Innovative organizations tend to have similar cultures. They encourage experimentation. They reward both successes and failures. They celebrate mistakes. For example, at the General Motors APEX unit, employers are encouraged to experiment and rewarded for experimenting with new products in the marketplace. An innovative culture is likely to have the following seven characteristics: 1) Acceptance of ambiguity: Too much emphasis on objectivity and specificity constraints creativity. 2) Tolerance of the impractical:... Read more

Innovate or die! These harsh words provide the rallying cry of today’s managers. In the dynamic world of global competition, organizations must create new products and services and adopt state of the art technology if they are to compete successfully. The standard of innovation toward which many organizations strive is that achieved by such companies as 3M, DuPont and Motorola. Their innovations have helped them become, familiar brand names and products... Read more

The Internet is by its nature a global enterprise for which no political or national boundaries are closed. Although this is its strength, it also creates problems when existing laws do not clearly address the uniqueness of the Internet and its related activities. Existing law is vague or does not completely cover such issues as gambling, the protection of domain names, taxes, jurisdiction in cross border transactions and contractual issues. The... Read more

Changes substitute ambiguity and uncertainty for the known. No matter how much students may dislike some of the work associated with attending college, at least they know the ropes. They understand what is expected of them. When they leave college and venture out into the world of full time employment regardless of how eager they are to get out of college, they will have to trade the known for the unknown. Employees in organizations... Read more

In addition to the external forces noted previously, internal forces can also stimulate the need for change. These internal forces tend to originate primarily from the internal operations of the organizations or from the impact of external changes. (It is also important to recognize that these changes are a normal part of the organizational life cycle). When management redefines or modifies its strategy,... Read more

Change is an alteration of an organization’s environment, structure, technology, or people If it weren’t for change, the manager’s job would be easy. Planning would be simplified, tomorrow would be no different from today. The issue of organization design would be solved because the environment would be free from uncertainty and there would be no need to adapt. Similarly decision making would be dramatically simplified because the outcome of each alternative could... Read more

... Read more

Having discussed some important group concepts necessary for our interests let us further examine the topic of reference group influence. Types of Reference Groups: Reference groups are those an individual uses (that is, refers to) in determining his judgments, beliefs and behavior. These may be of a number of types as explained by the following classification system. Membership versus Non-membership: Membership groups are those to which... Read more

Antitrust enforcement has two purposes in international commerce. The first is to protect American consumers by ensuring that they benefit from products and ideas produced by foreign competitors as well as by domestic competitors. Competition from foreign producers is important when imports are, or could be, a major source of a product or when a single firm dominates a domestic industry. This becomes relevant in many joint ventures particularly if the joint creates... Read more

US firms their foreign subsidiaries or foreign firms that are licensees of US technology cannot sell a product to a country in which the sale is considered by the US government to affect national security. Further responsibility extends to the final destination of the product regardless of the number of intermediaries that may be involved in the transfer of goods. An extensive export control system was created to slow the spread... Read more