Change Is Difficult, Not Changing Is Fatal

 Working in organizations means dealing with different personalities from different cultures. It might be difficult to deal with some people in the workplace because we as humans are inherently and genetically different in our perceptions, beliefs and attitude. Accordingly, not all people in organizations accept changes. Some workers are very defensive and resist engaging in new routines. They just prefer staying in the same stage without changing their stands. As a result, slow productivity and missed deadlines might occur in the workplace due to the difficulty of dealing with those people (Today Magazine, 2014). To overcome this problem, an effective way of dealing with those people must be implemented to convince them to change their behaviors.

Overbeck (2015) explained in her article the power of adopting baby steps moves – doing things one step at a time to achieve desired goals- to changes people attitudes. This cautious approach helps people to change their behaviors and move from rejection to openness (Overbeck, 2015). In fact, baby steps approach can be implemented in several ways. For instance, Sherif and Hovland (1961) in their book identified an effective way to alter people attitudes which is "latitude of acceptance" or the "Ok zone". This method emphasizes the effectiveness of observing what is acceptable for a person to develop the right way of altering his behavior effectively (Sherif & Hovland, 1961). Although Sherif and Hovland method might help driving the change desired, it suffers from several limitations.

Sherif and Hovland method failed to take into account cultural differences.  In practice, it is sometimes difficult to identify other cultures ok zone and predict their behavior. Consequantly, confusion, misunderstanding and conflict among workers might occur due to culture differences (Community door, 2013). Therefore, it is important to study other people cultures before trying to alter their behaviors to make sure that conflict will never arise and add fuel to the fire.   

References

Community Door. Cultural misunderstandings. (2013) Retrieved from http://etraining.communitydoor.org.au/mod/page/view.php?id=318

Overbeck, J. (2015). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/02/you-dont-have-to-be-the-boss-to-change-how-your-company-works

Today Magazine. (2014). Dealing with different personality types in the workplace. Retrieved from http://www.today-magazine.com/lifestyles/dealing-different-personality-types-workplace/

Is Social Media Helping A Company's Bottom Line?

The emergence of Social media has played a huge role on improving communication and public relations (Al-Deen & Hendricks, 2011). It has changed the way information is exchanged across societies in the whole world (Mayfield, 2008). Nowadays, many businesses have realized the importance of using social media to build strong relationships with their customers and promote their products. However, Cespedes (2015) argued in his article that social media has no influence on a company's sales; it just helps to create brand awareness among customers.

A survey conducted by Gallup ( cited in Cespedes, 2015) in US shows that more than 50% of adults who use social media feel that an organization accounts and websites doesn't influence people purchasing decisions. In addition, many organizations tend to buy fake accounts, followers, likes and reviews to capture the eyes of real users (Cespedes, 2015). Another study conducted by Forrester indicates that only 2% of well-known brand companies' followers see a company's posts and less than 0.5% interact with the posts considering the fact that not all the followers are customers to that particular brand (Cespedes, 2015). Although many researchers argued that social media is not a selling tool, others believe in the power of social media on boosting companies sales and many evidences prove their claim.

Many well-known companies succeed on increasing their profits by taking advantage of using social media. For instance, Sony succeed on raising its income by 1.5 million dollars by offering competitive offers to its customers through twitter (Fisher, 2010). In addition, Instagram has become one of the most effective applications to generate profits for businesses. Jeremy (2015) stated in his blog that Instagram helped him to increase sales of his t-shirts business successfully. Moreover, companies can implement mass selling promotion by using social media that will increase its sales indirectly since social media contributes on achieving word-of-mouth marketing and as a result helping companies' bottom line (Mangold & Faulds, 2009).

References

Al-Deen, H. S. N., & Hendricks, J. A. (2011). Social media: usage and impact. Lanham, Maryland, Lexington Books

Cespedes, F.V. (2015). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/03/is-social-media-actually-helping-your-companys-bottom-line

Fisher, L. (2010). Evidence that Social Media Really Does Drive Sales. Retrieved from http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/09/21/evidence-that-social-media-really-does-drive-sales/

Jeremy. (2013, March 2). I used Instagram for Business and Doubled my Sales in One Month [ web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.firepolemarketing.com/instagram/

Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business horizons, 52(4), 357-365.

