enterprise and society- xmas exam Flashcards
what is corporate responsibility?
a business model that helps a company be socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and the public
what is a stakeholder?
any organisation/entity/ person that has an interest in the ethical operation of the organisation
what are the 4 approaches to social responsibility?
-obstructionist
-defensive
-accomodative
-proactive
who is an example of a company who takes an obstructionist approach to social responsibilty?
volkswagen
what did volskwagen do?
deliberately set out to design a means to circumvent emissions control
who is an example of a company who takes a defensive approach to social responsibility?
tobacco companies
what is meant by a defensive approach to social responsibility?
companies and their managers behave ethically to the degree that they stay within the law and strictly abide by legal requirements
what is meant by an obstructionist approach to social responsibility?
Companies and their managers choose not to behave in a socially responsible way and instead, behave unethically and illegally.
example of a company that takes a pro-active approach to social responsibility?
Nucor refusing to lay off employees
what is a proactive approach to social responsibility?
Companies and their managers actively embrace socially responsible behavior, going out of their way to learn about the needs of different stakeholder groups and using organisational resources to promote the interests of all stakeholders
what is meant by an accommodative approach?
Companies and their managers behave legally and ethically and try to balance the interests of different stakeholders as the need arises
how are stakeholders impacted by unethical behaviour?
-harm stock and share prices
-lack of investors
-lack of employee retention
-damage to brand image
what are the sustainable development goals?
a collection of seventeen interlinked objectives designed to serve as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.”
what goals does adidas address?
-achieving climate neutrality
how does adidas achieve climate neutrality?
reducing absolute GHG emissions across its entire value chain by 30% by 2030
what is diversity?
the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations etc
how to manage diversity well?
- Pay close attention to how organizational members are evaluated
- Consider the numbers
- Empower employees to challenge discriminatory behaviours, actions and
remarks - Reward employees for effectively managing diversity
- Provide training using a multi-pronged, ongoing approach
- Encourage monitoring of diverse employees e.g. mentoring
steps in managing diversity effectively?
- Secure top management commitment
- Strive to increase the accuracy of perceptions.
- Increase diversity awareness (e.g. via programmes).
- Increase diversity skills.
- Encourage flexibility.
- Pay close attention to how organizational members are evaluated.
- Consider the numbers (e.g. Medtronic)
- Empower employees to challenge discriminatory behaviours, actions, and remarks.
- Reward employees for effectively managing diversity.
- Provide training utilizing a multipronged, ongoing approach.
- Encourage mentoring of diverse employees.
what is planning?
a process managers use to identify and select appropriate goals and courses of action for the organisation
why is planning important?
- Gives organization a sense of direction and purpose .
- Gets managers to participate in decision-making about appropriate goals and strategies
- helps coordinate managers of different functions/divisions to ensure they all pull
in the same direction to achieve the organizational goals - can be used to control managers within an organization.
what are the levels of planning?
-corporate level
-business level
-functional level
what is corporate level planning?
Top management’s decisions concerning the organisation’s missions and goals,overall corporate level strategy and structure
what is business level planning?
long-term divisional goals that will allow a division to
meet corporate goals and the division’s business-level strategy and structure necessary to achieve divisional goals
what is functional level planning?
goals the managers of each function will pursue to help their division attain its business level goals
steps in planning?
- Determining the organisation’s mission and goals. Define the business. Establish major goals.
- Formulating strategy: Analyse current situation and develop
strategies - Implementing strategy
what is a functional structure?
an organisational structure composed of all the departments that an organisation requires to produce its goods or services
what are the advantages of a functional structure?
- Encourages learning from others doing similar jobs;
- Easy for managers to monitor and evaluate workers.
- Allows managers to create the set of functions they need in order to scan and monitor the competitive
environment.
what are the disadvantages of a functional structure?
- Difficult for departments to communicate with others.
- Preoccupation with own department and losing sight of organizational goals.
what is a product structure?
an organisational structure in which each product line or business is handled by a self-contained division
what are the advantages of a product structure?
-Allows functional managers to specialise in one
product area.
-Allows division managers to become experts in
their area.
-Removes need for direct supervision of division by
corporate managers.
- Allows divisional management to improve the use
of resources.
-Puts divisional managers close to customers for
quick response
what are the disadvantages of a product structure?
- Difficult to scale
- Duplicating functions and resources, eg a
different sales team for each division - Dispersing technical expertise across
smaller units - Nurturing negative rivalries among divisions
- Over-emphasising divisional, rather than
organisational goals
what is a matrix structure?
a company structure where teams report to multiple leaders
what are the advantages of a matrix structure?
-Helps in fast- paced changing
world
- Convenient sharing of resources in different divisions
- Better opportunity to learn new skills
-Improved internal communication
-Professional growth for
employees
what are the disadvantages of a matrix structure?
- Managerial roles may not be
clearly defined. - Team roles may not be clearly
defined.
-The decision-making process
can be slowed down. - Too much work can cause
overload. - Measuring employee
performance might become
difficult
what is organisational culture?
The shared set of beliefs, expectations, values, and norms that influence how members of an organisation relate to one another and cooperate to achieve organisational goals
what shapes organisational culture?
- Characteristics of organisational members
- Organisational ethics
- The employment relationship
- Organisational Structure
examples of good organisational culture:
-Cisco
-Facebook
-Google
what is entrepreneurship?
the mobilisation of resources to take advantage of an opportunity to provide customers with new or improved goods or services e.g Jeff Bezos
what is an intrapreneur?
A person who works inside the organisation and notices opportunities to develop new or improved products and better ways to make them e.g sony employee creating the playstation
how can managers foster a learning organisation?
-develop personal mastery
-build complex, challenging mental models
-promote team learning
-build shared vision
what is a learning organisation?
a company that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself.
how can a business promote intrapreneurship?
-workplace culture
-rewards
-training programmes
-product champions
-skunk works
what are product champions?
- Person takes ownership of a project, assuming responsibility for product
development - Provides leadership and vision that take a product from the idea stage to the final customer
- Identify new product ideas
- Responsible for developing a business plan for the product
what are skunk works?
- People (Intrapreneurs) deliberately separated from normal operation of org.
- People act as outside entrepreneurs
- Devote full attention to new product development
why do businesses create business plans?
- Provides strategic direction
- To raise funds
- Convey the essence of the opportunity
- to test feasibility of the business
what is an executive summary in a business plan?
brief summary when all other sections are
completed
why is an executive summary important?
- importance of first impressions, often referred to as “elevator pitch”,
- outlines essence of the opportunity and competitive advantage
*details the product / service and target market, - funding requirements and ROI projection
