WEEK 8

This week the big topic was HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT.

Human resource management involves human resource acquisition, retention, and development. Four key humarn resource management activities necessarily linked to orfanizational strategy and structure are 1)human resource strategy, 2) recruitment and selection, 3) performance appraisal, and 4) training.
After an employee has joined the organization, part of the human resource management process involves dealing with human resource problems such as sexual harassment and alcohol and drug abuse.

Today, training is a huge business in itself. Unfortunately, most training dollars are being spent where they are least needed: to train well-educated mangers and professionals.

This weel we also went over a case that talks about the action taken by UPS in order to determine whether their supervisors were using enough objectivity during employee reviews. UPS supervisors before, used pencil and paper while doing reviews, and then had to rewrite then to the computer once back at the office. In order to make a more efficient way to do these reviews, UPS decide to deploy Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). Now, with the new system, UPS supervisors can do the employee reviews more effectively and efficiently. In addition, to eliminating paperwork and improving accountability for UPS advisors, PDAs are also very helpful for new drivers who might need additional safety training.

In this case, it was very clear to see how technology is changing everything around the world today. This new system of appraisal I thought to very effective. I thought this will extremely beneficial to ensure employee performance. For a big company like UPS, it’s not worth to keep people that don’t do their jobs the way it should be done. I have received many packages through UPS and I think their services are very good, things arrive on time, drivers make sure they have the name of the person who received the package, and they confirm delivery right at your door. At their website you can track your package whenever you send one out, or are to receive one, in addition to many other resources online.

Week 7

During week 7 we discussed different aspects of an organizations's structure. Aspects such as culture, characteristics, design and effectiveness.

Oraganizations need to be understood and intelligently managed because they are na ever-present feature of modern life. Whatever their purpose, all organizations exhibit four characterisitics: 1) COORDINATION OF EFFORT; 2) COMMON GOAL AND PURPOSE; 3)DIVISION OF LABOR, AND 4) HIERARCHY OF AUTHORITY. If even one of these characterisitscs is absent, na organization does not exist.

Line managers are in the formal chain of command and have decision making authority, whereas staff personnel provide advice and support.

Many factors, with global competition leading the way, are forcing management to reshapethe traditional pryramid bureaucracy. These new organizations are characterized by fewer layers, extrensive use of teams, manageably small subunits. Three emerging organizational configurations are the hourglass orgzanization, the cluster organization, and the virtual.

We also discussed a case about Toyota.

The case started with Toyota’s first exports to the U.S. which was two tiny sedans that left the port of Yokohama in August 1957. Then in 1960, Toyota realized it had made a mistake and pulled the Toyopet Crown off the market. However, Toyota came back a few years later with a better car and gone from strength to strength ever since. Today it is the world’s most profitable car automaker. It has a 15% market share in the U.S. Toyota has managed to survive discriminatory taxes, imports restraints, and the occasional xenophobic actions. Toyota has never been a style leader, but it discerned want people really needed. Toyota today employs 34,600 Americans directly and 400,000 more indirectly at suppliers and dealers. Every year they buy $28.5 billion in parts and materials from the U.S. suppliers. In a sense Toyota can look as American as apple pie, but when it comes down to the way it is managed they are a little different. Everything that is done here in the U.S. is closely watched by Japanese coordinators that reports to the headquarters in Japan.

The case was interesting, my knowledge about Toyota wasn’t great, but from the word of mouth I only hear good things about them. It was nice to have the opportunity to learn a little about their history and the steps they took to become one of the top car auto makers. I found it very effective the way they handle their business by having Japanese coordinators watching everything that goes on here and reporting it to headquarters. It’s a way to control the business better and make the necessary moves to change anything.

