Discusion question Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discusion question - Case Study Example Many e-commerce businesses are detached from the customers and they find no new ways to entice more customers. With Zappos however, their free shipping and free returns policy is what makes it not only stand out but likeable as well. Even though they act in good faith, every business needs to be strict and have boundaries between them and their customers or potential customers. The 365 days return policy is not the best of choice considering the items they sell. People can take advantage of the products use them and later return them with fraudulent claims but having served their purposes. The next customer will therefore get a used product and even with the free shipping costs, the quality of the products remains questionable. 3. Which of the management challenges-globalization, leading a diverse workforce and ethics character and personal integrity-have had an important impact on the evolution of Zappos? Explain your answer Globalization has presented the major challenge in the management of the organization Zappos. This is so because with globalization, many e-commerce companies are facing hard competition from the multinational companies which are physically present in most locations where they provide the same products Zappos provides and without any time delay or risk of return. Globalization has also meant that customers come from all over the world and since the company is shouldering the shipping costs, they end up incurring a lot of cost for shoppers who are in different continents. This has restricted its growth as they still are unable to make huge profits and it even took long for it to breakeven. This slow trend is hindering its evolution. 4. How has Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh addressed the management challenges of globalization, leading a diverse workforce, ethics, character and personal integrity and

Analysis of Leadership Theories for Their Applicability Inside an Research Paper - 4

Analysis of Leadership Theories for Their Applicability Inside an Organisations Leadership Model - Research Paper Example Situational and contingency theories will be highlighted in detail, in assessing the most appropriate theory to rely on in setting up an organizational model of leadership. Leadership insights are apparently inevitable in the management roles that an organization’s executive have in steering the organization towards the realization of its objectives. From these two approaches, the theorists assist in understanding the relevant connection to be made between leadership and management, under the inspiration of the organizations’ mission and vision focuses. On one hand, situational theory, Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard contributions to the effect that styles of leadership styles are not fundamentally important than or superior to the leadership’s response to the varying situation is examined. On the other hand, Fiedler’s contingency theory has been visited in conjunction with the situational theory to illustrate the importance of leadership in the formulation of organizational leadership practices (Kreitner, 2006, p452). In this discourse, I will attempt to find solutions to the question of whether an organization can adopt several leadership perspectives to sustainably tackle all of its challenges. A position held up to the generation of the question is that the organization faces pretty too many leadership challenges such that it cannot be possible to be reliant on a single approach. The choice of these theoretical approaches of leadership was deliberately done to demonstrate the need for the model of organization to depart from retrogressive leadership designs that rigidly fixates the organization to conservative systems inhibiting initiatives. Under the opposing theories of leadership, it is difficult for organizations to respond to the rapidly changing market but reacting to the market only leaves the organization in a poorer condition.  

Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

Research Paper Example Android is considered a game changer in the mobile developer community since it is well placed to address the growing needs of the mobile marketplace. Introduction According to Haseman, Android is a Linux based operating system and a platform for which applications are developed. The Android operating system was originally designed and produced for touch screen mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones (2008). The android was originally released in 2007 and sold the first Android powered device in 2008. Android is open source software released under the Apache license and therefore the Android software can be freely modified and distributed by developers and device manufacturers. Being that android is a platform for application development in addition to the fact that it is open source, it has a large community of application developers presenting unlimited applications for the mobile devices running on android. The ease of application development on android platform has presen ted a variety of applications for mobile device customization which in turn has seen android as the most popularly used mobile platforms especially for Smartphones. The Android operating system has grown to be used on game console and television applications despite the fact that it was originally designed for tablets and mobile phones. The applications developed on android extend the functionality of the mobile devices (Haseman, 2008). Interface The user interface provides the display and the user control or command of the Android operating system. It gives the user the power to interact with the operating system directly by use of touch manipulation objects on the display. The display is supported by the fluid enabled interface designed to aid the interaction process between the user and the Operating System. The interface is fully-touch screen enabled with operations such as flicking your finger across the screen to flip to the next page of items. The user interface comes in seve ral shapes and sizes. The user interface is also enabled by simple configuration applications that can make the text on screen appear bigger and clearer such as text size and screen size configuration preferences(Udell, 2009). Android Operating System user interface has a home-screen that hosts the operational application icons and widgets. Icons are graphic symbols that take up the commands to open up the application while widget displays the graphic user interface directly on the screen. The operational application icons and widgets displayed on the home-screen are known as Android views that include Context menu, Options menu, Digital clock and Web view. These applications offer additional options and links to different pages that are not directly visible on the main Menu driven interface on the home-screen. The menu applications also play a vital role in displaying information directing the user on what command it initiates. In addition, the Menu driven interface gives notice on notification messages (Hoog & McCash, 2011). Processes Process management is a distinctive operating system that uses several complex data structures and algorithms to process data on Android devices. Â  Android uses this data processing technique in control