Mayfield, T.D., 2011. A commander’s strategy for social media. JFQ, 60, pp.79-128.

A Country is Not A Company !

"A country is not a company" this is how Krugman (1996) described the fact that being an entrepreneur by running a business successfully is totally different than analyzing an economy and setting economic rules and regulations, and the opposite is true! Understanding economic theories doesn't make a person a successful entrepreneur. This fact has created arguments between economists and businesspeople regarding many economics issues. Krugman (1996) highlighted two of these issues.

The first issue as mentioned in Krugman's (1996) article is the relationship between export and employment. Businesspeople think that specialization in production of a particular good and then exporting it will create jobs and reduce unemployment rates. In contrast, economists believe that exporting will create only export-related jobs and in contrast reduces jobs in other industries. In addition, exporting firms tend to demand for foreign expert labor to increase productivity and leaving citizens jobless (Hill, n.d). The second issue is the effect of foreign investment in the trade balance. Entrepreneurs think that foreign investments lead to trade surplus since foreign firms will operate domestically to feed local needs and export the excess inventory. On the other hand, economists believe that attracting foreign investments will appreciate the host country's currency and as a result increasing the purchasing power of consumers who will start to demand more imported goods. These arguments raise an interesting question: Who is right? Economists or entrepreneurs?

The answer is: both of them are right! In fact, each of them is analyzing economic issues from different aspects based on their critical mind-set. Therefore, developing economies and solving economic problems need collaboration between economists, government and entrepreneurs to ensure having strategic and effective results that will create a well organized government and boost the economy of countries (Schneider, 2013).

References

  Schneider, B. R. (2013). Institutions for Effective Business-Government Collaboration: Micro Mechanisms and Macro Politics in Latin America.

Hill, C. (n.d). International business: Competing in the global marketplace (8th ed.). New York, McGRAW.Hill

Krugman,P. (1996). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/1996/01/a-country-is-not-a-company

Strategy : The Key Of Success

It is important for organizations to have comprehensive goals and objectives that describe the reasons behind their existence. However, having a clear list of goals is not enough without developing methods that govern the entire business operations toward achieving established goals. These methods are identified by the term strategy. Strategy is a plan of how to utilize available resources to ensure achieving success in the future (Karloef & Loevingsson, 2005). To create an effective strategy, managers should have a clear approach on how to come up with the one that goes hand in hand with the established goals.

According to Kenny (2014), there are three steps for developing a strategy. The first step is to determine the stakeholder that will highly contribute on achieving established goals more than others. For instance, Kenny (2014) mentioned in his article, the Whole Food Market Inc. recognized that employees are the key for its success. Locke, Latham and Erez (cited in Tegarden, Sarason, Chilfers, & Hatfield, 2005) demonstrated that the involvement of employees in strategy planning will motivate the employees to work hard for achieving organization goals. The second step is to clarify what the organization is waiting from its stakeholders and decide what needs to be done to ensure receiving the desired feedback from its stakeholders. The third step is considering the expectations of the stakeholders. Based on Kenny's article (2014), this will be achieved by developing strategic factors that illustrate what is needed to be done to feed stakeholders appetite. Although the author has explained effective steps to create a strategy, his approach suffers from some serious limitations.

The main problem with this approach is that it fails to take into account the conflict that might arise between each stakeholder's interest and the organization interest as well. It is important to acknowledge the way to deal and balance all stakeholders' interest to ensure consistency and achieve the desired goals ("Balancing stakeholder needs," n.d).

                                                                     References

Balancing stakeholder needs. (n.d). Business case studies Web site. Retrieved from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/shell/balancing-stakeholder-needs/#axzz3U68narMO

Karlof, B., & Lovingsson, F. (2005). A to Z of management concepts and models. London, GBR: Thorogood Publishing.

Kenny, G. (2014). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/11/a-list-of-goals-is-not-a-strategy

Tegarden, L. F., Sarason, Y., Childers, J. S., & Hatfield, D. E. (2005). The engagement of employees in the strategy process and firm performance: The role of strategic goals and environment. Journal of Business Strategies, 22(2), 75-99.