Jobless claims(Update)

Initial jobless claims edged higher in the Oct. 17 week, up 11,000 to a higher-than-expected level of 531,000 (prior week revised higher from 514,000). But the four-week average continues to move lower, down for the seventh week in a row to 532,250 for a decrease of about 20,000 from month-ago levels, a decrease that points to improvement for the October employment report.Continuing claims, down 98,000 in data for the Oct. 10 week to 5.923 million, are roughly 100,000 below month-ago levels. But the indication from this reading is difficult to assess, reflecting an uncertain combination of new hiring together with the expiration of benefits. Those receiving extended benefits fell more than 16,000 to nearly 465,000 while those receiving emergency compensation rose nearly 41,000 to 3.391 million (data for these readings is for the Oct. 3 week).There was very little initial reaction to today's results though commodities and stocks did tick lower. Next reading on the jobs market will be Tuesday's consumer confidence report from the Conference Board which includes assessments of current conditions in the labor market along with consumer assessments of future conditions.

Week 5

The main subject this wee was "STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT". We reviewed different business strategies such as the Porter's Generic Competitive Strategies which includes Cost leadership, differentiation, cost focus, and focused strategy; to see an example of mangement strategizing we analised REI an how they decided to take action to be ahead of the competition. The changed their business strategy from product based to market based.
We also reviewed some business strategies for the internet, the strategic management process which includes formulation of grand strategy, formulation of strategic plans, inplementation od strategic plans and strategic control.
Lastly we discussed Forecasting which includes event outcomes, event timing, and time series forecasting, which helps strategic planners anticipate and prepare for future environmental circumstances. Popular forecasting techiniques among today's managers include informed judment, scenarion analysis, surveys, and trend analysis. However, each technique has it's own limitations, so forecasts need to be cross-checked against one another.

Industrial Production's current situation

Industrial production in August increased a hefty 0.8 percent, following a revised 1.0 percent boost in July. For the latest month, the manufacturing component rose 0.6 percent after surging 1.4 percent in July. A big boost came from restocking auto inventories as the motor vehicle component jumped a monthly 5.5 percent in August after ramping up an enormous 20.1 percent the month before. But the really good news is that overall production excluding motor vehicles was still up a healthy 0.6 percent for August—for manufacturing ex-autos was up 0.4 percent. Overall capacity utilization in August improved to 69.6 percent in August from 69.0 percent the month before. Looking ahead, industrial production could decline in September as auto assemblies are likely to ease. Also, production hours in manufacturing fell 0.5 percent for the month. Nonetheless, the consensus anticipates a modest gain for industrial production.

Fishbone Diagram Sample

Jobless Claims

nitial jobless claims for the week ending September 26 rose 17,000 to 551,000 and the prior week was revised 4,000 higher to 534,000. But the four-week average dipped nearly 25,000 to 548,000, reflecting solid improvement from prior weeks.

International Trade

The U.S. international trade gap in July worsened significantly and oil had only a little to do with it. The overall U.S. trade gap worsened to $32.0 billion from a revised $27.5 billion gap in June. But in the detail, there is good news for U.S. manufacturers as exports posted a gain of 2.2 percent after a 2.1 percent increase in June. However, imports jumped 4.7 percent after a 2.5 percent rise in June. The worsening in the trade deficit was due to a wider nonpetroleum goods deficit which grew to $23.5 billion from $19.8 billion the previous month. Import gains were widespread but led by autos and consumer goods. Meanwhile, the petroleum gap grew to $17.9 billion from $17.3 billion the previous month. Looking ahead to August, don't look for help for the trade gap from lower oil prices. Although crude prices fell notably for the month-that is on a not seasonally adjusted basis. Seasonally adjusted, crude oil prices rose about 1.7 percent.

Week 4

A lot of the subect this week were "The Basics of Planning and Project Management". We Discussed some essentials of planning such as the types of planning, the setting of objectives, a company's priorities establishment and the control cycle. We were also introduced to some planning tools such as Flow Chats, Gantt Charts, and Pert Networks which seem to be very effective planning tools.

"Organizations that fail to plan, plan to fail"

We created a simple flow chart just to see how it worked, and i thought it was a cool tool to use, possibly fun to work with too. Here goes a picture of how it looks alike.