Prepare a report to the Managing Director, including appropriate links Essay

Prepare a report to the Managing Director, including appropriate links to theory, detailing the strategy for the planning and control of the research and development department - Essay Example Budgeting is effective in dealing with unanticipated expenses and emergencies. Once a plan is in place it can be used for measuring the progress of goal achievement (Freedom Debt Management, n.d.; College of Business Administration, 2008). At the time of preparing the budgets it is important to categorize the expenses such as fixed expenses, variable expenses and discretionary expenses. The discretionary expenses are not absolutely necessary for business survival. Necessary adjustments are done in these form of expenses i.e. they are reduced to honour the other types of expenditures. In any business there are two types of costs discretionary costs and non-discretionary costs. It is easy to understand the discretionary costs like payment of rent or electric bill but the discretionary costs are less clear. The discretionary costs include the alteration, construction, research and development etc. Besides the discretionary and non-discretionary costs there are other types of costs such as controllable and uncontrollable costs. So a budget comprises of costs that are discretionary, non-discretionary, controllable and uncontrollable (Cotts & Rondeau, 2004, pp. 59). Budget conveys the authority of the manager to allocate a specified amount on the items that are enlisted in the budget. The appropriations in the budget act as the benchmark for a comparison with the costs that are actually incurred. Expenditures of a budgeted category are matched with the pre-set amounts in deciding any over or under spending of funds and if needed corrective action are initiated (KU School of Social Welfare, n.d.). For the control of discretionary costs the top management must translate the policies and objectives that it considers vital for the organizational success. The management then must make a plan of the spending relating to the discretionary activities that will help in achieving the defined business objectives. There can be

What Caused the Current Economic Crisis Term Paper

What Caused the Current Economic Crisis - Term Paper Example This meant the very foundations on which our principles and understanding of the whole economic system was based on were shaken and jolted to an extent that people lost confidence in its integrity. It raised questions that directly pointed fingers on the functioning of the global financial markets. The whole crisis began when the US investors lost confidence in the value of sub-prime mortgages resulting in an adverse liquidity crisis. In fear of the effects of the looming liquidity crisis, the US Federal Bank injected huge sums of capital, liquid money, into financial markets in an attempt to prevent several hundred thousand businesses and individuals from declaring bankruptcy. By the end of September of the following year, the economic crisis had worsened as its negative effects started to crash stock markets on all the continents. This made investment highly volatile and investors lost millions of dollars overnight as this continued to spread further. A pinnacle was reached where c onsumer confidence was at its lowest in fear of the inevitable outcomes. Analyses reveal that at a more fundamental level the economic crisis could be attributed to the diligence of massive global imbalances. These imbalances were the outcomes of long periods of excessively loose monetary policy in the major advance economies during the early part of this decade. A major factor in this was the significant increase in the budget deficit of the United States, while at the same time the accumulation of huge amounts of surpluses in Asia, particularly in China and the oil exporting countries of Middle East. The current account balance of US in 2008 as a percent of its GDP was -4.7%, and for China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and UAE was 10%, 28.9%, 6.1% and 15.8% respectively. This showed that even after billions of revenue for the Western Giant United States, the global net flow of money was directed towards the Eastern part. This imbalance was ever growing as the Economic power was slowly and gradually shifting from the West to the East. Experts stated that these imbalances were seen as the consequence of the relative inflexibility of the currency regimes in China and other such countries. According to Portes (2009), prevailing global macroeconomic imbalances were the major underlying cause of the crisis. The gap between the saving-investment function was extensive and this gap was only widening with time since developing countries started relying more heavily on developed economies to provide for their development expenditures. The immediate impacts of these huge cross-border financial flows were seen on the financial intermediation process. (Mohan, 2009) As stated earlier the monetary policy of US was also a contributing factor to the financial crisis of 2008. To understand this we have to visualize the dot com bubble burst in the early 2000’s. This resulted in a reduction of the interest rates and consistent ease in the monetary policy of US and other advanced economies. These rates maintained as low as 1 per cent in US during the period 2003-2004. This gave ample opportunity for new businesses to thrive in the country and huge investments were made during the first half of the decade. Figure 1 clearly demonstrates that during 2008 the effective federal fund rate in the US was around 1 per cent margin. This relatively loose monetary policy meant that transactions were being done on a credit basis more than ever in the history of the country. The effects of this were visible in the credit crunch of 2007 that eventually combined with other factors to bring about the economic crisis. The growing demand from the US consumers and its increasing reliance on cheap consumer goods being imported from Asian countries, mainly China,

Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 3

Business Ethics - Essay Example He further argues that those stakeholders that have greater power, urgency and legitimacy may impact business performance. For instance, PricewaterhouseCooper Company engages in policymaking process in the company. Therefore, in case they apply greater power and other salience models, they may end up creating a hindrance to effective organizational performance. However, there are both benefits and limitations of employing salience model in this engagement activity. The benefits include significant contribution to the thought leadership and developing effective solutions to global challenges. However, the problems may include posing challenges and create threats to global issues. What is a possible future employer of me actually doing in terms of stakeholder engagement activities? What do I think of their activities? Can I see any link with Power, Legitimacy and Urgency, and why they chose this stakeholder engagement activity? The possible future employee in terms of engagement activi ties will participate in effective decision-making process, informing talent strategy, advisory panel, engaging in corporate responsibility reporting and participating in other significant corporate roles. Their activities enhance quality services in business activities; hence, it is vital to conduct business in accordance to the organization requirements and guidelines. Engaging stakeholders in business activities is vital but it is recommendable to classify them according to their work performance. This is because stakeholders differ and some have varied interests in business activities. For instance, the salience model is widely employed by many stakeholders in business activities across the globe; thus, employing an effective stakeholder management strategy can enable one to meet their need and expectations successfully. Therefore, there is a significant link among power, legitimacy and urgency because this stakeholder engagement will lead to better management and influencing ot her towards achieving organization goals efficiently. What could/should, if I had the choice and decision-making power in my future employers company, the company be doing, which it currently isn’t, in terms of stakeholder engagement activities? How, using Mitchell’s et al’s. (1997) â€Å"salience† (importance) attributes (Power, Legitimacy and Urgency); can I rationalize that as a good activity for them to be doing? In case I had a choice and decision making power in my future employers company, the stakeholders in the company would not participate in some responsibilities such as accounting management roles, recruiting employees and other minor company activities. This is because some stakeholders may apply their power, legitimacy and urgency in a manner that may pose challenges to effective performance; thus making employees to become unproductive. Stakeholders can affect the business outcome positively or negatively (Crane and Matten, 2004). For insta nce, some stakeholders may use power to take control of investors in case the company is privately held rather than publicly traded. By using Mitchell’s salience model attributes, I can rationalize good activities for stakeholders such as planning, decision-making process, direct management and project coordination process. Seminar Four: Ethical Leadership Debate Guiding Reflective Question Student Reflection What was the definition of ‘

A Division of Parody Productions Essay Example for Free

A Division of Parody Productions Essay 1. FACTS: Parody Productions, LLC is a company that sale his playing cards over the internet. The product portrays well-known players from a sports teams history. The plaintiff in this suit, Ronald Swoboda, is included in the New York Mets Hero Deck. Swoboda claims that he has never given Parody permission to use his image. He further contends that through his attorney he sent Parody a cease and desist letter. Parody refused to stop selling cards with Swobodas name and images. In response, Swoboda filed the instant lawsuit to enjoin Parody from the continued use of his name and likeness and for damages for violating his right to publicity, and, alternatively, damages for unjust enrichment. The trial court sustained the exception of lack of personal jurisdiction and this appeal followed. See more: Satirical elements in the adventure of Huckleberry Finn essay 2. ISSUE: The issue is â€Å"Did Court of Appeal of Louisiana approve lack of personal jurisdiction of an internet merchandiser?† 3. DECISION: Affirmed 4. REASONING: Since 1945, technology has advanced to such a degree that it is possible for sellers to reach consumers in their homes worldwide. The onset of the Internet has created a lapse between the method of doing business in 1945 and the legal systems ability to keep up with technology. The purposeful availment requirement for the exercise of personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant ensures that it will not be haled into a jurisdiction solely as a result of a random, fortuitous, or attenuated contact, or by the unilateral activity of another party or a third person. In Quality Design, the court ruled that Tuff Coats website was a passive one, whereby information about its product was provided, but actual sales were arranged via telephone or mail.