P.D., Weygandt, J.J. & Kieso, D. E. (2008). Accounting. USA: John Wiley and Sons.
Warren, C. S., James, M. R. & Duchac, J. E. (2008). Financial and Managerial Accounting. USA: Cengage Learning.

Business Book Reading Best Practices

1. Read you book with a pen in hand – Someone recently told me he cannot bring himself to mark in his books. Why? Unless you are going to re-sell you books, mark away! Underline important passages, put asterisks next to cool quotes, add your own commentary. Some people prefer highlighters, I like pens so I can write notes to my self. Writing in your book helps you commit material to memory as you read and also help you save time when you later review the book. So grab a pen.
    
2. Read only one chapter per day – This will significantly slow down your reading, but you’re not in a speed-reading contest. Reading just one chapter a day let’s your mind soak up the information and analyze it for 24 hours. It focuses you on one main idea per day. You’ll  gain deeper understanding by applying that chapter to your experience of the day. Reading several chapters a day muddles the information in your mind. Authors work hard to organize their chapters in a way that maximizes their impact, trust them by reading one chapter per day.
    
3. Summarize each chapter in your own words – Before you read the next chapter on the next day, go back and review your underlines and notes of the previous chapter (See? It’s paying off already!). Now write a short summary in the white spaces at the end of the chapter. This gives your brain one more repetition of the material, further committing it to memory. Summarizing also forces you to take ownership of the material by restating the content in your own words. I like to read a chapter in the morning, then review and summarize the chapter before I go to bed.
    
4. Summarize the book in one page or less – When you read the last paragraph of the final chapter, you’re not through with the book. Review all the chapter summaries you wrote and turn those into a comprehensive one page summary/review of the entire book. Use those blank pages at the beginning or end of the book. They are perfect for your summary page.
    
5. Collect quotes – Remember all those little asterisks you put next to cool passages? Those are quotes that you can later use in presentations, proposals…or blog posts! But they’ll be tough to find later if you don’t collect them now. I like to put them all on one of the blank pages at the beginning or end of the book. When I need a quote to make my point, I pull a book off the shelf and within 60 seconds I have what I need.
    
6. Index your takeaways – You’re almost done. Before you file that book on your bookshelf, review all your notes and summaries and select three big takeaways. Then decide how you can use those takeaways to make three changes in what you do. Just take a 3×5 index card, on one side write your takeaways, on the other side your changes/new practices. Stick that index card on your computer monitor for a while so that it sticks, then insert it back in the book.
    
7. Save your books – The books you read are your reference library. Refer back to them often. Don’t know what to blog or tweet? Pull a book off the shelf. Need the proof to support your presentation? It’s right there in your library.

• Pizza Hut: $5.4 billion
• Little Caesars: $2.1 billion
• Domino's: $1.9 billion
• Papa John's: $450 million